Sound

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USA - Audio-Technica has become a Diamond Level Corporate Sponsor of the Cinema Audio Society (CAS). Audio-Technica has long been a strong presence in the markets the Cinema Audio Society serves - film sound, television sound, sound for documentaries and other produced programs - and A-T's shotgun microphones and lavalier microphones have been increasingly used in the production of numerous major events and programmes.

The Cinema Audio Society, now in its 47th year, is "dedicated to the advancement of sound". It consists of sound mixers and associates from the film and television industries. The Society was founded to create a proper channel of communication between the related sound crafts and between those instrumental to the production and distribution of film and television soundtracks. The Corporate Sponsorship programme allows the CAS to expand their awards progr

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France - The city of Orléans, some 130km south-west of Paris, is best known for being the city that was liberated from the English during the Hundred Years' War by Joan of Arc. To this day the city's inhabitants have continued to remain faithful and grateful to her, and the annual FΩtes de Jeanne d'Arc is held in honour of her victory.

Part of the programme this year, which included parades, medieval festivals, markets, concerts and exhibitions, was a late-night open-air DJ session which followed on from a spectacular son-et-lumiere show. Free entry and a stellar line-up including sets from Laurent Wolf, Greg Cerrone and Da Fresh guaranteed a big turn-out, and organisers weren't disappointed - over 21,000 revellers showed up to dance the night away.

AV rental company ACS, provided a powerful Uniline compact line array system from French loudspeaker company

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USA - The 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in southern California was once again an overwhelming success, drawing a record attendance of 225,000 people over a three-day span. At Coachella's Mojave Stage, Ian C. Charbonneau of Le Mobile Remote Recording relied on JBL LSR2328 studio monitors to mix a roster of top artists for live webcast.

During the Festival's three days, the Mojave Stage hosted performances by 30 acts, including Devo, Grizzly Bear, Imogen Heap, Julian Casablancas, Shooter Jennings and Les Claypool. In other words, rest was not an option for Charbonneau. "When you're mixing live from 10am to 1am for three days, it's a tough gig for the ears," Charbonneau said, "but it's such a great time doing it, especially when you love music and you love what you do."

Not only does the schedule itself pose a challenge, but Charbonneau

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Turkey - L- Acoustics' Turkish distributor Elit Light&Sound Technologies has assisted the Christian & Missionary Alliance of Canada hold its biannual assembly in Antalya, Turkey, providing the requisite PA system and manpower.

Usually held in Canada, the organisation's proposal to hold it in Turkey posed an interesting situation for Scott Murley and Mark Lasebnik, technical director and FOH engineer respectively, who have been supporting the C&MA Assembly for more than 16 years.

The five-day event includes business sessions, break-out seminars and evening plenary events incorporating a live band, on-stage choir, string section, spoken-word teaching, dramatic elements, pre-produced video, all requiring production equipment and staffing.

The C&MA's assemblies in Canada is known for its quality of production, especially audio, so it was deemed that Murley and Lasebnik find a Tu

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Hong Kong - Sa DingDing, a Grammy nominee and winner of the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award in 2008, performed two concerts at the Hong Kong Star Hall for the 38th Hong Kong Arts Festival. Shalom AV Technology provided a Meyer Sound Milo line array loudspeaker system for the event.

Named by The Times as the Asian Björk, Sa DingDing sings in Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Mandarin. By mixing traditional Chinese melodies and Buddhist prayers with electronic instruments, she has inspired many with a spiritual musicality reproduced by a Meyer Sound system.

"Milo was used because it not only provides the power we needed for the size of venue but also gives us the dynamics," states Roland Chan, concert engineer of Shalom AV Technology.

To cover 3,600 spectators in the four-level Star Hall measuring 30,000sq.ft, a Meyer Sound system with 16 Milo and four Milo 120 line array

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UK - The first Mic to Master training weekend of 2010 attracted an enthusiastic audience when it took place earlier this month at Deep Blue Sound in Plymouth.

More than 40 students, engineers and producers attended the two-day event, which was organised as a joint initiative by high end recording and broadcast equipment manufacturer Prism Sound/SADiE and JAMES, the education arm of the Music Producers Guild (MPG), the Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS), and the UK Screen Association.

Phil Harding, chairman of JAMES, said, "It was a fantastic weekend that attracted good support from the industry and delivered key insights into some very pertinent topics. Many of those who attended expressed their delight in being able to learn from professionals who were willing to share their expertise and impart some useful tricks of the trade."

Throughou

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UK - Occupying the former Neve premises in Litlington, Cambridgeshire, Absolute Professional Audio offers a wide range of sound demonstration, design, installation, commissioning and training services. At the heart of the company's premises is a state-of-the-art studio, where a Yamaha 02R96VCM is providing much-needed versatility.

The company moved to the new, larger Litlington premises from nearby Melbourn because of ongoing expansion. A major attraction of the new building was a studio featuring a live room and two edit suite/control rooms, which had seen very little use and was in immaculate condition.

"It was a fantastic opportunity to create a high quality demonstration and training facility and also to set up a cutting edge recording studio," says Absolute Pro Audio's Phil Darke. "The first thing I did when everything was wired up was to mic up the new Yam

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Italy/UK - Proel (International) has announced the UK launch of the Xenia range of Italian designed install loudspeakers for use in a wide range of environments where high quality sound needs to be complemented by a stylish, contemporary appearance.

The tough polypropylene housed Xenia series utilises high-definition soft dome tweeters and high-efficiency woofers providing superior audio quality and reliability, says the company. An important plus for installers is that the 3" and 5" models in the range, come with an innovative bracket design, designed to aid installation during building construction.

The Proel Xenia mounting system allows installers to attach the mounting bracket to the wall and fasten the cables into a connection at the rear, making Xenias suitable for installation during a first fix, when there is still dust being created and work going on in the

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China - Community Professional Loudspeakers and its Chinese distributor, Sanecore Audio, recently hosted the first SynAudCon seminar to be presented in China. Christine Howze, vice president of Community and a big advocate of SynAudCon's audio education seminars, approached SynAudCon in 2009 with the concept of presenting Audio Principles & Applications to audio professionals in China. With SynAudCon on board, the event and seminar logistics were coordinated by Howze, Sanecore's Chinese sales president Jun Zhu and SynAudCon owners Pat and Brenda Brown.

The two and a half day training was held at the IAG Club in Shenzhen. More than 50 participants, consisting of Sanecore audio engineers and audio professionals from all over China, enjoyed the presentations by Pat Brown. The course was offered in English with Chinese translation provided by Tao Zhang, a US based technical a

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Germany - Late during the evening of 17 May 2010, only a few days after his 98th birthday, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fritz Sennheiser, audio pioneer and founder of today's Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG, passed away. The audio industry has lost a huge figure, not only in terms of his technical expertise but also in terms of his humanity.

Through his company Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser had a crucial influence on the development of sound transmission technolo¬gies and was instrumental in forging many ground-breaking developments in electro¬acoustics and transmission technologies. Under his guidance the first shotgun microphones and open headphones were created and he oversaw important developments in wireless radio and infra-red transmission.

It was completely natural for Fritz Sennheiser to give his developers the "creative and technical freedom" they required. His humanit

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UK -The Trantec stand at The ABTT Theatre Show next month will focus for on the Channel 38 ready, 'Racked'n'Ready' systems - The S5.3 system, packed with a powerful set of features, offers "12 channels of pure value for money"; the S5.5, 24 channel system and the S4.16, an entry level 16-channel system.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The 2010 Classical BRIT Awards was broadcast live from Earls Court with a Midas XL8 handling front of house for the first time, provided by Britannia Row Productions. Sound designer and live sound coordinator Derrick Zieba specified the XL8 after using it for the 2010 BRIT Awards in January, demonstrating Midas digital mixing systems' rapid uptake for large televised events.

"This is a very exacting audience of industry professionals, who are used to hearing the best possible quality of recordings," says Zieba. "We wanted to match that quality, but also to lift their experience above that so that they know they're listening to a live orchestra. The XL8 does this imperceptibly; it effectively vanishes while delivering an incredibly complex mix to every corner.

"I've been doing the Classical BRITs here for six years, and the sound of

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UK - Concept Audio, a technical event supplier based on the South coast and specialising in large scale events, concerts & tours has recently acquired an Allen & Heath iLive console from LMC Audio Systems.

Danny Schurer, company director at Concept Audio, comments, "Having worked with most digital desks on the market, we felt that the Allen & Heath was the best value for money whilst being the most intuitive to use in the environments we were going to employ it in."

Currently providing technical production for the Warner's 2010 Strictly Come Dancing tour,

Concept Audio are using the iLive for this as well as various other projects during tour breaks, including the upcoming Madehurst Festival in Sussex. Martin Daley, sales manager at Allen & Heath, who visited Concept Audio personally to demo the iLive comments, "Danny and the team responded enthu

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New Zealand - Team Hybrid, a team of budding filmmakers, have used their DPA 4017mk2-R Shotgun Microphone at the regional finals of V48Hours, New Zealand's largest annual film contest.

Team Hybrid's boom operator, CJ Withey, recently purchased his 4017mk2-R from DPA's New Zealand distributor, Amber Technology NZ, taking advantage of the mic's new features. This includes improved RF immunity, a further reduction in perceived high frequency noise and low cut filter modification, with the lower -3 dB point changed from 300 to 120 Hz. Like its predecessor, the shotgun comes complete with a kit of Rycote weatherproof systems.

V48Hours attracts thousands of moviemakers, from experienced film directors to enthusiastic newcomers across New Zealand. This year, 700 teams pooled their talents to create a short film in just one weekend. Teams are assigned a genre at the star

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Portugal / Germany - During the recent visit of Pope Benedict XV1 to Portugal, approximately 220,000 people attended an open air mass held on 14 May in the northern city of Porto. Fohhn PT-9 Waveline line array and Linea Focus LF-220 electronically steerable loudspeaker systems were used to relay sound in the main stage and VIP areas during the mass.

In the large open space close to Porto's City Hall, two towers each with 12 PT-9 line array speakers were positioned approximately 30m from the sides of the main stage, providing coverage for between 60,000 and 80,000 people. In front of the stage, two Linea Focus LF-220 electronically controlled column speakers provided direct sound for approximately 1000 VIP guests. Such were the crowds that in neighbouring side streets additional loudspeakers were used to relay the mass to those unable to reach the main area.

Uli Haug, Fohhn Au

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Qatar - Creative Events, a major rental firm based in Doha, Qatar has acquired a fourth Midas console for their inventory. The company already boasts a Heritage 3000, Legend 3000 and a Verona. The new purchase is their first Midas digital console in the form of the PRO6.

"Creative Events already owns more than one digital console but this is their first Midas console that is digital," commented Richie Hiranandani, marketing manager. "After they were able to compare the audio quality from their inventory of digital consoles, the conclusion is that the Midas PRO6 is significantly superior."

(Jim Evans)

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Denmark - Hasseris Kirke in Aalborg, Denmark has an established reputation as a centre for re-invigorating the Protestant Church through music. "Our church is interested in developing new rhythmic music for services, so we invite composers from all over Europe to come and visit the church with their compositions," says Mogens Jensen, organist and musical director at Hasseris Kirke. "We are concerned with nurturing a creative environment. By finding new music through folk songs or contemporary composition we are creating music that relates to people today, making the path to church smaller, shorter, easier."

Smaller, shorter, easier is a suitable mantra for Jensen's path to achieving that special musical environment. "The church is barely 50 years old and is stone built in the traditional style for this part of Northern Jutland. I chose a d&b audiotechnik

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UK - With a stage set of neon strip lights and art deco lines, and a sound that harks back to the 80s, electronic pop duo, La Roux, have just completed their successful Gold Tour, taking in academy-sized venues around Europe, finishing in the UK. Forming part of their substantial audio system was a Sennheiser G3 500-945 radio mic and a complete G3 EW 300 in-ear system.

Front of House engineer, Dave Swallow, has been with the band for just over a year and has a long history of working with Sennheiser products. "Pretty much every tour I've ever been on has had Sennheiser product on it, so using it here was a natural choice," says Swallow. "I opted for this particular system because I've always liked the e 935 and e 945 mics. Using the SKM 500-945 on this tour, I found there are some lovely frequencies in the low end and you can really warm vocals up with them

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UK - The Fareham Folk Festival is one of the biggest events of its kind in the UK. For the last 15 years, Salisbury-based sales and rental company, MIDAS ProSound, has been supplying the sound system. This year, the company went for a complete change, from the main PA all the way through to the monitor system. The new package included two Eclipse consoles from Innovason, SMX15 stage monitors from APG and the VQ Live loudspeaker system from Tannoy.

According to MIDAS ProSound's Paul Nicholson (who also heads up the distribution company Red Square Audio) the event was a complete success. "We've been handling the audio for the Fareham Folk Festival for the last 15 years and we've always achieved great sound," noted Nicholson, "but this year was truly exceptional. In addition to our usual festival regulars who are always kind enough to comment on the gre

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UK - May's Camden Crawl saw over 200 acts perform along a two-mile stretch of the UK's most famous High Street. But the massive two-day event is not all about the A-Listers, including Kasabian, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Fall, Billy Bragg and 808 State, as the ETA - or Emerging Talent Awards - ably demonstrate.

Dedicated to celebrating up and coming talent in all areas of music, this year's inaugural ETA gave out eight awards with Best New Solo Artist going to British rapper Truth, who scooped a high profile gig at the Camden Crawl and a Shure KSM9 condenser microphone for coming first in the category that's voted for and judged by members of the public.

Asked about the awards and what it means to be playing on such a prestigious bill, Truth said, "Winning the award for Best New Solo Artist is great. It's the first award I've ever won, to be honest. The management

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UK - Audio-technology-for-post specialists Scrub, a division of HHB Communications, has announced the appointment of Ben Scully to its Soho-based team. Scully will operate in a technical sales capacity, providing advice and support at all stages of the sales process from initial consultation and advice, through system configuration, to installation and training.

A Music Technology graduate of the London College of Music and Media, Scully joins Scrub with a background in custom-building computer systems for audio and video production ­ initially with Carillon Audio and, more recently, with Synergy Computers. This experience, combined with full training by Digidesign in Pro Tools HD support, equips Scully for his new role.

Scrub sales manager Tina Wallace says, "Scrub has a hard-earned reputation in the post-production community as the people to talk to about audio technol

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UK - Sennheiser UK has appointed veteran Front of House engineer Dave Wooster to the role of live sound specialist. This newly formed position is the result of the company identifying the value of employing a live sound professional with first class knowledge and up-to-date field experience to work alongside its customers.

"My aim is to demonstrate Sennheiser UK's live sound solutions, provide ongoing support and backup and further develop how this range of products' fit in the current marketplace," says Wooster, whose live sound engineering credits include Van Morrison, Gary Moore and, most recently, Leona Lewis.

"Sennheiser's own products are well known for their excellent quality and the third party brands it distributes have been carefully chosen to compliment this. DAS loudspeakers, for example, have some extremely innovative features and sit at a great pri

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Portugal - Acoustic solutions manufacturer Vicoustic is shipping the latest addition to its variable acoustics product range. Vari Bass has been specifically developed to eradicate problems associated with low frequency resonance and is billed as the first passive, stand-alone, tunable bass trap of its kind.

Vari Bass is designed for use in any professional recording space, home studio, or hi-fi room. Made from wood and high-density acoustic foam, the bass trap can be tuned between 40 Hz and 100 Hz by simply rotating its wooden top (which has a series of resonant pots) until the problem disappears. A scale is included to show the exact frequencies on which Vari Bass is acting. The unit's stand-alone structure enables it to be repositioned as required and used in different rooms.

Vicoustic developer Jorge Castro is optimistic about the product's potential. "Everyone is awa

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UK - Birkenhead-based CFS Easi Rental has won a contract to help convert 50 specially-selected Rileys Snooker Halls within the estate to a new multi-media Fan Zone sports bar concept as the Group looks to reconfigure some of its prime space.

As part of the model, CFS (incorporating EasiRental, EasiPurchase & Easi Lease and service partner TV Technologies) has been supplying each of the units with a pair of Crown LPS-1500 amplifiers, purchased through sub-distributor Batmink - accompanied by purpose-built racks and amplifier remotes. These are powering 12 compact, two-way JBL Control 1 Pro's, distributed across each zone.

The install is part of a concept designed to screen sporting events via a framed big screen and high end projection (with adjacent 3D television) - with relays to other 50" plasmas distributed around the venue - in the lead up to the World Cup; each conve

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