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Fair Pay - Apple Music reversed its payment policy, a day after the singer Taylor Swift said she was refusing to allow the company to stream her album 1989. In an open letter to Apple, Swift said she was withholding the record as she was unhappy with the three-month free trial offered to subscribers. Now Apple says it will pay artists for music streamed during trial periods. Swift had said the plan was "unfair", arguing Apple had the money to cover the cost. "I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company. "We don't ask you for free iPhones. Please don't ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation."

Olympic Achievement - The International Olympic Committee will receive an award at IBC2015 for its work on conserving and managing its audiovisual archives. The awar

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Switzerland - Merging Technologies reports that sales of its Hapi Networked Audio Interface have topped 400 in 11 months; rapidly catching its father, the Horus with sales in excess of 600 since 2012. Both units are fully AES67 compliant but with the added features and functionality afforded by Ravenna.

Hapi is no lightweight except for its compact 1U form factor. In addition to having the Ravenna I/O count, eight AES/EBU plus eight ADAT or two SPDIF is standard. An optional MADI card will make Hapi into an AES67 to MADI converter with one slot left for analogue I/O.

You don't have to be a Pyramix user or a Ravenna enthusiast to enjoy the advanced features that Hapi offers. The CoreAudio and ASIO drivers allow any DAW to connect to the RAVENNA network and the superior I/O performance can become part of whatever DAW set up is used. Pro Tools user and Lady Gaga engineer, Dave Ru

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South Korea - The quality and capacity of South Korea's hotel, shopping, seminar and conferencing facilities is increasingly highly-regarded on an international level. Leading operator Amway Korea has been a significant contributor to this upward trajectory for many years, and with the recent addition of a Plaza complex in the Gangseo District of Seoul it now has 14 multi-use sites to its credit throughout the country.

AV distributor and installer Sound Solution was engaged to provide suitably reliable and robust audio processing and distribution for Amway Plaza Gangseo, covering multiple seminar rooms and conference spaces. "The principal requirement for this project was to create an optimal acoustical environment by high quality digital audio processing, and it was this need that led us to consider the use of DSPs from Symetrix - a brand that we have used successfully on

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UK - Singer-songwriter Ben Howard's UK tour is keeping rental company Nitelites on its toes; with a band full of studio engineers, there really is no room for error. "It's good for us, because it keeps us sharp," says Nitelites' director Andy Magee, who has chosen a substantial L-Acoustics system to deliver the quality of audio his artists demand."

Following his sold out UK tour in November and December, taking in venues such as London's Brixton Academy and Manchester's O2 Apollo, Howard completed a successful UK arena tour in April, with three nights at London's Alexandra Palace, Birmingham's NIA, Glasgow's SSE Hydro and Cardiff's Motorpoint Arena on the schedule.

The team at Nitelites met with tour production manager Chris Pollard, and it was agreed that an L-Acoustics K2 system would satisfy the criteria for nearly all the venues on the December tour.

"

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UK - Adlib has carried out a sound and lighting installation for Manchester Met Student Union (MMU's) new SU Hall - designing a flexible and integrated Harman Professional solution for a multitude of audio reinforcement duties.

Adlib was awarded the contract for the new £10m MMU SU Building, which is situated adjacent to the Union's Salutation pub, based on their design recommendations, and the relationship that has developed since the company first started supporting MMU with equipment rental and sales.

Overseen by Adlib's Ian Nelson, the design concept is aimed to maximise multiple use of a building involving a bar, multipurpose entertainment space, admin offices, a shop, café and conferencing facilities. The system will cater for student union events, from comedy and club nights though to conferences and exhibitions, and be able to cope with numerous room layou

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USA - The Manchester Grand Hyatt is Southern California's largest hotel. Its 125,000sq.ft of flexible ballrooms and breakout rooms remain booked without pause. However, that tight schedule, while a blessing in every other respect, became the principle challenge in an extensive renovation of the hotel's AV system. Due to their ease of programming, cost effectiveness and complete flexibility when expanding via Dante, San Diego-based Audio Associates chose a number of Symetrix SymNet Radius 12x8 open architecture networked DSPs and affordable SymNet xIn 12 and SymNet xOut 12 I/O expanders as the audio heart of Manchester Grand Hyatt's new AV system.

"This is a large, multi-phase project," explained Eric Evans, sales engineer at Audio Associates. "Most of the system is up and running, but as the work expands to other floors and other areas, we will be installing more

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UK - Event technical delivery expert FIX8Group has appointed Helen Marenghi as project coordinator.

Helen's role will be predominantly to support FIX8's existing project managers across all current and future events/projects and other company related work. It will also involve implementing and managing various operational processes and software that will help the company manage its time and equipment more efficiently as the company continues its rapid growth.

Helen brings a wealth of experience to FIX8. Her recent roles have included senior events manager at Cuffe and Taylor Ltd and working on prestigious shows such as the Rod Stewart Tour 2014 and Lytham Proms Festival. She has also worked as assistant video and graphics producer for WorldWide Shows (WWS) on the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Closing and Paralympic Opening Ceremonies and lighting and content viewing room assistant

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USA/Germany - Funktion-One has delivered upgrades to sound systems at four iconic venues - Cielo and Output in New York, Beta in Denver and Berghain in Berlin. The four nightclubs have benefitted from an intensive period of R&D that has enabled Funktion-One to take product performance to new levels.

The loudspeaker manufacturer's latest development is having a positive impact on owners, operators and their clientele. Company founder, Tony Andrews, reveals, "Funktion-One's continuous quest for fidelity has led to a breakthrough in cone stabilisation, almost eliminating diaphragm breakup and its associated non-linear acoustic behaviour."

All four venues are united by their focus on sound quality. Owner of Cielo and Output, Nicolas Matar, highlights: "Output and Cielo are 100% driven by audio quality and are renown worldwide as such."

Beta's executive direct

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UK- Hire company Richmond Film Services has invested in a DPA d:dicate 4041-SP condenser microphone, making it one of only two companies in the UK to own this product.

Designed to work in a standard 48V phantom power environment, the d:dicate 4041-SP offers a totally transparent audio path with a low noise floor. With a one-inch diaphragm, this microphone is the largest product in DPA's extensive range.

Nigel Woodford, owner and founder of Richmond Film Services, says: "I bought the DPA d:dicate 4041-SP to satisfy a request from a customer who wanted to use it for Foley work. It was teamed with a Nagra Seven recorder, which has sufficiently high quality mic pre-amps to do it justice. Apart from Foley work, I can see a future for it in capturing vocals, particularly in the studio, where its low noise floor and very high SPL handling, will make it a very popular choice.&quo

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UK - "It's a voice that's so distinctive and familiar. You don't even need to see him. The minute Al Pacino steps on stage and utters his first word you are instantly transported to any number of characters he has played. For me it was Michael Corleone in the Godfather: softly spoken, and with that stillness the camera loves, he conveyed enormous power." No wonder Front of House engineer Chris 'Privet' Hedge was excited. "I have to say I was as nervous doing this as any of the big rock and pop shows I regularly do, certainly more nervous than I have been in a long while."

The event was three live interviews with Al Pacino staged in Dublin, Glasgow and London theatres. Britannia Row Productions was responsible for the sound, drafting in the deft hand of Hedge to manage the show. As director Bryan Grant said at the time, "This was an unusual challenge and

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South Africa / Poland - Johannesburg-based Surgesound and Polish distributor Soundtrade recently undertook successful roadshows across their respective countries to introduce Powersoft's new X-Series, with its worldwide compatible three phase power supply and advanced channel routing system.

Headed by Surgesound MD, Andrew Rowan, and technical product manager, Ruan Joubert, the tour started in Bloemfontein and travelled through Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban before finishing in Johannesburg. Supporting the event from the manufacturer was Sound School Trainer and Powersoft sound engineer, Luigi Chelli.

The sessions were attended mainly by touring, production companies and consultants who were eager to see whether X Series lived up to its claim. Explaining their approach, Andrew Rowan said, "Although we used conference facilities in the major cities, a lo

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USA - Legendary FOH engineer 'Big Mick' Hughes, who has mixed more than 1,500 Metallica shows over three decades, is confirmed as a guest speaker on the Meyer Sound Mixing Workshop webinar series. Hughes will be joining programme host and veteran mixer Buford Jones.

In the webinar, Hughes will share his lessons from mixing Metallica, the evolution of his techniques, as well as his approach to selecting equipment from consoles and microphones to loudspeaker systems. An open Q&A will be available for attendees' questions.

The Mixing Workshops take place Wednesday 1 July and Thursday 2 July.To attend these sessions, sign up for free here:

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Martin Audio technology partners, Complete Audio recently fielded their premier MLA PA system when the Casper 'Castival' tour - a series of six open air festival type shows in Germany - arrived at the Kindl Bühne Wuhlheide in Berlin (where Complete Audio are based).

"We are supporting the entire Castival Tour - but only with lights, rigging, FOH and monitor desk - the PA systems are usually locally provided," explained Complete Audio MD, André Rauhut. "So basically [in Berlin] we were the local sound provider for our own tour production."

The venue represents a challenge since the measurement point for the local authorities is right behind the FOH position, on top of the bleachers, he notes. "It is always a bit tricky to achieve high SPL levels and then drop down on the top of the audience area in order to get good results at the meas

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UK - FOH sound engineer, John Delf, has spent the past few years working with a succession of leading artists, ranging from Plan B to the Script and The Feeling - while maintaining his own Edge recording studios in Manchester. During that time he has never been far from Soundcraft's Vi platform as his digital console of choice.

But back in 2012 he also added another rising band to his portfolio when he joined Australian band 5 Seconds of Summer as FOH engineer and tour manager, as they embarked on a two-year arena and stadium world tour supporting One Direction. In just under two years the band played live in front of over four million people.

In between, the band undertook their own theatre headline tours, before this year graduating to a sold-out 70-date headline arena tour. For the theatre dates opted for the Soundcraft Vi4 with Realtime Rack. But on this latest arena tour

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Sweded - Lab.gruppen has announced the release of version 1.2.0 of CAFÉ (Configuring Amplifiers For the Environment), incorporating new features for system design and commissioning of the company's PLM+ and D Series amplifier platforms using either Windows or Mac computers.

Ease of use has been enhanced with added help sections at the top of each view together with tool tips for all fields. Also, the user interface now supports use of imperial units on cable lengths and in other parameters.

CAFÉ's ESP (Equipment Specification Prediction) feature, which helps system designers move from specified loudspeakers to an optimal selection of amplifiers throughout the system, has been greatly improved with this second generation release. The Automap algorithm in ESP has been updated for more logical leveling out of headroom throughout the system, and the channel sorting h

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UK - Definition Audio Visual has completed an audio installation at the Marriott Hotel, Trevelyan Square, Leeds to upgrade existing audio-visual equipment in the hotel ballroom. The upgrade includes localised control and localised input options for the installed audio system in the main ballroom in addition to a centralised system located in the control room.

The ballroom at the Marriott Hotel is a multi-function event room at the hotel which can be used as a single room or divided into three separate rooms, Ambler 1, Ambler 2 and Ambler 3 with the use of partitions. The division of the room requires the ability to treat the rooms as three separate, one single or any combination of audio zones, both as far as audio control and localised inputs of audio sources and radio microphones are concerned, to maximise the flexibility of the function room for the hotel.

Mark Blackwell of

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Canada - The AES has announced Meyer Sound's director of system optimization, Bob McCarthy, as the keynote speaker for the 59th International AES Conference at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, taking place July 15-17, 2015, with an emphasis on sound reinforcement engineering and technology.

Known as an international authority on sound system design and optimization, McCarthy is also an educator and published author. His keynote speech, Sound Systems Tuning and Optimization Made Simple and Affordable, will take place on the first day of the Conference, Wednesday, 15 July at 2:00 PM.

McCarthy has been a pivotal figure in the development of all three generations of Meyer's Source Independent Measurement system (SIM) and a leading educator in sound system measurement and tuning. McCarthy's book, Sound Systems: Design and Optimization (Focal Press), is considere

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Denmark - Pascal has announced the launch of its new T-PRO Series amplifier modules, a dedicated design - optimized for ultra-compact high SPL integrated power applications - including asymmetrically rated 2-way power channels.

T-PRO is designed to fulfil specific requirements for ever more compact high powered speaker cabinets, and for integration within low profile applications such as sub bass cabinets and other compact amplifier components. The series boasts a unique feature set and ultra-compact form factor, relative to its power ratings.

The T-PRO2's 500 W + 150 W two channel asymmetrical power rating is configured for high performance 2-way loudspeakers in this power range. While, at just 42 mm high, the 500 W single channel T-PRO1 is intended for applications where a low assembly profile is required or preferred, such as compact hi-fi amplifiers or other AV system comp

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Poland - The National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra has recently moved into new premises in Katowice. The NOSPR originally purchased Pyramix with a Sphynx DSD converter in 2005. A decision was made in 2011 to continue with Pyramix despite pressures to change. The impressive new building provided the perfect opportunity to increase the investment in Merging equipment by adding Horus units and more Pyramix units. Furthermore, to increase the productivity, two 8 fader Smart AV Tango 2 units were added to the installation.

The new recording/editing studios use two complete RAVENNA networked systems with two Horus units fitted with 32 inputs with AD8DP cards and 16 analogue outputs with DA8P - one installed in a server room and the second in a mobile rack for local and outside recordings. Two Pyramix MassCore 128 DAWs for PCM as well as DSD/DXD sessions, two Tango 2 controllers and

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians 2015 Theatre Awards took place on 24 June alongside the Stage Management Association's National Awards, after the first day of the ABTT Theatre Show in its new London home, Alexandra Palace.

The experienced jury for the ABTT Awards, comprising of working practitioners and industry peers, judged nominations meeting the entry criteria that had been previously submitted or which were brought to their attention on the day.

Commenting on the event, ABTT CEO Robin Townley said, "The Awards ceremony held in the Londesborough Room was a great event to round off the first day of the ABTT Theatre Show.

"Held at Alexandra Palace for the first time, the ABTT Theatre Show was very pleased to host the presentation of both the ABTT Theatre Awards and the SMA National Stage Management Awards.

"A great atmosphere in the Lon

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Australia - Brisbane City Hall is one of the city's best-loved performance and meeting spaces. The building was comprehensively restored between 2009 and 2013 at a cost of $215m.

In June 2014, seeking a system that could improve sound in the circular, reverberant space, a tender was issued. Australian L-Acoustics distributor Hills and systems integrator Con-Sol worked with L-Acoustics to propose a solution that would not only address the challenging acoustics, but also fit within the restriction guidelines of the main rigging points. The L-Acoustics solution was selected after a comprehensive evaluation process that included a full system demonstration with independent system measurements and listening tests.

"The tender was very specific about the type of system that was required and also imposed very strict restrictions on the rigging of the main speaker arrays, with th

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USA - Bose Professional has broadened its FreeSpace amplifier line with a set of four dual-channel amplifiers optimised for premium commercial applications such as retail, restaurants and hospitality. There are two mixer amplifiers (IZA 2120-HZ, IZA 2120-LZ) and two expansion amplifiers (ZA 2120-HZ, ZA 2120-LZ) each at 120 watts per channel. FreeSpace amplifiers can be quickly configured without a PC, enabling each installation to be customised easily and intuitively. In addition, FreeSpace amplifiers offer a range of models and features to enhance any audio installation using Bose FreeSpace loudspeakers, says the company.

The IZA models include an integrated audio DSP providing Bose loudspeaker EQ, Bose Dynamic EQ, Opti-voice paging/ducking, audio mixing/routing, bass/treble adjustments, remote control options and an auto standby feature. The ZA models support sound system expa

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USA - Twenty years after its founding by a handful of dedicated families, Redeemer Church celebrated the completion of a new 16,000sq.ft sanctuary, fellowship hall, and classroom complex in its hometown of Riverview, Florida, a suburb of Tampa.

Midway through the design phase, local A/V integration firm Christian Sound Installation (CSI) picked the project up when another firm folded, taking the best elements of the existing work and tweaking it for increased integration, impact, and functionality. Based on past success and a proven record of reliability, CSI specified Ashly Audio network-ready processors and amplifiers, which, together with an Ashly WR-5 remote control, gives the church reliability, great sound quality, and the ability to conduct full, audio-engineered services or smaller, auto-mixed events, such as weddings or funerals.

Inputs to the system include a large c

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South Africa - Wild & Marr, one of Southern Africa's forerunners in the distribution and installation of professional sound equipment, will be exhibiting at Africa's largest media and entertainment technology trade show. Mediatech Africa takes place at the Dome at Northgate from 15 to 17 July 2015.

Wild & Marr has developed their expertise into various professional audio and AV integration markets and are keen to showcase their quality brands incorporating some innovative technologies and to share product knowledge.

"We are excited to be part of Mediatech as it creates a fantastic opportunity to highlight and demonstrate what type of product applications our brand portfolio offers," Says Andrew Sorrill, sales and marketing manager at Wild & Marr. "It also allows us to network with various professionals in the industry and with the people behind the brand."<

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  2. d&b expands installation systems at InfoComm 2015
  3. ISE adds two new board members
  4. Adlib enjoys 5 Seconds of Summer
  5. MLA magic down in the woods
  6. Dante drives Immersive 3D audio experiences
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