UK - One of the most stylish, discreet and popular PA's in the House of Worship sector has been installed by Rea Sound in the Donaghcloney Presbyterian Church, Northern Ireland.

The Martin Audio OmniLine micro array has been integrated in a design encompassing two separate PA hangs, with eight modules in each, along with Martin Audio's equally unobtrusive AQ5 for under-balcony fills - all powered by a single Martin Audio MA2.8Q power amp.

This process began when the church's technical representative, Wayne Buttery, visited the Rea Sound stand at the Church Resource Show in Belfast in February 2012 - and six months later made contact again with Martin Audio's Irish distributors.

Rea Sound duly won the contract to replace the existing PA system on the strength of their knowledge, product and adaptability.

The church's previous system, installed in the early 1980's, had reach

UK - Allen & Heath has released a firmware and driver update for its recording console, the GS-R24, bringing the mixer's HUI emulation for Pro Tools to a new level. New controls available on the desk include bank swap, single/multiple track selection, marker insertion and navigation, toggling between Mix and Edit view, and three jog-wheel functions (fast forward/rewind, scrub and shuttle).

The cursor buttons can now operate in three different modes: navigation mode to move the cursor across region boundaries, zoom mode to control horizontal and vertical waveform zoom, and selection mode to adjust 'in' and 'out' points or move the selection to a different track. Soft MIDI buttons 1 and 2 control and display the Mute and Track Arm status of the selected tracks. Similarly, MIDI buttons 3 to 7 control and display the automation mode of the selected tracks, making it possible to swit

UAE A Turbosound Aspect loudspeaker system has been installed at the Café Del Mar in Meydan Beach, Dubai by audio designer Joe Chidiac of Pulse Middle East, creating a focused, high energy dance floor sound field.

Chidiac was invited to design the entire audio, lighting and rigging system based on the solid reputation he has built up in the UAE region, and by the high profile of his stunning audio-visual and lighting design at the Diablo nightclub project in Dubai, which is owned and operated by local celebrity DJ Cowboy.

Buoyed by the success of Diablo and the confidence he places in the technical support of the UK loudspeaker brand, Chidiac decided on a four-point configuration of Turbosound Aspect TA-500 three-way point-source loudspeakers to provide high level, low distortion sound quality where it really matters.

As the Café Del Mar venue is within the bou

USA - 'Light, little, and loud' was the d&b audiotechnik reputation around the 2013 Broadway Sound Master Classes. Every year, BSMC hosts students and professionals for a weekend of audio education and networking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Two full days of classes are concluded every year with a closing cocktail party and renowned industry awards ceremony, at which the d&b audiotechnik V-Series was honored with the Live Design Sound Product of the Year award.

"We are thrilled to be receiving this," said NE regional manager, Michael Eisenberg, who accepted the award on behalf of d&b. It was presented in the category of 'Sound: loudspeaker', though part of the d&b allure is their ability to provide complete sound systems, "The goal is to provide a full service for our clients. Of course we offer loudspeakers, but we also provide amplifiers, software, monitors,

USA - From June 6 to 9, the Country Music Association (CMA) held its 42nd Annual Fan Fair, a four-day music festival consisting of dozens of country performances including current, chart-topping Sennheiser users such as Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Lady Antebellum and Zac Brown Band to 'heritage' artists including Kenny Rogers and Oak Ridge Boys.

Each year, the festival gains in popularity around the world and this year was no exception as the total number of attendees exceeded 80,000 over the course of the festival - a 13 percent increase in overall attendance compared to 2012.

Sennheiser supported the production with wireless equipment consisting of eight channels of EM 3732-II receivers, coupled with SKM 2000-XP handheld wireless transmitters and MMD 935-1 cardioid microphone capsules.

Curt Jenkins was responsible for the audio as project manager for Nashville-based So

Sweden - One of the major churches in south Stockholm, Katarina Church, was originally built by royal decree in the 17th century. It has been destroyed by fire twice and was reopened after the second rebuilding in 1995, restored to its former glory with a large dome and four smaller towers. It is a large and imposing building, seating up to 900 people in its wooden pews. In addition to its stone floors, white painted stone walls and splendid carved marble, is the gloriously ornate new organ, built by J.L. van den Heuvel Orgelbouw.

Like many churches, over the years Katarina Church had seen a variety of attempts to resolve the acoustics of its highly reverberant and complex space with different loudspeaker solutions.

Karl-Gustaf Kahlau of Renkus-Heinz Swedish distributor Luthman SMTTS AB explains, "The PA they had originally was a traditional horn system, and after that th

Europe - With over 50 international dates on the horizon in support of her latest outing Girl on Fire, Grammy award winning artist Alicia Keys has surrounded herself with an adept team of engineers with support from Clair Global and DiGiCo mixing systems.

With a total of five SD racks (two for FOH, two for monitors, and one for opening artist, Miguel), they're also carrying a pair of SD10s (one at FOH and monitor world) to handle the eight-member band including the headliner. Newly positioned at FOH is Tim Colvard, who took over the European leg of the tour.

Although Colvard's employed DiGiCo consoles for many of his clients international tours, this was his first time on an SD10 (as well as his debut outing with both the artist and with Clair Global). He joins Clair FOH tech Randy Weinholtz and monitor mixmaster Antonio Luna for the already-in- progress global tour.

UK - Clair UK's first outing with the new Cadac CDC Four compact digital live console has been a major success for the sound company. The company's deployment of the CDC Four with the new Clair iMicro small format line array, on the Footstorm tour, for production company Accept Management, achieved new standards for low profile, large scale theatre-sound reinforcement.

An original dance and music extravaganza presented by the contemporary Irish dance company Prodijig, Footstorm debuted in Dublin's Olympia, before touring mostly sold out houses across the UK throughout April and May. Playing in major regional theatres and concert venues, like Birmingham Symphony Hall, Footstorm demanded a compact console capable of the highest quality sound reproduction, to maximise the performance capability of the iMicro system; the CDC Four offered Cadac sound and performa

Live in Scotland - Scotland's T in the Park festival has sold more than 2.5m tickets in the past 20 years, event organisers have revealed. The three day music extravaganza starts this Friday at Balado in Perth and Kinross, two decades after the first festival in Strathclyde Country Park. Headline acts for 2013 include Mumford & Sons, Rihanna and the Killers. So far, it has not sold out this year but festival bosses were still hopeful all the tickets would go.

T in the Park director Geoff Ellis told BBC Scotland the event had gone from 17,000 people a day in its first year to a capacity of 85,000. He said the move to Balado had opened up the festival to the whole of Scotland and beyond. "We do attract a lot of people from outside of Scotland. "About 20% of our crowd comes from outside Scotland and about 2% from outside the UK but the real passionate element is the Scott

France - Hellfest is not as frightening as it sounds! For three days, 40,000 rock and metal fans gather in the countryside of western France (Clisson, just outside of Nantes) for this annual festival. Headlined by Def Leppard, Kiss, and Volbeat, this year's event saw Nexo's new STM system make its Hellfest debut on the two main stages.

French rental company Melpomen has provided the audio kit for Hellfest since its inception in 2006, and, as Melpo has been a big Nexo user for nearly 20 years, the festival has always been Nexo-centric. With STM onboard this year, that meant more headroom and more control than ever before, according to Thierry Tranchant, Melpo's president.

"We have a very good relationship with the festival organisers, so when we explained that we needed STM because it is such a fantastic, powerful system, and it's so easy to rig, they just took our word fo

Japan - For the second year in succession, RCF was chosen to support Japan's Big Beach Festival (BBF) at the Makuhari Seaside Park in Chiba, which this year saw Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) - who performed at the Festival back in 2011- and Basement Jaxx as headliners.

Promoted by Akira Kidoguchi and Masachika Fukui for A-life Entertainment Co. Ltd., rental company Comestock again equipped the three stages with RCF TT+ Touring & Theatre systems to satisfy an audience totalling around 25,000 people.

In addition to the usual armoury of high-powered TT+ line arrays there was a surprise for anyone visiting the party tent known as the 'Disco Balloon'. Six of the new TTP5-A enclosures (three per side) were making their Japanese debut in the Balloon - supplied (as with all the RCF equipment) by the Italian manufacturer's territorial distributors, Ballad Co. Ltd.

Dominated by its newly

South Africa - To commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprising, 16 June, also known as Youth Day, is a public holiday in South Africa. Events aimed at young South Africans are held across the country and this year a draw card was a concert by Zakes Bantwini held at the Durban ICC on Friday, 14 June.

Zakes Bantwini returned to his home province for the Upfront with Zakes Bantwini live concert. The show was brought to fans by the Ethekwini Municipality and Mayonie Productions. Black Coffee was commissioned to provide the full technical for the event.

"The only challenge was getting in on that morning - actually at midnight - to set up and be ready for the rehearsals at 2pm," commented Llewellyn Pieters from Black Coffee. "But we planned crew shifts and it all worked out. The gear worked very well and everything was pre-addressed at the workshop and labelled for rig

UK - Cadac has announced an expansion of its marketing team with the creation of dedicated brand marketing and brand development positions, and the appointment of James Godbehear and Richard 'Fez' Ferriday, respectively, to these positions; both men having formerly held the same positions for a considerable length of time at Midas/Klark Teknik. The appointments are with immediate effect.

Commenting on appointment of the two industry stalwarts to their new positions within Cadac, managing director David Kan, stated, "We are very excited to welcome two marketing professionals of such exceptional experience and calibre to our expanding team here in our Luton HQ. James and Richard come to us with industry-wide recognised abilities in their respective roles and their appointments provide us with the extended marketing capabilities we require. James and Richard will be especially

USA - Constructed inside the shell of a vacated Boeing Defence Systems plant, Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim, Calif. is centred on a 1,765-seat worship auditorium. A Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system and a MIca line array loudspeaker system were installed here to provide flexible sonic enhancement for Eastside's contemporary worship band and musical events.

In addition to supplying variable acoustics, Constellation also helps lend a sense of small-room intimacy to the teaching segments of senior pastor Gene Appel and others. "The main benefit of Constellation is that we can finesse it. We are not locked into a permanent acoustical decision as we would have been with a fixed acoustical ceiling," says Chris Gille, Eastside's CTO and chief systems engineer.

Gille says Constellation's effect on the room is strikingly apparent at all times. "Just talkin

Denmark - When Elton John played the 10,000-capacity Resenlund Parken in Skive in Denmark's Jutland at the end of June, DPA Soundco decided that its Coda Audio Airline LA12 system would be the perfect solution. The results proved their decision was justified and further cemented their faith in Coda and its products.

DPA Soundco has already been working with Coda for several years and bought the Airline LA12 system because they saw huge potential in Coda's technology, as well as the size, weight, rigging and handling of the system.

"We have been working with it a great deal and we've found out how to make the most of its power and versatility in a large variety of applications," says Ulrik Rasmussen, DPA Soundco project manager and system designer for the Elton John concert. "We're now really confident that it has plenty of potential to compete with the top brand

Russia - D.A.S. Audio continues to forge ahead with its training policy, recently holding two technical seminars in Eastern Europe. Ignacio Chulía, export department area manager and engineering department representatives Eva Argandoña and Joel Damiano made the trip from D.A.S. Audio's headquarters in Spain to share their expertise at the seminars in Russia and Ukraine.

Coinciding with the Moscow Prolight+Sound NAMM 2013 trade show, the first of these seminars was held in collaboration with D.A.S. Audio's Russian distributor LTM Music Company and with the invaluable assistance of company member Victor Petrenko. Eva Argandoña, head of D.A.S. Audio's Department of Sound Projects, kicked off the day by speaking about the different aspects of acoustic and auralization simulations performed during sound installation projects, with an in-depth explanation of the main differences be

France - Every year in 'The City of Light' on the Summer Solstice, hundreds of thousands of revellers enjoy music at stages and buildings set around picturesque Paris locations at the free Fete de la Musique event. Amadeus, based in France, manufacturers of high-end sound reinforcement systems and custom studio speakers, outfitted the EDM stage with live sound at the event for DJ sets by Michael Canitrot, Nico de Andrea, Gregori Klosman and Tristan Garner. Amadeus provided integrated sound reinforcement from stage to audience combining their Amadeus DIVA XL array systems, Amadeus PMX 15 coaxial speaker systems, used as stage monitors and in front-fills, and an exciting new prototype product, the Amadeus MAESTRO subwoofer.

"The Amadeus MAESTRO subwoofer takes a revolutionary step forward in subwoofer technology and design with a unique combination of both low power ha

Europe - Renowned New Zealand theatrical rock act, Starboy, will be touring Eastern and Central Europe this summer with an Allen & Heath compact GLD-80 digital mixer.

Starboy is a large theatrical show, blending a live heavy rock band with classical orchestration, electronic sounds and movie elements, plus dancers, Maori warriors, and pyros, lights and lasers. Consequently, production demands for the tour are high, made more complex by the logistical complexity of being based in New Zealand.

"For us to tour without a digital console would mean travelling with about 30U of outboard gear, which was totally impractical and very expensive for an independent band. After investigating everything in the market, we settled on the GLD-80 because the convenience of using audio over Ethernet was so much more practical than anything else out there," explains chief engineer, Stu

UK - When the Rolling Stones arrived at London's Hyde Park on 6 July to perform the first of two concerts at the AEG-Barclaycard British Summer Time 10-day season, they were safe in the knowledge that their glorious oeuvre of classic rock favourites would reach the 65,000 or so fans situated in proximity of any of the ten delay towers courtesy of an Optocore redundant fibre distribution system.

Capital Sound had been awarded the sound reinforcement contract by promoters AEG Live/Loud Sound - Royal Parks' new tenant - and the London-based production company deployed the Optocore system that they purchased in 2011 for the Take That Progress Live stadium tour - supplemented by a further eight newly-acquired XR6-FX converters.

Capital Sound technical manager, Ian Colville, said he had no hesitation in specifying this solution to set up the transmission ring covering around

UK - Rick Wakeman and his English Rock Ensemble recently performed two special shows with the 65-piece Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra and the Gloucester Cathedral Choir, which saw an array of Audio-Technica AT2020 and AT2031 microphones used for brass and woodwind duties.

The Rick Wakeman Ultimate Experience shows featured more than 90 artists on stage performing selections from Wakeman's best-loved albums - The Myths And Legends of King Arthur, Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and The Six Wives Of Henry VIII - at The Centaur venue at Cheltenham racecourse.

Front-of-house engineer Ian Barfoot has worked with Wakeman for nearly 30 years and is full of praise for Audio-Technica's budget-friendly 20 Series models.

"I use the AT2020s exclusively for brass," he explains, "I'm not usually a fan of large diameter capsules for live work bu

New Zealand - The principal venue of Aotea Centre in New Zealand, the ASB Theatre has installed a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system as part of its recent renovation. By subtly augmenting the theatre's reverberant characteristics, Constellation creates an immersive acoustic atmosphere and enhances the audience's sense of envelopment.

The 2,068-seat hall's original acoustics were optimized for amplified events. To provide acoustics that support ASB's orchestral and operatic performances, principal consultant Chris Day of Marshall Day Acoustics specified a balanced approach blending both structural and active electronic solutions.

On the structural side, Day added new side and overhead hardwood reflector panels and parquet flooring. To provide the ideal acoustic support for classical music, ASB decided against the cost-prohibitive option, which required raising the ceilin

UK - Funktion-One and three of its rental network partners delivered audio solutions to Sonic, Arcadia, and WOW at the UK's biggest festival, continuing a relationship that began during Glastonbury's formative moments in the early 1970s.

Audio Plus worked closely with Funktion-One to design an audio spec for Sonic, which presented some unusual challenges. Audio Funktion made sure that the aural spectacle matched the visual extravaganza at Arcadia. And Audio X supplied the sound to WOW, which, like Sonic, formed part of the Silver Hayes area.

Sonic was built by Silver Stage, using its SaddleSpan modular truss framework. Structured in a three-pronged-shape - essentially a Y with a short stem - it presented an intriguing space for festival goers and a rather challenging environment for the audio specialists. Tony Andrews worked with Audio Plus' owner Stefan Imhof and project mana

Canada - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of Erikson Commercial as its authorized distributor for Canada.

Erikson Commercial distributes products covering audio and video solutions as well as system control and automation throughout Canada. Erikson Commercial is a division of JAM Industries, which has been distributing audio, lighting, and music equipment in Canada for over 40 years.

In addition to office and warehouse space in Montreal, QC, Erikson Commercial has a dedicated sales rep force calling on retailers and commercial sound installers as well as multimedia system integrators across Canada. With in-house marketing, sales, service and parts departments, Erikson Commercial's strategy is to offer dealers and system contractors products and services above and beyond current market efforts.

"We are excited to be part of the Community

UK - A revolutionary sound system and reoriented stage provided the winning recipe for the AEG-Barclaycard British Summer Time festival at London's Hyde Park, as Bon Jovi and the Rolling Stones kicked off the ten-day season.

Historically dogged by offsite noise pollution, this led to neighbourhood complaints and the need to reduce sound levels on site - meaning that the audience couldn't hear the performances. And so new tenants AEG/Loud Sound adopted Martin Audio's Multi-Cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) system to help solve the problem.

Knowing that its advance level of control would be the only scientifically proven system capable of maintaining an offsite level beneath the stipulated 75dB(A) threshold, there was the equal confidence of being able to raise the levels up by as much as 6dB from previous years to around 100dB(A) within the audience area, ensuring that the entir

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