Sound

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USA - From its rural beginnings in 1922, Los Angeles County's Fairplex has grown to become the fourth largest fairground in North America. At 543 acres the facility is twice the size of Disneyland and hosts a year-round variety of concerts, conventions, shows and sporting events.

The Fairplex grounds are home to more than 325,000sq.ft of indoor exhibit space, including a 12,000sq.ft fine arts educational centre affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. The complex also houses carnival grounds, parks, plazas and picnic areas, as well as a 250-suite Sheraton Hotel and a 185-space KOA RV park. Also calling the Fairplex home is NHRA-rated Pomona Raceway and Fairplex Park horse racing facility. Both racetracks also host numerous concerts and performance events.

The Fairplex is constantly evolving, growing and modernizing its infrastructure, currently including a high-end revampi

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Japan - Yamaha has announced that it will join AVnu Alliance "in order to support and promote the next-generation AVB network standard".

A company statement declares, "Yamaha pro audio products have always been designed to take advantage of the most advanced system infrastructure available for target applications by providing support for high-performance network formats such as Dante, EtherSound, CobraNet, and more. Yamaha has also cooperated closely with third parties to bring a variety of Yamaha-compatible network products to market

"And now, while maintaining support for existing open-format protocols, Yamaha joins AVnu Alliance, an industry forum dedicated to advancing and promoting the next-generation IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) standard.

"AVnu Alliance was established in August 2009 by a group of world leaders in the audio and IT fiel

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UK - Working with the course professors Rob Locke and Stuart Green from the BSc Live Event Technology degree at Glamorgan University, Green Hippo's head of training and education Simon Harris provided extensive tutoring and support to a group of students who welcomed the chance to use a Hippotizer for their sensory garden project.

Rob Locke remarks, "The University's relationship with Green Hippo was essential to this project which would not have been possible without the support of Simon and Nick, and we look forward to further collaboration in the future."

Erica Frost and five of her fellow students were given the brief to design an 'interactive sensory garden' for their final end of year project. This event was a first for the course as the planning and programming of interactive sound, lighting and video was not something taught or discussed as part of the course

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USA - After years of being known as one church with two locations, the members of California's Oasis Church decided to vacate its Beverly Hills address and permanently settled into its 600-seat Hollywood location. In doing so, the church audio team upgraded the audio system with an Aviom Pro16 Personal Mixing System.

Now, the church is ready for both on-location and off-site celebrations, including the church's annual GodChicks Conference that takes place in Pasadena, CA. For Oasis Church technical coordinator, Daniel Rivera, the biggest factor in choosing the Aviom system was the need to change the theatre's aesthetics and to lower the stage volume. He also wanted a system that could accommodate the 60 musicians who share the stage at any given time.

"The Aviom personal mixers have given each musician the flexibility and control to create their own custom preset,&

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France - As well as the powerful new Liberty and Freedom lighting control desks, ADB Lighting will also show its latest desks, dimmers and the latest generation ALC4 LED cyclorama light, at JTSE 2010 in Paris.

On show will be the Domino 48 XT M control desk. Providing 48 faders in two preset mode or 96 faders in extended mode on the Domono 96 XT, or 24/48 faders on the 48 XT, a minimum of 500 theatrical memories allows easy creation and modification of theatrical playbacks.

ADB, recently appointed as exclusive distributor in France for EGO Systems and PREGO software, will display this lighting control software along with associated control hardware solutions.

ADB's latest dimming technology will also be on display, in the shape of the powerful and versatile Eurodim Twin Tech modules. Capable of dimming and switching every type of stage luminaire and house lighting in one int

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USA - Clear-Com exhibited its first instalment of the new intercom system, HelixNet Party-line, for the pro audio industry at this year's AES 2010. In addition, the company showcased its enhanced version of Tempest2400 digital wireless intercom system, which is now shipping worldwide.

Clear-Com's HelixNet Party-line and enhanced Tempest2400 offer audio professionals communications that are easy to set up and use, yet highly sophisticated, flexible and scalable, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - At AES in San Francisco, Avid debuted Pro Tools version 9, billed as "a groundbreaking evolution of the industry's most popular music creation and audio production solution".

Version 9 of Pro Tools offers customers the choice to work with Avid audio interfaces, third-party audio interfaces, or no hardware at all when using the built-in audio capabilities of a Mac or PC. This first-ever software-only option for Pro Tools delivers customers the most open, flexible and feature rich version in history, while also providing top professional features customers have requested, says the company.

Also, new support for the Avid EUCON open Ethernet protocol now enables customers to expand control surface options to include Avid's Artist Series and Pro Series audio consoles and controllers (formerly known as Euphonix consoles and controllers).

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - Live bands, stunt motorcyclists, abseiling, gang shows, sports, singing competitions, gold panning, bushcraft, comedy and the wryly titled Cirque du Scouté were just some of the many activities on offer at this year's 22nd Australian Scout Jamboree. And reinforcing a main arena needing to accommodate 9000 youngsters plus staff was an Alcons PA system.

Attracting scouts from across the world, the event took place near Appin, New South Wales and took place over a fortnight. The main arena's audio requirements were supplied by Sydney-based Loud and Clear, who specified a comprehensive main Alcons system comprising 24 LR14, eight LR14B and eight BF181, with two further LR14s as front-fills and six VR12 as stage monitors. The main system was powered by ALC2 and ALC4 amplifiers with DDP digital drive processors, with the monitors using a further ALC2 with DDP

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Spain - Aena, the Spanish state-owned company that manages all of Spain's airports, recently celebrated the opening of its new Terminal One building at Barcelona Airport. The new terminal is a massive space covering 544,066sq.m and boasts 168 check-in counters, 50 jetways and 15 baggage carousels as well as a vast retail area.

A major part of the project was the PA system. Aena called upon Lexon SA, one of the largest professional audio, lighting distribution and systems engineering companies in Spain, to design, supply and install the entire public address and digital audio control system throughout the new building. The installation is similar to the one Lexon completed in T4 of Madrid's Barajas Airport.

The system installed in Barcelona Airport's T1 is based on a MediaMatrix system and a total of 314 Crest CKi power amplifiers, each equipped with a CobraNet module that enab

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China - With a total project value of $83m, the Australian Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 marked the country's largest ever commitment to a World Expo. By the time the Exposition closed on 31 October 2010 over 8m visitors had been through the Pavilion.

Under the design direction of think!OTS (TOTS) the creative team was tasked with conceiving a unique thematic infrastructure combining dynamic design with natural imagery. In collaboration with TOTS, Wood Marsh provided the architectural services that led to a unique shape, which was then constructed by TOTS' partner in the project, Bovis Lend Lease.

In planning the technical production TOTS contracted Paul van der Ent from Wizard Projects in Australia to be the executive technical director - both companies having been previously involved with a number of pavilions at expos for the Australian Government.

Wizard, having suc

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UK - After 147 years of entertaining audiences - give or take the odd break - Kilmarnock's Palace Theatre complex has recently installed a new audio system for live events based around a Yamaha M7CL48-ES console and SB168-ES stage boxes was the perfect fit.

Originally opened in 1863 as the town's Corn Exchange, the Palace Theatre was joined by the Grand Agricultural Hall 64 years later. Despite an occasionally chequered career, the venues are still going strong today.

With audience capacities of 500 and 1300 respectively, these days the Palace Theatre and Grand Hall form a multi-purpose complex. However, attracting touring acts to the Grand Hall was starting to becoming a problem, as it had no in-house PA system.

"We had started to do a number of higher profile gigs in the Grand Hall, but a major obstacle to promoters was the cost of hiring in audio and lighting systems

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Canada - Musicians and audio crew members on Michael Bublé's Crazy Love tour are singing the praises of Aviom's Personal Mixers. Used as part of the monitoring setup for the brass section, the personal mixers offer crew members the ease of configuration they require while providing musicians with a customised monitor mix.

With stops across the globe in a variety of different venues and Bublé performing along with a big band, the Crazy Love tour poses some audio challenges. The brass players have the most cues of all the musicians on the tour, making proper monitoring critical to the performance.

"Ease of setup and tear down were key factors when selecting gear for the tour," says Louis-Philippe Maziade, projects manager, sound department for Solotech, the Canadian production company handling the equipment and crew for the tour. "The A

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UK - Working with audio visual supplier, Blitz Communications, Le Mark was tasked with the job of manufacturing a range of heavy duty road case labels which would help increase health & safety by identifying the individual case weights of Blitz's considerable stock of audio visual equipment.

"Customer care and health & safety are paramount at Blitz. We needed a label that would help anyone handling the equipment to visually identify if the case was safe to manually lift or would require assistance. Most importantly of all, the label shouldn't come off without a fight!" says David Watchorn of Blitz.

"All road cases get a rough ride in this industry, so any label that is capable of withstanding the constant transportation and industry standard 'rough handling' needed to be something special. We've used Le Mark's PAL road case labels for many years and know from ex

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France - APG reports that TH Audio, a major rental company in the south-west of France, has invested in heavily in APG with the purchase of a complete Uniline compact line array system and associated hardware as well as a DMS26 digital loudspeaker processor and the optional network cards.

The move is part of a significant expansion for the Mont de Marsan-based pro audio specialists, who, in addition to the Uniline system, have also invested in a new Eclipse digital mixing console from Innovason, new outboard equipment AND new premises.

"It's fair to say that our feet have barely touched the ground these last few months," said TH Audio's Thierry Avignon. "However, we've also been incredibly successful, so we're not complaining!" The summer season has seen shows with noted French artists such as Jacques Higelin and San Severino, as well as Jamaican reggae art

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Russia - Some 62 miles to the west of the Urals, in the federal district of the Volga, lies the city of Ufa, capital of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan. The largest Russian Orthodox church in the city is around 100 years old and capable of accommodating congregations of up to 1,500. The building has a colourful history, having functioned, variously, as a prison, an aircraft workshop, and a cinema in the course of the communist period.

Now the church has been renovated from the ground up and equipped with a new sound system from Electro-Voice. One of the most awkward factors for the acoustic engineers here was the reverberation time, with RT60 beneath the central dome extending to several seconds, severely compromising intelligibility. However, Ufa-based First Install Company, confident in the assistance of Electro-Voice's Russian partner Ruton S, was undaunted by the chall

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Ireland - Pearl AV is the first customer to snap up the new V-1600HD Live Video Switcher from the Roland Systems Group. Pearl's new unit went out to work on the day it arrived, and, within weeks, has become an integral element of the company's HD platform.

"Our visuals department are delighted to welcome the V-1600 to our HD product range," says Pearl's MD and founder Frank White. "The mixer integrates perfectly with our existing HD projection stocks; we were the first company in Ireland to purchase HD 18K lumen projectors, and now, with the V-1600HD, we can offer true HD vision mixing seamlessly from source right through to our hi-brite screens."

TheYouth Citizenship Awards, produced as a TV programme starring guest performers Jedward, provided a solid test for the V-1600HD in its first few weeks. Pearl's production team, led by technical director Paul Cav

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UK - POLARaudio has announced that with immediate effect it has been appointed exclusive distributor in the UK and Ireland for CobraNet interface provider Attero Tech.

Indiana-based Attero Tech LLC designs and manufactures a range of in-wall CobraNet input and output interfaces that allow integrators to provide clients with cost effective solutions in distributed audio systems. Attero Tech's range of microphone/line level input and output panels offer robust connection to CobraNet networks and are designed to work together or with third party manufacturers devices.

Polar audio's technical director Jon Dew-Stanley commented, "Polar Audio is delighted to represent Attero Tech in the UK and Ireland, the products complement many of our current brands such as XTA, MC2, Australian Monitor and Biamp, assisting us to provide and design UK integrators with intelligent and cost eff

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India - Allen & Heath's Indian distributor, Sun Infonet, recently completed a series of training sessions in three key locations - Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Calcutta - targeting customers who are ready to move from traditional analogue to digital solutions.

"I thought there was a very good knowledge of digital and IT solutions, and several engineers who had operated competitor digital consoles were keen to come and compare their experiences," comments Allen & Heath product manager, Leon Phillips.

The seminars were split into three areas - ZED, GL and iLive/iDR - attracting over 100 attendees selected from Sun Infonet's customer base comprising live PA owner/operators, dealerships and installation contractors with broadcast experience.

"Digital mixing is in its infancy in India," says Sun Infonet's director, Neeraj Chandra. "However, enthusiasm is high

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Switzerland / UK - The members of Take That are lending their support to Hear the World, alongside more than 40 high -profile celebrities, helping to raise awareness about the importance of hearing and the consequences of hearing loss.

With the original line-up recently reunited, following the return of Robbie Williams, the hugely successful pop group are the latest names to support Hear the World, a global initiative launched by hearing system manufacturer Phonak, and will join stars like Jude Law, Elle Macpherson, Annie Lennox, Sting and Peter Gabriel.

As part of their support, each celebrity has been photographed by musician and campaign photographer Bryan Adams holding the Hear the World pose - with one hand cupped behind their ear to convey conscious hearing.

"Hearing is something that we rely on every day, even more so being musicians. To lend our support to this

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USA - The world's first installation of the Meyer Sound MINA line array loudspeaker is to be found in the Tupelo Music Hall in White River Junction, Vt., a live concert venue which opened in early October.

"The sound in the room is incredible, really," says Tupelo Music Hall owner Scott Hayward. "For example, last night Marc Cohn was trading licks with his guitar player and it was astonishing the detail you could hear. It was like being on the stage no matter where you were in the room."

Connecting audiences with music is the founding purpose of Tupelo Music Hall, a 4,000sq.ft space inside a former railway freight depot. New acoustically treated walls and original hardwood flooring enclose a space devoted to the ultimate experience of live music.

"For rooms like this, Meyer Sound absolutely nailed it with MINA," states Scott Tkachuk, system desi

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USA - Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla. launched a bold new educational initiative earlier this summer with the opening of Full Sail Live, a 22,000sq.ft multi-use performance venue. At the heart of the facility's technology is a flexible, 65-cabinet Meyer Sound reinforcement system that can be reconfigured for concert, spoken word presentations, or cinema and multimedia surround applications.

For director of audio programmes Dana Roun, the selection of a Meyer Sound system was driven by a careful balance of technological and educational considerations. "The audio system had to be second-to-none in performance and versatility," he notes. "We had to satisfy every imaginable scenario, from full-tilt, high SPL concerts to precise acoustic music, plus guest speakers, surround visual presentations, and theatre in the round. The Meyer Sound system certainly deliv

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USA - Since its inception, the Woodruff Arts Centre in Atlanta has grown into one of the most dynamic centres for the visual and performing arts in the South. Today the centre includes the Alliance Theatre, High Museum of Art, Young Audiences, 14th Street Playhouse and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. The Alliance Theatre, now in its 42nd season, is nationally acclaimed and the recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award.

Clay Benning, resident sound designer for the past 11 years uses Dante Virtual Soundcard and a Dante-MY16-AUD card for productions on the Alliance Stage and on the smaller Hertz Stage. Using the Dante Virtual Soundcard he can now bypass a FireWire connection, using Ethernet instead, which future-proofs the solution and in turn saves money in the long run.

The Alliance's setup includes an Apple Mac Mini, running DVS and Figure 53's Qlab v2 software, and t

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Panama - The Rommel Fernandez Stadium in Panama City is considered the most technologically advanced stadium in Central America. Seating 32,000 spectators for soccer games and other sports and live events, the recently-opened stadium boasts a wide-array of professional AV equipment to enhance the consumer experience.

Technomad supplied 35 Noho C loudspeakers as part of a multi-zone audio system designed and installed by systems integration firm Extended GM of Panama City.

The goal, according to Hernan Gonzalez O'Farrill, president of Extended GM, was to design a robust, user-friendly audio system that offered various coverage options for full or partial sound reinforcement depending on the event. O'Farrill and his team conducted a venue-wide analysis in advance of equipment selection, collecting the necessary calculations to ensure uniform sound through the venue.

"We n

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Europe - Rock band Supertramp has embarked on the Supertramp 70-10 European tour to celebrate its 40th anniversary. The band is performing greatest hits from 11 studio albums with the help of an L-Acoustics K1 line source system, provided by German rental company and Rental Network Agent Sirius Showequipment.

The L-Acoustics system consists of 24 K1 boxes with eight K1-SB subs, 36 V-DOSC and 12 dV-DOSC cabinets,18 SB28 subs and a stage monitor system of 115XT HiQs, all driven by LA amplified controllers in 14 LA-RAKs. Such a versatile system means that the configuration can change depending on the requirements of the venues hosting the tour's 35 concerts.

For example, at the Olympia Halle in Munich, 12 K1s and four K1-SBs were flown per side, with three dV-DOSCs beneath each for down-fill. The system also included two hangs of six SB28s, an additional six SB28s as groun

  1. DiGiCo consoles enjoy increased profile In China
  2. Family Church puts faith in Aviom digital snake
  3. German rental companies invest in Midas PRO6
  4. RTS Intercom Systems to receive Technology Emmys
  5. Reproduced Sound 2010 (18-19 Nov) reveals schedule
  6. D.A.S. Audio in The Touring Company Store
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