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UK - Allen & Heath has made an addition to the Xone DJ range, with the launch of the Xone:42 high performance 4-channel DJ mixer with USB audio interface.

"Designed to seamlessly interface with current leading edge DJ technology, the Xone:42 has an ergonomic, intuitive layout, making it one of the easiest to use hi-tech mix tools around," comments Xone designer, Andy Rigby-Jones.

The Xone:42's feature set is built around four dual-input stereo channels; channels 1 and 4 are phono/line, while channels 2 and 3 are line/line. All four channels have a powerful +6dB to total kill 3-band EQ, a nine-segment three-colour bar meter, gain control, and 60mm VCA faders with illuminated X/Y crossfader selection. Xone's legendary Voltage Control Filter is included on each channel via illuminated assignment switches, with selectable filter type, resonance, and frequency controls.

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UK - Three DiGiCo D5s were used on the Spice Girls reunion tour which took in 47 shows, including 17 dates at the 20,000-capacity O2 Arena in London.

With seven musicians on stage (drums, bass, percussion, two guitarists and two keyboard players), sequencer tracks and the five girls plus spares, the show is running around 109 inputs, including VT feeds and talkback mics.

Monitor engineer Matt Napier is using two D5s, one for the band and one for the girls, with both the musicians and Spice Girls using Ultimate ears UE7s with Sennheiser G2 IEMs, plus flown d&b C4 side-fills for the dancers.

"I decided to use two D5s as I wanted to be able to approach the in ear mixes for the girls in a different way to those for the musicians," he says. "The band all have a relatively conventional in ear mix, with minimum EQ and compression. For the girls, on the other hand, I

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Australia - To coincide with the release of their third album Grand National, the John Butler Trio embarked on a world tour, which started in Dublin in September 2007 and has already taken in the UK, Germany and France. The band is currently in Australia, and will be flying to Japan before finishing off in North America in May of this year.

XTA DP224s managed the majority of the Adamson loudspeaker system used on the French leg of the tour. The main loudspeaker system consisted of 16 Adamson Y10 speakers - two racks, each containing a DP224, provided system control for eight cabinets apiece. DP224s also featured in the slave racks used for the Adamson T21 subs, as well as for the ground-stacked loudspeakers that consisted of eight Y10s. Eight Adamson SpekTrix and four SpekTrix bass were used as out-fills, once again managed by DP224s. And for lipfills, four SpekTrix were

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Germany - Audio-Technica is exhibiting major new products at this year's prolight+sound exhibition, including the company's first wireless in-ear monitor systems and USB interface production microphone.

Harvey Roberts, senior UK marketing manager, commented, "We are especially excited about our presence at this year's prolight+sound, as we have a strong line up of new products that demonstrates the diversity of Audio-Technica's product engineering for the professional audio market. And, of course, visitors will be offered our customary stress free hospitality, including our popular chill out zone with professional massage; all highlighting how relaxing it is to do business with Audio-Technica."

On the new product front, the M2 and M3 IEM systems are high performance systems, each appointed for distinct sectors of the professional audio market. The M2 provides a mid m

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USA - Two recent Dynacord Variline and D-Lite installations by Frequency Music of Bonita Springs, Florida, reflect a mutual commitment between manufacturer and contractor to provide compact systems with no compromises in audio quality or power handling, says the company.

Jim Dalia of Frequency Music comments: "You get what you pay for. Whether for portable or fixed install applications, the value in these Dynacord systems literally speaks for itself, night after night. You can hear the difference, that these are specifically designed as high quality solutions for small-to-medium entertainment installations like this. From the streamlined enclosures to the state of the art components inside, they sound superb and they're built to last-that's where their value lies."

A combination of D-Lite Sub 115 and Variline VL262 speakers are proving Dalia's point at Yabbas, a high

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Germany - Meyer Sound has announced that its German operations have moved from its location in Polch to much larger offices in Montabaur. The move comes as a direct result of the business growth that the office has experienced over the course of the past two years, says the company.

"We have experienced a strong and consistent level of business growth due to the high demand for Meyer Sound products and services - our business has more than doubled in size over the last two years and we've increased our staff accordingly," says Jim Sides, managing director of Meyer Sound Germany. "We are elated to have the opportunity to move into a facility that is ideally suited, both in its location and amenities, to help us better serve our expanded base of customers and support our continuing growth and success in the German and Scandinavian markets."

The new location i

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UK - The first tour for Adlib's new dV-DOSC system was with Gabrielle, who has just had a run of UK theatres and concert halls. The system was specified by FOH engineer Jamie Butterworth, who comments: "It is an ideal high-definition system for the type of venues on the itinerary," adding that Adlib came up with a good deal and also assigned two of their top crew - Steve Pattison and James Neale - to the project.

The standard system configuration was 12 boxes a side for left and right arrays, combined with four dV Subs on the floor along with eight of the new high output SB28 double 18" subs. The system was driven with the new LA8 DSP-laden amplifiers which are also part of Adlib's recent L-Acoustics investment.

Butterworth - also the tour's production manager - specified the Digidesign D-Show Venue FOH console, on which he utilised all the onboard effects, plus

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USA - Veteran engineer Lee Moro has joined Meyer Sound as Nashville operations and touring support. In his new position, Moro will work directly with tour liaison manager Buford Jones at the company's office in Nashville's Soundcheck, the country's largest full-production rehearsal facility.

A native of Windsor, Ontario, Moro has spent most of the past five years as FOH engineer and production manager for Norah Jones, during which time he was the first engineer to work with Meyer's MILO line array loudspeaker system. He has also worked with Alannah Myles, Michael Buble, Blue Man Group, The Tragically Hip, and Madeleine Peyroux, among others.

"Lee is one of the most innovative and respected engineers I know," remarks Jones. "In addition to his wealth of experience working with a wide range of artists and musical styles, Lee also has a real-world perspective and i

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UK - Sound designer Derrick Zieba has used the same successful formula for the BRIT Awards for the last three years, casting virtually the same crew of engineers, staying with the PA systems supplier Britannia Row Productions, and flying substantial amounts of Electro-Voice X-Line array systems for the benefit of the British music industry as it celebrates the year's achievements in London's Earls Court.

As in 2007, the full width of the Earls Court arena was filled by a double stage, which allowed producers to flip-flop between live performances on the 'Glam' stage and the 'Punk' stage, with the presenters Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne in the centre. According to Zieba, the show turned out to be "my best BRITs ever; we delivered an event for everyone, and still managed to develop a real stage show for each artist from Mika who opened the evening, to Sir Paul McCartney who close

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Spain - The long-established Bikini Club in central Barcelona is one of the city's renowned live venues for indie and alternative rock acts, and has been a devoted user of Nexo sound systems for the last 12 years. Recently the club has installed Nexo's new Geo D line array and changed over to an entirely digital infrastructure throughout, with the help of its regular equipment supplier Doscientos Veinte Sonido.

Bikini's artists now perform completely in the digital domain, using a new EtherSound-based network that carries the audio signal from microphone to loudspeaker without any loss of quality. According to the club's resident sound engineer Robert Perez, the results are astonishing. "When you hear the system, it sounds so much better than anything you could compare it to, including our old set-up. We have a lot of visiting engineers coming through here with the touring

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Germany - ProLight & Sound 2008 will see a raft of offerings from Meyer Sound, including product presentations, a chance for visitors to win a trip to the Montreux Jazz Festival, a champagne reception at the stand, and two panel discussions featuring leading front-of-house engineers and sound designers.

On 13 March, Meyer Sound will lead a discussion amongst sound engineers including Big Mick Hughes (FOH for Metallica), Chris Pyne (FOH for Kylie Minogue), Dave "Shirt" Nicholls (FOH for Slipknot), Derek Featherstone (system design engineer for Dave Matthews Band), and Paul Owen (monitor engineer for Metallica). Moderators for this panel are veteran engineers John Pellowe and Buford Jones.

On 14 March, Meyer Sound will host some of the industry's most sought-after sound designers, including Bodo Bergmann, Jonathan Deans, Brian Hsieh and more on a panel discussion. Both

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UK - US blues icon, Joe Bonamassa is currently on the European leg of a world tour with a touring PA rig based around Allen & Heath's iLive digital mixing system and a WZ312M compact dedicated monitor mixer.

Bonamassa's FOH engineer, Jay Phebus, recently started using an iLive system, comprising an iDR10 mix rack and iLive-112 control surface, completing an intensive four-month tour of America, as well as dates in Holland and Russia, last autumn with the system. Impressed with the flexibility, easy load in and set up, and sound quality, Phebus is using the same system for the current European tour.

In addition to the standard RAB, DSP, and CPU modules, the iDR10 rack is loaded with nine individually selected module cards - four input modules providing 32 inputs, three output modules providing 24 outputs, and two multi-digital output modules providing 32 channels of ADAT, enabl

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UK - Founded in 1916, the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is the only Higher Education institution in the UK specialising in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East.

With the largest concentration in Europe of academic staff concerned with Africa, Asia and the Middle East, SOAS has a roll of more than 4,300 students, 40% of whom are on postgraduate or research programmes.

This places huge demand on the facility's Brunei Lecture Theatre, situated on their Bloomsbury campus, by the 300 staff members. And since the 290-seat facility is also hired out to third parties, the wear and tear on the technical infrastructure, seven days a week, is extreme.

Located within the Brunei Gallery, the Lecture Theatre was built in the early 1990's, and according to AV-IT analysts, Gary Hammond and Denson Abrahams, by last year the technology

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UK - Marquee Audio is in administration. The Shepperton-based supply, distribution and install operation which has been in business for 20 years, is understood to have been experiencing financial difficulties.

Robert Keys of Tenon Recovery was appointed joint administrator of the company by the High Court last month. "This move effectively bubble wraps the company to protect it from its creditors and give it some breathing space in which to sort out its affairs," says Keys.

The administrators are in talks with potential purchasers of the company and its constituent parts and report some interest from within the industry.

There are three levels of creditors - chargeholders such as banks that have issued secured loans, employees and general trade creditors. How much anyone gets will be determined by how much the company or its parts are sold for.

Marquee Audio mana

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USA - Chris Brown recently completed a multi-city US tour, which ended just one week prior to his appearance on the 50th Annual Grammy Awards telecast last month.

J&R Audio of Las Vegas, NV, handled the audio production for Brown's tour exclusively. Rick Camp, a long-time Pro Tools user and J&R's senior audio consultant, says: "As an FOH engineer by trade and a Pro Tools user since 1997, it just made sense for me to recommend using Venue live. I had mixed a couple of one-offs on the D-Show about two years ago and fell in love with it. The D-Show software is [also] very intuitive. Its flow is that of an analogue console for the most part.

"Virtual Soundcheck gives the artist a chance to stand with the engineer at front of house and critique the mix and also the band's performance during sound check," Camp explains. "It allows for tweaking the comps and gates

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UK - Man-of-the moment Mark Ronson, who recently received a Grammy for his role as producer on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black album just days before winning a BRIT Award as Best Male Artist for his own release Version, has recently completed a tour of the UK with his own band.

Ronson's 12-piece band, including string and brass sections, plays with a variety of guest vocalists - rarely the same bill twice. In the UK alone, the guest list has included Amy Winehouse, Adele, Tim Burgess of the Charlatans, rapper Rhymefest, and Australian vocalist Daniel Merriweather. One of the few faces always to be found in the same place is front-of-house engineer Matthew Kettle, sitting behind a DigiDesign D-Show mixing a Nexo GEO T line array system, supplied by SSE Audio Group.

Kettle, who is a regular user of Nexo's GEO technology, has specified a digital network for the show,

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Germany - Traditionally taking place at the turn of the year, the international Four Hills competition (or "Vierschanzentournee) ranks alongside the World Championships and Olympic Games as one of the most prestigious events in the winter sports calendar. The most recent competition, which ran from 30 December 2007, to 1 January 2008 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was the 56th Vierschanzentournee and featured a new runway, further heightening media interest in the event.

For the tenth year running, the event's organizers relied upon production company TC Showtechnik of Uffing am Staffelsee in Upper Bavaria to provide sound reinforcement. The team, led by managing director Martin Schulze and Stefan Rehthaler, opted once again to use systems from EVI Audio.

This year the centrepiece of TC's sound reinforcement concept was the Electro-Voice XLD compact line array s

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UK - Set in the heart of Northamptonshire, Sywell Aerodrome boasts one of the best general aviation airfields in the United Kingdom, as well as an aviation museum and the authentic art deco Aviator Hotel.

While awaiting permission to construct an all-weather runway, which they hope will be serviceable for Winter 2009, Sywell Aerodrome has wasted no time in developing its second hangar into a fully-equipped conference facility.

The contract for Hangar Two (as with Hangar One, developed five years ago) was awarded to Middlesex Sound & Lighting (MSL). The Harrow-based integrators have a relationship with the facility extending back a decade when Sywell Aerodrome managing director, Michael Bletsoe-Brown, first brought them in to equip the Cirrus Room - another function room at the Aviator Hotel.

After returning to install Martin Audio EM architectural speakers into Hangar One, o

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UK - The Institute of Acoustics has issued a call for papers for its Reproduced Sound 24 Conference, which is to be held at The Old Ship Hotel in Brighton on 20-21 November 2008. This year's event will follow on from the very successful conference held at The Sage, Gateshead in November of last year.

Nick Screen of Duran Audio is part of the conference's organizing committee, and says: "Reproduced Sound is a great opportunity for people with an interest in electro-acoustics and pro audio to come together, share ideas, push forward new concepts and technologies and network with fellow industry professionals and talk about subjects close to our hearts."

The call for papers in now out and the committee is looking for papers covering the following topics:

Auralisation and sound art
Multi-channel sound perception, creation and coding (Ambisonics, Wave Field Synthe

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USA - The North American leg of Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight World Tour, which has to date has passed through southeast Asia, Australia, and most recently Europe and UK, started in Omaha, NE on 12 February. Pre-production rehearsals took place in Baton Rouge and Lafayette for a week with Ben Cabot, Adamson's tour support flying out for initial set-up support.

Some of the new technical aspects for this leg of the tour include a new, fully automated lighting rig. On the sound side, Linkin Park carry on with FOH engineer Ken van Druten, whose full Adamson set-up for mains, sides, delays, and front- fills, remains as number one on the LP technical rider. Kevin McCarthy, LP's monitor engineer also continues requesting 16 Adamson M15 monitors combined with in-ears, for a monitor rig.

Tour Manager Jim Digby engaged the complete sound rig with full turnkey package from Ato

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UK - In early March, Stage Electrics was the first supplier of lighting, sound and rigging at the BT Convention Centre in Liverpool. Stage Electrics was contracted by Steve Burrell at LXFX on behalf of the Social Enterprise Coalition.

The BT Convention Centre is a purpose built meeting facility that consists of three auditoriums, 18 breakout rooms and a 3,725sq.m multi-purpose hall.

The centre hosted the Social Enterprise Coalition's VOICE08 Conference with Stage Electrics responsible for the provision of two 30m truss structures along with lighting and sound systems. The project was overseen by Stage Electrics' project manager David Wicks, account manager Chris Philpott, with sound by Rob McNeil and lighting by Tim Massey.

Production manager Steve Burrell from LXFX in East Sussex commented: "I was very pleased with the way Stage Electrics dealt with this project

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UK - Clockaudio has announced a restructuring of its distribution channels in the UK, appointing two partners for the brand: Tukans, the business-to-business AV specialist based in the north of England, will act on behalf of Clockaudio alongside CIE-Group, one of the UK's largest suppliers of commercial audio equipment to the installation sector.

Rod Geary of Clockaudio has taken the unusual step of sharing distribution of Clock's portfolio between two agents. "Their skillsets and their customer bases are very different, and both companies will have substantial input into building up Clockaudio's presence in the UK marketplace. Tukans has established knowledge of our brand, having worked with us for the past 3 years; they present our products to leading systems integrators in the AV installation business, and are highly oriented towards technical service and support. CIE-Gr

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USA - Meyer Sound has announced that professional audio veteran Dave 'Wiggy' Wiggins has joined the company as its director of marketing for Europe. In this newly created position, Wiggins will be responsible for planning and executing strategic marketing efforts and will work closely with Meyer Sound's marketing department in Berkeley and with the sales force throughout Europe.

"As we continue to grow our customer base in the European market and experience an increasing demand for Meyer Sound products in the region, it's essential for us to bolster our marketing efforts there as well," says Helen Meyer, executive vice-president of Meyer Sound. "Dave is an extremely knowledgeable and well-connected member of the professional audio industry who carries a lot of influence in the European market. It's a privilege to have him join the team at Meyer Sound to lead this

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Australia - Cairns based Pro-gig, assisted by Australian distributor Audiotech Systems Australia has installed the world's first Outline mini-COM.P.A.S.S. in the Cairns Civic Theatre.

"Outline won the contract simply on its power output, overall clarity and ease of use", says Steve Barton - chief audio supervisor for Cairns Civic theatre.

"The adjustable horizontal dispersion was a major consideration factor due to FOH bridges either side of stage that deflected audio onto highly reflective surfaces. The overall concept was that we could now focus the audio energy onto the 700 seated paying audience and not onto the walls and other surfaces. In the horizontal plane one can adjust the degree of dispersion asymmetrically between 60 and 150 degrees in 15 degree increments. Audio can be specifically directed to where it is required."

Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. consist

  1. First EAW MicroWedge Product released
  2. Crown fires up The Devils
  3. HES to give away Full Boar at Frankfurt
  4. Technomad passes 17,000 shipping mark
  5. AKG names US Rep of the Year
  6. Jeremy Garbett joins Action Impact
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