Sound

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UK - Audiotonix has reached an agreement for a next-stage investment from private investment house, Ardian.
James Gordon, Audiotonix CEO, comments, “This is an outstanding opportunity to partner with Ardian to enable further growth, and it represents a significant step in the future development of Audiotonix. We have built an incredible infrastructure within the group in the past five years, which has clearly benefited all our brands with manufacturing know-how, developing new technologies, and growing their worldwide reach. Ardian’s financial support and advice, combined with Astorg’s, who are also remaining as an investor for this next phase, will help expand our brands and product portfolio even further.”
Olivier Personnaz, managing director, Ardian Buyout, comments: “How people enjoy live, televised and streamed entertainment is going through a revolutio

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UK - West London rental specialist Entec has announced the appointment of Daniel Scantlebury as its new head of sound, effective immediately.
Scantlebury, who has joined after several years with Manchester-based dbnAudile as a senior project manager, says: “It was time for a new challenge and an incredible opportunity like this does not come along very often, so I’m thrilled. I’ve always respected Entec for its approach to business as well as its impressive history, and moving south to be closer to my family was also a consideration.”
The news of Dan’s appointment coincides with another major move for the company’s sound department. A committed d&b rental house since 1995, Entec recently invested in the brand’s latest generation SL-Series with the purchase of 50 KSL line array loudspeakers - 28 KSL 8 (80° dispersion), four KSL 12 (120°) and 18 card

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Czech Republic - Over 300 sound industry professionals from 40 countries recently visited Prague for Yamaha’s annual System Designers Conference.
Immersive audio was the theme of this year’s SDC. Prague was an appropriate location, as the city’s long history of opera and classical music has seen many venues built with acoustics in mind. It was in the newest of these - the O2 universum, opened just six weeks earlier - that the conference took place.
Featuring a wide range of conference facilities and a 4,500-seat sports arena, the O2 universum staged demonstration immersive sound systems in both the largest conference room and the arena, as well as comparing them to a large format Nexo L-R line array system flown in the arena.
SDC 2019 featured a wide range of different presentations and demonstrations. These included the Prague Music String Quartet demonst

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Italy - RCF Group has completed the acquisition of professional sound systems manufacturer Montarbo.
From an operational standpoint, the brand’s running and distribution will be overseen by AEB Industriale.
A statement from RCF says: “The incorporation of Montarbo into the group further expands our product range in a market segment that is demonstrating strong growth. The acquisition perfectly fits RCF Group’s strategy of selective M&A activity focussing on iconic brands that leveraging the Group’s competitive positioning, together with its technical and commercial expertise, fully exploit the growth potential contributing to the Group’s progress and value creation.”
Arturo Vicari, CEO of RCF Group, comments: “We’re delighted to welcome Montarbo to our Group. It’s a historic brand that has contributed to the evolution of the music and profe

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South Africa - As the year draws to a close, AV Unlimited and 24 Carrots Event Design helped a leading financial services provider remind its staff that there is still a lot of fun to be had at its year-end function, held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
Event manager at 24 Carrots Event Design, Mase Langa explains that the client’s brief was fairly simple - they wanted their team to have some fun. “The main idea was to deliver an event that was, above all else, about having fun after a tough year. We came up with a design that focused on colour, and the joy and elation that vibrant colour can illicit.”
The team at 24 Carrots Event Design provided the client with some renders, which showed a playful set that was designed to inspire a sense of play and whimsy. “We introduced colour and playfulness though the set, decor and lighting, and the res

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South Korea - Yeon Moo Dae Church is a church housed within a Korean Army training centre that draws from a mix of traditional and modern Christian influence. The construction of the church took 10 years to complete as it relied upon singular donations from nearly 10,000 individuals, over 600 Christian community churches and just about 600 church-related organisations.
Most recently, the church built a new sanctuary with a seating capacity that can welcome its 6,000-strong congregation. The room itself measures a generous 66m wide by 55m deep with a ceiling height of 15m. After visiting other large sanctuaries and listening to their sound systems the church committee decided that Clair Brothers was the solution for their audio requirements.
One of the locations the committee visited, the Joyful Church Training Centre, has the Clair Brothers CAT215 loudspeaker system in

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UK - London-based Capital Sound, part of the newly-formed Solotech UK Group, has been successfully deploying its selection of Outline systems and processors with a diverse range of clients over the last few years.
From the multi-national classical crossover vocal group Il Divo to Welsh rocker Kelly Jones, via the polished pop of Will Young to the recreation of Pink Floyd’s stadium shows by The Australian Pink Floyd, Capital’s Outline systems have consistently delivered the goods.
James Lawford of Outline’s UK distributor CUK Audio remarks: “Tours equipped with Capital Sound’s Superfly / Mantas 28 combination have been able to play a diverse range of venues, from arenas such as Arena Birmingham and Glasgow’s SSE Hydro, to medium-sized spaces such as Ipswich’s Regent Theatre and Stoke on Trent’s Victoria Hall, each time using the same system in differen

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Hungary - KV2 Audio has appointed Megatone as the brand’s exclusive distributor in Hungary. Based just outside the capital of Budapest, Megatone is one of the country’s largest full-service production companies supplying a wide range of markets from event production to broadcast, to corporate AV and much more. Alongside this, Megatone also operates a thriving installation wing which handles AV installs from the initial project planning, to design, install and service. There is also a specialist lighting division and finally a distribution operation.
According to KV2’s sales director for EMEA & Latin America, Alessandro Pagliani, Megatone was a natural choice. “Megatone has been working with our products for several years in the capacity of a main professional installer and dealer. Most of the recent installations in Hungary - such as the Opera Café in Budapest

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Belgium - Biamp has announced a new streamlined European distribution model to strengthen the company’s sales, support, and product distribution in the region. Biamp has transitioned to either a sole distributor or dealer-direct distribution system to better support specific countries throughout Europe.
The following sole distributors have been announced:
Austria: Kain Audio-Technik GmbH
Denmark: Kinovox Scandinavia ApS
France: Sidev
Germany: prodyTel Distribution GmbH
Italy: Prase Engineering S.p.A.
Norway: Scandec Systemer AS
Poland: Konsbud Audio Sp. zo.o.
Spain: AVIT Vision S.L.
Switzerland: Show Supply GmbH
The Netherlands: Mennegat Trading BV
In Belgium, Luxembourg and the UK, Biamp will be transitioning to a dealer-direct distribution model.
“We are thrilled to partner with this select group

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Europe - Coordinating with Stefan Mehnert of Rammstein’s management and production director Nicolai Sabottka as well as the production’s design teams, Solotech and SSE Audio provided the audio and video gear and services for the German industrial metal band’s 2019 stadium tour.
Solotech’s Holger Schader, senior consultant, concert touring and special events for the Live Productions division oversaw the account for Solotech and SSE Audio.
The sold-out European stadium tour supported the release of the band’s seventh album, which is the first Rammstein studio album in a decade.
The tour’s audio spec, put together by Rammstein´s longtime FOH engineer Olsen Involtini and systems engineer Andreas Vater, called for L-Acoustics speakers and Avid Venue control.
Assisting Vater was SSE audio crew Chief Nick Pain, and audio technician Nils Knecht, who

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) recently supplied tour and production management company Patchwork London with a Shure PSM 1000 wireless IEM system to provide monitor duties for the >25th Anniversary UK tour of Skunk Anansie.
Patchwork managing director, Steve White got in touch with Steve Eaton, sales executive in AC-ET’s Audio sales division after he was getting an increasing number of client requests for the Shure in-ear-monitoring system.
He comments: “We've had an increased number of enquiries for the PSM 1000, so when a three-month tour hire with Skunk Anansie came in, it seemed like a good time to expand our Shure stock. Prior to this, we had tried out wireless mic systems and Shure’s Axient system was the one which best suited our needs, so we decided to go with Shure across the board.”
The UK tour coincided with the release

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Norway - DJ and record producer, Alan Walker is currently out on his latest Aviation tour across China, India and Norway, along with an Allen & Heath dLive Wings system handling both FOH and monitor duties.
One of Norway’s biggest EDM music exports, Walker performs with various third-party software, as well as a live band and requires a complex setup. The engineers needed a small and lightweight system to fly around the world, which could also handle a high I/O count via several protocols, such as Waves SoundGrid, Dante and MADI in order to interface with third-party systems.
Supplied by audio production company, Sonic City AS, the FOH setup includes a dLive C1500 fitted with a Waves card for virtual sound check and multi-track recording, paired with a DM0 MixRack, which is equipped with a fibreACE card for the digital split and a Dante card to facilitate externa

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UK - Long-time DiGiCo user Stage Sound Services was one of the first companies to invest in the British console manufacturer’s latest Quantum 7 engine for its seven SD7s, stating that their belief in DiGiCo’s ability to continually upgrade its product made its most powerful engine to date a must have for the Cardiff-based rental company.
“As well as the SD7s, we have a large stock of SD10s,” says Stage Sound Services' Phil Hurley. “When it was time to add more consoles to our inventory, we wanted to invest in the very latest technology and having seen the capabilities of the Quantum 7 it was an obvious choice. We knew that as soon as our customers saw Quantum 7 was available, they’d want to use its new features and capability to enhance their sound designs.”
Two of the Quantum 7s were put to immediate use on the UK theatre tour of Dr Doolittle an

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Italy - Optocore and its partner company BroaMan have appointed Parma-based Audiolink as its sole distributor for the Italian market.
Stefano Cantadori, Audiolink general manager, comments: “The reason we chose Optocore was simple. Today’s integrations require a massive chunk of fibre optic data, and Optocore, together with BroaMan, allows all the different signals to be managed on a single fibre ring with 100% redundancy. Total redundancy means avoiding any type of problem - unforeseen circumstances that can lead to a lot of expense for the installer and the customer.”
Tine Helmle, Optocore MD of BroaMan and director of sales & marketing, adds: “We are very happy to have found a strong partner in Italy that will best represent our two brands. Stefano and his team are very competent people, with whom we can’t wait to start this collaboration.”
She

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UK - AV and entertainment technology company Anna Valley has announced that operations director, Peter Jones, has been promoted to the position of MD with immediate effect. The move follows an extensive hand-over period with exiting MD, Steve Jones who has led the company for 13 years.
Peter Jones worked for 10 years as a sound and video technician before joining Anna Valley in 2010 as a senior project manager. After working his way up through the ranks, Peter was appointed as Anna Valley’s operations director following a management buyout in 2015. Since then he has played an integral role in the company’s expansion, the purchase of Matrix UK Solutions and Anna Valley’s move to new premises earlier this year.
“As operations director, I’ve been as involved in the financial and business aspects of the company as I have in the process and procedure of service

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China - Work Pro Audio, the installation and pro audio division of Equipson, has made an inroad into the Chinese market by supplying the country with its first SL210A Line Array system.
The system has been delivered to Freelancer Production Company, a theatre and event production company that specialises in audio equipment rental to theatres in Hong Kong and touring artists on the mainland China. Since its delivery in September it has already been used at the 3,000 seater Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong for a musical theatre production celebrating the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.
The SL210A Line Array was specified by sound system designer Camus Chan, director of Equipson's Hong Kong distributor All Solution.
He says: "Freelancer Production Company contacted us as a result of a promotion we were running to showcase Work Pro products to

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USA - When Texas country artist Aaron Watson was planning the fall leg of his current Red Bandana Tour, the decision was to go native with Houston-based production company LD Systems.
It was a “natural” decision and an “easy choice,” says lighting designer Anthony McCoy, who recently worked with the company with Watson’s shows at the Houston and San Antonio Rodeos, plus a few festivals.
In business since 1975, LD Systems specialises in turning a sketch or key concept into a workable, real-world solution - be it for festivals, corporate events or concert tours. So when operations manager Bill Bowers saw a sketch of Aaron Watson’s design concept, he says, “We knew we had our work cut out for us.”
Production manager Jared Miller created the design framework using the band’s Red Bandana album artwork for inspiration. “Jared’s idea was to

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UK - James Bond tribute band, Q The Music is currently touring theatres across the country, accompanied by an Allen & Heath SQ digital mixing system and 13 “game-changing” ME-1 personal mixers.
The current 13-piece band has been performing the 007 hits across prestigious venues, including the West End’s Adelphi Theatre, since 2014. Warren Ringham, who founded the show in 2004, opted for the SQ system after becoming frustrated with the lack of flexibility and reliability offered by other systems. “Our show and the demands on the production were getting bigger so we needed to upgrade. The SQ-6 arrived just at the right time. It had great reviews and did everything we needed and more.”
The full setup for the show comprises SQ-6 on FOH, while an SQ-5 acts as a monitor desk for visiting engineers and FOH back-up. SLink and Dante option cards provide recording

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UK - Audiovisual production supplier SFL provided a custom-built 10m wide projection screen and stage monitoring for Senbla’s latest film season - starting in September with Star Wars and finishing in December with Love Actually - which sees films screened in HD in venues around the UK, with live orchestras performing the films’ scores.
“We supplied a 20m truss screen and our brand new 10m wide custom-built AV Stumpfl screen,” says SFL’s video and projects director, Craig Lawrence, who worked on the project alongside the company’s Sungho Jeong, Sam Wheeler, Paul Medley, Chris Gunner-Lucas, Adam Chisnall, Jack Roberts.
“The screen was built specially for these tours at the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is specific to film. Projection was done using our Barco UDX and HDX projectors. We also provided onstage monitoring for the conductors and

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UK - The Association of Sound Designers has announced the third of their flagship triennial seminar events: The Winter School 2020. It will be held in the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s Embassy Theatre.
This is a week-long series of theatre sound related seminars being held Monday 6 to Friday 10 January 2020, including leading industry professionals such as Carolyn Downing, Ben and Max Ringham, Richard Brooker and Scott Willsallen.
The seminars are aimed at undergraduates, recent graduates, apprentices and educators, as well as anyone else looking to expand their knowledge. Admission is free for all students and tutors, as well as ASD, IPS, AMPS and ALD members.
Winter School is also home to the Tech Hub this year. Running alongside the seminars in our main space, the Tech Hub will enable attendees to get hands on experience of the newest sound equi

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Europe HK Audio has unveiled Polar 10, an ‘affordable new columnar PA for musicians, entertainers, DJs, presentations, schools and audiovisual applications’.
Polar 10 features include a four-channel mixer with five programmable user presets, Bluetooth 5.0 audio streaming, and assertive bass response.
Polar 10 consists of a subwoofer and two columnar elements. The contours of the subwoofer’s birch ply housing are not just cosmetic; the enclosure is acoustically shaped and sized to deliver quality audio results in combination with a specially developed 10” woofer sporting an extra-long voice coil.
The midrange/HF column comes in two sections for easy transport. The top section is loaded with six high-performance 3” midrange drivers and a low-distortion, 1” constant directivity horn. The system delivers well-balanced, exceedingly natural sound, renderin

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USA - Lectrosonics has announced the appointment of two new US regional representatives, Blair Johnson in the Northeast and Nicholas Mariano in the Southeast.
Blair Johnson will serve customers and develop new business in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC. Nicholas Mariano will do so in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, the Carolinas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. Both began working full time in their new roles with Lectrosonics in December 2019.
Johnson comes to Lectrosonics from a background in filmmaking and film/video production management. His credits include live-streamed performances from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as editing, sound mixing, and producing in a wide variety of environments from artistic

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UK - Shure worked with Wigwam to install a new audio system into the magnificent York Minster building.
The Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Saint Peter in York, more commonly known as York Minster, is one of the largest of its kind in Northern Europe. The historic Minster building is justifiably seen as a national treasure and unsurprisingly boasts Grade 1 listed status with Heritage England.
Church leaders have been refurbishing and maintaining the building and an important part of the project was for the audio in the building to be crystal clear -- both for music and the spoken word. As a result, the installation of a new audio system was commissioned, and the entire sound system has been upgraded.
The system had to accommodate the wide variety of uses the building hosts, often with two or more events taking place simultaneously. There are up to 2,500 pe

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USA - JBL Professional has released JBL DSi 2.0 Series cinema amplifiers designed for the company’s range of cinema loudspeakers.
The first ever JBL branded cinema amplifiers, DSi 2.0 Series builds on the legacy of Crown DSi Series amplifiers to combine the of Crown’s CDi DriveCore Series amps with a new high-power design to deliver “superior efficiency, reliability and audio fidelity”. The DSi 2.0 Series includes three power configurations - 350W, 700W and 1,200W - available in analogue and analogue-plus-digital versions with Dante/AES67 and SNMP connectivity.
“As cinema audio systems continue to grow larger and more complex with 5.1, 7.1 and immersive audio formats, venue owners require more efficient ways of powering, controlling and managing networked audio systems,” says Karam Kaul, vice-president of audio, Harman Professional Solutions.
“The J
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