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Eire - Cloud Electronics has confirmed Dublin-based Sound Productions as its distributor for Ireland.

The announcement follows a number of similar distribution appointments made by Cloud over the last year. The manufacturer says it is preparing a solid and proactive distribution network across the globe in preparation for new niche, high quality, commercial audio systems from the Cloud brand, as well as updated lines, all to be available in the near future.

Derek McGlynn, Sound Productions MD, commented: "Cloud has an enviable reputation in the contractor market and we are extremely pleased that Sound Productions has been chosen as the distributor for Ireland."

The appointment begins on 1 September 2009 and will be heralded with a Cloud dealer day, to be held on 3 September at the Clarion Hotel, Dublin.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Cirrus Research has introduced a new matt black version of its doseBadge personal noise dosemeter, designed specifically for companies looking for an inconspicuous way to measure personal noise levels.

Demand for doseBadges from the entertainment sector is high, says the company, due to the Updated Noise at Work regulations, which came into force in 2008. Under these regulations, employers in the entertainment industry are now required to manage the risk to their employees caused by excessive noise.

Apart from the entertainment sector, the new black doseBadge has also found favour with security companies, the police force and the emergency services, but is suitable for any application where a less visible personal noise measurement solution is needed.

"The doseBadge has proved really popular with musicians and orchestras, but because it is silver it shows up when i

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UK - Launching on 3rd September, the 2009 100 Hours of Carbon Clean up Campaign will give organisations another chance to sign up and take part in carbon saving activities.

The campaign is open to companies from all sectors who want to reduce the amount of carbon emitted from their buildings and to motivate fellow employees to get involved. In return, participants will be able to access an extensive list of carbon saving activities and expert advice.

This is the fourth Carbon Clean Up Campaign run by CIBSE - last year's campaign saw around 600 organisations sign up to cut carbon, including hospitals, museums, consultancies, local authorities and universities. Buildings already signed up for the 2009 campaign include Tate Britain and the Science Museum.

Mike Simpson, CIBSE President, said: "We are now in the fourth year of Carbon Clean up Campaigns and enthusiasm

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France - The opening night of the annual Jules Verne Film Festival was held at the Grand Rex cinema in Paris this year, with the theme Space Conquest. Many of France's top astronauts attended the gala to pay homage to the guest of honour, Buzz Aldrin, and FOH audio was managed by an Allen & Heath digital iLive system.

A documentary film about Aldrin and Armstrong's lunar conquest was projected on a large screen, accompanied by a specially-commissioned live orchestral soundtrack called A Symphonic Voyage to the Moon written and directed by Emmy Award-winning composer, John Scott, who wrote soundtracks for blockbusters including King Kong and The Saint.

The festival's technical audio manager, Serge Babkine, chose an iLive system, comprising an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-144 Control Surface, to mix and record the score that was performed on the nig

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UK - XTA Electronics has announced the diversification of its product portfolio with the arrival at PLASA 2009 of its first installation product, the DC1048 integrated audio management system.

24 bit high-end converters coupled with 96k sample rate, ensure a bandwidth in excess of 30kHz and a dynamic range of over 112dB.

With its four inputs and eight outputs all electronically balanced on three-pin Phoenix connectors, the DC1048 also has GPIO interface built in along with the USB easy access front panel connector and RS485 networking.

Sound quality is assured through the heritage of the 4 Series processing platform and the use of high resolution, high sample rate audio converters.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Bosch Security Systems Communications Systems Division has announced that its RTS Intercom west coast regional office in Burbank, Cal. is being consolidated into its Burnsville, Minn. headquarters.

Effective 23 August 2009, this move is in step with both the recent restructuring of the division's sales organisation and the continued expansion of its training programme into larger, better-equipped facilities.

Burnsville is also home base for the Division's Bosch Conferencing & Public Address, Electro-Voice, and Telex brands.

Bosch Security Systems also offers training at facilities across the US, including locations in California, Georgia, Indiana, New York, Ontario, and Pennsylvania. The Burnsville facility will serve as the location for the Communications Systems Division's largest training seminars.

"Our focus on maximizing value for our customers shapes every

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USA - Meyer Sound has announced its international education schedule for August to October 2009, with seminars to be held in Mexico City; Toronto; Los Angeles; Montabaur, Germany; Seville and Madrid, Spain; Duivendrecht, Netherlands; and Osimo Stazione, Italy. Some seminars will be taught in the local languages, including Spanish and German, and others will be interpreted by qualified translators.

Meyer Sound's education programme emphasis the science of audio and practice in live sound applications. The seminars will cover core audio principles encompassing sound system design and alignment, line array theory, equalisation, delay and acoustical prediction with MAPP Online Pro. Other courses explore system measurement and optimisation, FFT analysis, filters and phase relationships at an advanced level with practical reference to the use of Meyer Sound's SIM 3 audio analyser.

L

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USA - Harman Professional has announced the appointment of Hi-Tech Audio Systems as the authorised distributor for India. According to Harman Professional regional sales director Sushil S. John, this move "underscores Harman Professional's commitment to evolving and improving its service of the professional audio community in India".

Headquartered in New Dehli with satellite offices in Noida and resident engineers based regionally throughout India, Hi-Tech Audio Systems was established in 1990 by PK Gupta, director and Rajan Gupta, director. Hi-Tech Audio Systems' team of 65 engineers and executives is highly experienced in the Indian professional audio market, having led many major fixed installs, live sound and recording and broadcast projects and also having previously served a host of other leading manufacturers.

"As India's creative community continues to e

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UK - The Big Chill festival continues to pioneer the integration of visual arts with live performance, attracting some of the world's best visual acts to the Herefordshire fields to create the special visual presence that has become one of the event's key trademarks.

All the video requirements of the festival, including system design, production, and VJ programming, are concentrated in the hands of creative services resource company As Described Ltd, run by Adam Seaman and Jim Horsfield. Both men are enthusiastic supporters of the professional video mixers and samplers from Edirol by Roland, and chose the V-8 8-channel mixers as the front-of-house standard mix kit for all the main performance venues, including the principal outdoor stages.

The 2009 Big Chilll proposition draws in visual artists such as D-Fuse, Labmeta, Flicker, Bob Jaroc, Myogenic, Mowgli, Visual

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UK - Building on the success of its S6000 range, Trantec is launching its new S6 Wireless System, taking the 19" eight-channel concept to a higher level.

The rack-mounted S6 receiver comprises eight receiver modules, internal antenna distribution, headphone monitor, and USB connectivity - and now incorporates a comprehensive user interface on the front panel allowing the user to configure and monitor all channels, with or without an external PC.

When used in standalone mode the operator can modify frequencies, user names, and mute levels. RF levels, AF levels and battery status can be viewed and individual audio channels can be monitored through the headphone output. The frequency set can also be downloaded to the transmitters via an infrared port. Under PC control the system can be monitored remotely giving the additional functionality of RF walk tests, and RF spectral

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Germany - Mainz-based integration firm BFE Studio und Medien Systeme has specified Renkus-Heinz Iconyx IC16 arrays as part of extensive presentation, sound reinforcement and conference facilities in three new buildings on Campus Westend of the Frankfurt University in Germany.

The Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main is among Germany's foremost educational establishments, with ambitions to be one of Europe's leading universities. Its current renovation and expansion plan on the Westend Campus site will take the total capacity of the campus from 10,000 students currently to around 45,000 by 2014.

Three new buildings, the House of Finance, the Rechts-und Wirtschaftswissenschaften (Law and economics) building and the Hörzaalzentrum (centre) have been completed and equipped with AV systems designed by Datech consulting's Detlef Hartmann and installed, following a

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Spain - SoundMan-Server has been recently installed by Kontrolcla in L'Auditori, a 42,000sq.m auditorium designed by the architect Rafael Moneo in Barcelona. L'Auditori" includes three auditorium halls, a museum as well as a music academy. A fourth hall will open within the next few months.

With more than a thousand events last year, the auditorium has decided to invest in a modern sound and show control system. SoundMan-Server, controlled by Medialon's Show and Media Control system has been installed by Kontrolcla Show Control in the auditorium's halls.

One Medialon Manager Pro license is used for the Stage Managers to control all the audio paging system and service lighting.

One Soundman-Server license, one Peavey MediaMatrix, eight DMX512 transceivers and one KissBox I/O box are connected with Medialon Manager via TCP/IP across the new optic fibre building network.

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Italy - The Protomoteca and Small Protomoteca are premises within the Capitol in Rome displaying priceless collections of antique sculptures. However, thanks to their prime location, they are not exclusively reserved for art exhibitions but as venues for prestige events. Thus, installing a quality sound system was a key priority when the two halls were recently renovated. The installation was entrusted to Rome-based specialists Video Company Multimedia, who worked closely with Cross-Point, the technology and design department of Texim.

The installation proved a complex task due to the tricky acoustics of both halls, which feature ancient stone walls and marble floors; the reverberation time in each was so extensive that it seemed any intelligibility would be impossible. With the help of multiple EASE simulations, the team was able to devise a solution that is not only tailored p

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Estonia - Over 1000 Tannoy loudspeakers have recently been installed in Estonia's newest upmarket hotel development. A range of CVS in-ceiling speakers and Designer Install surface-mount speakers have been specified throughout the Meriton Conference and Spa Hotel in Tallinn as part of a comprehensive audio system that also includes Biamp amplification and DSP.

An elegant and modern addition to Tallinn's cityscape, the Meriton, which opened in May 2009, is located at the heart of the Estonian capital, close to the Old Town and the Parliament. The hotel has 301 guestrooms and the hotel's ace card is its combination of modern luxury in the shape of fine dining and health spa along with cutting edge business facilities.

A total of seven flexible conference rooms are furnished with the latest AV equipment including Sanyo 4500 ANSI XGA projectors, CommTec video matrices and Tannoy's

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UK - All the team at PLASA and PLASA Media is saddened to hear of the death at the weekend of David Hopkins OBE, following a long fight against bowel cancer. He was 73. A well-known figure in the commercial audio marketplace, David was CEO of Stockport-based ADS Worldwide. He was also a long-standing member of the Institute for Sound & Communications Engineers (ISCE) and the longest-serving member of the Executive Committee of PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association).

David first joined the PLASA Executive Committee in January 1995 following the merger with the Sound & Communication Industries Federation (SCIF): he was then elected for a three-year term from January 1996 onwards, and re-elected at every occasion since, serving as chairman of the Association in 2003, as well as holding the posts of vice-chair (1996-97, 1999) and treasurer (1998-99, 2005-2009).

Ma

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Denmark - SoundMan-Server has recently been installed in The Worker's Museum, also called Arbejdermuseet, in Copenhagen to manage audio playback and distribution. This museum is dedicated to the history of the Danish worker movement starting from the mid-19th century.

SoundMan-Server and Medialon have been selected as the main sound and show control system for the Industry worker exhibition section of the museum. The exhibition was designed by Blekksprut AS who contracted Multitekst Ltd to integrate SoundMan-Server and Medialon.

The exhibition starts in an introductory room where a seven-minute long HD movie with historical facts is displayed on a 42" LCD monitor. A Danish and English version is available. The language option and movie play can be selected by the visitors themselves. After the introductory room, visitors go through several exhibition rooms. In a co

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UK - PLASA Connect, the new business contact initiative set to run at this year's PLASA Show (13-16 September, Earls Court, London), has gained the support and sponsorship of Supply2Gov. The only official government lower-value contract opportunity portal, Supply2Gov was created in June 2006, specifically to provide small businesses with information on public sector contract opportunities - typically below £100,000.

The support of Supply2.gov.uk underlines PLASA09's role as a focus for business within the sector. Supply2Gov is the first major initiative to unite both buyers and suppliers in a single location, making it easier for business and government to work together. Suppliers can access UK-wide contracts for free via an online Contract Search, and can also sign up for a daily e-mail alert.Since its launch, the portal has provided small businesses throughout the UK wit

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Japan - In the mahogany earthiness and mirrored elegance of its decor, the Cotton Club of Tokyo echoes its New York namesake, the celebrated Harlem venue revered in memory as the premier showcase of America's jazz age. A fusion of a restaurant, nightclub, and live performance venue, Japan's Cotton Club reaches beyond jazz to embrace essentially all Western popular music styles, which are reinforced through a self-powered Meyer Sound Mica line array loudspeaker system.

According to the Cotton Club's sound engineer, Taro Moriyama, selection of the Meyer Sound system was based in large part by the venue's eclectic musical fare. "Our stage hosts an incredibly wide variety of music, and we've found that Meyer Sound loudspeakers work well with any musical style because they don't colour the sound."

A quick sampling of acts that have graced the Cotton Club stage includes ja

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USA - The build team for popular US television show Mythbusters- Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara - visited Meyer Sound's Berkeley headquarters as part of their quest to verify the claim that a Russian-made SKS rifle could be set off by the vibration of a high-powered subwoofer.

Mythbustersoften calls on Meyer Sound when it comes to investigating audio-related myths. The show, which features a team of five special effects and science experts who put some of the most outrageous urban legends to the test, has turned to Meyer Sound to prove or debunk such popular claims as a duck's quack not echoing, the human voice breaking glass, or the existence of the dreaded 'Brown Note'.

While the Brown Note episode called for modifying electronics to accept frequencies well below the normal operating range, this time the test involved four of Meyer Sound's 600-HP co

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UK - For the past five years, FOH Kyle Chirnside has been manning the controls for Fall Out Boy, and the Midas PRO6 is Chirnside's console of choice for the band's current world tour.

"I've always been a Midas guy," states Chirnside. "Whenever I had a choice, I would have my XL4. But then I had the chance to test drive the XL8." That opportunity came with an invitation to visit Metallica FOH engineer Big Mick Hughes during preparations for Fall Out Boy's autumn 2008 tour of the UK and Europe. "We were at his house, sitting around mixing Metallica tunes on the XL8, which was huge for me. I fell in love with the console. So when I heard Midas was developing a smaller, more affordable digital desk, I was totally into it."

Clair Global supplied a PRO6 for Fall Out Boy's spring US tour, which featured four support acts. "Even with five bands, we o

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UK - The church of St. Mary Bredin in Canterbury has had an eventful existence. Over the centuries the congregation has seen many physical changes to their place of worship, but the latest building project has seen some of the biggest improvements yet, including the installation of an Alcons audio system.

Originally founded in Saxon times, by the late 1800s the church of St Mary Bredin was an imposing and ornate Victorian building. In 1942 it was destroyed by a Luftwaffe air raid which devastated much of Canterbury and it wasn't until 1957 that a replacement church was constructed on a new site around half a mile away.

Happily the 1957 building is still standing firm and, unlike many churches, its congregation has seen steady growth in recent years. In 2008/09 the church undertook its latest building project, which involved making major changes to the main body of the building

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UK - A number of prominent British acts are using the new Sennheiser ew 500 G3 wireless receiver, paired with new SKM 935 and SKM 945 microphones, says the company.

"When we heard that a new product was on the way we were eagerly waiting for it," says Jon Burton, front of house engineer for The Prodigy, one of the first professionals to receive an ew 500 G3 and the new SKM 935 mics. "And once G3 arrived it exceeded our expectations.

"Our ease of setting up each day has been greatly improved. Even if we have to reassign all the frequencies at the drop of a hat we can do so in minutes using the infrared sync system. Using it has proved to be very intuitive. Very handy as monitor engineer Joe Campbell and I both have a casual disregard for manuals.

Dave Mcdonald, front of house engineer for Florence and the Machine has been impressed by the audio quality of

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UK - Now approaching its 30th year, Nottingham-based Rock City - originally set up by director George Akins, and today among the UK's longest-surviving independent venues - has commissioned a new sound and lighting infrastructure.

To keep pace with modern tour riders, and the growing move by the medium-sized venue market to offer bands the opportunity to leave their production in the truck, visiting sound engineers can now mix their acts through Soundcraft 64-channel Vi6 at front-of-house and 48-channel Vi4 at the monitor position.

The desks were chosen by the venue's technical manager Dave McVea, and installed by the SSE Audio Group installation project team, led by Alex Penn and Steve Dando.

Rock City is owned by DHP (Daybrook House Promotions) who went through a long process of consideration before it made its final choice of an audio supplier. Managing director David Dav

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USA - The Sacred Heart Church, in Springfield, Massachusetts has replaced its old distributed audio system with a single pair of Renkus-Heinz ICONYX Digitally Steerable Array loudspeakers as part of a complete audio refit.

The visually stunning, beautifully renovated, interior is highly acoustically reverberant, and the basic problem that parishioners in the 1,200-seat space found eulogies and sermons hard to follow was compounded by the occasional intrusion of a local radio station through the church's sound system.

Ten loudspeakers, two flown over the congregation, eight more arranged along the walls, served the seating area that stretches back in a T shape to 102ft from the altar, varying in width from 92ft to 108ft across and measuring 80ft high, with intervening stone columns - driven from a rack full of equipment that produced, said Richard G. O'Connell, principal of int

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