UK - At this year's Scottish festival T in the Park, local rental company EFX Audio deployed their two Midas XL8 Live Performance Systems at front of house for the Radio 1/NME stage with two Heritage 3000s on monitors. Main stage headliners REM also brought in a pair of XL8s supplied by Rat Sound, plus a Klark Teknik DN9696 hard disc recorder which they've been using for their European tour. In addition, Britannia Row supplied the main stage with two H3000s for front of house and Kings of Leon brought in their own XL4.
"Any misgivings we felt about running a festival on digital consoles were lost after the first day," says EFX systems tech Bill Laing, who worked with the XL8s alongside EFX's Stevie Murray. "First time users found the consoles immediately familiar th
Denmark - Artcoustic will host its third Global Annual Conference from 13-15 August 2008. The three-day event will take place at the showroom Artcoustic opened in Copenhagen last year.
Artcoustic will present its latest news with products and audio solutions aimed at optimizing customer lifestyles. The conference will be a meeting place for its worldwide exclusive distributors where they will be able to share ideas and techniques and immerse themselves in the latest audio technologies presented by Artcoustic, says the company.
At the conference Artcoustic will also honour the best projects and installations from Artcoustic's Worldwide Dealer Network.
USA - Foley supervisor and film sound recordist Alex Joseph encountered a useful new addition to his arsenal of DPA microphones when working on the movie version of Mamma Mia! - the DPA 4017 shotgun mic.
Adapted from the successful stage musical (which featured DPA miniature mics across the cast) Mamma Mia! presented Joseph with the brief of working the sound effects into the music while retaining many factors which make it a success on stage. Joseph worked with a core sound team of sound supervisor Nick Adams, sound designer Alistair Sirkett, dialogue supervisor Tim Hands, dialogue editor Jenny Evans and assistant sound editor Connor Mackey during the six-month project, on various location recordings and Foley studio sessions before mixing the film at Sound One in New York.Set on a Greek island, water sounds feature heavily in the film. "We rented a local swi
Germany - In February this year, Kamil Swobodzinski was appointed sales director ACT (Advanced Communication Technology) EVI Audio. Now he has assumed additional responsibilities, having been appointed sales director CCS (Critical Communication Systems) for the regions Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).
As well as responsibility for turnover and profitability, Kamil Swobodzinski's brief includes increasing market penetration, internationalization/expansion of the distribution network with a view to increasing growth potential, direction of the sales team, and the targeted use of marketing measures. "Once the team has been together for a few days," says Swobodzinski, "I'm convinced that, in view of the quality of the product portfolio, a sound basis will exist for sustained growth."
UK - Behringer and Bugera have announced new artist and public relations partnerships for their European territories. UK based AMP will be handling AR and PR for Behringer and PR for Bugera while Artist Relations LLC will handle European AR for Bugera.
Artist Relations LLC are a Miami-based AR operation fronted by Randy Fuchs, who has worked in the music industry for over three decades.
AMP Ltd's Jonathan Miller comments: "We at AMP are delighted to be taking Behringer and Bugera's artist, media and public relations to the next level." Randy Fuchs adds: "Together with AMP we are keen for artists across the continent to be introduced to - and be blown away by - products from both Gehringer and Bugera."
Scott Garside, Behringer's's corporate communications manager, adds: "Partnering with both AMP and Artist Relations LLC demonstrates our ongoing commit
UK - Void Acoustics will be unveiling three new X-rated products - two bass loudspeakers and a range of amplifiers at PLASA 2008. The whole Void team will be on the stand to introduce the Arcline X, a new 2 x 15" bass unit for Void's Arcline line-array touring system, as well as the diminutive 2 x 12" Mycro X, together with Void's new range of UK-built, switch-mode Infinite X power amplifiers.
Measuring just 680mm x 335mm x 440mm, the tiny Mycro X bass system features two 12" drivers in the same cabinet volume normally occupied by a single driver, increasing the sub's power handling to some 1400W and generating a SPL up to 130dB. This level of performance gives the Mycro X one of the highest outputs from one of the smallest bass enclosures available. Aimed at generating powerful low-frequency support in space-restricted clubs and multi-purpose venues, the Mycro X
Spain - The C.A.T Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius, a major theatre in Barcelona promoting the Catalan tradition, has become the beneficiary of a new Installation Line Array (ILA) system from QSC Audio.
In order to reflect its growing importance, and increasing number of traditional festivals it is hosting, this civic auditorium recently commissioned a complete technical overhaul, completely rewiring the building and and installing a system comprising six WL2082-i and one WL115-sw sub per side.
The Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius was opened in 1993 on the initiative of l'Associació Cultural TRAM (an organisation set up to promote the Catalan traditional culture), with funding from the Cultural department of the local government.
It was they who financed the upgrade of the 400-seat auditorium, which hosts everything from traditional instrument players to folk dance and expositi
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Germany - Heavy metal band Manowar secured a place in the Guinness Book of Recors during the 1990s as the loudest band in the world, and sheer volume has remained an integral part of the Manowar concert experience. The band's technical rider specifies a minimum unweighted SPL of 126dB at FOH position.
At the recent second annual Magic Circle Festival in Bad Arolsen, Germany, Manowar achieved levels in excess of 139dB through Westfalen Sound's Meyer Sound Milo system.
The Meyer Sound system that Westfalen provided comprised a total of 32 Milo and two Milo 120 line array loudspeakers, with massive low end provided by 64 700-HP subwoofers. Twelve M'elodie line array loudspeakers covered front- fill, with three CQ-1 loudspeakers handling centre-fill and out-fill duties.
Westfalen Sound's Dirk Maron points out that the earth-shattering sound levels were maintained
UK - Lighting rental company Siyan has invested in 15 i-Pix BB7 LED wash lights which will be going out on the upcoming Killers tour after they were specified by LD Steven Douglas.
Twelve of these, along with six BB4s were recently used on the London date of Duffy's UK tour, which has also been serviced by Siyan, and designed/operated by Bryan Leitch and Cate Carter.
"They are fantastic fixtures - bright, dynamic and unusual " says Leitch, who was actually specifically looking for a light-source that was similar in shape to the flower/petal appearance of the BB7. As soon as i-Pix' Chris Ewington had demonstrated the power and effect of the BB7, a seven- cell high powered homogenized 10 degree RGB lightsource, Leitch put in his order.
Six went directly onto the KylieX2008 world tour, with lighting designed by Leitch and Nick Whitehouse, where they were used in the o
UK - Pioneering loudspeaker manufacturer Tannoy makes a welcome return to the PLASA show after being absent for a couple of years. The company will be using the Earls' Court extravaganza as the perfect platform for a first UK demonstration of their newest pro-audio product lines, VQ and QFlex, as well as exhibiting some of the existing V-Series loudspeaker range.
The new Tannoy VQ Series is a range of revolutionary loudspeakers designed for any application where precise directional control, outstanding sonic performance, and high SPL's are critical issues; such as large corporate AV systems, stadiums, large dance clubs, live concert halls, theatres, houses of worship and open-air venues, say the company. Utilising precision engineering and design, the VQ series can produce enough power and clarity to be used individually, maintaining your building's aesthetics, unlike line array
USA - Bandit Lites has announced that Peter M. Heffernan, a 30-year veteran, has been named president of the firm. Effective immediately, Heffernan will take the reigns and serve as both president and C.O.O., a role he has held for the last 15 years.
This move comes at a time of growth for Bandit and is the logical step in taking the firm to the next level, says the company. Heffernan began his full time relationship with Bandit Lites in 1978 and he has risen through the ranks. He served as lighting director and/ or production manager for a number of artists that toured on the international scene including Blackfoot and Quiet Riot.
Heffernan moved into an administrative position in 1985 and has performed a variety of roles in the last 23 years. He will be working with the staff and management overseeing the day-to-day operations.
Poland - Fiat Bank Polska in Warsaw recently celebrated its tenth anniversary - with a spectacular event in the famous old Warsaw University of Technology, one of the largest academic schools of technology in Eastern Europe.
The building's grand façade was flooded for the occasion with architectural lighting from four PR Lighting Century Color 2500Ls to create a breathtaking effect.
These fixtures were provided by MEDIAM Sp. zoo, PR Lighting's Polish distributors for an evening which saw a performance by Polish singer, Natalia Kukulska, in front of an audience of around 400.
Mediam were brought in by professional creative agency and production company, Creative Media, with whom they have worked in the past - and the company's in-house lighting designer Maciej Bubula set to work on ingtegrating several PR Lighting fixtures with an LED screen (for the performance by Kukulska
USA - Mark Engel has been was named president and chief executive officer of Rosco Laboratories. He is only the third president in Rosco's nearly 100-year history. The company was started in 1910 by Sidney Rosenstein, who remained at its helm until 1958. That year, Stan Miller bought the company, whose primary product was colour filters made of gelatin ('gels') and assumed the position in which he has served for 50 years. He remains active as chairman of the board at Rosco.
When Miller bought the company it had four employees and gross sales of under $100,000. Today Rosco employs hundreds in eleven different countries around the world and sales are well up in the millions of dollars. It remains the world's largest manufacturer of color filters, as well as dozens of other products used in theatre, film and television production.
UK - Fleetwood Mobiles has appointed Lise Regan to the new role of sales and marketing manager.
Regan comes directly from managing Livingston Studios where she had overall responsibility for their facilities. Previously she had a long association with Dave Stewart's The Church Studios in north London, managing the studios and frequently travelling with Stewart as his production manager for live shows.
In 2006 she launched her own Producer and Engineer Management company, Innocent Management, to develop new and established producers and engineers and her roster includes Grammy Award Winner Jerry Boys whom she will continue to represent.
Commenting on the appointment, Ian Cooper, director of Fleetwood said: "We are delighted that Lise has joined our team, she brings a wealth of experience with her and a new focus for the business."
UK - The Park main stage at this year's Glastonbury Festival was produced by Bristol-based South West Group using recently-purchased lighting and sound equipment from MilTec (UK).
South West Group took advantage of the demanding festival situation to run a live demonstration of the new Lynx line-array system from VMB, also distributed in the UK by MilTec. The system comprised eight Lynx V8 active top boxes, with six Lynx active 218 subwoofers per side, driven through the new Ark 48 system processor.
Operations manager, Mark Bott, explained: "We'd already heard the VMB system at the manufacturer's headquarters in Spain and were suitably impressed with the sound from such a compact system. We wanted to put the Lynx through its paces and the Park Stage was the perfect opportunity. We were allocated a very limited weight to fly from the speaker towers and the VMB line array m
UK - Adlib Audio supplied sound production and crew for the third consecutive year to Lake Stage, the Film & Music Stage and the Cabaret Arena at the 2008 Latitude Festival.
The Lake Stage was sponsored by the BBC as an "introducing" platform for new, young and hot emerging talent. The tent was a small saddle-span design with relatively low headroom, so the Nexo Alpha PA supplied by Adlib was ground stacked, and comprised two S2 subs, two B1 bass speakers and twoM3 mid-highs.
This was powered by Camco amps with Nexo NX242 system processors, and all bands were mixed from side- stage on a Soundcraft Series 4 console, which was also used to mix six monitor sends.
A standard Adlib outboard FX rack contained a Lexicon PCM 70, Yamaha SPX 990 and 2000s and an Eventide H3000 harmoniser plus Drawmer DS201 gates and DBX 1066 and 160A compressors.
UK - Ward Steedsy Associates has become the first PA company in Scotland to purchase an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system. Run by Steven Ward and David Stevenson, the recently formed hire company took delivery of an iDR10 Mixrack and iLive-112 control surface.
"We organised a few shootouts with existing analogue consoles and the affordable digital options. iLive impressed us because not only does it provide all the benefits of digital - such as the use of Cat 5 cables instead of bulky multicores, and a whole host of inboard processing - it is simple to use, easy for engineers to pick up, has a small footprint, is excellent value for money and has fantastic analogue sound quality," comments Steven Ward.
Ward Steedsy Associates provides dry and wet hire of lighting and audio equipment, as well as full event management services, specifically for live music event
Italy - Rome-based commercial TV station Mediaset has refurbished its TG5 news studio. Director Giorgio Marra, and senior director of photography, Gianni Mastropietro opted to incorporate the Coemar ParLite LED.
The broadcasters made a bold commitment to the fixture - requisitioning 140 of the 36 x 1W Luxeon ParLite LED heads, all fitted with 12° lens; these were supplied, complete with colour frames by Di & Di Lighting & Truck srl, a large rental company based in Rome. Set in Par 38-style cans the ParLite LEDs have been built into the vibrant new set conceived by scenographer Raffaella Galbiati, and mounted on racetrack-shaped truss around the studio perimeter.
TG5 sits alongside, TG4 and Studio Aperto at the historic Centro Palatino site and broadcasts four news programmes each day; the number of journalists on set at any one time defines the number of ParLites used, the
UK - A.C.'s Audio division has recently supplied Imperial College Union with a new Opus 900 Series wireless radio microphone system.
A.C. Audio sales executive Glen Thompson, who oversaw the equipment supply commented: "Over the last year or two, Imperial College Union have been gradually updating their sound technology to meet with the growing demand from the drama productions and live band nights held at the venue. Already having experience with Opus wireless technology, the Union was keen to purchase three NE900Q UHF quad receivers due to their 1U rack size and known reliability and durability."
Thompson continued: "Rack space can be a huge issue for many sound directors in this modern age, so the NE900Q is a superb solution that has no limiting or negative effects on the sound quality. The union will also have the option of running any brand of microphone wi
UK - After a successful trial in 2007, The Championships 2008 - more commonly known as Wimbledon Fortnight - saw the hosting All England Lawn Tennis Club elect to replace its longstanding scoreboards on Centre and No.1 Courts with state-of-the-art LED screens.
The new screens meant that the scoreboards could be put to a much wider range of uses, so improved communications between the court control booths and the main screen control room were essential. And these communications were significantly aided by four Yamaha DME4io-C high-performance terminal I/O processors.
Wimbledon-based RG Jones Sound Engineering has been the main audio contractor for the All England Club for over 20 years "At such a high profile event, reliability is everything. A breakdown in communications would cause huge problems," says the company's Jon Berry. "We needed a straightforward devic