Sound

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USA - Biamp Systems reports that systems integrator JSN Enterprises has deployed a new AudiaFLEX solution at the Boise Centre On The Grove in Beaverton, Oregon. JSN Enterprises installed Biamp technology throughout the complex, which includes a luxury first-class hotel, major convention center and 350-seat auditorium.

The Boise Centre On The Grove was first completed in 1990. Over the following 17 years its paging system became antiquated, with system downtime increasing daily. Chris Morrison of Boise Centre On The Grove approached JSN Enterprises for consultation in 2006, and asked them to design a system for installation in August 2007, giving them almost a year to complete the project. However, the rapid onset of failures in the old system escalated installation of the new system by months.

In addition to system design, Morrison also asked John Orlovich, owner of JSN Enterp

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USA - Loyd Ivey and Hardy Martin have announced the merger of their two companies, Atlas Sound, founded in 1934, and Innovative Electronic Designs (IED), founded in 1978.

"No two companies are closer in culture than IED and Atlas Sound," said Loyd Ivey, founder and CEO of Mitek, parent company of Atlas Sound. "We are merging two dynamic companies, with similar core competencies and similar value systems. The merger will allow us to become a global leader in communications systems. I am happy to join forces with the crew at IED to become modern day 'Davids' against the global Goliaths of today's communications industry. "

Hardy Martin, president of IED stated: "We are very excited to merge IED with Atlas Sound to combine the best practices of both our companies. The manufacturing proficiency of Mitek combined with the integrated audio and visual communi

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Italy - The Vatican has invested in a new conference system for the prestigious Sala del Sinodo (Synod Hall). The system chosen was a DCN Next Generation consisting of interpretation, camera control, PC control and 364 positions with flush-mount units and nine positions table top DCN Concentus.

The flush-mount units offer the same functionality and performance as the table top DCN Concentus systems while enabling tailor-made fixed installations to be built into tables and arm rests. The flush-mount units consist of a microphone, loudspeaker and microphone activation button, simply combined in a strip and finished with matching end-caps.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Shropshire Hills, designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1958, is the latest place to benefit from purchasing Sennheiser neck loops. The AONB Partnership works together to conserve and sustain the Shropshire Hills and one of the challenging roles is leading local people and visitors on guided walks in the AONB. It is on these walks where the Sennheiser products have proved their worth.

"We originally purchased them with hearing impaired visitors in mind," explains Diane Monether, Shropshire Hills AONB community landscapes officer, "those people who might have previously avoided coming on these types of walk.

"Often on our walks we have up to 20 people and keeping the group together can be difficult. This is where the neck loop really helped. Some people were really cynical about being seen wearing a hearing loop but once they tr

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UK / Russia - dbx Professional has announced the appointment of A&T Trade as its new Russian distributor. Commented Glen Harris, dbx Professional sales director, Europe: "This is an excellent strategic move which brings dbx into line with the remainder of the Harman Pro portfolio, which A&T Trade distributes."

A&T Trade's Evgeni Ilnitski admits that they had waited a long time to land the dbx brand, stating, "dbx has a huge profile here. There was a gap in our product line which we have finally been able to close with this acquisition."

The new agreement takes effect from 1 November 2007.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Early on Monday 5 November, a white M.A.N. 7.5-tonne truck with tail lift, registration FN54 FPZ on hire to John Hornby Skewes & Co Ltd and containing an HK Audio COHEDRA line array concert system, and numerous other PA systems, was stolen from the car park at the Innkeepers Lodge, Sheldon, Birmingham.

The PA system and various ancillary equipment included COHEDRA line array cabinets and subwoofers, plus a number of flightcased VX2400 power amp racks and Digital Field Controllers. All the flightcased cabling/fly bars for the system was also included in the haul, along with a number of HK's self-powered F.A.S.T. monitors and ConTour CT112 speaker cabinets. The COHEDRA mid/high assemblies were housed in large grey flightcases, whilst the subwoofers were mounted four units high on dollies, protected by black road covers bearing the 'COHEDRA' logo.

Additionally, the truck als

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Europe - Veteran bluesman Joe Cocker is currently touring Europe using a Sennheiser SKM935 G2 wired mic for his mighty vocals. Front-of-house engineer Chris Madden is the man behind the decision. He joined the Joe Cocker team on a permanent basis this summer and planned on bringing his selection of Sennheiser microphones on the first leg of the tour over 11 weeks of European festivals. Circumstances dictated otherwise.

"I went in with a whole kit of SKM935s," explains Madden, "and wanted to carry a front of house rack and a wireless monitor system with us. We set the whole thing up, but then found it wouldn't fit on the private plane we were touring in, because we had really strict weight demands. So we had to use what was already at all the festivals."

For the second leg of the tour that began at the end of September, Madden was able to bring his own choic

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Switzerland - Lausanne-based rental company MS Productions recently expanded its already impressive inventory to include an extensive line-array system from Electro-Voice, purchased at the end of June from EV's Swiss partner Audiotech.

After extensive tests, the team led by managing director Luc Chassot, decided in favour of 12 EV XLD 281 three-way enclosures, along with four EV XLC 215 and eight EV Xi1191 subwoofers. "What impressed us above all about the system was its outstanding sound quality," explains Luc Chassot. "That was the most powerful argument in its favour. The fact it is also ultra-compact and therefore enormously versatile made this a pretty easy decision for us."

The first test for the new PA came at the recently inaugurated St. Prex Festival at the end of August. A top-level cultural event featuring a high-calibre line-up, including the so

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Canada - Xantech Corporation has announced today the appointment of Claude Sabourin as the company's head of overseas sales. Sabourin brings with him a wealth of experience in the Asian and Pacific markets.

In his new role, Sabourin will oversee Xantech's sales efforts in Asia, South America and Canada and will establish new sales initiatives in the world's fastest growing markets such as Indonesia and China.

"Claude has a great deal of sales experience in the audio industry in both consumer and commercial electronics," said Graham Hallett, president of Xantech. "This is a mix we very much need in the underdeveloped CI markets around the world."

No stranger to the Asian markets, Sabourin spent over seven years working out of Taiwan. His experience spans two continents, having established effective sales teams, composed of distributors and representatives,

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UK - Coinciding with its promotion to the Championship, Bristol City Football Club has had a completely new sound system installed at its Ashton Gate stadium. The club had been considering upgrading its audio facilities for some time, and awarded Bristol-based systems integration company Sounds Commercial the contract to design, install and commission the new system.

Damian Orritt, installation contracts manager of Sounds Commercial, commented: "The old system was underpowered and also very dated in terms of equipment, range and reliability. There was little or no fault monitoring and quite simply it was not up to the club's expectations for the forthcoming season."

The new sound system had a number of roles to fulfil, firstly it had to be integrated with the voice alarm system to form part of a life safety system that would comply with BS 5839 part 8, BS 7827 and BS

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Germany - Sirius Showequipment recently provided audio services for a sold-out concert featuring Germany's most popular band Pur with a supporting symphony orchestra on twin stages in the round at the Veltins Arena. The event, held on 8 September, drew a crowd of approximately 65,000 people.

Originally named Arena auf Schalke, the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany is the nation's largest indoor venue and one of the world's most modern stadiums. It is home to the football club FC Shalke 04, and the arena has also hosted five matches in the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2004 UEFA Champions League final. The Veltins Arena was designed for multi-purpose use, as evidenced by its busy concert schedule.

For the Pur concert, Sirius Showequipment deployed a large, multi-zone JBL Vertec line array system to meet the show's in-the-round requirements, which were made more complex by t

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USA - Cerwin Vega has announced the introduction of direct distribution to the UK market. The decision to sell directly to Cerwin Vega dealers was made in an effort to better service the current Cerwin Vega dealer network and to allow Cerwin Vega's UK sales team to more proactively reach new dealers, says the company. The BPM Show taking place 10-11 November in Donington Park will be the venue for the official introduction of Cerwin Vega's new direct distribution to the UK.

"Selling directly to Cerwin Vega retailers will put us in the unique position of being able to work closely with our dealers to see exactly what they want and how they want it," says Jamie Ward, UK sales director for The Stanton Group. "At the end of the day, Cerwin Vega wants to better understand their customers so we can deliver the best possible service to them."

(Jim Evans)

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Spain - When Barcelona-based sound contractor and XTA distributor Adagio SA was commissioned to design the audio system for the 4,000-capacity B3 multi-room dance venue in Dos Hermanas (near Seville), the demanding audio specification meant that XTA system processing was appropriate.

The club's owner, José Miguel Losada, wanted a state-of-the-art audio system delivering ultimate quality sound, so Adagio SA's Bernat Camacho and Jordi Rosselló specified XTA processors and MC2 amplifiers to control and drive the Martin Audio loudspeaker systems.

The new B3 venue has three floors and the audio system was required to be divided into four discrete zones - the main entrance, main dancefloor, Buda Chillout Room (with its associated entrance) and the White Room.

Normally the main entrance and dancefloor work as a single zone, the music from the main dancefloor being fed to bo

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USA - Biamp Systems has announced the promotion of Steve Metzger to vice president of business development and Paula Linn to vice-president of manufacturing. Both executives are long-time members of the Biamp team, and in their new positions will report to Ralph Lockhart, president, Biamp Systems.

"Since their arrival here, Steve and Paula have independently helped make Biamp Systems a better company," Lockhart explained. "In their new roles I have every confidence they will help make Biamp even stronger - not simply in terms of the product that we build but also the support that we provide, the partnerships that we enter and the strategic direction that we take."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - ET Live, held during LDI (16-18 November 2007, Orlando, Florida) is an event designed to allow visitors to the expo to hear professional loudspeaker systems in "real" conditions.

In a large outdoor area at this year's show, six line arrays manufactured by leading European and US companies will be put through their paces.

Outline will take part in ET Live with two line arrays - Butterfly and the new compact Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. The Butterfly rig will be used along with Outline Subtech 218 subwoofers, and the entire set-up powered by the new T7 power amplifiers.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - With over 200 acts playing on 12 stages over three days, Big Chill is rapidly becoming one of the key events of the UK summer festival season. Held at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, near Worcester, this year was the first that Dobson Sound Productions had supplied the audio infrastructure for all the festival stages. And the company took the opportunity to also make Big Chill 'all digital' for the first time.

Five DiGiCo consoles were deployed, a D5 at front-of-house on the Open Air stage, plus D5s at both FOH and monitors on the Castle Stage and D1s at FOH on the Sanctuary Stage and in the Big Chill Nights tent.

"As we were providing sound for all the stages, it made sense to follow our instincts and go digital throughout," says Dobson Sound managing director Paul Dobson. "It was a bit of a step, but it went very well.

"We chose to use the DiGiCo console

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Austria - Vienna's leading entertainment venue, the Arena Wien, recently purchased two Allen & Heath iLive digital consoles as part of an overhaul of its audio systems. Vienna Arena is one of the city's largest and most established live performance centres. With four separate areas, the complex plays host to a wide range of events, from international artists such as James Brown, Crowded House, Dinosaur Jr., and Gnarls Barkley, to film screenings and theatrical presentations.

Having recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, Vienna Arena marked the milestone with a full audio upgrade to its largest hall. In addition to a new Meyer Sound speaker system, the decision was made to replace the Grosse Halle's existing analogue mixers with an iLive system - comprising an iDR10 mix rack and iLive-144 control surface - at FOH, and a second identical iLive system to manage monitors.

"

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Japan - Just three hours north east of Tokyo, the Hitachi seaside National Park is home to Japan's most popular three-day festival event. The secret to Rock In Japan Festival (RIJF) is arguably its insistence on Japanese artists only; that and an idyllic location on the site of this former air force base in the Ibaraki prefecture.

Organised by Rockin'on, a Japanese music magazine, the festival has grown since its inauguration in August 2000 from one stage over two days, to four stages and three days, this year pulling in an audience of over 147,000. Editor in Chief Mr. Yoichi Shibuya is the event producer and he also manages Countdown Japan, another popular festival staged at the end of year. It was here, in 2006, that his audience first got to hear the new J-Series from d&b audiotechnik.

"We first heard the new system in 2006," explained Mr. Shuzo Fujii, head

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Switzerland - For the its second sold-out year the Basel Tattoo used a TiMax delay matrix and showcontrol software to make the marching players' audio track their stage movements, and to help eliminate musical timing problems due to the large scale of the performance area.

An import of the Edinburgh military pageant which has also used TiMax for the last six years, the Basel Tattoo is staged in the open air in front of the 18th century Kaserne Hof barracks next to the Rhine. The performers are spread out over a 70m x 25m parade arena surrounded by audience seating on three sides.

Specified by Swiss sound designer Thomas Strebel, a 16-input 24-output TiMax Rack System was fed from eight groups of a Yamaha PM5D console which received up to 32 radio mics plus CD and harddisk playback sources for various dance troupes. Another PM5D was located in the temporary Basel Tattoo Studios

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UK - KV2 Audio has announced the appointment of Dave Ball to the role of field sales manager, covering the Midlands and Southern area of the UK. Ball brings a wealth of audio sales experience, technical knowledge and a surfeit of enthusiasm to the role.

KV2's operations director, Andy Simmons, commented: "We're delighted Dave has joined the KV2 Audio team. He understands the KV2 philosophy, the technology behind it, and combines the right mix of personality with passion for the product."

Ball elaborates: "KV2 Audio is the best sounding system I've ever heard. Moving to KV2 Audio was an easy choice for me as I have such faith in the system."

Ball is no stranger to audio sales and comes to KV2 Audio from Birmingham's LMC Audio, where he held a technical-sales position for three years. Previously, he managed Bullet Sound, the Staffordshire-based PA hire comp

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UK - Newly formed rental company Purple Audio has chosen a Funktion One Resolution touring rig for its initial inventory.

Davies Roberts, managing director of Purple Audio and front-of-house engineer for Koopa comments: "Having been inspired by Tony Andrews' designs for many years and experiencing great success from the Funktion One Resolution 2 system I was using for small local events, a Funktion One Resolution 4 touring system was a natural choice.

"The Resolution 4E and F121 combination is self powered. Plans are already afoot to upscale the business to a Resolution 5 system."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - DJ Manufacturers Vestax, distributed in the UK by Leisuretec Distribution, has reported strong enthusiasm and great feedback from the inaugural BPM Show held at Donnington last weekend.

"We showed a whole range of new Vestax products, with the new PMC-580 mixer, PDX-3000 turntable and the MDM-410 19" rack mounted mixer generating particularly high interest," enthused Leisuretec Distribution's sales development manager, Stephanie Dell. "We've had great sales orders from the event and there was definitely a buzz about the show."

"BPM is just what the DJ industry needs right now," commented Leisuretec managing director, Nick Spalding. "The DJ segment has been lacking a vibrant high energy DJ specific show for some time and BPM appears to have provided the solution."

(Jim Evans)

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France - One of the highlights of the summer on the French Riviera has been the reopening of St. Tropez' famous nightclub, Papagayo, which enjoyed a golden era in the 1970's when such people as Eddie Barclay and Brigitte Bardot soaked up the atmosphere. More recently the club has hosted the likes of P. Diddy, Bono and Bruce Willis. Located right on the harbour it offers magnificent views of the bay, and now it has set out to recapture its bygone splendour.

Owner Fabienne Malortigue has spent €2m in creating a completely new infrastructure - including a potent new sound system - and has brought in new director, Thierry Fontaine from The Loft in Lyon to add weight to the operation, which today offers an eclectic music mix to an 18-25-year-old crowd.

The venue contacted its long-term audio consultant, Nice-based integrators Perfec'son to upgrade the technical infrastructure. The

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UK - Back to their original line-up as a trio, Ash have been touring their latest Twilight of the Innocents album in the UK and Europe, with Adlib Audio providing the production and sound engineer Lance Reynolds delivering the house mix on the Soundcraft Vi6 digital platform.

Reynolds, who has been piloting the band's house mix for the past four years, was delighted to find a Vi6 already in both the FOH and monitor positions when the band started their UK leg proper with a four-night stint at Koko in London, as the experienced sound engineer had already worked with the desk in his native Chicago - at Randy Flaws' Windy City Sound and Lighting.

"Randy got hold of the first couple of Vi6's for touring use in the States around a year ago, and when I'm back home I do work for that company. So I had the opportunity to get a feel for the Vi6 before the FX cards came alon

  1. Austrian stadiums ramp up with Biamp
  2. iLive double at Bermuda Jazz Festival
  3. Martin Audio cranks it up in Bournemouth
  4. Megaforce chooses Alcons
  5. Nexo first for Sweden's Karlsson
  6. Royal Albert Hall refurbished with Meyer
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