UK - Having successfully made an impact at the Academy in Sheffield, Nexo's Geo D line array technology has again been chosen by installers Adlib Audio as the house system for what is now known as the O2 Academy in Oxford.

The Academy in Oxford, which was opened just 15 months ago, recently asked Adlib Audio to install a new front-of-house PA in its main venue, capacity 1,020. The club required a brand-name system that would support its endeavours to attract a strong calibre of international touring artists to the city.

Roger Kirby, Adlib Audio's sales manager, describes the unusual room acoustics of the Academy's main room. "It has a very low ceiling, and is a long, asymmetrical shape, which makes it quite a tricky proposition acoustically. After our experience with Nexo's

Netherlands / Belgium - Fred Heuves, CMO of the Ampco Flashlight Group, has announced his retirement from the Group, effective 1 January 2009.

In a statement to company staff, industry colleagues and the media he said: "After working in the entertainment industry for more than 30 years, of which the last 18 years have been within the Ampco Flashlight Group, I have decided the time has come to slow down and make room for the talented new generation within the Group, and I've therefore decided to leave the company on 1st January 2009.

"It has been an exciting period and looking back at how we started and what has been accomplished, not only in the industry in general but also within the Ampco Flashlight Group in particular, I feel a modest pride for all of us in this industry and in the Ampco Flashlight Group."

Fred's roots in the industry reach back to 1976 wit

USA - Harman International Industries has formed a marketing relationship with musician and producer and Quincy Jones to explore and evaluate opportunities for licensed and co-branded products in the consumer, automotive and professional audio fields. The partnership is intended both to celebrate Jones' rich contributions to the music industry and the impact of Harman audio technologies in the recording, broadcast and entertainment fields, says the company.

Jones will also make a number of appearances at Harman-sponsored events and contribute his personage to various corporate and brand-level marketing activities.

"Quincy's passion for excellence in the entertainment field is a natural complement to our own respected audio brands," said Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman's chairman and chief executive officer. "His iconic status and musical genius pair strongly with Harm

UK - Stage Electrics has launched its new and improved website. The new site has been designed with a clear and easy to navigate style which is more customer focused and user friendly.

New additions to the site (www.stage-electrics.co.uk) include case studies detailing the range of completed Stage Electrics projects from educational installations to West End shows. There is a new look web shop with over 4,500 items available.

(Jim Evans)

UK / Portugal - Following the release of its Chimera, a hybrid valve/solid-state preamp, earlier in the year, Sontronics has launched the Sonora, a two-channel solid-state preamp. Designed and developed in the UK, and manufactured by the company's team of engineers in Portugal, the Sonora is a dual-channel preamp/DI with two discrete solid-state channels, capable of "delivering the highest standard of audio reproduction at an amazingly low price" the company says.

Sonora's size makes it ideal for studio recording and as a portable front-end in live performance and stereo recording applications outside the studio. Its ultra-linear frequency response has been honed to a variance of just ±0.1dB from 20Hz to 20kHz. It also boasts 60dB of distortion-free headroom and 60dB of gain, transparent signal integrity, very fast transient response and electronically balanced ins an

USA - Crown Audio has appointed Vincent Tan to the position of business developer for the Asia region. In this role Tan will be responsible for supporting the sales within the region and working closely with the customer base. He will report to director of marketing for installed sound, Brian Divine.

Previously, Tan served as an engineering manager for Spectrum Conferencing, which specialises in providing integrated conferencing and professional audio visual solutions. In this role Tan was responsible for the management and direction of the post sales department, where he led a team of four engineers in providing after-sales services.

Commenting on his appointment, Tan said t, "I'm extremely excited to begin my new role with Crown. Through previous positions I've become familiar with Crown and many of the other Harman Professional brands."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Tannoy has announced the launch of the i9VP vandal proof loudspeaker. A development of the Tannoy i9, the i9VP (Vandal-Proof) is a tall, slim but ruggedly built loudspeaker equipped with four 100mm (4") low frequency direct radiating drive units and three 25mm (1") titanium dome tweeters, partially horn loaded and arranged as a line source.

Designed for use in acoustically challenging applications where wide but controlled coverage is required, the dispersion characteristics of the i9VP (Vandal-Proof) direct sound into the desired space while minimising ceiling reflection from above. This makes it suitable for high quality speech reinforcement in highly reverberant or expansive spaces such as transportation hubs, convention centres and retail malls. The solid metal housing and protected cable run make this product especially suited to outdoor/public spaces where t

USA - As the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States, Chicago's Ravinia Festival boasts a rich history dating back more than a century. The festival runs from May through October, making it less of a typical festival and more of a semi-permanent summer venue. Performances ranging from the Chicago Symphony to Sheryl Crow and Tony Bennett attract 600,000 visitors a year to join in the celebration at Ravinia Park, located in the north-eastern suburb of Highland Park.

Mike Gotshall, owner of Chicago-based wireless provider A Sound Choice, oversaw the audio needs at the festival this year along with IATSE Local 2 FOH engineer Norm Kruger. Gotshall also partnered with New York's Masque Sound to provide self-powered Meyer Sound Mica and M'elodie line array loudspeaker systems for Ravinia's two main venues.

"My relationship with Masque enables me to take on the bigger

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New Zealand - Selecon has launched launch a completely redesigned website (www.seleconlight.com ).

Navigation around the wide range of product information and support together with the extensive technical and educational resources that the site contains has been made simpler and easier, says the company.

New back-end enhancements allow for a more flexible operation of the Selecon site with a new 'search' function on products by either family name or luminaire type via the Support section in the main menu bar. This function is a one-click way to pull a quick overview, lighting calculator, specifications, downloads, related products and accessories together in one place for the product which is of interest.

(Jim Evans)

France - L-Acoustics has appointed Jamie Gosney as technical manager for the UK, joining the company's UK sales manager Stuart Down, and sales coordinator Nathalie Prade.

Gosney has three decades' experience of working in the pro audio industry in a career that spans systems operation and design, sales, installation and even set-building. Previous companies which Gosney has worked for include Autograph Sales, Imagination, Amber Sound, ATM Flyware and the SFL Group.

"I am really thrilled to be part of the L-Acoustics team in the UK," says Gosney. "I love the products and really believe in them; they just sound lovely. I believe our customers will benefit from Stuart's sales experience and my background in system design and installation."

Adds Stuart Down, "Myself and the team in France all welcome Jamie to the family. Having him on board is a great st

USA - Peace Apostolic Church in Carson, California, has installed an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system in the 900-seat Worship Hall, and a GL2800 in the adjacent 300-seat Fellowship Hall. Handling multiple services each week - in addition to rehearsals, bible studies, and other events - the iLive system is configured with 40 inputs and 32 outputs in the iDR10 mixrack with an additional eight inputs and eight outputs on the iLive-112 control surface.

"We are running a full band with acoustic drums, guitar, keyboards, piano, MPC click, six praise team mics, six choir mics, the Minister's wireless mic, and Pastor's wireless mic," says Andre Lamb, Peace Apostolic's music director. "We've also integrated a full Aviom system in addition to overhead and floor monitors for the podium and Choir area."

(Jim Evans)

USA - Daktronics designed and installed a new JBL VRX-based audio system for the Lloyd Noble Centre in Norman, Oklahoma. The Centre is home to the University of Oklahoma basketball teams and also serves as one of the largest concert venues in the region.

The audio system features more than 60 VRX932LA line array loudspeakers in a distributed 'exploded cluster' configuration. Supplementing the main system are VRX928 8-inch, portable line array elements for the upper seating areas. The entire system is powered by Crown XTi amplifiers.

"We have successfully employed VRX line arrays in the past and found them to be an ideal solution for the system at the Lloyd Noble Centre," said Doug Dodge of Daktronics. "The system has performed exceptionally and provides smooth, even coverage to all areas of the arena."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Lamplighters Limited has appointed Shelley Davies as sales co-ordinator to assist in the future development of both sales and office procedures within the company.

(Jim Evans)

USA - President-elect Barack Obama delivered his historic acceptance speech to nearly a quarter million jubilant supporters at Chicago's Grant Park via a sound system designed and deployed by Clair Chicago using an Electro-Voice X-Line PA and Midas mixing consoles.

Ian Hunt, director of event management for Clair Chicago, says, "Not only did we need to combine full coverage and vocal intelligibility on a massive scale in this deep, wide venue, we also needed to ensure signal feeds for the vast assemblage of press from around the world, and all with impeccable audio quality."

After mapping Grant Park using LAPS (Line Array Prediction Software), both Hunt and Mark Kishbaugh, account executive for Clair Chicago, determined that Electro-Voice's X-Line line-array system was the ideal choice to deliver the long-range, highly intelligible sound the rally would require.

Tw

Germany - Independent LED specialist displayLED has announced the launch of its first dedicated mainland Europe operations, displayLED GmbH. This will be operated by ex-Lighthouse Technologies sales director Michiel Hettinga and his team including Jens Schelde, Maarten Hettinga, Stephan Krebernik and Jochen Knoll and will have a clear focus on the rental and staging, sports and digital out of home markets.

"displayLED's international business has grown steadily over the last five years and we have identified a need to provide our customers with local sales and technical support," says CEO, Graham Burgess. "The opportunity to add the experience of Michiel and his colleagues to the displayLED team was too good to miss. Furthermore, displayLED GmbH's base is ideally positioned to service central and western Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France.

UK - Lighting designer Arturo Ollandini is utilising Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 2500 moving lights in his design for comedy duo The Mighty Boosh, currently enjoying a successful UK tour.

The show, produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainments, is a mix of comedy and music which, lighting wise, had all the requirements of rock 'n' roll with a bit of camp and a generous scoop of theatre.

It is Ollandini's second Boosh tour. He was left to his own creative devices to come up with a flexible rig that fitted in around the centre-stage set, built on a revolve with set dressing one side and musicians on the reverse.

He chose an all moving light rig because parts of the show were still "work in progress" and constantly changing when they first hit the road, so he needed complete adaptability to go with the flow and modify lighting at any point.

The front truss contains five

USA - Clair Brothers Systems recently upgraded the audio system at the RBC Centre in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Centre's new system features a combination of JBL VLA and Vertec line arrays, as well as Application Engineered (AE) series loudspeakers.

The RBC Centre is home to the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League and the North Carolina State University men's basketball team. The arena seats 19,722 for basketball and 18,680 for hockey, including 75 luxury suites and 2,000 club seats. The arena also hosts numerous other events, ranging from WWE contests to rock concerts.

According to Jim Devenney, senior audio designer, for Clair Brothers, the audio system at the RBC Centre was due for an overhaul. "The system originally installed in the building had lots of clusters and lots of overlap that degraded the system's intelligibility," he said. "The sy

UK - Willie Williams - best known for his colossal show designs for U2, R.E.M., George Michael and others - has created an exhibition of 'light paintings', in a unique solo exhibition at Wallspace, the art venue at All Hallows on the Wall, in the heart of the City of London. 'Lumia Domestica' runs until 12 December.

Williams' work with light and visual media, creating unique installations and performance environments, often on a huge scale, has been highly regarded as both conceptually and technologically groundbreaking. Wired magazine ranked him one of the top 25 visionaries in entertainment in 2000.

Williams' ideas have always demonstrated the influence of a vigorous engagement with art. For example in 1997, he and U2 met and collaborated with Roy Lichtenstein, Alan Ginsberg, William Burroughs and Howard Finster, as well as the estates of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, to cre

UK - French lantern manufacturer Robert Juliat, has provided a full complement of lighting equipment to Curve, the new theatre in Leicester, which opened this November. Robert Juliat fixtures supplied include long-throw profile lanterns, follow spots, and fresnel- and pebble-convex lens spotlights - including the versatile Lutin with interchangeable lenses.

Designed by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly, Curve Leicester features two auditoria: a main auditorium of 800 fixed seats and a smaller versatile space of 400 seats. 32 tonne steel walls separate the stage from the foyer and can be lifted out to make the stage visible from street level. The open plan foyer is enclosed by a glass façade offering views onto the café, bars and across the stage. The resulting transparency reflects the concept behind the design, which is to make the arts accessible to the public at every

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