Finland - Integrators and designers looking to add a touch of flair to their audio installations will be interested in the latest offering from Genelec - a choice of over 200 RAL classic colour finishes available for their 4000 Series. All models in RAL colours are available to special order and will allow the speakers to contribute to the interior design scheme of any type of fixed installation.

"Many interior designers bemoan the fact that loudspeakers interfere with the clean look of their interiors," says Terho Savolainen, marketing manager, Genelec Oy. "Well, not any more. The new finishes for our 4000 Series can contribute to the design of any club, restaurant, theatre, gallery or residence; so whether you want to blend them in or make them stand out, be bold or discreet, our colours will help you achieve that. The 4000 Series offers unrivalled audio perform

USA - The collapse in high winds of a temporary concert stage at the Indiana State Fair on Saturday claimed five lives and left almost 50 injured, according to US news reports. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collapse began on Sunday, and its findings will be watched with great interest by the event production industry.

In addition to issues surrounding the build and stability of the structure itself, the question of why the event was not stopped and the audience evacuated far sooner will surely form a major part of the investigation.

It is reported that organisers had urged audience members to seek shelter just minutes before the sudden winds hit the stage structure - far too late, as it turned out, for an effective evacuation. With news reports claiming that forecasters at the National Weather Service had predicted the strong winds of 60-70mph up to t

Australia - ARX has announced the release of their new TAP-IT transformer isolated audio line tapper.

ARX managing director Colin Park comments, "With the ongoing convergence of audio, AV and IT systems, providing a clean audio feed to wireless and cabled transmission and recording systems has become a priority for systems designers, Integrators and Installers.

"Hums and ground loops, problematic Y leads, the misuse of headphone outputs or jury rigged patch ups need no longer be tolerated because the ARX Design Team has developed the new TAP-IT Transformer Isolated AudioLine Tapper as the solution.

"Main inputs and outputs are hardwired, so your signal integrity isn't compromised, and the TAP-IT's passive design eliminates the requirement for problematic external power supplies and 'wallwarts'."

(Jim Evans)

UK - POLARaudio is exhibiting a number of new products at this year's PLASA show. Specialists in sound systems and audio networking, POLARaudio will be showcasing its range of advanced networking technologies. The distributor will be offering AVB, Dante, CobraNet, Ethersound and A-Net products from brands including Biamp, Aviom, XTA, MC2, Atterotech and Australian Monitor.

POLARaudio's stand will feature networking solutions including Biamp's Tesira, the first scalable network using audio video bridging (AVB) and Aviom Digital Snakes.

Also at the show will be, Atterotech's Gearbox 18 and from beyerdynamic the new TG (Touring Gear) series of live microphones, with microphone solutions for every budget. The TG series comprises of TG 30 entry level series, TG 50 standard Touring Gear series with premium performance, TG 70 series with advanced technical characteristics and higher

UK - King Sound Reinforcement is a well established regional sound company based in Bristol, that has been serving the south-western UK for over 12 years. The company has just invested in 12 SMX15 monitor speakers from French loudspeaker manufacturer APG, supplied by APG's distributor Red Square Audio.

Paul King, owner of King Sound comments, "King Sound has a reputation for never following the crowd when it comes to speakers systems - our only criterion is to buy the very best product for the job. I can honestly say that after exhaustive testing over a nine-month period of many premium monitor options, the APG SMX15s came out as the clear winner.

"Sonically they are excellent," he continued. "The innovative multi-position rigging bar gives us a five-angle wedge or in-fill and the pole mount enables their use as a small FOH box when needed. This, coupled w

UK - For this year's Big Chill festival, Adlib designed sound systems for two stages - Revellers' and The People's Ear.

Otto Kroymann led the Adlib team of seven - Mike Flaherty, George Puttock, Tommy Bradshaw & himself, who looked after the Revellers', while Simon Lawson, Alan Harrison and Chris Smethurst took care of things on The People's Ear.

The sound system on the Revellers' stage was JBL VerTec, suitable for an eclectic line up ranging from Club Zirconia to Kormac's Big Band and NZ Shapeshifter to Annie Nightingale.

The flown arrays each contained 10 VT4889 speakers a-side, run in combination with six VT 4880A subs a-side on the ground, Coda LA8 in-fills.

The main system was driven by Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers, with Labgruppen PLM20000s for the subs and fills.

They used the opportunity to further test a fibre optic Dante network, which took the signal from the FOH

UK - SSE Audio Group has added four further Soundcraft Vi6 consoles to its inventory to meet the additional demands of the 2011 summer outdoor season.

This brings the company's tally to eight (with a further six Soundcraft Vi1's also in hire stock) - and according to project manager Pete Russell all have been out on front line duty more or less permanently since their arrival.

An early advocate of the platform since realising the easy transition to the digital world it offered analogue sound engineers, Russell said, "A lot of our business is supplying control and monitor packages, and the Vi6 is proving extremely popular with bands.

"Monitor engineers choose to take them because of their intuitive nature, their compact footprint and the fact they are good 'on the fly' when they have to be set up quickly. They also like the sound and the intuitive nature of the desk

UK / The Netherlands - At this year's autumn exhibitions - PLASA 2011 in London and IBC in Amsterdam - Riedel Communications celebrates the MediorNet Compact Euro premiere. MediorNet Compact is the first 50 G multimedia stagebox with integrated WDM. It is the cost effective and easy-to-use entry into the Riedel MediorNet world of integrated media signal distribution and processing, says the company.

It provides the flexibility of a true real-time media network, including integrated signal processing, at the cost of simple multiplexing point-to-point products. With a network bandwidth of 50 Gbit/s, MediorNet Compact provides enough capacity for bi-directional transport of 12 HD-SDI signals, dozens of MADI streams or Gbit-Ethernet signals and hundreds of audio channels or intercom ports - suitable for streamlining the infrastructure of any mobile, studio or live event application.

UK - LD Systems has launched the DP2400X, the newest member of the DEEP family of power amplifiers. The key specifications are 2 x 1200 W at 2 ohms, 2 x 950 W at 4 ohms and 2 x 600 W at 8 ohms RMS power. Like the other power amplifiers in the DEEP series, the DP2400X uses class H circuitry powered by a conventional power supply.

The protective circuitry is also identical with that used in the DEEP2 series. It also follows the DEEP2 design in its integration of two temperature-dependent two step cooling fans. One special feature is a switchable 12 dB low-cut and/or 12 dB low-pass filter adjustable from 25 Hz to 150 Hz on both channels. This makes it possible to use the DP2400X as a bass amp or even realize a powerful bi-amping system. With the filters switched off, it becomes a conventional 2 channel power amp.

Andrew Richardson, managing director of Adam Hall UK comments, &quo

USA / Europe - Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of Swedish-born Håkan Sjöö as the company's new European sales manager.

Håkan has been the regional manager for Renkus-Heinz in India for the past two years, where he built up an extensive dealer network, assisted with the progress of several major sales and installations, and through this work acquired extensive knowledge of Renkus-Heinz and its products.

After spending three years in New Delhi with his wife and two sons, the family moved back to their home on the outskirts of Stockholm this summer. Says Karl Brunvoll, VP, international sales, "We are absolutely delighted that he has made the choice to stay with Renkus-Heinz and take on the responsibility of managing our distribution network in Europe."

In addition to working in the audio industry in various capacities since 1996, Håkan Sjöö holds a

UK - One weekend in Hackney's Victoria Park presented Martin Audio's Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) with three separate festivals to contend with.

Promoted by Eat Your Own Ears, Underage, Field Day and Apple Cart saw Capital Sound Hire return to the park with the same system they had fielded for the LED Festival a few weeks earlier - working alongside Loud Sound, the event management company, and LarMac LIVE, the production company.

This increasingly popular festival site is bordered on one side by trees, a canal and high-tariff residential properties. Thus environmental Acoustics experts Vanguardia needed to be satisfied that the sound would not bleed beyond the site perimeter and Cap's crew chief Nick Foots, supported by Martin Audio's development manager Phil Anthony, set presets that would comfortably ensure this, while being able to retain a threshold of 98dB-100d

Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Shure microphones and audio electronics in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman have supplied MBC with 18 channels of the Shure UHF-R system. The sale also includes the new UR1H bodypack transmitter in addition to the dual channel receivers.

"MBC have been using the Shure UHF Premium series for many years now," commented Shajahan K K, Shure product manager. "After demonstrating all the new features and benefits with the UHF-R, it was only common sense for them to consider the new wireless system."

(Jim Evans)

UK - West London based Entec Sound & Light supplied the main stage sound design and a d&b audio system for the three-day 2011 Guilfest music festival, staged at Stoke Park in central Guildford, Surrey. It was the event's 20th anniversary, renowned for its diverse line ups and laid-back, friendly, family atmosphere.

It was the seventh consecutive year that Entec has supplied the event, for which Liam Halpin was crew chief, systems designer and radio supervisor. His successful sound design model has been used for the last five years, during which time it has been tweaked and honed to give an optimum sound on site - for a wide variety of artists and styles - producing the absolute minimum noise pollution in the surrounding areas.

The system consisted of nine deep left and right hangs of d&b's J8 large format line array speakers and a distributed bass array across the front of the

Michael Forever - Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green and Motown veteran Smokey Robinson are set to perform at a tribute concert in honour of Michael Jackson. More acts will be added to the bill nearer the time. The event coincides with the trial of the Dr Conrad Murray, charged over the singer's death. The gig takes place at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on 8 October.

While the concert has raised the doubts of Randy and Jermaine Jackson, it has the full support of the star's mother and other siblings. British acts Leona Lewis, Craig David and JLS have also been lined up to perform at the gig. Several of Jackson's brothers will also perform, along with 3T, which consists of Tito Jackson's three sons. "We're delighted that such exciting and globally recognised acts have joined the line-up to pay tribute to a music legend," said Chris Hunt, president of concert promoter Glob

One of the latest additions to the TT+ High Definition Touring and Theatre range from RCF is the new TTL11A digitally steerable array. With the addition of the new TTS26-A subwoofer, the new column array becomes a powerful, compact and high definition live sound system, says the company.

The TTL11A is an active column speaker array system composed by two modules, one for the mid-high and one for the bass frequencies.

The TTL11A-H is the HF module and is equipped with four 2.5" neodymium compression drivers with 1.5" exit throat. The TTL11A-B is the bass frequency section of the system and features four 8" neodymium woofers with 2.5" voice coil for a perfect and powerful mid-bass response.

A powerful 96 kHz, 32 bit DSP integrated in the TTL11A-H module provides the signal processing also for the TTL11A-B. 2000 W digital amplifiers power both the modules that comp

Batmink Distribution, one of the largest UK distributors of professional audio, lighting and effects equipment, will introduce a number of new products at PLASA 2011. New brands on show include Visage Lighting, Vector Audio, Pro-Flite Flightcases, Pro-Stage Portable Staging and Lumaform LED Illuminated Furniture.

Of particular interest is the Visage LED Multipar RGBAW - a new PAR unit that delivers a truly impressive light output from 18 x 8w LEDs. 12 x RGBW and 6 x RGBA 4 in 1 LEDs produce full spectrum colour mixing and control is achieved through DMX, auto programs, sound to light or master slave functions. The black multipar housing is more robust than conventional PARcan bodies and completes this tough, powerful unit.

Another brand making its PLASA debut is Lumaform. Offering a range of LED illuminated furniture in a variety of styles; Lumaform is at the cutting edge of this exc

British mixer manufacturer Allen & Heath, will be exhibiting on stand 1-E9 at the forthcoming PLASA show in London.

The company will be showing various control surface and MixRack components from its iLive digital mixing family, as well as the range of audio networking possibilities such as MADI and Dante, and additional control options including the Allen & Heath PL Series remote controllers, iLive Editor software, iLive Tweak app for iPhone and the MixPad app for iPad.

Also on display will be models from the Xone DJ range - including the Xone:PB patchbay, Xone:S2 installation mixer and Xone:DB4 FX mixer - as well as the ZED USB compact mixers and GS-R24 recording mixer.

PLASA 2011 1-E9

Line 6 returns to the PLASA Show to showcase its new XD-V digital wireless microphone systems, further demonstrating the company's commitment to serving the professional audio industry.

Exhibiting on stand 1-J12, Line 6 will be showcasing the expansion of the microphone family, which now includes two new models, XD-V30HS and XD-V70HS headset microphone systems. These augment the award-winning XD-V30 and XD-V70 handheld and lavalier systems.

XD-V70HS digital wireless system consists of a lightweight, discreet and fully adjustable headset with an omni-directional condenser microphone.

XD-V30HS digital wireless system features a robust uni-directional condenser microphone attached to a durable headset, which is ideal for fitness instructors, business presentations and environments with high levels of ambient noise.

As the switchover to channel 38 fast approaches, Line 6 offers a cle

This year, Oran Burns and Steve Jones from d&b audiotechnik's Education and Application Support team will present two one hour seminars at the Technologies for Worship Pavilion, Stand 2-M10, Earls Court 2.

Oran Burns will present Can you hear me at the back? on Monday 12 September at 3pm. How do you get the sound you've lovingly nurtured through the console to every member of the congregation? He will take a look at the acoustic signal path from loudspeaker to the listener's ear, considering what part the room plays and how to minimize its potentially detrimental effect .

Steve Jones will present Theatre sound source, a virtual shoot out on Tuesday 13 September at 11am. As a theatre sound professional, what do you want your audience to perceive and what characteristics does your sound system need to achieve that goal? By taking a close look at the anatomy of both line array and point

UK - In order to streamline transmission between one of its flagship OB trucks and the production gantry during sports event coverage, Arena Television has invested in further Optocore 'new generation' converters.

Seeking a more elegant cable management system by replacing the vast lengths of analogue multicores with fibre, head of sound, Tim Rowden, and Sound Guarantee, Mark Reed, turned to long-time Optocore resellers HD Pro Audio after weighing up their options.

Since they were also looking to reduce rack space in their OB7 scanner, and incorporate MADI streams and 128 x 128 digital talkback onto the network, HD Pro Audio's Optocore specialist Andy Huffer recommended they upgrade with two X6R-FX 16-channel A/D converters and a pair of X6R-TP - along with a DD4MR-FX dual MADI, video and data network enabled device. At the same time this gives them access to Optocore's SANE (

Australia - National audiovisual group Scene Change has selected the Soundcraft Si1 as its high-end mixer of choice. Scene Change has grown spectacularly since its formation in 2006, appearing this year as #48 on the BRW Fast Starters list, which ranks Australia's fastest-growing start-up companies. A key to that growth has been keeping their crew motivated by purchasing the best equipment available.

"When you want to attract the best crew in a tight labour market, you need to give them the best tools to work with, so they feel good about the quality of show they're delivering," said Sydney Director Vicken Hekimian. "So they work harder to make our clients happy, which is really important when you're the underdog, the number two AV company."

As part of this strategy, Scene Change takes a democratic approach to major capital expenditure. All the senior crew

UK - Audio industry maverick Mike Lavelle has joined the CLD Distribution team as technical sales manager bringing 25 years of experience and enthusiasm to the east Sussex based professional audio and lighting sales specialist.

Lavelle will be 'on the road' for CLD, visiting existing customers and potential new ones, in the process feeding back ideas and suggestions for how the CLD services can be further streamlined. Part of his remit is to learn more about the constantly changing requirements of clients and assessing if new and different products should be added to the ranges.

Says Nigel Howes, MD and founder of CLD, "Mike brings a wealth of experience in the professional audio industry, plus an enormous and eclectic contacts base. He is hugely respected and we have known him for over 20 years. CLD has a very positive staff atmosphere and so he fits in perfectly with ou

UK - ML Executives have successfully completed Iron Maiden's Final Frontier world tour, having provided sound reinforcement for the summer festival season followed by UK arena dates, culminating in two nights at London's O2 Arena.

Gary Marks' long-standing production company has been servicing the British metal veterans for the past 10 of their 36 years on the road.

Once again the heavy reinforcement artillery was provided by an EAW KF760 line array system, with the new SB1002 subs flown for the first time to deliver a full-range sound - right to the furthest reaches of the upper tribunes.

The band had turned to EAW - and ML Executives - when their long-serving sound engineer Doug Hall had originally set his sights on upgrading to line array technology. In the meantime, ML had remained brand loyal to EAW, having been the first UK customer for their classic KF850 many

UK - When Selfridges, one of London's most prestigious department stores, decided to open its garden roof top for the first time since World War II, they turned to food experience designers Sam Bompas and Harry Parr to create a visually stunning artistic installation which turned out to be their most ambitious project to date.

The designers took over the roof garden and turned it into a crystal island complete with 12m x 4m boating lake dyed green to promote a Truvia new calorie free sweetener. This is only the second time that the garden has been opened up to the public since World War II when the store suffered serious damage due to bombings. The Truvia Voyage of Discovery experience included a gushing waterfall, 12 rowing boats, lifeguard, cocktails and a tropical soundscape all which were situated 6 storeys above one of London's busiest shopping streets.

Bompas and

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