Sound

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UK - Hadouken are currently touring with a range of Sennheiser microphones. Their front of house engineer is Darren Mullis, who has previously toured with Fightstar, Gallows, Funeral For A Friend, The Horrors and Just Jack.

"I've been using the Sennheiser e 945 vocal mic with almost all my bands," he explains. "I like its clear sound. Basically, I think they've got a better top and mid sound than their competition. Also, it's good looking for photo shoots. James [Smith, Hadouken vocalist] isn't what you'd call a pop singer. He's more of an MC. Before I switched him to the e 945, I was finding the mics he was using were getting muddy. It wasn't picking up everything I wanted and his vocal was getting lost. He also had the habit of smashing up microphones."

After meeting Sennheiser UK's Artist Relations Manager Phil Cummings at Glastonbury, Mullis also took d

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UK - This year's Reproduced Sound Conference and Exhibition takes place 20-21 November at the Brighton Old Ship Hotel, Sussex.

Reproduced Sound 24 - Immersive Audio will feature an array of papers from well known experts in the industry. Further information is available at www.reproducedsound.co.uk.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Following a relationship with the 02 Arena extending back a decade (to its days as the Millennium Dome) experienced sound consultant and project manager, Eddie Thomas, has now extended his expertise to full-blown concert sound - with help from the Harman Pro brands.

Thomas's company ETA Sound remains under contract to 02 Arena management AEG, not only to provide auxiliary sound reinforcement for shows taking place in the Docklands complex's premier venues - such as the NHL and NBA events - but site-wide system maintenance and coverage for a raft of smaller events such as press conferences.

The original Millennium Dome and now both 02 Arena and the smaller Indigo2 have end-to-end Harman Pro systems (including JBL Vertec loudspeakers) operating on a CobraNet backbone running HiQnet. The latest addition to ETA's rental fleet has seen further investment both in JBL's premium

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UK - Summer 2008 has been a busy time for programming house grandPA. Following its launch in the spring, the company reports that its programmers have been involved in some major shows over the past months.

Marcus Kromer was seconded to PRG for Madonna's Sweet and Stickytour, responsible for grandMA support for the M-box Extreme video programming.

Tim Routledge spent his summer in Beijing as programmer to LD Durham Marenghi for the London 2012 Handover Ceremony at the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and Paralympics whilst business partner Pryderi Baskeville had a busy summer between setting up the Bill Bailey tour in Australia, the Charlotte Church Show and Ronan Keating dates.

(Jim Evans)

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Sweden - Lab.gruppen has extended its C Series of network-controlled installation amplifiers with the introduction of the C 88:4.

Housed in a lightweight (12 kg) 2U chassis, the four-channel C 88:4 supplies a massive 8800 watts of total output. Up to 2200 watts per discrete channel are available at 2 ohms, 2100 watts per channel at 4 ohms, while 4600 watts are available through two bridged output pairs at 4 ohms. C 88:4 expands C Series capability to the largest performance installations. The C 88:4 is designed for powering sub-woofers, larger array systems and broader multi-power-level/impedance applications.

"The C 88:4 leverages a new generation of output device technology along with Lab.gruppen's engineering expertise to achieve astonishing power and versatility in a small form factor," states Tim Chapman, Lab.gruppen's head of marketing. "Compared to our p

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Australia - During their recent seven-stop Australian tour, Goldfrapp stopped at the Sydney Opera House on for a side show. Best known for their visual theatrics and contribution to the popularisation of electronic dance music, the show at the celebrated venue attracted upward of 2500 people. In the grand setting of the Sydney Opera House, Goldfrapp emerged as a six-piece band dressed entirely in white, and were fittingly accompanied by a 14-piece string section including two harps, on a stage set consisting of bunting and a maypole.

Sydney's own Norwest productions provided the PA system for the stop, as well as for Parklife Sydney and Parklife Brisbane festivals, where a 5000 strong audience respectively, came to hear headliners Goldfrapp among other international and home grown performers.

The Sydney sound design was executed by Justin Arthur, using Adamson's

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Austria - Located on the site of an original 16th century monastery in Wiener Neustadt, Backstage Musicbar went through many changes until in 1994 it opened as a bar. By 2006 new proprietor Christian Pinkernell had established the venue as a live music bar near the Austrian capital.

Sensing the need to upgrade the sound system earlier this year, he contacted Roman Wieser at eXact, the Austrian QSC Audio distributor. "I had known Roman for a long time - but was not familiar with QSC," he said. "At that time I had my eyes set on another brand until he persuaded me otherwise."

The 80sq.m room has been equipped with a pair of powered HPR122i flown above the stage, with an HPR151i providing the bass extension. These were installed by Rautschka AVL and ELA Trading.

"Both musicians and sound engineers are delighted with the quality of the new speakers,&quo

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Ireland - D.A.S. Audio continues its worldwide seminar series, and Ireland recently received a visit from D.A.S. Audio engineer Joan La Roda.

The two-day seminar took at the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlon, an hour away from Dublin. The event was organized by D.A.S. distributor Reynolds of Raphoe and was attended by some 25 D.A.S. customers and prospective clients.

The seminar's main focus was Line Arrays: How they work, detailing the technical features and applications of line array systems as well as an explanation about subwoofer characteristics and configuration entitled Subwoofer Configurations and Time Alignment. The theoretical section was followed by Arco, DR, Reference, Artec, Variant112A and Variant 18A product demos. Brian McGrath of Reynolds of Raphoe personally took charge of the demos and the D.A.S. systems presentation.

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Ammar Fawzy is joining Telex as regional sales manager, working on CCS (Critical Communication Systems) in the MEA regions. Following Telex's growth strategy, Ammar Fawzy completes the sales team for this year and will report directly to Kamil Swobodzinski, sales director CCS & ACT for EMEA.

In his new position Fawzy will analyse the business in the Middle East and Africa, discover its potential, and develop the sales region to the next level, says the company. His last post was as product manager with Mediacast Fzllc in Dubai, where he provided solutions for post production facilities and broadcasters in the area.

(Jim Evans)

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Ukraine - To celebrate the 17th anniversary of the country's independence, the Ukraine organised a major event in the capital city of (Kiev). Ukrainian rental company Sendi saw this as an opportunity to demonstrate the powers of the company's newly-purchased DiGiCo D5 console.

Taking place in Independence Square, the open air event attracted over 150,000 people to formal celebrations and a military parade in the morning, followed by an afternoon and evening of live music. This consisted of three parts - traditional Ukrainian folk music performed by eight folk groups, a set by local ten-piece pop act Minus One and sets by five different Ukrainian rock bands.

Sendi's DiGiCo D5 Live 112EX console was used to mix both Front of House and monitors and was the first time a D5 has been used in the country. Configured with 68 inputs, these included nine channels of playback for the pop

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UK - The Electric Light Orchestra's extensive autumn UK tour sees a Yamaha PM5D at front of house, with an M7CL on monitors - supplied, together with the rest of the audio specification, by Knutsford-based VME.

The nature of The Orchestra's music means that mixing both monitors and the front of house sound is fairly complex, so the onboard effects and the saving / instant recall of scenes are proving extremely useful.

"I've got six main stereo in-ear mixes for the band members, a mono feed for drummer Gordon Townsend's subs and shaker, plus another stereo in-ear mix for him," says monitor engineer Happy Anders. "This is because, at the beginning of the second half, they do acoustic songs from their solo projects and Gordon comes down the front to sing. So he's got wired in-ears when he's playing drums, but a radio pack for when he comes down the front."

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Ireland - Specialist installation company Northern Light has fitted sound, lighting and communication systems at the new opera house in Wexford, south-east Ireland.

Built on the slightly extended footprint of its predecessor, the initial scheme for the new Wexford Opera House was developed by architects and building service engineers from the Office of Public Works (OPW), acoustic consultant Arup Acoustics and theatre consultant Carr & Angier. In 2005, the design team was completed through competitive tendering, with the appointment of Arup Consulting Engineers, Nolan Ryan QS and Keith Williams Architects.

Colin Cuthbert, Northern Light's managing director, said: "I was delighted that Northern Light was selected for the technical installation in this €33m (£25.6m) new build venue. Professionally, the project demonstrates the team's expertise and abilities extremely

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Italy - Sound designer Andrea Taglia has specified and designed an L-Acoustics ARCS system which has been installed at the Parco della Musica in Rome, in the venue's 2,800-capacity Sala Santa Cecilia.

Acoustically, this project posed some major challenges. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the building took 20 years to construct, and by completion the function of the different rooms had changed. Originally intended to provide stunning acoustics for large orchestras, the Sala Santa Cecilia has been drafted into service as a multifunction concert/convention venue due to Rome's lack of suitably-sized halls.

However its acoustic design, with orchestral use in mind, leaves Sala Santa Cecilia with a 2.5/2.8 reverb - perfect for symphonic music but impossible in a multipurpose room. It was this dilemma that Taglia undertook when contacted by Sonus Audio Services of Rome, a s

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UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied lighting and sound equipment with technicians for leading hair brand Toni & Guy's Mainstage 2008 Awards show staged at London Olympia Grand Hall.

Entec was working for JLP Events headed by Guy Kersey who handled all the technical production for end client, ESA Live.

The show was divided into two sections. The first saw the presentation of a series of Toni & Guy Achievers Awards, and the second part was a highly theatrical catwalk show, designed to illustrate the trends in creative hair design. Special guest appearances by LA based band Iglu & Hartly and hip-hop dance troupe Frank2louise also upped the excitement of the evening.

Entec pulled-in fashion lighting design impresario Simon Tutchener as lighting director. The rig had to light a double tiered set at the stage end, flanked by two sweeping staircases, with a revolve entrance in

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Australia - EAW recently provided Melbourne-based Crossway Baptist Church with EAW's flagship UMX.96 digital console for use as the church's Front-of-House mixing console. With regular cumulative Sunday attendance of upwards of 4,000 people and up to 1,100 at each service, Crossway is one of Australia's largest churches.

Crossway required a particularly powerful and versatile FOH mixing console, which is what the UMX.96 delivered. Graeme Stevenson and the rest of the team at Production Audio Services (Mitcham, Victoria) handled the sale and worked very closely with Crossway personnel in the choice and design of the system.

"The UMX.96 is very intuitive and easy to operate, which is important for us, as most of our operators are volunteers," stated Peter MacLean, Crossway Baptist Church media pastor. "Adding to that, it has comprehensive features and lots of outp

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Russia - During this year's Music Moscow the Dean Day took place at forum hall on the 10th of October. Rock musicians Michael Angelo Batio with his band Hands Without Shadows, Sergey Mavrin and the band Black Obelisk were the main acts of this event.

The Russian K.M.E. sales partner MixArt Distribution organised the exclusive festival and used as main PA the K.M.E. line array system PANO consisting of eight line array subs QLB 118, plus four line source units QL 906 and two QL 1215 as down-fill per side. The monitoring was made by CLP 320. The CA 7 served as side-fill.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - After a 13-year run in the West End, the show Buddy continues to play to full houses throughout its current UK tour. This musical is a biography of Buddy Holly, from his struggling teenage days in Texas, his climb to national success, and to his tragic death in a plane crash. Over 20 of Buddy Holly's signature songs feature throughout the show.

And ensuring Peggy Sue gets married every night without a hitch are 16 channels of Trantec S5.5 wireless. The system was recently purchased by one of London theatre hire company, Thames Audio, who have had over 17 years experience of providing a custom sound system for this show.

Sound designer and director of Thames Audio, Peter Cox says: "I am very happy Buddy has had another thriving year on tour. The combination of a good crew and first class equipment has proven itself, we get very positive comments about th

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UK - The Mighty Boosh are currently on the first leg of their four-month tour of the UK. And a vital part of British comedy's brightest stars' armoury, in addition to a multitude of costume changes, on-stage effects and ridiculous jokes, are the Sennheiser in-ear monitors that allow the musical sections of the show to flow seamlessly.

For the two-hour show's many musical numbers all five members of the comedy team - Julian Barratt (Howard Moon), Noel Fielding (Vince Noir), Michael Fielding (Naboo The Enigma), Dave Brown (Bollo) and Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil) - are fitted with Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G2 monitors, as are the two-man backing band.

"There are two full-time musicians in the band on drums and bass," explains FOH engineer Ashley Jones, part of the team from sound and lighting specialists Sonalyst. "And at the climax of the show Noel sings, Julian plays gu

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UK - Pro Audio Stash from Hastings, East Sussex has launched an ecommerce system that will see them selling professional audio equipment in four countries. Earlier this month Pro Audio Stash launched stage 1 of their four part launch with www.proaudiostash.co.uk.

When the ecommerce system is fully operational at the end of October Pro Audio Stash will be selling professional audio equipment in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.

Pro Audio Stash provides a selling platform for larger manufacturers to increase their market share through web sales or enter new market places at a cheaper rate. They operate in a unique way by providing micro sites for each country which are all controlled centrally in the UK. This gives customers the confidence in those countries that Pro Audio Stash understands their market, while allowing Pro Audio Stash to organise centrally.

Robert Platt, mana

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UK - OHM has introduced the DSP-A3 amplifier, which the company says offers an output of 1800W per channel at 4 ohms, and combines the reliability of a class H output with the lightness of a switchmode power supply and a fully featured DSPEthernet controller.

The amplifier features a 48-bit 96kHz AD/DA converter and a DSP that features system filtering, up to 2 seconds of delay, EQ and limiting functions. Configuring, monitoring and controlling can be done locally or by use of the full Ethernet communications capability. The performance can be monitored and settings changed via a Windows-based computer over a local area network or from the internet, enabling installed amplifiers to be monitored from remote location. The user interface shows the DSP functionality just like an analogue unit with one-to-one portraits of every control.

To complement the DSP amplifier a 2U high 19&

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UK - Stagecraft Ltd, the Salisbury-based lighting, sound and AV hire and sales company, went into liquidation on 17 October 2008, LSI Online has learned. Lisa Tapper, the former accounts manager of Stagecraft Ltd, reports that she and other key staff members have bought the assets of the company and are reforming as Stagecraft Technical Services Ltd as of today, 30 October 2008.

The new company directors are Lisa Tapper, Mike Naish (formerly Stagecraft Ltd production manager), Kevin Hughes (former projects manager) and Simon Sketchley, who has joined the company from AJS Theatre Lighting and Stage Supplies, where he was general manager.

Tapper reports that eight key members of staff have been retained as part of the new operation, while a further eight have lost their jobs.

Tapper was also confirmed that all forward orders on Stagecraft Ltd's books will be honoured by the ne

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UAE - In Dubai, Protec has just increased its inventory of Camco amplifiers for use with JBL Vertec and Nexo Geo line array systems. Already the biggest user of Camco Vortex in the Middle East, Protec has ordered another 24 Vortex 6 units for use on Kylie Minogue's massive outdoor show in November.

Protec is the largest supplier of sound, lighting, audio-visual, hydraulic and motor control equipment in the region, with an investment of over 50 Million Dirhams in the latest equipment. The company has used Camco for many years now, and Edward Ross, Protec's head of audio, continues to be a fan. "These are fantastic amps, very smooth and the quality of the audio is second to none. The Vortex 6 is really reliable, handling the challenging conditions of the UAE climate, which has extreme temperatures and high humidity."

The new Vortex 6 amplifiers were acquired from loca

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Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of EAS (Excellent Audio Support) as its new distributor for Germany.

ARX Managing Director Colin Park commented: "EAS's Hubert Overesch and I have been discussing the possibilities of working together in Germany for some time, the EAS sales team felt our range of signal processing products was a very complementary fit with the other lines they currently represent, especially our newer USB and analogue interface and dynamics products.

"Germany has always been important for ARX, along with the UK, it's one of Europe's trend setting markets. We're looking forward to working with Hubert Overesch and his energetic team at EAS to consolidate ARX's position in the German market and to reinforce to their customers the state of the art performance that ARX products can offer them."

Along side ARX, EAS also represent

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Germany - Klotz Digital has confirtmed Chinese company Wincomn Technology as its number one Varizone distributor in Asia for 2008.

"The influx of orders from Wincomn over the last couple of weeks saw the Chinese technology provider reach its sales targets months before the end of the year and before the other dealers in Asia," says Patrick Salloch, managing director of Klotz Digital Asia Pacific. "This is a development that we are very pleased about - to say the least. It proves that the partnership between our companies is working and we have chosen the right partner."

Wincomn received the award during their recent visit to the new Klotz Digital headquarters in Feldkirchen, Munich.

(Jim Evans)

  1. Arizona Man wins award for Sound Design
  2. Eddi Reader mixed and monitored on Midas
  3. LightViper in California's MiraCosta College
  4. Sanecore tops A&H distributor awards
  5. Brit Row supplies Pavarotti Tribute in Petra
  6. d&b reinforces Singapore's Ignite Festival
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