Sound

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UK - The Hoosiers have had a busy year of touring and festival dates. And they were using an array of equipment from Sennheiser throughout.

Trevor Gilligan has been Front of House engineer for the band since the beginning of the year. Since then he's weaned the band, all of who provide lead vocals or harmonies, off their previous mics and onto Sennheiser e 935s.

"The old mics sounded fine," explains Gilligan, "but I can get more level out of the 935s. I can get a much more placed in vocal sound with the 935, and I like the background noise I get from it. The stuff it does drag in sounds a lot nicer than what you get from some other mics. If you're working on a loud gig and it's hot and sweaty, and everyone's talking, the 935s cut through that really well. In a live situation, that's the way I like it."

Gilligan also impressed the rest of the engineering c

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USA - Auralex Acoustics has been on active duty in Iraq in support of the United States Army's 10th Mountain Division Band. With approximately 40 members, the 10th Mountain Division Band was deployed to Camp Victory, Iraq earlier this year. Auralex Acoustics took on the challenge of assisting the band with occupation and acoustical renovation of its new rehearsal space.

The band's mission involved transforming an old swimming pool into an acoustically balanced rehearsal facility. The greatest sonic anomaly involved early reflections off the plaster walls surrounding the pool, which is kidney shaped with curved walls, making it difficult to predict the angle of reflections. Sound was reflected in every direction with little attenuation due to the hard wall surfaces. Intelligibility of sound sources was almost completely lost, which resulted in hearing/ear fatigue.

"I've us

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Spain - VMB has announced the appointment of Avix Tech as its exclusive distribution partner for South Korea. The company has placed a substantial initial order including both Line Array systems, ADP series and towerlifts.

Avix Tech made contact with VMB in PLASA 2008 and recently displayed and demoed the product at last month's KOSOUND.

Avix Tech president Chang, Joo Hong said: "I am very pleased to have been able to introduce the VMB speakers to the Korean market through KOSOUND. It was a very successful launch for us in Korea."

VMB's export manager, Ben Sinclair commented: "We are really pleased that Avix Tech is going to take over the distribution for Korea. It has all been very sudden. We made initial contact at PLASA and within six weeks we received them here in Spain for meetings, signed the contract and were over in Korea demonstrating the product at K

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Germany - An L-Acoustics V-DOSC system has been used for the 35th anniversary show of Höhner, a German folk music band, at the 14,000-capacity Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

The concert - Wenn Nicht Jetzt Wann Dann (If Not Now Then When) - which featured special guests Guildo Horn, DJ Ötzi and the Kölner Symphonie, was televised by German broadcaster WDR and recorded for a live CD. While popular across Germany, the band are enormous in their hometown of Cologne and sing in the local dialect of that region.

Cologne-based PA rental company Event-Solution put together a large and complex L-Acoustics system to cover the stalls and lower balcony of the arena.

Event-Solution's Jochen Gotzen used 12 V-DOSC line source cabinets per side as the main PA system, with a total of 20 dV-DOSC compact line source speakers: three per side as down-fills and seven per side as out-fills.

T

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China - The well-established Beijing International Hotel (BIH) is a 916-room 5-star hotel located on Chang'an Street, in the central area of foreign affairs and business in the city. This summer, the BIH has turned several floors of its multi-storey building into a conference destination; out of a total construction area of 33,128sq.m. has been carved a number of flexible meeting venues, including a 2000sq.m banqueting hall and a 625sq.m theatre.

Collaborating on the design of the new Centre were the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design and the American firm of Heitz-Parsons-Sadek, which specialises in high-end hospitality interior design. The installation of the sophisticated AV and communications systems was completed by China Construction Third Engineering Division. Corp.

China Construction has a long-established working relationship with TICO, the Chinese distributor

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Canada - PA Plus provided live sound reinforcement for Heaven's Rehearsal a multi-denominational musical event that featured a house band, full orchestra and five-hundred member choir. The event took place at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

PA Plus utilised 80 Crown I-Tech amplifiers to power the large format JBL VerTec line array. "In order to maintain both group and independent control over all the arrays, we chose to use the Crown I-Tech amplifiers along with HiQnet System Architect software to provide all the required processing," stated Mark Radu, systems engineer of PA Plus.

"We tuned the basic 30,000 seat system within System Architect and stored it as a preset. As we added array sections to attain coverage up to the full 55,000-seat capacity, the system was re-tuned and saved as a preset. The Crown I-Tech amplifiers and System Architect gave us all

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UK - Having successfully made an impact at the Academy in Sheffield, Nexo's Geo D line array technology has again been chosen by installers Adlib Audio as the house system for what is now known as the O2 Academy in Oxford.

The Academy in Oxford, which was opened just 15 months ago, recently asked Adlib Audio to install a new front-of-house PA in its main venue, capacity 1,020. The club required a brand-name system that would support its endeavours to attract a strong calibre of international touring artists to the city.

Roger Kirby, Adlib Audio's sales manager, describes the unusual room acoustics of the Academy's main room. "It has a very low ceiling, and is a long, asymmetrical shape, which makes it quite a tricky proposition acoustically. After our experience with Nexo's D10 cabinets at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and in the Academy in Sheffield, we felt that the v

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Netherlands / Belgium - Fred Heuves, CMO of the Ampco Flashlight Group, has announced his retirement from the Group, effective 1 January 2009.

In a statement to company staff, industry colleagues and the media he said: "After working in the entertainment industry for more than 30 years, of which the last 18 years have been within the Ampco Flashlight Group, I have decided the time has come to slow down and make room for the talented new generation within the Group, and I've therefore decided to leave the company on 1st January 2009.

"It has been an exciting period and looking back at how we started and what has been accomplished, not only in the industry in general but also within the Ampco Flashlight Group in particular, I feel a modest pride for all of us in this industry and in the Ampco Flashlight Group."

Fred's roots in the industry reach back to 1976 wit

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USA - Harman International Industries has formed a marketing relationship with musician and producer and Quincy Jones to explore and evaluate opportunities for licensed and co-branded products in the consumer, automotive and professional audio fields. The partnership is intended both to celebrate Jones' rich contributions to the music industry and the impact of Harman audio technologies in the recording, broadcast and entertainment fields, says the company.

Jones will also make a number of appearances at Harman-sponsored events and contribute his personage to various corporate and brand-level marketing activities.

"Quincy's passion for excellence in the entertainment field is a natural complement to our own respected audio brands," said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman's chairman and chief executive officer. "His iconic status and musical genius pair strongly with Harm

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UK / Portugal - Following the release of its Chimera, a hybrid valve/solid-state preamp, earlier in the year, Sontronics has launched the Sonora, a two-channel solid-state preamp. Designed and developed in the UK, and manufactured by the company's team of engineers in Portugal, the Sonora is a dual-channel preamp/DI with two discrete solid-state channels, capable of "delivering the highest standard of audio reproduction at an amazingly low price" the company says.

Sonora's size makes it ideal for studio recording and as a portable front-end in live performance and stereo recording applications outside the studio. Its ultra-linear frequency response has been honed to a variance of just ±0.1dB from 20Hz to 20kHz. It also boasts 60dB of distortion-free headroom and 60dB of gain, transparent signal integrity, very fast transient response and electronically balanced ins an

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USA - Crown Audio has appointed Vincent Tan to the position of business developer for the Asia region. In this role Tan will be responsible for supporting the sales within the region and working closely with the customer base. He will report to director of marketing for installed sound, Brian Divine.

Previously, Tan served as an engineering manager for Spectrum Conferencing, which specialises in providing integrated conferencing and professional audio visual solutions. In this role Tan was responsible for the management and direction of the post sales department, where he led a team of four engineers in providing after-sales services.

Commenting on his appointment, Tan said t, "I'm extremely excited to begin my new role with Crown. Through previous positions I've become familiar with Crown and many of the other Harman Professional brands."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Tannoy has announced the launch of the i9VP vandal proof loudspeaker. A development of the Tannoy i9, the i9VP (Vandal-Proof) is a tall, slim but ruggedly built loudspeaker equipped with four 100mm (4") low frequency direct radiating drive units and three 25mm (1") titanium dome tweeters, partially horn loaded and arranged as a line source.

Designed for use in acoustically challenging applications where wide but controlled coverage is required, the dispersion characteristics of the i9VP (Vandal-Proof) direct sound into the desired space while minimising ceiling reflection from above. This makes it suitable for high quality speech reinforcement in highly reverberant or expansive spaces such as transportation hubs, convention centres and retail malls. The solid metal housing and protected cable run make this product especially suited to outdoor/public spaces where t

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USA - As the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States, Chicago's Ravinia Festival boasts a rich history dating back more than a century. The festival runs from May through October, making it less of a typical festival and more of a semi-permanent summer venue. Performances ranging from the Chicago Symphony to Sheryl Crow and Tony Bennett attract 600,000 visitors a year to join in the celebration at Ravinia Park, located in the north-eastern suburb of Highland Park.

Mike Gotshall, owner of Chicago-based wireless provider A Sound Choice, oversaw the audio needs at the festival this year along with IATSE Local 2 FOH engineer Norm Kruger. Gotshall also partnered with New York's Masque Sound to provide self-powered Meyer Sound Mica and M'elodie line array loudspeaker systems for Ravinia's two main venues.

"My relationship with Masque enables me to take on the bigger

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France - L-Acoustics has appointed Jamie Gosney as technical manager for the UK, joining the company's UK sales manager Stuart Down, and sales coordinator Nathalie Prade.

Gosney has three decades' experience of working in the pro audio industry in a career that spans systems operation and design, sales, installation and even set-building. Previous companies which Gosney has worked for include Autograph Sales, Imagination, Amber Sound, ATM Flyware and the SFL Group.

"I am really thrilled to be part of the L-Acoustics team in the UK," says Gosney. "I love the products and really believe in them; they just sound lovely. I believe our customers will benefit from Stuart's sales experience and my background in system design and installation."

Adds Stuart Down, "Myself and the team in France all welcome Jamie to the family. Having him on board is a great st

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USA - Peace Apostolic Church in Carson, California, has installed an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system in the 900-seat Worship Hall, and a GL2800 in the adjacent 300-seat Fellowship Hall. Handling multiple services each week - in addition to rehearsals, bible studies, and other events - the iLive system is configured with 40 inputs and 32 outputs in the iDR10 mixrack with an additional eight inputs and eight outputs on the iLive-112 control surface.

"We are running a full band with acoustic drums, guitar, keyboards, piano, MPC click, six praise team mics, six choir mics, the Minister's wireless mic, and Pastor's wireless mic," says Andre Lamb, Peace Apostolic's music director. "We've also integrated a full Aviom system in addition to overhead and floor monitors for the podium and Choir area."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Daktronics designed and installed a new JBL VRX-based audio system for the Lloyd Noble Centre in Norman, Oklahoma. The Centre is home to the University of Oklahoma basketball teams and also serves as one of the largest concert venues in the region.

The audio system features more than 60 VRX932LA line array loudspeakers in a distributed 'exploded cluster' configuration. Supplementing the main system are VRX928 8-inch, portable line array elements for the upper seating areas. The entire system is powered by Crown XTi amplifiers.

"We have successfully employed VRX line arrays in the past and found them to be an ideal solution for the system at the Lloyd Noble Centre," said Doug Dodge of Daktronics. "The system has performed exceptionally and provides smooth, even coverage to all areas of the arena."

(Jim Evans)

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USA - President-elect Barack Obama delivered his historic acceptance speech to nearly a quarter million jubilant supporters at Chicago's Grant Park via a sound system designed and deployed by Clair Chicago using an Electro-Voice X-Line PA and Midas mixing consoles.

Ian Hunt, director of event management for Clair Chicago, says, "Not only did we need to combine full coverage and vocal intelligibility on a massive scale in this deep, wide venue, we also needed to ensure signal feeds for the vast assemblage of press from around the world, and all with impeccable audio quality."

After mapping Grant Park using LAPS (Line Array Prediction Software), both Hunt and Mark Kishbaugh, account executive for Clair Chicago, determined that Electro-Voice's X-Line line-array system was the ideal choice to deliver the long-range, highly intelligible sound the rally would require.

Tw

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USA - Clair Brothers Systems recently upgraded the audio system at the RBC Centre in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Centre's new system features a combination of JBL VLA and Vertec line arrays, as well as Application Engineered (AE) series loudspeakers.

The RBC Centre is home to the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League and the North Carolina State University men's basketball team. The arena seats 19,722 for basketball and 18,680 for hockey, including 75 luxury suites and 2,000 club seats. The arena also hosts numerous other events, ranging from WWE contests to rock concerts.

According to Jim Devenney, senior audio designer, for Clair Brothers, the audio system at the RBC Centre was due for an overhaul. "The system originally installed in the building had lots of clusters and lots of overlap that degraded the system's intelligibility," he said. "The sy

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UK - The sound on the UK leg of the current Oasis tour was entrusted to Britannia Row Productions. On FOH, Brit Row used an Outline Butterfly system consisting of 82 elements (CDH 483 Hi-Packs) supported by 30 Subtech 218; the system was digitally controlled by Dolby Lake processors and amplified by Outline T9 power amps (2 x 4800W on 2 Ohms, a single rack unit and weighing in at 12 kg).

FOH engineer Bruce Johnston said: "I liked the sound of the system. The horns were very powerful and exactly suited what I was looking for with Oasis. After a few shows, the system really started to get up and go and I got lots of comments saying that it was the best Oasis had ever sounded. With 15 Subtech 218 subs per side, we had some amazing low end happening and really got the room shaking. We had no issue with the system's capabilities and were able to get the volume needed for a band

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Ireland - MOSCO Sound Design, d&b audiotechnik's representative in Ireland, showed the versatile additions to d&b's established E-Series range of loudspeaker systems at Even.Tech 2008. These were complimented on the stand by the new d&b D6 amplifier as well as the R70 Ethernet to CAN interface.

Thre E8, E12 and E12-D all combine polyurethane hard foam cabinets with coaxial LF/HF drivers at their heart. Designed for use as standalone full-range loudspeakers, any of these models can be integrated into d&b's larger systems without compromise to performance, says the company. All three models have horns that rotate through 90º, with patterns of 90º x 50º, 80º x 50ºand 110º x 50º (h x v) as well as high power ratings of 129 dB, 134 dBm and 133 dB SPL respectively. With the addition of the E15X subwoofer the bandwidth can be extended down to 40 Hz.

In the same vein, the D6 am

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In and out of court - The legal dispute over a music contract between Michael Jackson and an Arab sheikh has ended with an "amicable settlement", their lawyers have said. Jackson had been due to fly in to give evidence at the High Court before an agreement in principle was reached. The King of Bahrain's son, Sheikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, was suing Jackson for £4.7m, claiming he reneged on a music contract.

The court was told on Monday that the agreement would remain confidential. Bankim Thanki QC, for the sheikh, told the judge: "We are very pleased to announce an amicable settlement has been reached on confidential terms." Lawyers for both sides then went into conference before releasing a joint statement which simply said: "They wish each other well in their own respective endeavours." Leaving the High Court on Monday, a spoke

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UK - When the Control of Noise At Work Regulations 2005 - originally introduced in 2006 for heavy industry - became enforceable for the music and entertainment sector earlier this year, theatre specialists Orbital Sound were quick to respond.

The company immediately set up a thorough risk assessment programme, which is already being adopted by several leading West End theatre production (and touring) companies. The assessment monitors employee exposure to sound levels within the workplace, setting out different thresholds of risk, over short bursts and sustained periods, along with the appropriate action that needs to be taken.

Central to this are small 'dosemeters', which are clipped discreetly onto employees working in specific areas which are activated simply via a keyfob; the readings are then monitored by Orbital.

Orbital Sound technical director, Tim Sherratt, w

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  3. Tom Menrath joins Behringer in Global Business role
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