Portugal - French digital mixing console manufacturer InnovaSon has just announced the appointment of Live Sound, LDA as their new distributor in Portugal. The move is the latest in a series of new distribution partnerships to be announced this year and further strengthens InnovaSon's international distribution network, says the company.

According to InnovaSon's international sales manager, Philippe Pelmelle, the timing for this latest agreement is perfect. "Portuguese distribution had traditionally been handled by our Spanish distributor," he explained, "but it goes without saying that a market is almost always better served by a local rather than a remote partner. As we have recently appointed a new distributor in Spain, it was the ideal opportunity to separate the two markets and establish a Portuguese distributor based in and dedicated to serving that territor

Germany - Frankfurt Airport's Public Address system in Terminal 1 has recently undergone extensive modernization. Amongst others, the northern amplifier room has been completely renewed. Sittig Industrie-Elektronik replaced the outdated central unit and installed Klotz Digital Varizone components within a traditional 100V Public Address System together with their network based multi channel speech management system (NetMSM).

Varizone Line Managers were installed to monitor 128 analogue speaker lines in accordance with DIN 60849. The Public Address System is used for public announcements, individual and automatic announcements at the gates and voice evacuation.

100V technology was chosen as it seamlessly fits in with existing equipment. The new northern amplifier room became operational in the summer of 2007. The central unit, amplifiers and Line Managers were supplied by FG-El

Lebanon - Beirut-based Vatech Video & Audio has taken over the distribution of Telex/RTS products in the Lebanon with immediate effect.

Fadi Serhan, the general manager of the company, has been an expert on the Lebanese broadcasting market for over twenty years, working as a broadcast engineer for 10 years before founding Vatech Video & Audio in 1996. The company, which recently opened a new showroom in the centre of Beirut, maintains excellent contact with all the major Lebanese broadcasters, and now employs a staff of seven to handle sales, logistics, engineering and support.

"With Telex/RTS systems in our portfolio, we can now offer our customers the best intercom solutions available on the market," declares Serhan. "Furthermore, the Lebanese market has put the uncertainty of recent years behind it and is now growing fast. Private broadcasters are investing i

UK - Resolution Distribution, UK distributor for Apex Audio has joined forces with the manufacturer to offer a product training opportunity on 25 October at their KV2 House premises in Harrogate. Apex product engineer, Renaud Schoonbroodt, will present the product seminar.

The session will highlight the full range of the Apex Audio product line, with particular emphasis on the Argos and Hera ranges of sound level limiting equipment - proven, essential tools for any installation requiring sound level management.The seminar will also highlight the dB range of analogue signal processing, including the recently launched dB-G8 8 channel gate and dB-C8 8 channel compressor limiter along with the popular dB-Q zero graphic equaliser, and the Intelli Series of digital products. Further details can be obtained from andys@kv2audio.co.uk .

(Jim Evans)

USA - D-Tools reports that high end speaker manufacturer, Mordaunt-Short has joined the D-Tools Manufacturer Vantage Point (MVP) programme.

"We are pleased to be a part of the MVP programme and to offer our high end speaker product information to SI users," said Daniel Jacques, president of Audio Plus Services, North American importer for Mordaunt-Short, "We look forward to not only contributing to the success of the MVP programme as a whole, but also enhancing individual client projects with our advanced engineering and renowned design."

"We are pleased that Mordaunt-Short joined the MVP Programme," said Adam Stone, president of D-Tools. "Their products are cutting edge in technology and design and will give our users an additional high end product to integrate into their client's unique systems."

(Jim Evans)

Portugal - Meyer Sound has announced that industry veteran Miguel Lourtie has joined the company's European Technical Services group. Lourtie will be providing technical support and design services to customers within the European community. He will also be an instructor in Meyer Sound's growing education programme, using his multilingual capabilities to reach industry professionals in their native languages including Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian (as well as English).

Lourtie has been affiliated with Meyer Sound over the entire course of his career in sound reinforcement, starting in 1993, when he first worked for a Meyer Sound distributor in Europe, and then as a Meyer Sound certified SIM engineer. In 1997, Lourtie founded Lourisom, an audio consulting and distribution business in Portugal, which distributed Meyer Sound products in the country.

"Miguel's long relatio

Turkey - The 21st International Izmir Festival was held this summer at the Izmir Open Air Theatre from 10 June to 14 July. The renowned event hosted a Bejart Ballet and the occasion marked the first appearance of the L-Acoustics Ultra-compact Kiva Line Source Array WST (Wavefront Sculpture Technology) speaker system.

Emre Defne, technical director, ELIT, L-Acoustics distributor in Turkey, comments: "The electro-acoustic simulations we ran with the 3D modeling Soundvision software demonstrated that Kiva would be the most suited system to ensure proper and even coverage of the 3,500 audience. The compact size and elegance of this system was particularly suited for such an application which typically requires the most discreet sound system integration.

"The configuration consisted of two LR arrays of six Kiva elements and two Kilo complementary low frequency extension e

Germany - Vogtland-Arena Klingenthal provided the setting for this year's FIS summer Grand Prix final in the special ski-jumping discipline. 50 ski-jumping contestants from 13 nations competed against each other in order to gain the last world cup points in the German Czech winter sports centre at Europe's state-of-the-art ski-jumping arena from 5 - 6. October.

The event attracted 13.600 enthusiastic fans, amongst others from Japan, Poland and Germany, presented as a live television broadcast. KS IT & media service/Jobel productions provided the technical organisation for live transmission, sound and technical infrastructure.

Eight K.M.E. sound systems, each comprising three line array tops QL 906 and three bass QLB 118s were placed around the ramp (approx. 160m long x 40m deep) after previous simulation in the stadium. Power supplies and signal infrastructure were also put in

UK - Following hot on the heels of the launch of its new AudioCore control software at PLASA07, UK digital signal processor manufacturer XTA Electronics has launched an all new version of its website.

The website retains all the best features of the previous site, plus a few more useful bits and pieces, says the company.

"XTA has always been an accessible company," says group sales director Bill Woods. "We want everything we do to reflect that, so an overhaul of the website seemed logical. Subscribing via RSS feeds gives you access to our news pages to find out what we've been up to and also get technical advice that will cover most of the usual queries."

(Jim Evans)

UK - In the world of high-fashion retail, Abercrombie & Fitch has remained a frontrunner with its popular, youthful brand of casual apparel. When the successful retail and catalogue operation decided to create a new class of flagship stores, they sought top-of-the-line audio systems for them that were in line with their reputation for quality and style. The A&F team found the right fit with Meyer Sound's UltraSeries self-powered loudspeaker systems.

Each of the three locations selected for the new stores - on New York's Fifth Avenue, at Los Angeles' The Grove shopping centre, and in London's Mayfair district - has been designed for maximum audio and visual impact. "The vision for these stores was to design a retail environment that is as much about fashion as it is entertainment," says David Schwartz, Abercrombie & Fitch's director of audio/video technology. "We w

USA - San Francisco-based JK Sound provided three large-scale concert sound reinforcement systems - all featuring EAW UX8800 digital processors with Gunness Focusing technology as well as EAW line arrays and concert loudspeakers - for a recent sold-out concert by DJ Tiƫsto at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, with several other DJ performances held simultaneously in adjacent rooms.

JK Sound, headed by owner Michael Lacina, assembled the three concert systems within a very tight timeframe. The auditorium system included left and right hangs of EAW KF760 Series line arrays flanking the large stage, with additional KF761 modules on the bottom of each array to supply wider dispersion.

A large VIP area at one side of the stage received additional reinforcement from four EAW KF650 three-way loudspeakers on top of dual EAW Avalon DC2 subwoofers. Meanwhile, the systems de

Italy - RCF has confirmed its new commercial partnership with Leifull Enterprise (Hong Kong) in China.

Leifull specialises in the lighting and sound industry and boasts over 10 years of progressive development. Although its headquarters are in Hong Kong, the company has branches in Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing in Mainland China.

One of Leifull's strong points is its ability to provide its clients with design consultation, installation and debugging, as well as after-sale services.

During their recent visit to RCF in Italy, Mr Zhou and Mr Huang were able to listen to RCF products in the company's demo room and also to meet the RCF team.

Mr Zhou, Leifull's chairman, commented: "It's a pleasure for us to have the chance to distribute such a well known Italian brand throughout China."

"This is a very important step of our strategic course," says Federi

UK - Edinburgh-based installation company, Dynamic Productions consolidated its expansion into the area of hire management, taking recent delivery of a VHD touring and installation system from KV2.

Dynamic's system comprises two VHD 2.0 mid-high enclosures and four each of VHD 2.16 and VHD 1.21 subwoofers, with two VHD 2000 and a further two VHD 3200 power amplifiers. The purchase complements the company's existing inventory of KV2 Audio's ES System which launched Dynamic's initial foray into the hire market in 2006.

The new system has been in constant use. Dynamic director Graeme Anderson comments, "From the other hire companies that have used it, to bands and DJs that have played on it, the response has been excellent. Both systems are compact and easy to transport and set up but have the power to far outperform anything else I've heard."

Edinburgh's major dance

Italy - Peterborough-based rental company Moore Audio is confident that it can now offer clients an irresistible upgrade in the speed, quality and cost-effectiveness of its services, thanks to the purchase of a new Electro-Voice XLD line array system.

Proprietor Richard Moore, who started the company four years ago, says that, because EV's XLD technology is so quick to put in place, "We no longer need the hours, even days, of set-up time in expensive function rooms. We can get the PA up and running faster than ever before, and that works out more cost-effectively for my clients."

Moore Audio has purchased from Shuttlesound - Electro-Voice's UK distributor - a system which initially comprises 12x XLD281 3-way ultra-compact cabinets, but, after just a few shows with the new boxes, they are already planning on supplementing the inventory with subwoofers and additional 2

USA - Constantine Zachariou, engineer and project manager for Washington-based audio/video design firm Avidex, was contracted to handle the audio renovation of the downtown Seattle Art Museum. Zachariou chose Symetrix' SymNet DSP systems to be at the heart of each of the museum's six new audio systems. His objective was to upgrade the museum's audio systems to handle the museum's many uses while still ensuring transparent, easy operation for the museum staff.

The downtown Seattle Art Museum, a crown jewel in the city's vibrant cultural life and home to works spanning human history across many cultures, recently underwent an $86 million renovation and expansion that dramatically increased its gallery space, created a new shop and restaurant, and propelled its audio systems into the 21st century.

Zachariou's designs replaced antiquated analogue systems in the 100-seat Nordstrom

UK - Allen & Heath has announced Version 3.0 of the 'Xone Mixed in Key' harmonic mixing software. Using a patent-pending process for key detection, the new version provides even more accurate results - including multiple keys for more variety - and integrates seamlessly with top DJ software, says the company.

"The new version detects keys like a human musician. To accomplish this task we hired two professional musicians to analyse hundreds of songs. Their results were entered into the latest artificial intelligence technology to teach Version 3 the technique," explains Mixed In Key designer, Yakov Vorobyev. 'Xone Mixed In Key' creates perfect mash-ups, and gives you the ability to sound like a DJ maestro."

'Xone Mixed in Key' is Windows and Mac OS X-compatible software, which analyses MP3 and .WAV files, identifies the key of a track, and highlights which other

UK - As one of the architectural jewels of the UK's south coast, Chichester Cathedral has been calling people to worship since 1106. In doing so it has set standards for longevity that few buildings can hope to equal, let alone electronics in today's society which is driven by technical change. But the Ampetronic induction loop amplifiers installed in the cathedral back in 1990 are proving that durability isn't just the preserve of stone and mortar.

Linked into the cathedral's 100v line audio system, the Ampetronic induction loop system was installed in the cathedral's main worship areas, comprising five ILD9 loop amplifiers and an ILC5 combining unit.

Despite having provided 17 years faultless service, it would be reasonable to assume that after such a time, the system may well be in need of refurbishment. This was the case with the entire audio system, when contractor RG Jon

Finland - Although a quartet of classically-trained cellists playing heavy metal seems a most unlikely phenomenon to take the musical world by storm, since 1993 Finnish band Apocalyptica has been gaining an ever-growing fan base by doing precisely that.

With a new album 'Worlds Collide' just released, the band has now set off on a major, two year world tour, with a DiGiCo D5 console at front of house and a D1 at monitors.

The band's FoH engineer Michael Bauer has been a DiGiCo user since 2003 when, with no real training, he did his first show on a DiGiCo console with the Leningrad Cowboys.

"The show was in Norway and, after a quick introduction by the sound guy, I started working with the console. Within half an hour I felt comfortable, which was surprising as it was the first time I had used a digital desk and I was feeling a bit nervous!" says Bauer. "For me

UK / India - Allen & Heath, has appointed SunInfonet as its exclusive distributor in India. The company will manage the sales, distribution and service of the complete Allen & Heath product line from their HQ in Delhi.

"The audio market in India has grown dramatically over the past couple of years resulting in an increasing demand for more sophisticated AV systems and higher end professional products. Consequently, it made sense for us to appoint SunInfonet, who has been one of our key dealers in the region for some time, and are very knowledgeable about our products," comments Allen & Heath's sales director, Bob Goleniowski.

"SunInfonet already distributes Shure, Camco and Nexo products, so the addition of Allen & Heath has strengthened our portfolio. We are very pleased to be representing the brand, which is well known in India and our appointment means we can

Denmark / France - As part of a major restructuring of its international distributor and dealer network, DK-Technologies has announced the appointment of Monitoring Company to distribute is entire range of audio and video metering products in France.

Based near Nice, Monitoring Company is headed by Jean-Baptiste Lannoy and has over 20 years' experience in the music, video and broadcast industries. Among the many top brands the company represents are Evertz, Marshall and ASTRO.

"We use our extensive in-house technical knowledge to ensure that our customers are provided with exactly the right equipment for their needs," says Jean-Baptiste Lannoy. "We select products for distribution on the demands of the market and every product we stock is thoroughly tested to ensure that it meets our rigorous specifications. Our belief is that quality is cheap because by distrib

USA - Masque Sound, based in East Rutherford, New Jersey has taken possession of their first Adamson rig. The newly released ultra compact true line source series Metrix was first demoed to sound consultant and designer Duncan Edwards earlier this year, while still in its prototype stages.

Edwards demoed a few different systems provided by several sound companies bidding for a specific youth themed musical tour, but the size specifications coming from the production design team were limiting, leaving fewer options to contend for the tour.

This Musical was originally an American TV Movie released in 2006, and quickly became this family channel's most successful movie with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US. The film's soundtrack was the best-selling album of 2006, and has since morphed into movie sequels, books, concert tours, musical tours, video games and

Italy - Outline Butterfly, in the experienced hands of Britannia Row Productions, is ready for the only Italian date on Amy Winehouse's European tour, due to be staged at Milan's Alcatraz on Friday 26 October 2007.

The rig will comprise 36 CDH 483 Hi-Packs and 16 Subtech 218 SP subs, all powered by Outline T9 power amplifiers bought by the London rental company, thanks to which - they stress - the line arrays manufactured in Brescia has reached "new heights". The system engineer for the Milan event and the entire tour is Italian Davide Lombardi, who's been on the Britannia Row team for some time.

This is the artist's second tour with Britannia Row's Butterfly; the previous (UK) one was held in January and its sound quality met with unanimous acclaim from the top UK PA men, FOH and system engineers, says Outline.

(Jim Evans)

India - Bangalore-based V-Dosc Partner J Davis Prosound & Lighting provided a V-DOSC system on the occasion of the Mysore Utsava Festival which took place at the end of July.

This unique cultural event featured over 300 performances from artists such as Kunal Ganjawalla, Shreya Goswal, Shaan to Udit Naraya, just to name a few. Each day saw a crowd averaging 10,000 spectators with an audience culminating at 15 000 on the closing day of the festival. The sound system consisted of 10 V-DOSC per side and eight ARCS.

The National newspaper The Hindu reported: "Both sound and lighting systems were top notch and they brought a tremendous contribution to the general atmosphere of the festival and definitely enhanced the listening pleasure of the audience."

(Jim Evans)

Norway - Clear-Com has been chosen to supply a fully digital Eclipse Omega matrix intercom system with FreeSpeak 50 for use throughout Norway's newest and most prestigious National Opera House, Nytt Operahus, in Oslo. Eclipse Omega and FreeSpeak50 digital wireless beltpacks will provide the communication backbone for the 38,500sq.m facility and its large production and sound crew.

The Opera House is the largest cultural building to be constructed in Norway and an important symbol to the nation. The building houses 1100 rooms as well as a 1,350-seat performance auditorium and a small 400-seat auditorium. The Opera House will employ over 600 people, including production and sound crew who will be utilising Clear-Com's FreeSpeak wireless beltpack for point-to-point communication.

The Clear-Com system chosen by the Nytt Operahus includes a 64-port Eclipse Omega Digital Matrix cont

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