USA - Beyoncé was not the only one who broke records at the 65th annual Grammy Awards that took place last week in Los Angeles. Austrian Audio mics have been a staple at previous Grammy Awards, but this year they broke their own record. Twelve OC818s and 12 CC8s mics were used on stage, primarily to record the drum kits for the performing acts that night.
Michael Abbott, the chief engineer and sound designer of the Grammy Awards, has been relying on Austrian Audio quality for years. He and his team of engineers have always been impressed on how the hand-made mics from Vienna cover the drums. In such a widely broadcast event, quality and reliability are key.
Handmade in Vienna, the OC818 is a multi-pattern dual-output condenser microphone equipped with a world’s first: optional wireless control, while its sibling – the OC18, is a cardioid pattern precision micropho

USA - For Modest Mouse’s recent Lonesome Crowded West Tour, FOH Engineer Peter Thompson utilised Soundcraft audio control solutions.
Founded in Issaquah, Washington by singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green and bassist Eric Judy, Modest Mouse is an influential indie rock band. While best known for their crossover hit Float On, the band has built a reputation for experimentation and overhauling their sound across every album, evolving from a post-grunge trio of high schoolers to a five-to-seven-piece band of violins, horns and percussionists.
For long-time fans, however, the band’s sophomore album The Lonesome Crowded West - a ramshackle collection of songs about the struggle for self-understanding in an increasingly urbanized, consumer-driven and chaotic world -remains their definitive work to this day.
To celebrate the album’s

USA - Weekends With Adele, her residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which comprises a five-month series of weekend-night shows between November 2022 and March of this year, is the next step in a singular career. Presenting Adele in an immersive-audio environment for the first time, and DiGiCo - in the form of two Quantum7 consoles supplied by Brit Row/Clair Global -are there with her to ‘assure a fantastic and flawless show’.
In true Vegas style, it’s a big show, says Dave Bracey, who has worked and toured with Adele for much of the last 10 years, after stints with Depeche Mode and the Cure in the 1990s, and later with Robbie Williams, Björk, Massive Attack, and P!NK, among others. Ten weeks into the weekends-only schedule they haven’t yet had to move out to let the venue be used by another production during their breaks, but he estimates that

Spain - Following a successful year, Wharfedale Pro celebrated its extensive network of global distributors at an awards ceremony preceding Integrated Systems Europe 2023. The event was held on 30 January at the Barcelona Experience Centre, a venue created by Wharfedale Pro and their Spanish distributor Kinson specifically for the purpose of demoing Wharfedale Pro gear.
Over 40 Wharfedale Pro distributors attended the event, representing many countries from across the world - a testament to the brand's global reach. This event, complete with keynote speeches from Wharfedale Pro team members, brought together the company’s extensive family of distributors.
“It was rewarding that so many of our distribution partners and friends were able to make the journey to Terrassa and their support was invaluable,” says Wharfedale pro sales director, Simon Godfrey. “The pur

Mexico - Martin Audio has reorganised its distribution set-up in Mexico, appointing NTX Distribution specifically to handle the installation sector. Equally, sister company Optimal Audio also forms part of the new agreement to supplement the offering specifically towards commercial installation and small to medium multi-zoned venues.
Confirming the appointment, Berenice Gutiérrez, founder and CEO of Proactive LATAM, who represent the two brands in Latin America and the Caribbean, stressed that negotiations had been conducted independently. “The move is highly significant for Martin Audio, as having had only one distribution partner for so long we can now focus on the important fixed installation market via NTX,” she stated. “But each brand has something different to offer and addresses markets not necessarily covered by other products in the NTX portfolio.”
Th

USA - Just outside the bustling Houston metropolis lies St. Mary Magdalene Catholic church. The church was established in 1912 and would hold Mass in the homes of its parishioners until a sanctuary was built and consecrated in 1915. Now home to a thriving congregation, St. Mary Magdalene conducts seven worship services each weekend, and its sanctuary supports up to 1200 people.
Stained glass windows depicting the 14 Stations of the Cross flank the sides, while an altar featuring an ornate carving of the Last Supper dominates the dais. The high-peaked, wood-panelled ceiling and other hard surfaces combined with an underpowered audio system resulted in low speech intelligibility, making it difficult for churchgoers to understand the worship service. Steerable loudspeaker arrays from Renkus-Heinz were installed in the church to improve intelligibility and enhance worship experi

Australia - Melbourne Catholic secondary college St Peter’s recently opened a new performing arts centre, designed by international theatre consultancy Schuler Shook. Located alongside its Clyde North campus in the south-east of the city, the Geode Centre features a full complement of pro-level AV technology solutions designed and integrated by local supplier/installer Factory Sound, including a Nexo Geo M12 line array system.
Working closely with St Peter’s College, the team at Factory Sound were brought in early within the design process to evolve a technical fitout which would serve the school’s intentions for the space whilst ensuring budgets were always under consideration. Working directly for the school over the 18 months prior to construction meant many of the pitfalls which can occur when tech is considered ‘just another trade’ were avoided entirely. Facto

USA - First Baptist Church Woodstock (FBCW) is no stranger to major undertakings. Spanning three centuries, the church’s current 16,000-member congregation worship in a 7,500-seat worship centre in its 435,000sq.ft building on an 80-acre campus in the North Georgia town of Woodstock twice each Sunday.
Last year, FBCW notably became the site of the world’s largest permanent installation of L-ISA immersive sound technology, which is paired with DiGiCo Quantum338 consoles at front of house and monitors. Now, the church has embraced immersive mixing in the house and in the ears with its December addition of a DMI-KLANG module, supplied by the church’s integration partner, Diversified.
FBCW’s monitoring landscape is certainly an ambitious one. Every Sunday, there are two completely distinct worship experiences. The first, starting at 9:30am, is choir-driven with a s

World - Genelec is marking its 45th anniversary this year by launching the Genelec 45 World Tour, which celebrates ‘truthful sound and the passion that powers it’. The extensive tour combines demonstrations of Genelec studio monitors with a programme of learning and listening experiences, complemented by a major global music collaboration.
Central to the tour is the Genelec | Experience series of premium events, which includes face-to-face listening sessions at Genelec’s growing international network of Experience Centres, complemented by hybrid and virtual events, regional partner events and traditional trade shows. The Genelec | Experience will not only provide an opportunity for customers to audition Genelec’s studio monitors, but will also allow customers to learn about and experience a wide range of Genelec stereo and immersive loudspeaker systems in a controll

Norway - The story of Hitler’s first defeat in the Second World War is depicted in the new Netflix film, Narvik. This is named after the small town in Northern Norway where the Norwegian army and the Allies fought and won the first battle against Germany.
The world premiere was held in Narvik itself with a big outdoor cinema especially created in the town square, which was free for everyone. The realism of the battle, and the associated sound effects, were authentically captured by a Martin Audio Wavefront Precision line array deployment in 5.1 surround, in a completely unique and unprecedented production.
Stein Hjertholm from the event production company All-In, originally contacted Thomas Nordvik Olsen from Audiolight in Harstad and he, in turn, asked if Øystein Wierli, head of sound at Atendi, Martin Audio’s Norwegian distributor, could act as consultant

UK - Audiologic has detailed their work with ABC AV to launch a new permanent space themed immersive experience at The National Space Centre. Prepared to launch on a low Earth orbit cruise with Tetrastar Spaceport, visitors accidentally find themselves on a rescue mission to Mars. The team must work together to retrieve important research, survive disaster, and escape back to Earth.
Tetrastar Spaceport combines immersive theatre, actors, realistic set design, projection mapping, spatial audio, real-time interactive content, motion seats and hands-on interactives with immersive storytelling.
The 300m2 experience plays out across four main zones with 10 additional themed spaces allowing four concurrent pulses of 20 person groups. 11 projectors, 47 screens, 45 speakers, 50 media servers and computers, and 15k mapped RGBW LED pixels are seamlessly blended into the intricat

Belgium - In a city that’s famous for its breweries, the people of Leuven certainly know how to throw a party. The capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant welcomed in the new year with a free event for 10,000 people in the Oude Markt, featuring DJ sets from a stage in the centre of the square.
With the audience located on both sides, an STM sound system deployed by long-time Nexo rental partner VDB-PA was required to cover two distinct areas. System designer Lennert Van de Velde takes up the story of how the VDB team took on the challenge. “Controlling the coverage and focussing the low frequencies were important at such an event, with strict decibel limits outside the immediate area. So, we used Nexo NS-1 to design the system and predict SPL coverage with a large audience filling the square.
“The system comprised nine STM M28 per side for the

Belgium - Namur Grand Manège Concert Hall recently opened its doors following a major three-year renovation project. The ambitious €20m redesign transformed a historic military riding school into a modern cultural centre featuring an intimate 800-capacity auditorium, made exceptional by its acoustics and soundproofing.
The venue’s AV team had only considered a traditional left/right sound system, but they were so impressed with L-Acoustics’ L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound that the technology has become the centrepiece of the venue’s audio system.
Situated in Namur’s city centre, the renovated Concert Hall hosts two complementary cultural institutions, the Centre of Vocal Art and Ancient Music (CAV&MA) and the Conservatoire Balthasar-Florence de Namur music school. It will also serve as a home for the city’s world-renowned ensembles, including the Namu

USA - Over the last weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs again found themselves in the Super Bowl spotlight, with the team’s quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, earning his second career Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) title. For Shure, the MVPs were the veteran audio engineers and sound technicians who managed the broadcasts of Super Bowl LVII and NFL Honours with the support of Axient Digital Wireless Systems and PSM 1000 Advanced In-Ear Personal Monitoring Systems, which delivered flawless audio to a record-setting 113m viewers worldwide.
ATK Audiotek and Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) handled all wireless microphones and IEM systems for the pre-game entertainment, halftime entertainment and referees, as well as the NFL Honours broadcast. The team included broadcast mixer Tom Holmes, monitor mixer Tom Pesa, RF engineers Cameron Stuckey, Kasey Gchachu, and Gary Trenda,

UK - JLLighting and JLLive are joining together under one single brand identity and comprehensive offering. JLL will be a ‘one stop shop’ full-service technical production partner.
JLLighting was founded in 2009, adding JLLive as a second arm to the business in order to expand the services the team could offer event agencies, in-house corporates and exhibition clients in 2020.
JLL has built long-standing relationships with a list of brands, including most of the major television production companies in the UK, as well as event agencies and corporates to execute live events to and support their corporate film needs. These have included BBC, ITV, Pico+, Amazon Prime Video, MCI, The Walt Disney Company, Netflix, 2Heads, Toucan, YouTube, RenewableUK, Financial Times, GES and Spiro and countless more. This has allowed JLL to complete projects across the length and bre

UK - Long serving director of operations at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Mike Bradford, has joined Push The Button (PTB) as chief operating officer. Mike has been at the Birmingham Hippodrome for 21 Years and before that worked at Alton Towers as technical manager.
PTB managing director, Nick Ewins, says, “Looking ahead into 2023 and beyond, I am keen to ensure that we have the best possible standards in our business systems and operations which Mike will deliver. Mike’s arrival will also allow me to continue working with our customers, designing and delivering projects as PTB continues to grow.”
Mike adds, “I’ve worked with Nick and the team at PTB for more than two decades now, so I understand the business and I am delighted to be able to bring my experience to the company.”

USA - Michael Grabarczyk is a freelance audio technician and an early adopter of Outline’s Newton FPGA-based processor. In recent years he has handled system tech duties for US guitarist Joe Bonamassa, working with Mike Lavielle at FOH and an L-Acoustics K2 system provided by SES (Special Event Services).
Bonamassa spends a great deal of time on the road and plays a wide range of venues, from large outdoor spaces to venues such as London’s Royal Albert Hall, to ‘blues cruises’ on ships and even club dates in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, presenting a continuous range of challenges to his sound crew.
Michael reports, “The Newton has replaced multiple other units, both in my drive rack at FOH and in amp racks, to accomplish all the same processes in a 1RU rack device. The functionality and I/O in such a small package is seriously impressive
“Given the vas

USA - Joining its portfolio of integration solutions, EAW has announced its MKC Series 2-Way Coaxial Loudspeakers. Available in four models - MKC50, MKC60, MKC80 and MKC120 - this new line delivers consistent tonality for a variety of applications, even at higher output levels. Combined with the companion UXA4401 and UXA4403 amps, as well as its versatile accessories, MKC acts as a flexible tool to help audio designers ‘provide exceptional sound for any venue’.
With various ways to configure and deploy each model, system designers and consultants will have a choice of solutions for multiple applications. From restaurants and bars, to houses of worship and performing arts centres, the MKC line is suitable for audio professionals who want to provide quality audio in small- and medium-sized spaces. The additional monitoring capabilities of the MKC50 and MKC60, as well as t

Europe - US loudspeaker manufacturer 1 Sound had their global exhibition debut this season at ISE Barcelona. One of their primary goals was to build their international distribution and dealer network.1 Sound’s Leonardo D’Andrea, EMEA sales executive, previously approached More Distribution, an A/V distributor in The Netherlands and demonstrated the wide range of 1 Sound’s line of loudspeakers over the course of several days at their facility in Italy. He took the opportunity at ISE to invite More Distribution to make the distribution agreement official.
More Distribution specialises in professional audio, lighting, and video sales to professional AV companies, theatres and systems integrators, with a targeted service approach, tailored to each sector. They are a distributor for leading brands like Optocore, Glensound and Soundtools and dealer for Allen & Heath, DP

Europe - Pan Acoustics has announced that Acoustic Control Systems (ACS) based in Garderen, Netherlands will become a marketing partner in Benelux.
“ACS joined the Pan Acoustics family in April 2022 and is now a part of the Pan Acoustics group of companies. With over 35 years of experience in electroacoustic design in highest performing environments like operas, concert halls and multi-purpose buildings ACS brings a vast knowledge to the table. This will be a great benefit to all of our clients in the Region”, said Johannes Kampert – Head of Global Sales at Pan Acoustics.
As a Pan Acoustics company ACS will work as the extended arm of Pan Acoustics in the region and will support customers with system designs, demos and technical support and sales. Effective immediately the products will be available from ACS directly.
“We are very much looking forward to

UK - Audient has introduced the new 10in / 14out audio interface, iD24. Designed to make recordings better, it slots neatly between the iD14 and the more recently launched iD44 in terms of functionality, and boasts the much coveted audio performance and feature set associated with the iD range .
Andy Allen from Audient says, “iD24 is made with producers and engineers in mind. We’ve combined astonishing audio performance with ease of use whilst providing more features aimed at professionals such as balanced inserts, ADAT expandability and customizable monitor control.”
iD24 features two Audient Console Mic Preamps, which - as with every iD interface - are the same discrete circuit design as those found in the flagship ASP8024-HE console. The class leading converters utilise 32-bit DAC converter technology which deliver a massive 126dB of dynamic range. “We want

Australia - When Lane and Candice Place, owners of Pro AV rental house 65Thirty Events & Entertainment in Western Australia were looking to upgrade the company’s wireless intercom inventory, they contacted industry expert Steve Parkins from National Audio Systems (NAS), a distributor of professional audio and video brands. Steve recommended Pliant Technologies MicroCom 900XR wireless intercom for its ease-of-use and reliability.
65Thirty’s clients include local and touring bands, concerts, conferences, and festivals that take place in and around the picturesque coastal area. Having reliable, high-quality equipment is essential to the success of their business, as the nearest large city (Perth) is over 250 miles away.
“We had been considering upgrading our intercoms for some time and when Steve (Parkins) came out and demonstrated Pliant’s MicroCom 900 XR, we

USA - Alpha Sound’s reputation for designing and installing Nexo systems that bring clear, intelligible sound to traditional and historic liturgical spaces continues to spread as news arrives of the Salem, OR-based company’s latest work across the country in Greenville, South Carolina.
Following successful installations at St Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland and, more recently, at the Mount Angel Abbey monastery in St. Benedict, Oregon, governors of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church and School invited Alpha’s lead engineer Devin Sheets out to Greenville to evaluate a sound system that had proved unsatisfactory since being installed when the church was built back in 2016, and advise on how it could be improved.
“The existing system wasn’t performing well at all,” reports Devin. “Speech at the back of the church was completel

USA - For several decades, interdenominational campus ministry outreach Student Mobilization has hosted its StuMo Conference (SMC) at the start of each year as an opportunity for college students on winter break to deepen their faith and friendships.
For SMC 2023, held at Frisco’s Comerica Centre from 2-5 January, more than 3,000 young adults from across the country converged in Texas to sing, learn, pray, and commune. Throughout the four-day event, AVL provider Relevant Audio + Visual of Wichita, Kansas, sonically reinforced the conference with its new L-Acoustics K2 system, ensuring that those in attendance missed neither a word nor a note.
Although 2023 marked the tenth year that Relevant has provided production for SMC, it served as the company’s first opportunity to deploy its own K2 rig for the client, having invested in the loudspeakers just last year. “We

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