Germany - Fibre network specialist, Optocore, has announced the appointment of Márton ‘Marci’ Sós, as its new technical support engineer, with immediate effect.
Sós, who will take up the same role with sister company, BroaMan, hails from Budapest and is multi-lingual. He has wide experience in both system integration and sound engineer roles within the theatre world and as a freelance, and is proficient on many industry leading digital platforms, including Optocore partner DiGiCo, as well as Focusrite Pro and Dynacord.
Of his appointment, he says, “I met Optocore’s former support team a short time ago and was impressed with their immense level of knowledge, so I know I have big shoes to fill. The challenge therefore is to move into the role seamlessly so that clients don’t notice the personnel change.”
He says the move to the German company is a lo

USA - Audinate has announced the immediate availability of Dante Domain Manager version 1.2. This new version improves how AV and IT managers use and maintain their Dante-based AV networks, while supporting a new, more flexible range of purchase options.
All editions of Dante Domain Manager are now expandable to accommodate growing needs for Dante nodes or Dante domains and features previously reserved for Platinum customers are now available as add-ons to the Silver and Gold editions. Additionally, the base versions of the Silver and Gold editions now support twice as many nodes right out of the box: Silver now supports 20 Dante nodes, and Gold supports 100 nodes. Additional nodes may be purchased at any time in packs of 20, 50 or 100, and provide additional domains.
“This change helps our customers get just the right size Dante Domain Manager package with flexibili

USA - Harman Professional Solutions has introduced six new products that address today’s meeting and lecture spaces, utilising software-based conferencing platforms like Zoom and Teams as well as meet many capture, switching or window processing needs.
The debut includes four new Precis PR-Series matrix switchers supporting up to eight sources and eight outputs, the new Precis PR-WP-412 windowing processor to dynamically window up to four sources, and the new UVC1-4K HDMI to USB 3.0 capture device. Whether used individually or together, these products ensure incredibly impactful collaboration at a powerfully competitive price point.
Suitable for affordable yet beautiful video routing in small to medium installations, the new Precis PR-Series Matrix Switchers are available in four configurations - 4x2, 6x2, 4x4 and 8x8. All models include best-in-class capabilities

UK - Recently launched UK manufacturer Optimal Audio has announced the appointment of distributors in China, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Optimal Audio, part of the Focusrite Group, manufactures a one-stop solution of control, amplification and loudspeakers for small to medium sized commercial installations, with a focus on supporting multi-zoned venues.
Newly established Guangzhou Guidance will distribute the brand in China. With team members who have considerable experience of the Chinese audio industry, the Guangzhou-based company has quickly established a dealer network across the country, and sees big potential in promoting Optimal Audio to the education and conference sector, as well as the broader markets of hospitality and retail.
In Thailand, Bangkok-based ProPlugin is an established company with a strong dealer channel network supported by a varie

UK - Sonosphere, in conjunction with Metropolis Studios, has created a new mix room at its home, the Power House, Chiswick, London. The Munro Acoustics-designed, Dolby certified studio has a centrally located mix position, with comprehensive immersive audio monitoring designed to cater for all surround formats. The control room pursues an ambitious and flexible new ‘hub studio’ approach.
“The plan was to make the studio as versatile as possible,” states Sonosphere commercial director Jamie Gosney. “We started out looking at building a room for podcasting and immersive content creation for games and other VR simulations. However, in terms of the music market, Dolby Atmos is very much the standard. So we decided to ‘have our cake and eat it’, and build a room to fully meet the Atmos specifications: an immersive monitoring environment capable of 11.1.8 Dolby Atmos

UK - Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems has announced the recruitment of Peter Butler and Callum Hall to the posts of business development director and audio sales respectively. For more than 30 years, Pro Audio Systems has supplied professional audio for sales, hire and installation, offering bespoke system design and comprehensive technical support to a wide variety of clients. As the company emerges from the turbulence of the Coronavirus pandemic, demand for its services remains stronger than ever.
Peter Butler joins as business development director in a role dedicated to improving efficiency and profitability, identifying new opportunities in the marketplace, and addressing potentially beneficial additions to the company’s portfolio. Peter began his career in a retail position at JSG music in Bingley. Moving into audio sales and hire at The Music Company (TMC), he enjoye

Poland - A new restaurant in the Polish capital of Warsaw has been equipped throughout with Martin Audio BlacklineX series loudspeakers.
The system was supplied by Phono Media, Martin Audio’s Polish distributor, and installed by High Shine, run by Jakub Ołdak, with whom they have worked closely for many years. The entire AV project was under the specification of AV system designer, Michał Malczyński.
SLA Warsaw is situated right in the heart of the city, and combines restaurant, nightclub (with dancefloor) and cocktail bar. Hence a potent sound system was required as part of an advanced AV solution that would cater for several different scenarios.
“This is an extremely interesting space, with a design which transfers guests from the centre of the city into the heart of the jungle,” say Phono Media. “The most important requirement from the investor was

UK - Ready to Drop is a new sound art installation conceived and created by Orlando Gough and John Del ‘Nero. Inspired by the thousand twangling instruments that hummed around Caliban’s ears in The Tempest, it will be presented at the Brighton Beach Basketball Court over seven nights from 20 - 26 August.
Whilst walking together through Gough’s hometown last year, the two were struck by the energy, joy, competition, and communication of the court and its users, from basketball players to roller skaters. Ready to Drop is their response to this poetry in sound, field recordings of the collective sounds made by people at play on the basketball court and those of the adjacent dingy stand, the wind and the sea, combined with original composition.
The hour-long sound installation will be played on a continuous loop each night, filling the air with

UK - Audiologic worked together with Sound Source AV to deliver a sound system upgrade at the Stockton Parish Church that delivers a well-balanced and personal audio experience for all its attendees.
Built in 1712, Stockton Parish Church prides itself on being a diverse, lively and charismatic church with its attendees and community set at the heart of everything they strive to deliver, led by Minister Mark Miller.
As with many historic and complex buildings, delivering an exceptional audio experience is somewhat a challenge. Stockton Parish Church as a project was no different. With its previous set up, the church suffered audio which was non-uniform throughout the listening area and speech intelligibility was poor due to the acoustics of the space. A level of uniformity was required to ensure all attendees received the same listening experience, no matter where they

Japan - Twenty years ago, the city of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture opened its Cultural & Creative Centre to offer cultural entertainment to locals and tourists. The centre is named Sakura MATE – Sakura, for the cherry blossoms, which are the symbol of Kumagaya, and MATE, for Music, Art, Theatre and Expression.
For two decades, Sakura MATE has hosted a diverse mixture of various traditional and contemporary performances using a sound system that, more and more, became inadequate for the venue. The city turned to Sigma Communications to recommend a sound system upgrade, which took place over three years.
The centre boasts an open-air Wind Theatre, a small Moon Hall, and the principal Sun Hall, which seats a thousand people in its shoebox-shaped auditorium. The multi-story space was built with side and rear balconies to create a sense of unity between performers a

USA - ClearOne has announced the market introduction of its new Versa Mediabar, the company’s first professional quality all-in-one audio and video capture device that combines the ‘simplicity of a soundbar with the power of ClearOne’s intelligent audio capture and 4K camera technologies’.
According to ClearOne chair and CEO Zee Hakimoglu, the Versa Mediabar provides high-quality visual collaboration, audio conferencing, and UC applications from a single integrated device, offering the simplest solution available for offices, conference rooms and home offices with virtually no setup required.
“The number one thing we hear from dealers and customers is that they need video conferencing equipment that looks and sounds excellent but also works right away, every time, without training or troubleshooting. That’s exactly what the Versa Mediabar delivers,” Haki

USA -bStudio Technologies has announced two new party-line (PL) intercom kits that utilise Dante Audio-over-IP networking. These new kits allow customers to purchase a bundle of Studio Technologies intercom products at a reduced price point.
The Party-Line Intercom Kit 1 (DPL-KIT-01) includes a Model 5421 Dante Intercom Audio Engine and four Model 372A Intercom Beltpacks. Party-Line Intercom Kit 2 (DPL-KIT-02) again includes a Model 5421 Dante Intercom Audio Engine but with four Model 373A Intercom Beltpacks. These new offerings enable personnel to easily implement a high-performance, Dante-enabled PL intercom system in fixed and mobile broadcast facilities, post-production studios, commercial and educational theatre environments, industrial, and general entertainment applications.
“We’re pleased to offer our customers a cost-effective means of implementing a small

Israel - The city of Ashdod, one of Israel’s largest international cruise and cargo ports and southern Israel’s only outlet to the Mediterranean, through which much of the country’s citrus crop is exported, hosts a number of industries and a petrol refinery, but excavations have traced this vibrant city’s roots back to the 17th century BC.
Funded by the city’s municipality, Ashdod recently launched Ashdod Lights, a tour enabling visitors to walk round five key locations hosting high-impact AV art installations, including video art projections on buildings and water screens, projection mapping, lighting and laser effects and holograms.
Tel Aviv-headquartered pro audio company Gidron Levitan, Italian manufacturer Outline’s Israeli distributor, was commissioned to provide the audio systems for this high-profile project and company owner, sound engineer and mu

UK - Amplifier manufacturer Marshall has built a recording studio next to their Milton Keynes factory in the UK. “This has been a passion project for the Marshall crew,” said commercial director Alex Coombes, “our ambition was to build a versatile and flexible commercial multimedia facility to serve the modern entertainment market, and at the same time to promote young talent and give something back to the artist and producer community.”
The spacious new-build facility is on the site of an old theatre, adjacent to the Marshall factory. The live room has a stage with lighting and PA, along with an artist green room, bar and reception area – with the large recording control room featuring a 40-channel vintage Neve 8048 console. The self-contained studio has the benefit of ample parking in front and a ready supply of Marshall amps and Natal drums.
Producer Chri

USA - As the coronavirus pandemic took hold in Southern California in early 2020, spatial audio pioneer Herbert Waltl relocated his mediaHyperium operation to a disused music school, where he has outfitted a former recital room with an 18-speaker Neumann KH Line studio monitor system.
The system flexibly switches between Dolby Atmos and Sony 360 Reality Audio immersive music formats without the need to reposition any speakers by combining a 7.1 layout with nine height and three floor-level speakers.
Waltl, an award-winning producer, musician and technology evangelist who founded mediaHyperium in 1996, had been planning to build a new studio before the pandemic. For years he had mostly been working at Skywalker Sound in the Bay Area, for the last five years in partnership with Eric Schilling, a recording engineer and broadcast audio mixer with a long list of Grammy and

USA - After crashing onto the music scene in 2012 and gaining popularity among indie rock enthusiasts, Lord Huron recently released the group’s fourth album, Long Lost. Recorded at Whispering Pines Studios, near downtown Los Angeles, the band has also been working on a live streaming show, Alive From Whispering Pines, also produced at Whispering Pines, and has spent the last four months hyper-focused on its music.
In order to ensure its hard work and musical talent was showcased properly on the album and during its live show, the group turned to DPA Microphones.
According to Mark Barry, drummer and engineer for Lord Huron, he and other members of the group, which includes founder Ben Schneider (lead singer and guitarist); Tom Renaud (guitarist) and Miguel Briseño (bassist and keyboardist), have long been fans of the quality and performance the DPA micr

USA - Birds in the Moon, a provocative new chamber opera with music by composer Mark Grey, has launched a national tour based on a revolutionary staging concept: the entire production is housed in a 20ft shipping container that can be quickly set up for outdoor performances at essentially any location.
To simplify audio production while also offering an extended horizontal soundscape, the production utilises 12 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers mounted on the container and on fold-out wings. The show is mixed on an iPad with Meyer Sound’s Spacemap Go spatial sound design and live mixing software.
The “containerized” opera debuted at Domino Park in Brooklyn in early May as part of the New York Philharmonic’s free, city-wide Bandwagon 2 programme.
From the outset, Mark Grey created Birds in the Moon with flexibility and portability in mind

UK - Orbital Sound has returned to work with performances with audiences, with Hairspray leading the way. The Coliseum’s Edwardian auditorium celebrated the end of quarantine, with Michael Ball reprising his Olivier Award-winning role as Edna Turnblad.
Sound designer Andrew Keister, representing original Broadway designer Steve Kennedy, flew in for the project but had to quarantine prior to arrival in the theatre. In the meantime, Hairspray’s UK sound team - Josh Richardson, Callum Wills, Simon France, Robbie Barclay and Larry Golland - were hard at work along with the Orbital team led by Henry Pierce, ensuring everything was set up in advance at the Coliseum.
Andrew has high praise for the whole team saying, “It would have been amazing to be back in any theatre again after so many months of the industry being shut down, but to be back in the Coliseum, in

Israel - Israeli Opera is both the principal opera company and busiest hall in the country, producing top quality operas and playing host to some of the most prestigious artists from around the world. Located at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Centre and owned by the municipality of Tel-Aviv, Israeli Opera is also home to regular shows by local orchestras and ensembles, delighting performing arts lovers with a multitude of first-rate productions.
Over the years, as the venue began to expand its music programme, it became clear that the existing in-house PA was not capable of covering the diverse spectrum of productions and had to be augmented with rental equipment. Recently, venue management decided to perform a significant audio upgrade, choosing to install the new L-Acoustics K3 line array.
With the building closed due to the pandemic, Eyal Levi, head of light & sou

Spain - Creative Technology (CT) returned to support GSMA with delivery of the 24-hour news channel, Mobile World Live TV (MWLTV), providing continuous coverage to local and remote delegates from a central news and information hub for the entirety of the event.
This year marked the fifth of CT UK delivering this event for GSMA. However, the 2021 event was postponed from February to June due to the pandemic but still went ahead as an in-person exhibition in Barcelona. Due to restrictions on UK travel, CT Spain assisted in delivering the local requirements while the UK team provided a remote production system and support.
CT’s UK team worked closely with CT Spain in Barcelona to provide onsite cameras and audio for a small studio space, as well as two roving 4G/LTE cameras gathering beauty shots and interviews across the site. These signals were all bea

Japan - Located northwest of Kyoto, which is known as the city of culture, Ritsumeikan University’s Kinugasa Campus recently installed a Martin Audio CDD system in two of its halls.
Ritsumeikan is a historical university founded in 1900 by Kojuro Nakagawa, originating from former prime minister Saionji Kinmochi's private school. Surrounded by famous temples, its quiet atmosphere makes it suited for academic and research.
It was in the Igakukan (Institute of medical learning), located within Kinugasa Campus, that the upgrade took place in the two halls. The building itself contains various classrooms, common rooms and offices, as well as a cafeteria and a multipurpose hall.
CDD12 was adopted as the main speaker due to its wide coverage and clear sound which can be heard even directly in front of the stage. Several Adorn ACS-55T ceiling speakers were installed u

France - Gaetan Byk is now the principal and majority shareholder in charge of Amadeus, the Paris-based manufacturer of high-end audio equipment. Michel Deluc, who co-founded the original Amadeus brand with Bernard Byk 30 years ago, has created many of the company’s speaker designs and remains at Amadeus to lead specific design and manufacturing projects.
“For many years, my mission has been to find a space for Amadeus, a unique place where technological innovations with arts and crafts, combine and complement each other,” states Gaetan Byk. “I think we need to go where our main competitors cannot, do not know how to, or do not want to go. Designing tailor-made solutions, responding to existing architectural, acoustic, and technical constraints have been our areas of expression for a long time. Over the past few years, some rather out-of-the-norm products were bor

USA - LEA Professional has announced new 802.1X security protocol for the company’s range of Connect Series amplifiers.
802.1X is an IEEE Standard for Port-Based Network Access Control that provides protected authentication for devices on the network and provides secure network access. 802.1X is the gold standard of network authentication security and defines authentication controls for any user or device trying to access a LAN or WLAN.
This new feature further protects data and equipment from a cyberattack, while also preventing rogue devices from connecting to the local network and releasing viruses, malware, or allowing man-in-the-middle attacks.
According to Bradley Drummond, director of application engineering & consultant relations at LEA Professional, the new protocol ensures that the Connect Series amplifiers are more secure than ever.
“Sec

USA - Clear-Com has announced the Arcadia Central Station, a scalable IP platform which integrates all wired and wireless partyline systems, including the FreeSpeak family of digital wireless solutions and HelixNet Digital Partyline. The system can license up to 96 IP ports in a single RU device, with further licensing add-ons anticipated in the future, making Arcadia the intercom centre-piece for a wide range of applications best served by partyline workflows.
Designed with input from Clear-Com’s extensive global live sound user base, Arcadia represents the next evolution in partyline workflows, combining digital, analogue and AoIP intercom technologies into a single integrated system. From the Broadway stage to a growing community congregation to the largest and most complex live events, Arcadia is suited for a wide variety of applications, in part due to its flexible li

Latest Issue. . .