Sound

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UK - PLASA has launched a major new initiative on behalf of companies who work in, or supply to, the production and events sectors. In partnership with the Sustainable Events Group, PLASA has put together a programme of workshops designed to take companies through the development and implementation of BS 8901 - the major new event management standard that will influence how all events are delivered in the future.

Attaining compliance with BS 8901 will give businesses a significant market advantage as the new standard is already being specified by major organisations such as London2012 and is a core commitment of the recently-issued DCMS Sustainable Development Action Plan.

The programme, which is open to both members and non-members, is based on a series of five one-day workshops held at 4-5 week intervals, and has been specifically designed to provide a low-cost route to achi

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Sweden - The Europaporten Kongresscenter in the southern Swedish city of Malmö has chosen a Geo S12 line array system to reflect its unusual multipurpose identity; not only is this 820-seater auditorium the home of the Malmö Pentecostal Church, but it also actively markets its facilities as a congress centre and meeting hall.

Malmö's Europaporten is home to one of Sweden's largest Pentacostal congregations, but its spacious modern auditorium is also a popular venue for conferences, live music performances and corporate meetings. Its search for a new and versatile sound reinforcement system led to the consideration of several blue-chip brands, and the contract was awarded to Nexo after a series of on-site demonstrations.

"We prepared very well, studying the room's characteristics carefully and staging a very successful demo which showed off the Geo S12's strengths of au

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USA - Open to university and college students nationwide, the registration for Shure's fifth annual Fantastic Scholasticrecording competition will remain open until 17 October 2008. A random drawing on or about 22 October will determine the 10 competing schools, each of which will receive a standardised 'mic locker' from Shure that must be used to complete every recording project submitted.

The names of registrants chosen as contestants in the random drawing will be posted on Shure's website. Competing teams from each school are required to record and mix an original piece of music. Their submission will be judged by a panel of industry professionals who will evaluate the recordings based upon their overall fidelity, clarity, sonic balance, and creativity in selection and placement of the microphones. Previous judges have included Dave Hewitt, Joe Barresi, Mike Fraser, El

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France - Following the successful PLASA launch of Innovason's new compact digital control surface, Eclipse, Innovason's Czech distributor, Music Data enjoyed a successful Muzika Expo trade show in Prague. In addition to showing the rest of the Innovason range, Music Data dedicated a specially commissioned OB van to showcase Eclipse, and were rewarded for their efforts by taking two preliminary orders at the show.

According to Music Data's Tomas Ourednicek, the show was a great success. "We decided to show Eclipse in an OB van that we had painted with Eclipse graphics especially for the show. It gave us an ideal environment in which to present the console away from the distractions and noise of the show floor. All of our customers loved the new control surface."

Ourednicek also took his first orders for Eclipse at the show: the first from a rental company who already

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Norway Oslo's new National Opera House is one of the most prestigious international pioneers of TTA's Stagetracker FX actor tracking and audio position technology.

Built by the architects Sn°hetta in a waterside location in the Bj°rvika district, this great theatre represents the beginning of a remarkable urban renewal which will transform the city of Oslo. This remarkable building houses a traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium built around a proscenium stage, accommodating 1400 in its main hall, and another 400 in a secondary performance space. The house is the seat of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, known in Scandinavia for its leaning towards avant-garde and experimental productions, and the artistic programme is also expected to include musical shows alongside the opera repertoire.

Buying local technology, Den Norske Opera has become the first internatio

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UK - In an attempt to boost sound engineering qualifications and improve stagecraft in the theatre industry, Orbital Sound recently revived their two-day Sound Skills for Theatre training course under the tutelage of Theo Holloway.

With a heavy pantomime season in prospect, the company has a major interest in skills investment, and Theo Holloway believes the exercise paid off.

"We had 15 students - which, with such a broad range, is the maximum number we wanted to accommodate," he reports."It is the first time we've run a course in this format and it has attracted a real mix of people - from senior sound students, venue staff, freelancers and even a rock 'n' roll engineer, who is training at a drama school."

What emerged over the two days, he said, was a healthy appetite for learning. "Hopefully these people have seen us as being helpful, as w

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Belgium - The Belgian branch of Procon Event Engineering has ordered 40 Electro-Voice ZX1 high-tech loudspeakers from Electro-Voice partner E-audio Benelux.

"In the end, the choice was totally logical," says Procon's chief buyer, Fabrizio Valesia. "With the ZX1 we obtain not only a system tried-and-tested in countless applications but also the best price-to-performance ratio. The performance of this extremely compact, lightweight loudspeaker is simply sensational."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - The recent task at hand for Paul Wittman, monitor supervisor of ATK Audiotek of Valencia, CA, was to provide reliable communication and monitoring between the music director and the band who performed at this year's Democratic National Convention. The solution was the implementation of an Aviom Pro16 system.

"Audiotek migrated over to Aviom for the many high-profile events we work on because the fundamental design flexibility offered by Aviom allows us to accomplish even the most difficult monitoring and communication situations," says Andres Arango, staff engineer at Audiotek. "We now have a system that is straightforward to set up, gives the musicians individual control over their monitor mixes and is easily scalable to handle any production."

The signal flow for this event consisted of two elements: communication and monitor mixing. All band member

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Ireland - At next month's evenTech Ireland staged in the Industries Hall, RDS, Dublin, d&b audiotechnik will be represented by its sales partner MOSCO, who will be highlighting the new loudspeaker additions to d&b's E-Series range, as well as showing their D6 and D12 amplifiers.

MOSCO and d&b are joint Education sponsors at the show and d&b will also participate in the seminar programme that takes place during the exhibition. d&b's Steve Jones will present two of the seminars, the first of which is titled Demystifying audio techniques. The second is Combining subwoofers within cardioid and distributed arrays.

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Westfalen Sound recently celebrated 30 years of success and partnership at its Emstetten base. A division of the POOL group, Westfalen is a provider of production services to countless touring, government, commercial and industrial theatre clients using Meyer Sound equipment exclusively. The company's anniversary event, named POOL is celebrating 30 years of Westfalen Sound, encompassed four days of training, seminars, product demonstrations, and a retrospective equipment display gallery.

The occasion was crowned by a large party on Saturday 13 September attended by more than 400 guests from all over the world. They enjoyed an extended musical evening featuring many performers who have worked with Westfalen Sound from the beginning, including both founding and current members of Udo Lindenberg's Panikorchester. A substantial multi-channel surround sound system co

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Italy - Rental company Agorà has taken delivery of four DiGiCo SD7 digital mixing consoles, the biggest single delivery to date.

Based in L'Aquila in central Italy, Agorà's high profile client list, which encompasses the majority of the country's top tours, means that its inventory of consoles needed to be augmented. Enter the SD7s, the purchase of another two of which are planned for 2009.

DiGiCo's managing director, James Gordon, visited Agorà's premises to head up a training programme. "Agorà has a long association with DiGiCo," says Stefano Cantadori, president of Audio Link. "It was one of the first companies to invest in the D5 and has an impressive stock of both digital and analogue desks. Agorà already had the edge in the Italian market and the purchase of the SD7s has reinforced that."

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - The Carl Orff Hall at Munich's Culture Centre, Gasteig, has recently added a new self-powered Meyer Sound M1D system, supplied and installed by Berlin-based Werner Audio.

The Gasteig complex consists of four other multi-purpose venues used for concerts, plays, lectures and movie screenings as well as the Munich Philharmonic Hall featuring a Meyer Sound system.

The new Meyer Sound system in the 600-seat Carl Orff Hall consists of two arrays each comprising nine M1D line array loudspeakers; one UPA-1P loudspeaker serves as a centre in-fill and two UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers as an effects and in-fill system. Stage-lip and front-fill coverage is provided by six MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeakers, while a pair of 700-HP subwoofers provide the low frequency energy for the whole system.

Overall monitoring is handled by Meyer Sound RMS remote monitoring system and a Gal

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Australia - Italian tenor Andreas Bocelli has completed an arena tour of New Zealand and Australia with an L-Acoustics Kudo line source array system provided by Norwest Productions. The tour included a show at the Sydney Acer Arena, the largest in the southern hemisphere, where Bocelli broke his previous world box office arena record, putting $AU3.273 million through the registers.

The concerts featured a 76-piece orchestra and a 60-piece choir together with baritone Gianfranco Montresor, soprano Paola Sanguinetti and guest star Tina Arena accompanying Bocelli.

"As each orchestra member is playing towards the conductor, the orchestra itself can be considered a point source," says sound designer Andrea Taglia, whose priority for the main system was to preserve the orchestra's sound image, retaining a sharp correlation between the visual of the musicians playing live a

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UK - Adlib is supplying lighting and audio equipment and crew for the current Dragonforce UK tour which features a lightshow designed by Stuart Gray, and sound mixed by Bruce Reiter.

Central to the sound reinforcement is a Nexo Alpha system, with the standard configuration being 18 M3 mid high boxes, 12 B1 bass cabinets and 10 S2 subs. Playing a wide variety of venues, they're flying where possible and ground stacking the rest of the time. For general infills, they are utilising 4 ADLIB AA122s.

Nexo's NX242 processors are used across all the Nexo elements, feeding Camco Tecton amplifiers driving the mid highs, Crown VZ5002s powering the bass and subs and Crown XTi's for the in-fills.

The system is time aligned each day by Adlib's systems engineer Richy Nicholson using EAW's SMAART analysis software. The FOH desk is a DigiDesign Venue.

Monitors are mixed by Adlib's Dave Dav

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Oman - The Grand Hyatt Muscat is home to several of Oman's hottest nightspots and entertainment venues including Club Safari, Copacabana and the sumptuous Afrah Ballroom. Audio quality throughout has recently been enhanced and refined with an upgrade to Lab.gruppen's range of C Series multi-channel power amplifiers, supplied and installed by Lab.gruppen's exclusive distributor in Oman, Bright Lights.

Club Safari is a three-level venue that offers an eclectic mix of high-tech entertainment and African design, including a live stage on the middle level. A powerful 4-channel Lab.gruppen C 68:4 runs the main stage PA comprising two 2 x 18" subs and two 12" mid-high cabinets from Ohm, while the stage monitor system is handled by an eight-channel C 20:8X powering six 12" Ohm wedges. The remaining two channels are powering the in-fill surround speakers.

Copacabana was

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UK - Following a busy summer, temporary power specialist Power Logistics has moved its operations to new, expanded premises in Wiltshire in good time to serve the winter events market.

The new base is in the Chippenham area just minutes from the M4. The move was planned last year, when it became apparent that Power Logistics was rapidly outgrowing its previous operational base, as it experienced growth in the live music, public events and sporting sectors.

The new premises have two warehouses for storage and handling, allowing the company more efficient turnaround of equipment and quicker access to the motorway network.

"The move to new purpose-built offices and storage facilities puts us in an ideal position to offer the best value service to the winter market," says Mike Whitehouse, Power Logistics' business development manager. "The premises give us a numbe

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UK - Prism Sound is taking to the road in November with a series of seminars that aim to dispel many of the popular myths surrounding the recording process.

In conjunction with Apple and monitor specialist PMC, the Prism Sound From Mic To Monitor road show will visit universities and colleges in six key cities over a two week period.

Each seminar will feature short presentations from the three companies involved and a talk by a guest recording professional who will also be available to answer questions from the audience on recording techniques.During its second week the road show will visit LIPA in Liverpool, Salfor

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USA - BML-Blackbird Theatrical Services recently installed the audio and lighting system at the new Espace entertainment space in Manhattan. Espace is a modern events venue that holds up to 500 people for seated dinners and 1,000 people for standing receptions. The 10,000sq.ft space hosts a variety of events including fashion shows, corporate functions and fundraisers.

While high-quality audio was an absolute requirement for the system, the owners of Espace did not want the audio equipment to interfere with the visually stunning appearance of the event room. "The owners of Espace wanted sound coverage everywhere possible in the room, but they didn't want to see it," said Don Quinton, audio engineer, BML-Blackbird. "The loudspeaker system had to be blended into the ceiling."

BML opted for JBL Control 300 ceiling speakers for the lobby area and selected AC221

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Australia - Following the 2000 Olympics, Sydney now boasts three major international standard stadiums for major sporting events; Sydney Olympic Park (now the ANZ Stadium), Sydney Football Stadium and Sydney Cricket Ground.

However, the city's facilities cater equally well for local and national needs with several 'boutique' sporting venues to host local events such as home games for the National Rugby League (NRL) competition.

One such facility is Toyota Stadium in the southern beachside suburbs of Sydney. Home of the Cronulla Sharks, Toyota Stadium commenced a $9 million plus upgrade in 2007, including the addition of a southern stand and renovations to the existing east and west stands. The ground has the capacity for over 22,000 fans.

Situated on the southern shores of Port Hacking, the facility is exposed to north easterly winds off the Pacific Ocean and, according to G

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Canada - CAST Software has introduced its joint innovators for BlackBox, which made its world debut at PLASA08 in London.

CAST's BlackBox is built with special hardware and proprietary software to be an integrated, bi-directional high speed communication solution which enables all control devices connected to it to send or receive instructions from each other. Live, realtime input is received in all forms by the BlackBox which acts as the brains - running on an ultra high-speed hybrid version of WYSIWYG.

CAST is working with key industry leaders - each a respected innovator in its own field -- to ensure BlackBox meets its technical objectives. In exchange, each will get a 12-month exclusive leadtime to enhance their own products to capitalize on the power and speed of BlackBox. Representatives of these companies were on hand during PLASA for the Beta launch phase to announce t

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Spain - The Canary Islands' Heineken Jazz Festival is the most important jazz event on the Islands' calendar. Held each year between June and July, it is staged at different venues around the islands, from open-air events and concert halls to intimate salons. The 2008 festival included performances by The Crusaders, Madeleine Peyroux, Spyro Gyra and many more.

This year sound engineer Hilario Benìtez introduced a new PA system to the event at two of the venues on Gran Canaria. "I've tried the Q-Series loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik several times on the mainland in recent years," he said, "and I've always believed it would prove an ideal system for this event. Small, unobtrusive, easy to use and great detailed sound; just what you need for the intensity of the musicians who play here and the highly critical audiences who come to hear them."

Benìtez pla

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UK - Since acquiring the SADiE brand at the start of the year, business has been booming for Prism Sound - so much so that the company has added a number of new staff to help satisfy demand for its range of recording, post production and test and measurement products.

"Despite the economic doom and gloom, we've had an exceptional year and this has led to the need for additional staff," says Prism Sound's sales and marketing director Graham Boswell. "Our existing product range is going from strength to strength and we're now developing new products that will combine Prism Sound and SADiE technology in ways that will be of real benefit to our customer base."

Some of the new recruits to Prism Sound needed no help in finding their way around the company's headquarters in Streatham, Cambridgeshire, because they were already familiar with the lay-out having moved

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China - Situated in Ningbo, one of China's oldest cities and a key trading port for at least 2000 years, the eighth in the rapidly expanding chain of Bar No.88 venues has installed Turbosound NuQ, TXD and TCS series loudspeakers.

The No.88 chain is inspired by American-style venues, with music by in-house DJs and live performances by in-house singers. Installed by Chengdu Ruisheng Audio Equipment Co. with help from Mac Lo, technical director of Turbosound's Chinese distributor Phoenix Audio, the system at the Ningbo bar comprises 21 Turbosound NuQ-15 full-range loudspeakers and 22 TXD-218 subs, with 12 TCS-101C for in-fill beneath the club's balcony.

"The speakers are strategically installed to achieve a very even and consistent coverage, making sure all clients in the bar get the same high quality sound," says Shirley Zhuang of Phoenix Audio.

"As the ceiling

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UK - DMi D&M Installation is introducing the Denon DN-A300M stereo installation amplifier. The DN-A300M replaces the Denon PMA-100M, a favourite with commercial installers. Like its predecessor, the DN-A300M offers a solution for small installations, and provides improved mic mixing functionality and increased amplifier power over the existing model range.

The DN-A300M provides "classic Denon sound and build quality at an affordable price point", and is designed for small commercial AV applications in numerous types of venues and environments. The new model features a mic input mix with auto gain control, coupled with 100 watts per channel of power amplification.

A ¼ inch / 6.35 mm jack mic input and level control enables a microphone signal to be mixed with other audio input sources. Switchable mic on/off, mic auto gain control, and music auto mute control enable r

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