India - Multinational flight case hardware and 19-inch racking manufacturer Penn Elcom has launched a new distribution centre in Mumbai, India.
It will be based in the Vasai area and headed by Rodney D’Monte.
Penn Elcom chairman Roger Willems says: “Mumbai is a major commercial and cultural hub and a great strategic location with a very positive future and we enjoy its vibrancy and energy. That’s exactly where we want to be.”
The opening of this distribution hub follows other recent major investments in Penn Elcom’s global manufacturing and sales network in Canada, the UK and China.
The Indian operation will first focus on the racking and hardware elements of Penn’s business, and will also manufacture and distribute products utilising brands such as Amphenol cables and Neutrik connectors.
It will also source its basic hardware from the Ch

Indonesia - Graha Bethany Nginden commissioned the construction of the largest dome-shaped evangelical megachurch in southeast Asia. Completed in December 2016, Graha Bethany Nginden’s new facility accommodates an audience of 30,000 attendees. With the goal of providing an immersive concert-like worship experience to its members, church leaders hired CSA to upgrade its existing sound system by installing Studer by Harman Vista X Series large-scale mixing consoles.
"Graha Bethany Nginden is one of the largest churches in the world,” said Setiawan Winarto, CEO, CSA Indonesia. “Church leaders wanted to replace the old consoles with the most advanced mixers available to better serve their music and multimedia team. We were able to achieve the church’s goals by providing quality solutions, while working closely with the Harman team to provide 24-hour technical support. W

Belgium - The new De Krook building in Ghent is described as “the inspiration for knowledge culture and innovation”. The initiative of the City of Ghent, Ghent University and IMEC the hub of the complex is a library for the 21st century supported by a full range of facilities, including IPEM’s ArtScienceLab. The facility has been designed as an open house for all citizens to use.
De Krook, designed by architects Coussee & Goris Architecten and RCR Arquitectes, resembles a stack of horizontal plateaus. Martin Audio’s Belgian distributor FACE presented the successful technical bid for the AV fit-out for the ArtScienceLab, responding to a tender document issued by IPEM.
In proposing the Martin Audio CDD series for the Lab, FACE met the requirements for a loudspeaker with horizontal dispersion of 120° and high SPL from a compact enclosure, in order to reproduc

UK - Technical production specialist Central Presentations (CPL) and producers Constructive Communications delivered full technical production for Construction’s Got Talent, a team-building / gala dinner conference event with a difference for leading independent construction and property services company Wilmot Dixon.
This was staged in the Noble Suite at the Pullman Hotel on Euston Road, London, with tailor made format partly inspired by TV talent show competitions on a quest to discover the company’s own undiscovered talent, which was interspersed with presentations and speeches.
Lee Gruszeckyj led the CPL team who worked with Constructive Communications’ project manager Ken D’Souza.
A 10 metre-wide stage with free-standing printed graphic wrap set / backdrop including the event’s own Got Talent logo was installed, complete with small thrust fo

UK - Edinburgh-based Live Systems is the latest UK company to become an Adamson certified reseller.
Established in 2000, Live Systems has grown to become a significant force in the events and integration markets in Scotland and the North of England providing sound, lighting, staging and video and offering their services to a varied client base including the live music, theatre and corporate markets.
The company invested in an Adamson S10 line array earlier this year. It has been used on a diverse range of events including the Meadows Festival and the Edinburgh Mela where it has impressed customers and sound professionals alike.
Steve Robb, managing director of Live Systems comments: “We have always looked to promote products that offer something different - either in terms of technology, features or quality. The Adamson brand really does tick all of these boxe

Sweden - Microphone manufacturer Milab has acquired Pearl Microphones in a deal that sees the two companies joining operations again after 40 years as separate businesses.
The merger will synergise Milab and Pearl's production and R&D services and the brands will continue to exist individually for marketing reasons.
The two microphone manufacturers share a common heritage that goes back to 1941 when PML was founded by Rune Rosander in Stockholm, Sweden. In the late 1970s, PML was divided into separate business units that became Pearl and Milab and eventually led to a permanent separation.
Thomas Nöjdh, who will continue to serve as Milab’s CEO, says: “The opportunity to bring these two companies back together after 40 years is a matter of great pride to us all. With the acquisition of Pearl, Milab will strengthen its position as one of the world’s

Switzerland - The Zurich Opera House entered the 2017/18 opera and theatre season following an extensive technical renewal that included new audio equipment, modernisation of its workflows, and fresh approaches to its sound reinforcement.
The Lawo mc²66 mixing console that was previously installed in the sound control room has been replaced with an mc²56, with a second an mc²56 also installed in the auditorium – making the sound control desk and auditorium desk mirrored consoles. Operated in mirror mode, the configurations, snapshots and adjustments of parameters that are performed on one console can also be recalled at the other. This ensures efficient preparation of performances, particularly where Microport systems are increasingly being used. Managed in this way, musical and children's opera projects planned for the future will be easier to mix in the hall.
Th

UK - Battersea Dogs & Cats Home’s annual Collars & Coats Gala Ball returned for its ninth year earlier this month, with Hawthorn on hand - or should that be paw - to deliver full technical production for the star-studded occasion. Taking place at Battersea Evolution, a Smart venue, the creative technical production expert provided lighting, sound, video and staging for the charity’s biggest fundraising event of the year.
Even with a guest list packed with some of biggest names of stage, screen and sport, it was Battersea’s four-legged friends that stole the spotlight at the Gala Ball. Battersea’s legendary Guard of Honour, a red carpet lined with the home’s dogs and their handlers, kicked off proceedings before guests settled down to a dinner by Smart Hospitality.
Guests of the two-legged variety were kept well entertained throughout the eveni

USA - When the latest in a series of remodels stretching back two decades was completed in 2013 at the newly named AXIS at the Planet Hollywood resort in Las Vegas and it was announced that pop star Britney Spears had been signed to a two-year residency deal, no one - including gurus of the entertainment world, and even most of the crew - really expected it to last more than six months.
Today, with that residency wrapping up an overwhelmingly successful four-year run and other pop residencies having taken hold, the venue boasts the highest number of ticket sales in Las Vegas and, most weeks, the highest in the country. In a world of dizzying changes, one of the few constants has been the presence of DiGiCo consoles at both ends of the snake.
The other constant has been the presence of AXIS production supervision and head of audio Eric Fish. “When I first came in, thi

France - L-Acoustics has announced the appointment of industry expert Tony Szabo as head of application, touring. Tony will work directly with Florent Bernard, director of applications, touring to deploy the application strategy for the touring market and manage the touring applications team.
Tony will be a familiar face to many in the industry, his career spans 25 years - from monitor technician to FOH engineer, show controller, crew chief and senior FOH systems engineer, Tony has worked with the world’s top artists and festivals. Most recently, he served as senior systems engineer at L-Acoustics UK partner Adlib Audio Solutions, designing systems for tours and festivals as well as mentoring the systems engineer team and leading technology acquisition decisions.
“Tony’s extensive experience in key posts in the industry brings a unique and fresh perspective to le

UAE - Audio-Technica has announced the opening of a new sales support office in Dubai, aimed at increasing the level of service to its distributors, integrators, consultants and corporate end users in the professional audio field across the Middle East region.
The office is located at Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA), well placed for business throughout the Middle East and well-served by world class infrastructure.
Technical product manager Ahmad Abuzannad (who began his Audio-Technica career in the company’s EMEA applications and support team) will head the office staff. Central to his activity will be increased levels of product training and demos – of particular importance to customers evaluating solutions in the conferencing market – in the Middle East and in conjunction with Audio-Technica distributors across the region.
Abuzannad will also sup

The Netherlands - L-Acoustics will be exhibiting at CUE, held from 15-17 January at the Rotterdam Ahoy in The Netherlands, where it will welcome visitors to stand 122 to meet the L-Acoustics team and learn more about the L-ISA Immersive Sound Art platform, view the new Syva colinear source system and the upcoming P1 networked digital audio processor.
Established in London in 2014 by L-Acoustics founder Dr. Christian Heil, L-ISA is L-Acoustics’ immersive sound brand. L-ISA draws on extensive audio and psychoacoustic research to develop sound design and processing tools for live shows, creative events and private residences. L-ISA is the only comprehensive solution that integrates innovative sound design, loudspeaker systems, proprietary processing hardware and software-based audio tools, says the company.
Syva, meanwhile, is a new breed of speaker, blending L-Acoustic

France - APG will unveil APG Live Manager at the 2017 JTSE (Paris, 21 - 22 November, stand 94). The new software will be presented alongside the successful Uniline Compact loudspeaker system, which is currently proving a resounding success in fixed installations as well as staging applications, both in France and overseas.
A result of the combined work of both the Active Audio and APG R&D teams, the new APG Live Manager remote control and monitoring software offers increased performance in a new user friendly graphic interface, allowing the user to control the entire APG range of products, from the DMS26 and DMS48 external processors to the DA50:4 and DA15:4 DSP amplifiers, says the company.
APG Live Manager allows the user to work offline in order to remotely prepare for any type of project, even those which require a complex configuration, and perform a number of

USA - On Tuesday, 14 November, the Atlona On Tour road show rolled into Boston for a special two-day Visual Systems Show in Marlborough, MA, where more than 75 dealers, distributors and systems integrators took in live presentations focused on Atlona’s Velocity networked control solution, OmniStream R-Type AV over IP platform, and a variety of HDR products. Seth Powell, Atlona’s resident AV over IP training expert, led most of the presentations.
Sponsored by the D.L. Henderson Company, a regional manufacturer’s representative, the event also included a three-hour Atlona Certification Course on how to configure, deploy and maintain OmniStream and Velocity systems. More than 20 attendees were certified. Atlona offers these trainings free of charge, and has been granted CTS certification for them due to providing a thorough and complete curriculum.
The road show con

France - Aeroscopia is a museum which celebrates the contribution that the Midi-Pyrénées region has made to French civil and military aviation. As well as aircraft and themed exhibition areas, the museum features spaces for hospitality events, meetings and presentations. In all of them, Yamaha audio systems deliver smooth, turbulence-free sound.
Toulouse is known globally for Airbus, but the area around the city has witnessed over a century of aviation - from France’s first powered flight by Clément Ader, via the Caravelle (the first French jet airliner) and Concorde, to the mighty Airbus A380. Appropriately, Aeroscopia is connected to Toulouse-Blagnac airport - where many French aircraft made their maiden flights - and is within easy reach of the city.
At the heart of the museum, the 506m² l’espace évènementiel (event space) can host up to 400 guests in a co

UK - The multi-cellular controllability of Martin Audio’s MLA was put to the test recently at the notoriously difficult Alexandra Palace, when The War on Drugs played to a 10,000 sell-out crowd.
The American indie six-piece rock band, fronted by Adam Granduciel, were promoting their fourth album A Deeper Understanding - and fortunately their FOH engineer Bob Strakele had prior experience, not only of the venue but also of MLA.
“I have mixed at Ally Pally before,” he confirmed. “So when I heard that we would be doing a show there, I immediately asked our production manager [David Scheid] to get in touch with Capital Sound about getting an MLA system.”
Capital’s operations & development director, Paul Timmins takes up the story. “We have worked with Bob on a number of shows over the past 10 years, including Billy Talent, Erasure and James.

UK - Audio specialist tube UK returned to the familiar urban territory of Manchester’s Albert Square to help deliver the city’s 2017 Christmas Switch On ceremony, which officially fired up the city’s Christmas lights for the run up to a fun-packed festive season.
tube has been involved with the Switch-On since 2001 and has seen it grow massively in that time, so the audience now fills the entire square and the event involves multiple road closures and the traditional hoisting of Manchester’s own huge LED clad Santa onto the front of the Town Hall to oversee the proceedings!
The d&b sound system spec’d for the show was designed by tube’s John Redfern and based on the required crowd coverage and the needs of the multiple acts appearing onstage in the hour-long entertainment extravaganza headlined for the first time by a DJ – Sigala. He was joine

Switzerland - Thunerseespiele is well-known for its beautiful scenic location, providing the most stunning backdrop to the high-energy performances gracing the stage every summer. The energy is fully matched by the immersive spatial audio delivered by award-winning sound designer Tom Strebel, using TiMax Tracker stage tracking and object-based TiMax SoundHub spatial reinforcement to deliver transparent vocal clarity and intelligibility.
As usual, Strebel’s seasoned audiopool engineers also crewed the production and Out Board’s Robin Whittaker provided TiMax spatial tuning and programming support on-site.
In previous years, lavish performances have included Jesus Christ Superstar, Titanic and Aida – and unforgettably, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet performed in a massive half-pipe with a cast of BMX stunt bikers and skateboarders. Th

Europe - L-Acoustics sound systems have been specified for the recent European tour of Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend, with BCS Audio supplying the equipment.
BCS owner David Shepherd explains: “As is so often the case, the client specified an L-Acoustics system. This is one of the reasons we’ve been an L-Acoustics supplier for several years now. Their systems are rider-friendly simply because they make great sounding products and consistently deliver the high quality of sound the artists want. And we want to provide our clients with that high quality - you always know what you’re going to get with L-Acoustics.
“We’ve been working with John Legend since 2014,” recalls BCS project manager, Nick Boulton. “His FOH engineer, Troy Milner, had been really impressed with a K1 system they’d used during the first run of shows he worked on with John and

Denmark - The Rhythmic Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen aims at supporting the creative forces of its students, musicians as well as producers, as they have more than 30 rehearsal rooms that are equipped with recording set-ups, including USB recording interfaces, external preamps, a MIDI keyboard and controller and studio monitors so the students can hook up their own laptop and capture and work on their musical ideas. In 16 of those rehearsal spaces, a pair of Dynaudio LYD 7 studio monitors has now been installed.
“All of the new rooms are prepared with a basic set-up that allows our students to bring their own laptop and simply plug in,” says sound technician, Tim Harris, who took the lead on designing the new rooms. “They have access to record up to 16 simultaneous tracks and since most of our students have a DAW and their favorite sound and instrument libraries on

New Zealand - New Zealand singer-songwriter Bic Runga marked the 20th anniversary of her debut album with a tour across the country.
The album, Drive, was released in August 1997 and won the New Zealand Music Award for Album of the Year in 1998. It went platinum seven times in New Zealand.
The Auckland leg of the anniversary tour was held at The Civic Performance Art Theatre, with the main sound system supplied especially for the event was JBL’s new line array system, the VTX A12.
“When we were given the opportunity to mix with the VTX A12, it was a no-brainer really,” says leading sound engineer Kevin Bennett, who mixed FOH for the show. “I have never received as many compliments from an audience as I did after this performance. Sonically the A12 is exceptionally smooth on and off axis. Very little tweaking was necessary to get the system to work

USA - Clair Brothers has appointed two new distibutors - Rocketerias in Mexico and VTècnics in Spain - to its growing international distribution network.
Rocketerias and VTècnics will sell and distribute all Clair Brothers products across the two markets.
Rocketerias owner Alejandro Barbosa Calderon comments: “Clair Brothers is a great brand, everybody knows it, and the sky’s the limit. So, joining with them is a powerful complement to our mission to deliver on the promise of offering the kinds of products our customers can be proud to own.”
“Clair Brothers has been a good friend to VTècnics, referring us many times to new customers,” states VTècnics production manager Josep Maria Serra. “When the timing and opportunity for real professional growth in the industry presented itself, we recognised the immediate need to be more competitive in the mar

Europe - Community Professional Loudspeakers has appointed DV2 as its distributor in Belgium, Luxembourg and France.
Effective immediately, DV2 Belux has become Community’s exclusive distributor in Belgium and Luxembourg, while DV2 France will be the American brand’s French distributor from 2 January 2018.
DV2 France was founded in 1997 by Didier Dal Fitto and Guy Vignet and is distributing a range of pro audio brands in France, including Adamson, Lab.Gruppen, Lake, MDC, XTA, Tannoy, WaveCapture and DiGiCo. In 2014 DV2 opened its office in Belgium to serve the Belgium and Luxembourg markets.
Community’s EMEA sales manager, Jamie Ward, comments: “DV2 is a major player in France and Belux and this partnership will substantially strengthen our distribution in these key European markets. Although it brings two markets under one company, DV2’s separate offi

UK - A SSL console is being used on Imagine Dragon’s latest world tour in support of their Evolve album.
Tour sound company Sound Image recommended the SSL Live L500 to FOH engineer Scott Eisenberg. "It was great to be able to bring up channels that sounded good right out of the box," he notes. "We were able to bring everything together really quickly, which is a tribute to both the band and the console."
The Evolve show features two stages. The main stage is for the primary song list with full line-up, while a 'B' stage allows the band to switch to pared-down, unplugged interludes that include viola, cello, acoustic bass, and keyboards.
This was one of the main challenges for Eisenberg - two stages, lots of instruments, and lots of inputs: "It's about 80 inputs between the two stages," he says. "Around 50 from the main stage, a dozen from the B S

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