USA - Bosch's Communications Systems Division has partnered with the NSCA Education Foundation to establish the Monte Wise Scholarship, an ongoing scholarship named in fond remembrance of Monte Wise - "one of the pro audio industry's great personalities and mentors" - who passed away on 30 September 2009. Monte was systems applications specialist, pro sound, for Bosch's Communications Systems Division.

"Monte touched many lives over the course of an exceptional career," says Daniel Nix, VP of sales, Americas, for Bosch's Communications Systems Division. "He was a mentor to many, and helped take hundreds of individuals and companies to the next level with education and technology. We were humbled by the amount of inquiries we received in the wake of his passing, from friends and colleagues asking 'Is there anything we can do?'

"The creation of the

USA - FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the international governing body of football, announced yesterday the appointment of producer Kevin Wall and his company Control Room as executive producer of the Official Kick-Off Celebration Concert of the 20100 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

Kicking off the FIFA World Cup on 10 June 2010 at the newly-renovated Orlando Stadium in Soweto/Johannesburg, this historic three-hour live concert event will showcase the music, sport and visual pageantry of South Africa. The event will feature musical performances by major international superstars and popular African artists collaborating together, along with special appearances by past and present football legends, and will be broadcast to networks around the world. All net proceeds will benefit 20 Centres for 2010, the official campaign of the 20

UK - An RSS M-400 48-channel digital console, complete with Digital Snake, and Cakewalk Sonar and REAC software, has been used to record a live album for up-and-coming indie rockers The Joy Formidable.

Backstage at north London's Garage venue, Roland Systems Group technical wizards Martin Thomas and Simon Kenning had good reason to admire the super-compact footprint of the RSS M-400 digital console, which enabled them to fit an entire live recording set-up as well as two engineers and a three-piece band into a 10'x 8' dressing room.

The RSS technology maintained a low profile in the club. The use of a single S-4000 Digital Snake stage box meant that the live recording team caused less than minimal disruption to the venue and the band's FOH engineer, yet was able to capture a live performance in 48kHz 24-bit broadcast-quality audio. Using the S-4000 Digital Snake 'standalone',

USA - Introduced at the AES Convention at the Javits Center in New York City this week, Laser-Accurate microphone transducer technology from Schwartz Engineering & Design (SED) "revolutionizes the concept of the microphone".

David Schwartz, president of SED and developer of Laser-Accurate technology, believes that existing microphone manufacturers will be best positioned to take microphones to the next level by combining the Laser-Accurate technology with their vast design and manufacturing experience.

"Rather than start my own company again to manufacture products based on this technology, I see the benefit in letting already established professional audio manufacturers license it and apply it to their own designs," says Schwartz, who founded CompuSonics in 1984 and grew it into a leading developer and manufacturer of digital audio workstations and digital

Belgium - Square Brussels, a new event space in the Belgian capital, recently purchased Studer Vista 5 and Vista 5 SR consoles as part of the sound reinforcement system for its auditorium. Belgium-based company Play, based in Nazareth, installed the consoles, which were purchased through Studer's Belgian representative HeynenNV.

Square Brussels offers 13,500sq.m of meeting rooms, exhibition space and a state-of-the-art auditorium. The venue is in the heart of Brussels and is located only 300m from the Royal Palace and next to the Museum of Arts and the Royal Library.

"The Studer Vista 5 and Vista 5 SR with its Vistonics interface are highly intuitive and very easy to use, which is perfect because during a live performance, the operator should be totally concerned with making the sound perfect as opposed to worrying about which button he is pressing," says Jos Jorisse

UK - Adlib has designed and installed an L-Acoustics dV-DOSC sound system into Manchester live music venue, Band on the Wall.

The landmark 350-capacity venue on Swan Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester's city centre has just been completely renovated, restored and reborn by registered charity Inner City Music with the help of a £4 million combined award from the Arts Council England, Manchester City Council and Lottery Heritage Fund to transform the venue into a 21st century centre of music with strong community ties.

The system was designed by Adlib's Roger Kirby who says: "We all agreed that dV-DOSC rig would work best in the space offering a detailed high frequency and solid low end response, with the system also having adequate headroom for the eclectic programme of live events that are planned."

The music will encompass a wide range of musical g

Ireland - An Outline system reinforced the proceedings at Dublin's Storehouse 13, St. James Gate that marked 250 years of production of Guinness. To commemorate the occasion, Storehouse 13, which is a large hop store, was converted for one night into a live stage and TV studio.

3,000 ticket-winning guests were entertained by Sir Tom Jones, Estelle, Dizzee Rascal and Kasabian. The sound system - supplied by Britannia Row - was Outline's Butterfly: 12 CDH 483s per hang plus six Subtech 218s, powered by Outline's T9 amplifiers and controlled via Dolby Lake processing.

(Jim Evans)

Russia - Moscow-based L-Acoustics rental network agent Spin Music provided sound reinforcement for The Greatest Voices of Russia which took place at Sobornaya Square in the Kremlin.

This special event featured the Russian national orchestra and leading singers Anna Netrebko, Paata Burchuladze, Julia Gertseva and Sergey Skorokhodov, who performed Russian classical music by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Bortniansky, Prokofiev and Kastalsky.

Two hangs of 12 Kudo line source array cabinets were used for the main sound system, with two stacks of Kiva ultra compact line source array units and Kilo low frequency extensions for side coverage. Two Kiva speakers were also deployed to cover the front rows. Six SB218 subwoofers per side were set up in cardioid configuration to reduce low-end bleed on stage.

"Working on a square surrounded by cathedrals is

USA - House of Blues, Nashville, a four-studio recording facility formerly known as East Iris Studios, recently installed a Solid State Logic Matrix console to act as the centrepiece of the newly renovated Studio C.

House of Blues has worked with everyone from Miley Cyrus, Indigo Girls and Kid Rock to Faith Hill, Amy Grant and Dolly Parton. The studio complex is split between two buildings with the main Studio A and Studio B reserved for larger tracking and mixing projects and with Studio C designed to attract smaller budget projects that will benefit from Matrix.

"We had an engineer in the other day who tracked his project in a large studio, and tried to mix entirely in the box in his private studio," says Mike Paragone, studio manager for House of Blues, Nashville. "When we started, we brought up just two channels through Matrix and he was blown away by the so

Germany - Loudspeaker manufacturer dBTechnologies reports that working directly with employed representatives is proving to be a successful distribution strategy in some territories, with Benelux & France paving the way, and more recently Spanish and UK markets adopting the approach.

UK sales over the past year have been managed by Dave Kelland, an industry stalwart who draws on many years' experience in the pro audio world, having worked with numerous PA companies and prior to that, as a freelance sound engineer.

Kelland's sales success, coupled with the release of the Opera Digital and DVX professional speaker series' this year has led to the appointment of Richard Soper, who joined the team on 1 October as area sales manager for the south of England.

"Richard's bright, confident demeanour and previous experience in a technical sales role at Amber Sound stands him in

India - Harman Professional held a training seminar with Hi-Tech Audio Systems Pvt in New Delhi last week. The conference, which was held from 1-3 October was the first in a series of training seminars that will be held throughout India and was comprised of lectures in theory technology and integration coupled with hands-on demos and project work groups.

Last week's seminar was organised by Harman Professional¹s distributor, Hi-Tech Audio Systems Pvt and included presentations by regional sales director Sushil S. John that focused on the release of upcoming Harman products. In attendance were all of the master state dealers, dealers, rental companies, and AV integration companies from the North of India, which totalled 75 people.

"The seminar in New Delhi was a great success," John said. "Not only were we able to showcase different products and review our compa

Germany - The Allianz Arena in Munich witnessed a much anticipated encounter of four world champion soccer teams competing for the Audi Cup 2009 - AC. Milan from Italy, Club Atlético Boca Juniors from Argentina, Manchester United from the UK and the winning home team, FC Bayern München. A celebration for the German auto manufacturer's 100th anniversary, the Audi Cup festivities included an appearance by singer Ronan Keating, and were delivered to 1,500 VIP guests in the arena's lounge with crystalline sound reinforcement from a self-powered Meyer Sound system.

Nürtingen-based Creative Technology (CT) Germany supplied and operated all audio, video, and lighting equipment for the two-story VIP area. The system included eight Meyer Sound M'elodie line array loudspeakers, two 600-HP subwoofers, and an assortment of UltraSeries loudspeakers, including 10 UPA-1P and 38 UPM-1P

UAE - After several years of growth in the region, Sennheiser has embarked on an ambitious expansion of its operations in the Middle East by establishing a new branch office in Dubai Airport Free Zone, headed up by Mig Cardamone, business area manager for the Middle East.

Sennheiser Middle East is a branch office of Sennheiser UK, long responsible for the distribution of all Sennheiser Group brands in the Middle East, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of parent company, Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co.

With a diverse portfolio of products, this step has been taken to facilitate better support of its existing dealer network, as well as expanding its distribution channels.

Responsibility also encompasses the distribution of all Sennheiser Group brands, including Neumann and Klein+Hummel, as well as distributed brands such as K-Array, NetCIRA and Rycote.

"This is a logi

The Netherlands - DPA Microphones presented its Distributor of the Year Award to German distributor Mega Audio at its annual distributor meeting, held during the recent IBC show in Amsterdam. In addition, the Danish manufacturer also presented Martin Goosen, from Dutch distributor Amptec, with a special Lifetime Achievement Award.

DPA has worked with Mega Audio for more than a decade, appointing them as exclusive distributor for Germany in 2004, a move which has seen turnover double in the region.

"Mega Audio have managed to increase their sales figures even during these financially difficult times," says DPA director of sales and marketing, Morten Stove. "We have a great working relationship with Mega and it grows stronger every day. We have high expectations and they are able to meet them. They have dedicated staff, and invest resources in marketing. Their de

USA - The third season of AMC's hit drama Mad Men premiered in New York's Times Square with sound reinforcement from Zeo Brothers (Hatboro, Penn.) and Electro-Voice.

Joe Moser and the Zeo Brothers team deployed a high-performance, compact EV system for the outdoor event, comprising eight XLD281 line array elements (FOH), four QRx218S subwoofers, six Sx250 (delays/mix monitors) and three Dx38 system processors.

"We set the EV system up to provide perfect coverage for the upper island (aka Duffy Island) in Times Square," says Moser, "and we only needed to use arrays of four XLD boxes per side, with a little support from the Sx250 delays. The system was the ideal supplement to the 10' x 18' video wall showing the premiere video. The concert-quality audio helped leave the audience captivated, and evoked thrilled and thankful responses from our client - it eve

Portugal - Top Portuguese artist Mariza has embarked on the worldwide Terra tour, named after her recent album. Returning to Portugal for a number of concerts, the singer made her entrance in Cascais on a sailing boat. This show marked the first time that Mariza's sound engineer, João Cebolas, worked with a Midas PRO6 live audio system. It was provided by local rental company Audiomatrix for all the Portuguese dates, having been recommended by the company's owner Jorge Pina.

Cebolas was only able to try the PRO6 for the first time the day before the show. "It's an intuitive system, with a magnificent work surface where all the pots, buttons and colours are revealed very distinctly, and everything is just a touch away," says Cebolas. "The LCD monitors are relatively large, with strong, vivid colours and high contrast, even when exposed to bright daylight. T

UK/World - FairTunes is a new charitable organisation dedicated to enhancing the lives of struggling communities in developing nations, through the power of music. The organisation's vision is "to mobilise local talent and empower musicians, artists by providing a platform to develop their creative potential".

FairTunes is a team of industry and technical experts with a simple idea - to target local communities in developing nations and build music studios and radio facilities in their neighbourhoods. They then train the community to use the facilities and continue to support them, until they are able to run the facilities themselves.

The charity also aims to apply the principles of fair trade to establish an online promotion and distribution facility for the music produced in the studios. This will "create a self sustaining cycle where artists will get paid for

USA - For an unprecedented 15 years, Crystal Cruises has been voted 'World's Best by Condé Nast Traveller magazine, and operates two top-rated luxury cruise liners - the 922-guest Crystal Symphony and the 1,070-guest Crystal Serenity. As part of a recent technical upgrade, Crystal Cruises has standardised on Innovason's Sy48 digital mixing consoles to be installed into the featured venue aboard both ships, the multi-purpose Galaxy Lounge.

Kyle Toth, entertainment technical director at Crystal Cruises explains, "We have the most extensive entertainment and educational programmes in the ultra-luxury cruise market and the Sy48 has become the backbone of our audio support for those programmes. We offer multimedia lectures, classical concerts, headline vocalists and instrumentalists, comedians and several full scale production shows. The most exciting application f

UK The Battle Proms are staged in the grounds of a number of stately homes throughout England over the summer and combine a classical concert and fireworks with military displays, including Napoleonic cavalry and infantry, a Second World War Spitfire and the ear-splitting accompaniment of around 200 cannons.

The 2009 season saw Battle Proms take in six concerts in July and August, with Yamaha Commercial Audio's digital systems manager Nick 'Biggles' Pemberton mixing the shows on an LS9-16 console with an SB168-ES digital stage box.

Audio supplier for the shows was Luton-based Concert Sound Clair, who supplied an EAW/Clair Bros/Showco front of house system, together with Schoeps microphones to get the best of the orchestral sound.

"It's actually a very simple setup," says Pembereton. "All audio processing is done within the LS9 and I have a laptop

UK - Schneider Electric has introduced Ulti Epic, a multimedia interface that combines multiple outlets into a one-panel solution, allowing modern technology to interface with television, projectors and audio systems.

The Ulti Epic is a compact unit suitable for high-end design residential installations, in addition to commercial applications such as hotels and boardrooms. The streamline solution groups together outlets that naturally complement each other so that equipment such as camcorders, DVD players, laptops and games consoles, including content from memory cards and memory sticks, can be run through a television. The outlets are installed on a media plate providing a neat alternative to individual sockets, while preventing damage to expensive equipment.

The Ulti Epic is a flexible product as it allows customers to configure the outlets on the panel to suit their individ

France - L-Acoustics has fully redesigned its website to offer improved navigation and more content information with a freshened-up visual appearance. This move coincides with the recent publication of the new L-Acoustics full line brochure. Behind the scenes, the website features a powerful and state-of the art database content management offering its visitors information in real-time.

The site boasts an enhanced layout both aesthetically and practically. The simplified navigation and quick access to information can be done with a minimum number of clicks. Drop-down menus with content preview and multi-tabbed product information and downloads "make the visit a breeze".

"Information on modern websites remains sometimes difficult to access despite the existence of many 'bells and whistles', animations and the like," says L-Acoustics marketing director St&eac

UK - The new Soundcraft Studer factory in Potters Bar, near London is virtually complete. Based on a $7 million investment the company made four years ago, the new factory extends the manufacturing floor space by more than 100 percent plus additional storage space. "It will be a fantastic facility for our sales teams and distributors to bring their customers to impress them with our technology and quality, said Andy Trott, president, Soundcraft Studer.

In addition to the OnAir 500, OnAir 2500 and Vista 5 SR, all of which have previously been manufactured in Potters Bar, the new factory will now produce all Studer Vista, Router and OnAir products. The company has already appointed 15 new production staff to cope with the additional production workload, with more to join before year end.

Additionally, a new customer centre will feature two large dedicated acceptance test ro

UAE - After several years of growth in the region, Sennheiser has embarked on an ambitious expansion of its operations in the Middle East by establishing a new branch office in Dubai Airport Free Zone, headed up by Mig Cardamone, business area manager for the Middle East.

Sennheiser Middle East is a branch office of Sennheiser UK Ltd, long responsible for the distribution of all Sennheiser Group brands in the Middle East, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of parent company, Sennheiser Electronic GmbH & Co.KG.

With a diverse portfolio of products, this step has been taken to facilitate better support of its existing dealer network, as well as expanding its distribution channels, say Sennheiser.

Key areas such as consumer headphones and multimedia headsets - an area in which Sennheiser has achieved significant success in Europe and the US in recent years - as well as cockpit

USA - An extensive Electro-Voice XLD line array loudspeaker installation has raised the bar for the James T. Jeremiah chapel sound at Cedarville University in Cedarville, near Columbus, Ohio. Designed by Todd Gathany and Jeff Sanderson of consultants Onpoint Designs and integrated by AGI Professional (Kelly Baum & Kyle Anderson), the system features 36 XLD281 line array elements (two 10-box main arrays & two eight-box side arrays), 12 XCS312 cardioid subwoofers and two NetMax N8000 processors.

Cedarville University's chapel auditorium was built in 1996 and originally featured main arrays and a delay ring from another manufacturer. Preaching and worship are a priority at the school, and the whole student body comes together each day in the chapel - audio is an essential element of the worship experience at Cedarville.

"The old system was installed back when the contemporar

Latest Issue. . .