FX Rentals supports Urban Music at Royal Festival Hall

17 October 2003

UK - The Urban Music Seminar (UMS) was formed in 1998 as a non-profit making organization to inform and educate young people about working in the music industry, and is now annually attracting around 12,000 visitors. Expert panels hosted by celebrities and music industry executives and offering advice on A&R, artist relations, legal issues, marketing, promotion and publishing are held in the main auditorium of London's Royal Festival Hall, which can accommodate up to 4,000 people.

The event also features live performances, celebrity speakers, master classes, a sound stage for unsigned acts and networking and employment opportunities. It attracted a host of names including Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland, Mercury Music Prize-winning Dizzee Rascal, producer Damon Dash, Big Brovaz, Norman Jay MBE, Jamelia, Javine, So Solid Crew's Asha D and Heartless Crew.

FX provided radio mics, processing and decks for the main auditorium, a PA system, audio-visual equipment and an engineer for one of the master class rooms and a PA system and engineer for the sound stage. FX's Paul Winter ran the sound stage, which presented artists performing live vocals to CD backing tracks. The equipment package included four Mackie SRM450 speakers and two for monitors, two Hertz PB400 subwoofers, a Mackie 1604VLZ mixing console, four Shure UHF radio mic kits, a Yamaha SPX900 digital effects processor, two Denon DN-C630 CD players, two Technics SL1210 turntables and a Pioneer DJM600 DJ mixer.

In the master class room, FX's Kevin Jacobs worked a setup of two Mackie SRM450 speakers, a Mackie 1604VLZ mixing desk, a Shure UHF radio headset kit, four AKG 451 table mics, an Apple Mac G4 computer running Logic, Reason and Absynth software, a Pioneer DVD656 DVD/SACD player, two Technics SL1210 turntables and a Pioneer DJM600 DJ mixer. For the main auditorium FX provided six Shure UHF radio mic kits, two Klark Teknik DN360 graphic equalizers, a BSS DPR404 quad compressor, two Technics SL1210 turntables and a Pioneer DJM600 DJ Mixer.

"This year's UMS was the best yet," says the FX Group's marketing director Tony Andrews. "Between Kelly Rowland in the main auditorium passing on tips on how to survive in the business and urban music producer Jay Dee putting down some beats in a master class, this was such a dynamic, innovative event. The UMS has FX's total support."

(Lee Baldock)