AC/DC's Black Ice world tour has crashed into the UK, accompanied by vintage and state-of-the-art Midas technology. Front of house engineer Paul 'Pab' Boothroyd is using a refurbished eighties PRO40 console to mix the band, with a PRO6 live audio system alongside to run the Klark Teknik DN9696 hard disc recorder and mix support band The Answer. A Midas Heritage 4000 is the monitor console for AC/DC, with a second PRO6 being used to monitor support bands.

"I've always enjoyed analogue consoles, and I'll use whatever suits the job," says Boothroyd. "A band like AC/DC warrants using a good old analogue desk because they're a good old analogue band. It's not like I have masses of processing, FX sends or over-EQing going on, just a little bit of compression. Nothing fancy as it doesn't need to be, and I'm having a great time using it."

The 25-year-old PRO40 was

Germany - The Sommer Cable main catalogue has been revised and added to once again. Across 400 pages the cable manufacturer is presenting an even bigger comprehensive and well-structered product range that offers everything from cable bulkware for the audio, video and network technology sectors including the appropriate hybrid cables to matching connectors and ready-made cables to complex routing systems, various active components and the corresponding accessories.

In addition to the comprehensive product information, the catalogue covers several informative subjects like including a crash course in cable production and cable characteristics plus a brief introduction to general audio technology.

As before, it is available in German, English and French., and for the first time in Spanish and Russian.

(Jim Evans)

Croatia - Adris Group, one of the leading companies in Croatia's tourist and travel sector, chose a Klotz Digital Varizone PA system for its new five star hotel Monte Mulini in Rovinj/Istria. Varizone has been installed by Dicroic, Klotz's Croatian sales and service partner.

Since working with the new PA system, Adris Group has secured a long term contract with Dicroic for the design, projecting, installation and maintenance in the field of audio, video & multimedia solutions and has named Klotz Digital as one of its official suppliers.

"Klotz Digital's remarkable technology allows a fast and individual assignment of zones without rewiring, which is an extraordinary advantage in the SPA. Separate areas and rooms are used for different events over a specific time period and need to be rearranged, both physically and acoustically, every few weeks," says Dicroic's proje

Germany - At the beginning of March 2009, the 100,000th Dynacord PowerMate was delivered.

In the mid 1990s, Dynacord presented the first generation of the powered mixer, PowerMate. Unlike conventional all-in-one solutions, the PowerMate was designed to exhibit no compromises whatsoever. "Our mission was clear," says Josef Taffner, who as developer played an important role in shaping the design and history of the PowerMate. "We wanted to offer the discerning musician a compact system capable of being used intuitively at the highest performance level.

"Almost all the engineers and technicians in the PowerMate development team are musicians themselves. We knew from our own experience what qualities, in an ideal world, a power mixer ought to possess and were also able to meet the requirements of our customers in a logical way."

The PowerMate was intended

UK - Landmark London venue The Scala, has upgraded its front-of-house console, replacing its old mixing desk with a new 32-channel Soundcraft MH3 analogue, multi-mode console.

The board was specified by the venue's experienced head of sound, George Gregori, on recommendation from Soundcraft dealer, Pete Brotzman of Crystal Pro Audio, who provided the venue with much of its audio support.

The desk is also used by day to run live sound training courses run by Gregori for his company Live Sound Courses. With many alumni having progressed to great achievements in the professional world of live sound mixing, he believes that the physicality of the analogue surface is much more forgiving than the digital equivalents.

"The MH3 is perfect for our needs - unlike our previous desk which was being repaired so often that it became uneconomical to maintain," observes Gregori.

Macau - Having renovated the small auditorium at the Macao Cultural Centre in 2006 with an ARCS system, L-Acoustics' Chinese distributor, Rightway Audio has now installed a new Kudo Line Source System into the venue's Grand Auditorium. One of the first theatre systems to be installed in South East Asia, it will primarily be used for classical and orchestral concerts and was supplied by Rightway to systems integrator, J K Brothers Audio Engineering Co.

The Grand Auditorium, a two-storey space with a capacity of 1,114, has been installed with 18 Kudo cabinets configured in three equal hangs at left, centre and right positions. These are supplemented with four SB28 subwoofers which can be positioned as required, four 115XT HiQ monitors for front-fill, four 112P self-powered stage monitors and four 8XT compact oaxial as rear surround. This system is driven by 10 LA8 and two LA4 ampl

Indonesia - The Music Républicain Performance Hall is a part of Music Républicain, the new school for music and image founded by Ivonne Atmojo and Ivana Atmojo in August 2008. Located in South Jakarta, Indonesia, the Music Républicain Performance Hall is a multi-purpose facility, which can be used for different settings including small ensemble, orchestra, theatre, opera, Broadway show and music concert. The Performance Hall was completed at the end of 2008 and is now open for public events. With an area of 126sq.m, it has a seating capacity of 140.

Ivonne Atmojo, the owner, said that there are not many performance halls in Indonesia that have good acoustics. At the end of 2007, she and Hadi Sumoro, a member of Community Professional Loudspeaker's Technical Application Group (TAG), worked together planning the school's performance hall. Her main concern was

UK - Orbital Sound reports that its annual Sound Fundamentals Training Course for theatre sound technicians was fully subscribed, with 24 students attending, from 14-17 April. Now in its eighth year, the course was held at Orbital's purpose-built 225m2 seminar facility in Brixton, south London, presenting students with the full range of technical disciplines across show control, radio microphones, video, communications and networking.

Tutored by Orbital's training manager Theo Holloway, the course is designed to combine theatre sound theory with extensive hands-on practice.

"A technical career in theatre sound requires a broad range of skills, from understanding the specialist technologies to the interpersonal qualities required in a tightly-knit team environment," says Holloway. "This year has probably been the most successful course to date - we had a great bu

UK - Live performers looking for a compact and cost-effective route to recording their shows are increasingly turning to RSS, and its implementation of the Cakewalk Sonar recording software as part of the M-400 V-Mixing System.

At opposite ends of the UK, and indeed opposite ends of the musical spectrum, two artists have recently been using the RSS V-Mixing digital 40-track package to record concerts, one for a live album release later in the year and the other for archive purposes. Both AC/DC tribute band Live/Wire and Sheila Jordan, one of the stars of the Sage Gateshead International Jazz Festival, were using RSS digital audio technology to provide front-of-house and stage sound control for their shows.

The 'grandmother of bebop', Sheila Jordan is still performing in her eighties. For her concert at the Sage Centre in Gateshead, Simon Kenning from RSS was on hand to support

UK - The Curve Theatre in Leicester's visuals may have grabbed the media headlines, but the venue's audio virtues are just as impressive. These include eight Yamaha mixing consoles and two digital mix engines. A vast amount of planning went into every facet of the venue, with Capital Project Director Graham Lister bringing together a wide variety of specialists in an 'end user consultation team' to ensure that every department offered the optimum end product for the theatre's most important users - the ticket-buying public.

Ben Harrison and John Owens were two high profile names invited to the committee to oversee the design of the audio systems.

"The brief was that the sound equipment had to be state of the art and able to cater for every kind of production that Curve might be likely to stage, with minimal extra hire costs," says Harrison. "We knew the producti

Australia - Enttec has announced the release of its new MIDIwing control software. MIDIwing, in conjunction with Enttec's already well-established playback, shortcut, and programming wings, gives users the ability to define midi note or ASCII triggers for any lighting or media control device that will listen to the protocol.

The software, which uses TCP network packets to send midi notes over an Ethernet based network, can trigger up to 408 unique commands through a maximum of six wings, which can each handle between 54 and 68 individual single note triggers. The software is also capable of easily importing or exporting any of the wing configurations, and running quietly in the background processes of the PC.

MIDIwing's user customisable nature allows for endless adaptation to countless controllers. The programme can be successfully integrated with many widely used lighting co

Argentina - Even after 18 years as a band and nine albums, the Babasonicos are still hungry. "We will never be satisfied to rest on our achievements," says the band's frontman Adrián Dárgelos, "because it is in our very nature to continually subvert and change the panorama of what is understood as music."

Mucho, the band's latest album, brings expression of the band's latest evolutionary steps into sharp focus with a selection of songs mixed in London by Phil Brown of Roxy Music fame. "Phil has always been a mythical rock-god engineer to us," Dárgelos says. "Given our rock en espanol budget, we didn't think there was much chance of us ever working with him, however. That's why we were stunned after we sent him a disc of some of our songs, and he accepted to do Mucho right away."

Bringing the songs of Mucho to Baba

USA - The Music Technology programme at Ball State University has installed an Aviom Pro16 Monitor Mixing System in its Studio 2 that is identical to its existing system in Studio 1. The university's programme provides hands-on experience in audio production, digital music technology and music creation. A Music Business track will be introduced in autumn of 2009.

The Aviom gear is an incremental upgrade to the university's current headphone distribution system and according to the programme's audio/digital systems engineer, Jeff Seitz, has proven to be flawless.

"The theory and application of recording is taught in the recording classes," says Seitz. "Learning to do a headphone mix is certainly part of the process. I chose Aviom for our studios because of its technical specification and ease of use."

(Jim Evans)

India - Outdoor concert goers were recently entertained in Delhi by touring French song and dance troupe Breizh Side Soriou. The 47-member troupe performed through a Soundcraft Si3 digital console and PA company, Dhawan Electrical of Delhi, also supplied a JBL loudspeaker rig comprising VRX932LA compact arrays and SRX 728S subwoofers powered by Crown IT4000 amplification. The onstage monitor system included JBL SRX 712M's with JBL SRX 725's in use for side fill coverage.

Yogesh Dhawan, director of Dhawan Electrical comments, "The troupe's French FOH Engineer, Paul Schneiter, found the Si3 to be very user-friendly and he quickly learned the board's features and was very comfortable mixing in no time. By the time we finished the one-hour sound check, he was very familiar with the entire desk and its features."

Dhawan added, "The Si3 easily managed the 18 mic input

Jamaica - Cloudy skies and occasional drizzle did little to dampen spirits at this year's Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, as legions of music lovers descended on Rose Hall, a historic, 7,000-acre north coast plantation, to see and hear performers ranging from Lionel Richie and Estelle to the O'Jays and Maxi Priest.

With nine acts scheduled for the first night and seven each thereafter over the course of the festival's three days, production manager Robert Stewart reached out to veteran sound engineer Raphael "Raffie" Alkins to take the festival to a different level and help solve the logistical dilemma of managing so many performances in such a short span of time.

"This was an easy one," Alkins notes, recalling the hectic days on the laid-back island leading up to the event. "I showed the team a flow chart I designed for the show and how to make it ha

Egypt - The Cairo Opera House houses seven different stages and forms an umbrella organisation beneath which the city's music and dance companies, art galleries, museums, and training programmes can flourish. In addition to the high-calibre indoor events that have helped make the venue internationally famous, the organisers are now set to offer a programme of outdoor events, for which purpose they have invested heavily in systems from Electro-Voice from Egyptian partner Alpha Audio.

The core of the new system comprises an Electro-Voice XLC rig, which includes eighteen XLC127DVX loudspeakers and eight XLC215 subwoofers. These are complemented by eight PX1122M, four QRx153/75 enclosures, and two QRx218S subwoofers. The system, which is equally suitable for the reproduction of music and the spoken word, is driven by nineteen TG5 amplifiers. The order placed with Alpha Audio include

Brazil - Nearly 300 audio professionals from the world of broadcasting, live audio, and audio rental came together on 25 March for the long-anticipated Brazilian launch of the Midas PRO6.

Organised by Bosch's Communications Systems Division, its Brazilian distributor TelePonto, and regional dealer Vitoria-Som, the launch was held at Vila Country, a 12,000sq.m, western-themed complex with dance floors, saloons, shops, and space for livestock auctions. Vila Country is also outfitted head-to-toe with audio equipment from Electro-Voice, effectively making it Brazil's largest EV showroom.

"Having raised the bar with the flagship XL8 system, the introduction of the PRO6 brings Midas digital technology to a more compact size and accessible price point," says Robert Klesser, sales manager, Brazil, Bosch Security Systems communications systems division: "There has been a

UK - National Geographic's flagship store in London's Regents Street is more than just a traditional retail experience. Interactive zones across the store's three floors represent each continent of the world - and Ecler amplification, distributed in the UK by MilTec, was central to the realisation of the final soundscape.

The world zones are themed retail areas that work separately from each other at certain times, hosting continent-specific events.

A total of 17 Ecler MPA6-150R multi-channel amplifiers, specified and installed by Peter Knowles, are zoned to enable each retail area to emanate its signature sounds. For special events, or to create extra interest in an area, a sales assistant has the ability to alter the levels of the amplifiers in their zone, from either a cash desk area or point-of-sale.

Knowles explains, "There were several reasons for using the Ecler

UK - The London stage production of Mamma Mia! has just entered its eleventh year. And to celebrate, Sennheiser has added some extra sparkle to the proceedings.

The production has used Sennheiser G2 SKM5000 wireless microphones for the 'three Dynamos' closing performances since the outset of the production, but to celebrate the show's 10th anniversary, Sennheiser created a set of specially made 'blinged' microphones.

Using the same Swarovski crystals used in the production's lycra stage outfits, Autograph Sound helped swap the microphone's bodies and cages allowing Sennheiser to create the special sparkling look.

"We're delighted with the new look microphones. We use the SKM5000 (with Neumann KMS105 heads) for eight shows a week. They sound fantastic, are very reliable and really fit in with the spirit of the show." says Mamma Mia!, head of sound, Fab

USA - Radian Audio Engineering has expanded its sales team with the appointment of Keith Klawitter. He will assume responsibilities for Western Regional Sales working out of the company headquarters in Orange, California beginning 1 May.

Klawitter has a long career in the audio industry stretching back over more than 20 years. He is best known as the founder and president of high-end speaker design and manufacturing company KRK Systems, which he established in Huntington Beach, California in 1986. He remained with the company as chief consultant for five years after Stanton Magnetics acquired the name and assets in 2000.

(Jim Evans)

Canada - Celebrating its 21st year, the 2009 East Coast Music Awards, Festival and Conference saw many leading artists and industry figures come together in Corner Brook, Newfoundland & Labrador, for a four day conference and celebration of Canada's East Coast music scene.

Taking place on the evening of 1 March, the highlight of the event was the annual East Coast Music Awards ceremony, which saw live performances and video clips interspersing the presentation of awards in 31 categories - ranging from DVD of the Year through to Aboriginal Recording Of The Year.

With a complex, two stage production to mix the sound for, DiGiCo consoles were chosen to ensure that everything ran seamlessly on the night. Supplied by Nova Scotia-based Tour Tech East, a D1 was used at monitors, while front of house engineer David W. Hillier manned an SD7 console.

The event comprised 17 live perfor

UK - Orbital Sound will be showcasing its broad range of products and services at the ABTT Theatre Show 2009 (10-11 June, Royal Horticultural Halls, London), and will be highlighting the latest version of the CSC Show Control Software from CTR Electronics.

Orbital will also be showing digital wireless microphone systems from Zaxcom, including the TRX900 stereo-capable transmitter and the new QRX100 4-channel receiver, plus HME's recently-launched DX121 one-to-one digital wireless intercom. This can be plugged into a standard intercom station or belt-pack headset jack, or connected to a matrix intercom system, to enable wireless intercom links of up to 300 metres to be established quickly and easily.

Completing Orbital's product line-up will be loudspeakers systems from d&b audiotechnik, including the new T-Series.

Chris Headlam, managing director of Orbital Sound, comments,

Argentina - More than 35.000 people enjoyed Peter Gabriel's concert at Velez Sarsfield Club Stadium in Buenos Aires on 22 March where Buenos Aires Live Show provided the sound system, stage sets, lights and video facilities.

Powersoft amplifiers K10, K8 and K6 powered the entire sound system with a main L/R of 14 JBL Vertec VT 4889-1, the out-fill with 12 JBL Vertec VT4889-1 per side plus several VCA Sub Low 2x21 subwoofers.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Northside Christian Church of Spring, Texas, recently installed a new sound system featuring loudspeakers and subwoofers from EAW. The installation was completed in March 2009, with final system commissioning on 28 March as part of the development of the church's new worship facility.

Vance Breshears and Kelly Dunlop of El Cajon, California-based Sound Technology Consultants were the A/V and lighting design consultants for the project, and the A/V installation contractor was David Hairel and a team from Hairel Enterprises of Conroe, Texas. The church's team included music director Jeremi Carnes and mix engineer Jose Barni. Other key individuals included Bruce Green from Irvine, California-based Visioneering Studios who served as design architect for the new facility, and Kirk Guillory from Columbia, Maryland-based Waldon Studio who was the project architect.

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