UK - SSE Audio Group continues to invest in Yamaha digital mixing consoles, adding a further five PM5D-RHs to its hire inventory in anticipation of the summer festival season.

Last year, SSE used digital systems exclusively for monitors for the first time at many of the UK's top festivals. PM5D-RH consoles were deployed at the monitor positions of Download, High Voltage, Lovebox, Oxegen, Global Gathering, T4 On the Beach, Field Day, Summer Sundae and at both V Festival sites.

So successful was the change that SSE Hire is doing the same this year and has invested in five additional PM5D-RHs, bringing SSE's total inventory to 10, plus several rackmount DSP5Ds.

"The all-digital setups were a real success story last year," says SSE sales manager Alex Penn. "It was a

Slovenia - KSL Studio, Robert Juliat's Slovenian distributor, has supplied 40 Robert Juliat 614SX 1200W tungsten profile spots to the National Theatre Nova Gorica in Slovenia, where they will be the main workhorses for the theatre's varied programme.

One of the youngest professional theatres in Slovenia, the National Theatre Nova Gorica has a repertoire of contemporary and classical plays and stages a total of six premieres per season, in addition to theatre and dance summer workshops.

"We proposed the Robert Juliat profiles to the theatre which was looking to update its stock of front of house profiles," says KSL's general manager, Bostjan Konic. "The technical staff tried them on site and agreed that they were the best product on offer."

All of the theatre's front of house profile spots have now been replaced by the Robert Juliat zoom fixtures.

"

UK - The Royal Ballet recently staged Romeo and Juliet for an audience of 12,000 - not at their home venue at Covent Garden, but at London's vast O2 arena. The bold spatial experiment was a great success. And behind the scenes of the complex production was an ETC Eos lighting control system.

The Royal Opera House bought Eos desks for their house performances in 2008, but needed additional desks to take the Royal Ballet company to The O2. While PRG (Production Resource Group) was called in to provide lighting and rigging rental equipment, they needed additional desks to supplement their stocks, which were out on long term productions. So they went direct to ETC in London, who were more than happy to help out for the week long run of rehearsals and shows.

Following several days of testing and demonstrations PRG provided a lighting specification based upon a lighting desig

Argentina / Peru - Penn-Elcom is expanding its Latin American operations with the inauguration of two new operations - in Argentina and Peru - bringing its number of Latin American offices to five.

This is part of a planned expansion strategy to have Penn-Elcom sales and distribution outlets in all of the major South American markets, and also in direct response to an increased demand for its products and services in these territories, says the company.

Both of the new sales offices have showroom and warehousing facilities offering a full range of Penn-Elcom products including flight case, racking and loudspeaker hardware, accessories and solutions to the professional audio industry, plus selected complimentary lines, including Fane speakers and Amphenol & Neutrik connectors.

Penn Elcom Argentina is located in Buenos Aires. The office is headed by Adriana Gallo and Diego Sot

USA - For more than a decade, the Chesapeake Inn in Chesapeake City, Maryland, has been a favourite spot for celebrating weddings, graduations and other memorable events, its breath-taking, windswept views of the Bay a backdrop for good food, good friends and good times. But the Inn's waterfront location presented an on-going challenge to their ability to be good neighbours, with the sound reflecting off the water resulting in some complaints from homes in the area.

The multi-room facility includes an outdoor deck and Tiki Bar, both of which are quite popular during warmer months. But as design consultant Mike Rapp of Bear, DE-based Sound Solutions explains, sonic issues arose even with many of the more reserved parties.

"For the most part, they only had smaller two and three piece combos playing outside, while the larger and louder bands played indoors, with the music pi

UK - Mike & The Mechanics played London's Royal Albert Hall to launch their 2011 Hit The Road tour. Featuring a new line-up which includes Andrew Roachford, the tour coincides with the release of their first album in six years entitled The Road.

Concert production for the tour is being handled by Britannia Row Productions who deployed an Outline GTO-based system for the Royal Albert Hall, the second outing for the Italian manufacturer's new flagship technology in the venue.

The main system comprised L&R hangs of 12 GTO elements, with three Outline Mantas under-hung from each array plus three along the stage lip to cover the near-field. Side-hangs of 13 Outline Butterfly elements covered the bleachers while an under-stage array of Outline Subtech218 subwoofers provided low frequency reinforcement.

Britannia Row's Bryan Grant comments, "This venue is not the

Asia - This summer Green Hippo is focusing on expanding their Asian market share with various Green Hippo staff visiting old and new customers across the region.

Green Hippo's strategy includes sales manager Samantha Bailey spending time in Xian doing an intensive course in Mandarin before attending PALME Beijing with sales and marketing director James Heron back in May. Bailey comments, "One of the key issues we have found dealing with China is the language barrier. Learning to speak Mandarin, whilst certainly challenging, will reap long term benefits for the company and result in closer ties with customers in this region."

After a successful show, James Heron went on to conduct seminars with Chinese distributor Kupo and attended several key client meetings in Beijing and Shanghai.

Next month focuses on PALME Singapore where Green Hippo will be present at Broadcas

USA / Canada - Meyer Sound reports that it has been named the Official Sound Reinforcement Sponsor of the Montréal International Jazz Festival in cooperation with Montréal-based Solotech, which will supply Meyer Sound's professional audio systems exclusively throughout the festival.

"It's great to collaborate with Meyer Sound and Solotech, both forward-thinking companies whose ability to adjust to their client's needs is in their DNA," says André Ménard, artistic director of the Montréal International Jazz Festival.

A longtime partner with Meyer Sound since 1992, Solotech has supplied Meyer Sound loudspeaker systems for entertainment and music icons that include Céline Dion, Michael Bublé, Leonard Cohen, Cirque du Soleil, and more. While Solotech has provided Meyer Sound equipment for the Montréal International

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India - This year, Martin Professional showcased products at the PALM Expo for the first time. Held from 2-4 June at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in suburban Mumbai, the exhibition, now in its eleventh year, is an important step in increasing Martin Professional visibility in the region, says the company.

Abhishek Guha, Martin's country manager in India, commented on the show, "Clients were extremely happy to get their first look at the Martin Professional line of lighting and video displays. The Martin booth featured a simple design that was optimal for showing the individual performance and effect of each product very nicely. We stayed busy and were very happy with the response."

Key products on display included the LC Series of LED panels, MAC 101, MAC 350 Entour, MAC 250 Beam, MAC III Performance, MAC 301 Wash, M1 lighting console, Maxedia media server, Ether2DMX

Sweden - Late May saw Swedish truck body manufacturer SKAB Group treat its employees and their families to a remarkable company party. With DiGiCo SD8 and SD8-24 consoles mixing the performances, the party went with a swing, not to mention some heads-down boogie.

Falkenberg-based Hire Sound Sweden was appointed by event management company 2e Group to provide sound reinforcement for the party, which took place in Falkenberg's Falkenhalle. The event was for 550 SKAB employees and their families, celebrating the fact that the various parts of the group have totalled 100 years in business.

"The plan was to put on a really grand show," says Hire Sound Sweden's Tobias Larsson. "In total over 100 professionals worked to realise SKAB's vision - to create the greatest corporate party ever."

The entertainment was shrouded in secrecy right up until the moment that e

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies' audio division has supplied a high performance new Meyer sound system to Lancaster University.

The fully portable PA is based in the new environmentally friendly Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) building, a £10m development that now houses all the university's arts related courses including theatre, music, film, art, theatre, visual and design studies - which were previously dispersed around various areas of the campus.

The supply was co-ordinated by A.C. Audio's sales manager, Peter Butler - who is based at the company's Leeds office - and the university's music technology officer, Dr Rosemary Fitzgerald. It was specified by senior lecturer and head of the music department Takayuki Rai, who is also a prolific composer, a highly respected electroacoustic specialist and talented performer working with interactive c

UK - LD Systems has introduced the BM1 boundary-layer microphone, an electret condenser microphone with a hemispherical directional characteristic. Designed for the micing of upright and grand pianos on stage or in the studio, additional applications include conferencing technology, micing of roundtable discussions and theatrical performances.

According to Andrew Richardson, managing director of Adam Hall UK, "The BM1 boundary-layer microphone is a rugged unit that can be used for conferencing applications as well as traditional audio scenarios."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Since winning The X Factor in 2008, Alexandra Burke has established herself as part of the British pop scene, with her brand of high-energy dance routines and up-tempo songs. She has now embarked on her first UK tour, All Night Long, taking in such venues as Hammersmith and Manchester Apollo, Brighton Centre and Cardiff Arena. Sennheiser microphones and IEMs have become an integral part of her touring rig.

Baggy has been performing monitor engineer duties for the chanteuse since her emergence from the television talent series and explains why her Sennheiser equipment - which includes SKM 5200 with an MD 5235 capsule as her main vocal mic, as well as wired microphones such as e901 and e 904s for drums and e906s for guitars, with the band and Alexandra also using ew 300 IEMs - has become such an important element for her shows.

"Sennheiser has been workin

Denmark - When the TietgenSkolen school in Odense began its search for a new large-scale media display solution, dnp partners, Audio-Visuelt Centrum, Denmark recommended dnp's Supernova Infinity optical front projection screens to the architect who was leading the search.

Morten Rasmussen, key account manager at Audio-Visuelt Centrum (AVC), explains, "The new screens were intended mainly for displaying computer presentations and TV programmes. A traditional fixed-frame screen was one option they considered, but the architect objected to the blackout blinds this would require. A better solution was therefore needed."

Destined for use in a newly built amphitheatre/stage on the school's site, the main challenge was finding a screen that would enable quality viewing in this brightly lit area.

Morten Rasmussen continues, "From experience, we knew that dnp's Superno

Conference Cancelled - The In The City music conference, set up by the late music impresario Tony Wilson in Manchester almost two decades ago, will not go ahead this year. The event was founded by the Factory Records supremo and partner Yvette Livesey as a music industry symposium and a platform for the best new bands. Oasis and Coldplay are among the acts that got exposure there while unsigned. Ms Livesey told the BBC she was taking a year off to get married and start a family, but pledged it would return in 2012.

Reunion Blues - Paul Simon has told Sky News he hopes to be re-united on stage with Art Garfunkel for a final farewell tour. The singer said he would "like to sing with him one last time and maybe do 10 or 15 shows and then say goodbye". However, the reunion may not happen immediately as Garfunkel has been suffering from vocal chord pare

UK - PixelRange has expanded its range of intelligent and fully programmable LED luminaires to include a batten fixture, SmartLine 6. The "powerful yet aesthetically slimline" batten can be stacked either horizontally or vertically with no change to the pitch of the CREE MCE high intensity quad LEDs in any direction.

Measuring a slender 6ft by 50mm, the SmartLine 6 LED wash fixture assures instantaneous colour mixing across its length, via the 36 high intensity Quad emitters - each of which provides red, blue, green or white sources. SmartLine is fitted with a 20 degree beam angle as standard, though other light-shaping diffusing lenses are available to vary the output beam, says the company.

SmartLine is manufactured in heavy duty, machined billet with an external heatsink and a clear polycarbonate lens cover. Durability and longevity are assured. The unit is cool r

USA - J. R. Clancy has added two people to its design and mechanical engineering staff.

Hee Yeon Jeong joins the Clancy staff as a mechanical engineer. In her new position, she will design submittal and shop drawings for projects involving dealers of J. R. Clancy products. A native of Busan, South Korea, Jeong most recently was a mechanical engineer at JASStech Corp., the largest theatre rigging firm in South Korea, where she was involved in many international projects. "I wanted to work on a larger market in this field," she said. "I think J.R. Clancy is a perfect choice."

Brandon Welsh is a new design engineer at Clancy, where he will be involved in system design for clients' rigging projects. A recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering technology, Welsh worked for Beck Studios, a theatre e

USA - Clay Paky lighting has featured prominently at the world's largest festival of electronic music held in Miami, Florida.

The 13th Ultra Music Festival drew well over 100,000 techno fans to Miami's Bicentennial Park in late March, expanding to a three-day format for the first time. The event, which has developed a huge following among techno and electronic music fans, featured more than 300 DJs and numerous bands performing on six stages. Headliners on the main stage included The Chemical Brothers, Duran Duran and Tiësto.

Other stages included the Live Stage, Carl Cox & Friends, UMF Korea, Root Society and the Heineken Dome.

Steve Lieberman from SJ Lighting Inc. was the lighting designer for the main stage and festival at large. He selected an array of Clay Paky fixtures, supplied by AG Light and Sound Inc., and worked alongside Patrick Dierson to program the Carl Cox A

France - Christie has announced the appointment of Dominique Denis to the position of market development manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Nitro Solutions.

While maintaining his role as events sales manager for France, Denis will also be responsible in his new role for developing Christie's Nitro Solutions range of moving yokes for video projection and LED and Xenon lighting systems, for the EMEA market.

"Dominique's appointment is an affirmation of the substantive work he's done in the events market since he joined the company in September 2006 and reflects Christie's determination to work toward the convergence of the lighting and video projection businesses," says regional director Pascal Gervais.

"The ProLight + Sound trade fair in Frankfurt confirmed the potential for the growth of Christie's Nitro Solutions products in a high-demand mark

USA - Xantech has expanded its line of IR products with the introduction of the new CIRP (Projector IR Control), CIRS (Conference Room/Classroom Control) and CIRV (Large Venue IR Control) kits. The announcement was made by Rick Seegull, Xantech director of business development.

Developed with direct input from leading contractors and system integrators, Xantech's new IR systems are specifically designed to address typical challenges facing installers today, including IR operation with plasma or LCD TV's; interference from CFL (compact fluorescent lighting) and sunlight; and distance limitations within a single kit. These kits are specifically geared for use in classrooms, conference rooms and houses of worship and engineered for the utmost in reliability, says the company.

Two of the systems come with an amplified connecting block, which allows the connection of Xantech IR rec

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET)'s lighting division has supplied over 30 new GLP Impression Spot One LED fixtures to London rental company Colour Sound Experiment. These were delivered for the start of their mega busy summer festival season, which included lighting several stages at last weekend's Glastonbury 2011.

Recently shown at PLASA Focus by AC-ET (the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for GLP) the latest addition to the r Impression LED range is a high powered, fully featured, moving head spot fixture which uses a potent 400 Watt RGB LED chipset for the lightsource.

This latest sale marks Colour Sound's third major investment via AC-ET in fixtures from the GLP Impression range, boosting its inventory to now include the Spot One, 120 RZ Zoom and original Impression 90 LED fixtures.

The company's Haydn Cruickshank explains that with clients' numerous fes

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