Events

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14 March 2016

Dataton Watchout is a leading tool for the creation of high-impact shows in the events and entertainment industries. Watchout allows users to combine multiple projectors or other display devices with standard computer and network technology to create impressive presentations of virtually any size. The system utilises the full resolution of the display devices to create high quality imagery, in any array. The new features in version 4.1, being demonstrated at PLASA09, give even more creative power to the show designer and producer, the company says.

Key features of version 4.1 include Blend Modes - i

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14 March 2016

The winch is used during the tour to fly dancers above the stage, then used for the encore to fly all five members of Boyzone to the 'B' stage and then back to the main stage.

Paul Jordan, director of Hoist UK comments, "The winch is a custom version of our popular range of pilewind winches and in its fully built condition it has ten rope drums spanning over seven metres. It is manufactured in modules housed in one metre custom sections of 52cm truss with each module containing two rope drums.

Tony Dickson, fellow director of Hoist UK adds, "Each of the drum modules are then linked using a drive shaft to the next module, and then to a central module containing the geared motor assembly. The winch is capable

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14 March 2016

The first was a one-off gig by New York's the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in St George's Market, Belfast; the second was the three-day Belsonic Festival staged at Customs House Square, central Belfast; and the third was Live at the Castle, in Carrickfergus.

PSI supplied all lighting for this show, which was promoted by CDC Leisure and completely sold out. They worked to a spec from the band's lighting designer Lucas Cotterman.

The rig consisted of a front and back truss loaded with PARs used to provide all the basic stage washes, which were augmented with beams-work, effects and texturing from 14 moving lights - six Robe ColorWash 700E ATs and eight Robe ColorSpot 700E ATs. Eight PixelPARs were added, attached to floo

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14 March 2016

The company goes on to say that CRMX Nova offers "the same robustness as cables, but with the convenience, flexibility and low installation costs of wireless".

According to LumenRadio, key innovations and advantages in CRMX Nova include Automated Cognitive Coexistence, which ensures the signal is not disturbed by, nor disturbs, other wireless systems; Fidelity - ensuring the DMX frame output is always identical to the frame input; ErrorCorrection, in which advanced algorithms recreate corrupt or lost radio packets, w

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14 March 2016

Sign-Control is a DMX512 playback system aimed at simple to sophisticated room control applications. It can be controlled by 14 buttons, a real time clock, RS232 and an external trigger. Features include three pages of eight memories along with one page of six sequences. Each memory or sequence contains all 512 channels.

Two-Play is a two-universe record and playback DMX controller. Capable of hours of show playback and with remote triggering options, Two-Play is designed as a control solution for small to medium size installations.

Art-Relay is de

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14 March 2016

DiGiCo SD8, launched at PLASA show last year, was an instant hit for the manufacturer, with record numbers sold since its launch. Now, DiGiCo believes it has once again produced a product to suit the industry's changing needs. "A lot of our customers in the corporate world were hard hit at the start of the credit crunch," says James Gordon, DiGiCo's managing director. "Recently, they've been telling us that work is starting to come back. This is great news and we wanted to do something to address the needs of the rejuvenating market. Designing a smaller footprint SD8, but without reducing any of its features, seemed th

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14 March 2016

As well as demonstrating the VQ Live system, designed for the rental/hire sound market, Tannoy are also be exhibiting the latest developments in the successful VQ Series installation range. Initially launched early last year, VQ Series has been expanded with the addition of 6 new devices (each available in passive or VNET powered) including new mid-high MH and down-firing DF enclosures with a variety of horn formats including 40 deg conical, 60 x 40 degree and 90 x 50 degree.

These new modules offer the systems designer an extremely flexible set of tools with which to build tightly packed compact arrays for a multitude of applications ranging from small to very large scale

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14 March 2016

Nexo is exhibiting at PLASA in its own right for the first time in nearly 20 years, marking the recent strategic move away from third-party distribution to direct manufacturer support for the UK market. As Nexo's regional manager, Gareth Collyer will take charge of a network of elite dealers, with a brief to expand and consolidate Nexo's profile in the UK and Eire.

Collyer is well-known to the pro-audio industry, having spent the last four years bringing Harman's professional brands to the UK's installation and tour sound markets. He has an extensive track record, having spent his formative years in sales and market development with Bose UK and Lamba plc. He joined Harman Pro UK in 2005, where his career trajectory through the company and its pr

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14 March 2016

As demonstrated at PLASA09, the XMOS Ethernet AVB solution consists of XCore event-driven processors, open source AVB software, application notes, prototyping board schematics, gerber files and documentation with general availability planned for Q4 2009. XMOS AVB systems are programmed in C using freely available development tools, providing unmatched design flexibility.

XMOS provides a cost-effective way for designers to implement Ethernet AVB with professional levels of quality of service. Applications that are enabled with XMOS AVB products range from consumer audio equipment such as home theatr

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14 March 2016

The digiTILE range is officially launched at PLASA09 although it is already in production for clients in the UK, Norway, Belgium, France, Lebanon and Austria, with more prestigious projects in the pipeline.

The digiTILE range uses a standard mechanical platform for all pixel pitches. Each tile is 400mm wide, 300mm high and 82mm deep making it the slimmest conventional LED product on the market today (although digiFLEX from the same manufacturer is only 7mm deep).

The digiTILE housing is moulded using a high pressure injected reinforced polymer contributing to the low weight of 23kg per square metre for indoor and 28kg for outdoor products. Each tile is capable of front or rear access for service and can quickly be installed into a digiFRAME, measuring

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14 March 2016

For the first time, the Proms finale was screened via satellite to cinemas on every continent of the world. The BBC said the two-month classical music festival had been the most successful yet with a 32% increase in under-16s attending. Proms director Roger Wright said the event had included "outstanding and inspiring music-making".

Goodnight Vienna - The tribute conce

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14 March 2016

The new Macro-Tech i series also features dual-port capability. An additional network port now allows a user to daisy chain the network control down the rack of amplifiers instead of having to run a separate cable from a switch to each individual amplifier.

"The professional sound reinforcement community knows what to expect from the Macro-Tech i series. They are getting the best sounding, most reliable analogue power amplifier in the world. The best just got better with these updates. The upgraded power and features reflect t

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14 March 2016

Receiving its worldwide launch at PLASA09 (13-16 September, Earls Court), SANE (Synchronous Audio Network plus Ethernet), is a new digital audio networking protocol using ring network topology: it claims to offer the first fully-synchronous Cat5 network solution for streaming uninterrupted media in real time.

This new low cost and high efficiency system, based on proven Optocore technology, has evolved from the German company's new AD/DA X6R and V3R converters launched earlier this year; these offer split AES-EBU ports, sample rate conversion up to 192kHz, and five different card options.

SANE offers a unique solution, the company says: it transports recognise

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14 March 2016

Each 124 model has four mono mic/line inputs while the Notepad 102 has two mono mic/line inputs. All models boast four stereo line inputs, and suit a very wide range of applications where simple yet high-quality mixing is required, such as in home recording, small band/cabaret PA systems, AV presentation systems, small broadcast edit suites, educational environments and general contracting.

The Notepad 124FX also has an integral digital effects processor which has a feed from every input and over 100 effects, including a pink noise and test setting. The FX control can also be used

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14 March 2016

The course is free of charge, offering students the opportunity to benefit from a wide cross-section of technical disciplines, including communications, networking, loudspeaker system set-up and control, and mixing practices.

The course will be led by Orbital's training manager, Theo Holloway, who explained the rationale behind the autumn training programme, "The popularity of our annual courses underlines the appetite among

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14 March 2016

Dante offers a complete networking solution and provides users a no-hassle, self-configuring digital audio networking experience using standard Internet Protocols over 100Mb and/or Gigabit Ethernet.

The NXBoB8 and NXBoB16 breakout boxes from XTA with 8 and 16 output channels respectively leverage the tight synchronization and very low latency offered in Dante. The breakout boxes easily connect to other Dante-enabled devices such as processors or mixing consoles over either 100Mb or 1 Gigabit Ethernet.

"Dante was

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14 March 2016

Beside the three different polar patterns to match different room acoustics, the AMS showcases a diverse range of capabilities, such as flat frequency response for acoustic performance, gold sputtered ultra-low mass diaphragms, switchable bass cut filter and preattenuation pad. The series also offers an extremely high resistance to RF interference for extended versatility.

Addi

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14 March 2016

This is the first year that ETTB has catered for the production team and artists at the event, but the island was familiar territory for Anne Crawford, ETTB's team leader, who said: "The Isle of Wight is a great place to source local ingredients, from meat, the world champion Isle of Wight Blue cheese, to sweetcorn straight from the farm adjacent to the festival. Fresh ingredients make for tastier food and a reduced carbon footprint for the catering operation."

DJ Rob da Bank started Bestival six years ago, with just 2,000 people on site. This sixth Bestival attracted a capacity audience of 45,000, with production management undertaken by Loudsound, who's Festival Director Jim King commented, "Having Eat To The Beat join o

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14 March 2016

One of the founding members of loudspeaker manufacturer EAW, Loyko has more than 30 years of professional audio sales experience. Most recently, Loyko served as Director of Live Sound Sales for Avid Technologies / Digidesign and, prior to that, as senior vice-president of sales at Loud Technologies Inc.

Arturo Vicari, managing director of RCF Group commented: "Frank has a very solid track record for building professional audio brands and is extremely successful in leading high-performance sales teams. He has broad experience in all aspects of live sound sales as well as extensive connections w

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14 March 2016

"The Sziget system exceeded my expectations of what Meyer Sound speakers are capable of," said Ian Nelson, Placebo's sound engineer. "In fact, I found that I needed to do an almost unheard of act: turn the subs down. I've worked with most of the current speaker systems over the 2009 festival season. Mixing on Milo (line array loudspeakers) again cemented our decision to carry a Meyer system on our forthcoming autumn arena tour, again."

A critical component to making this high-stakes festival run smoothly i

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14 March 2016

Based in Tokyo the new, brand-orientated division of Bestec Audio is dedicated to the sales and after sales support of Midas and Klark Teknik products in Japan. General manager Takayuki Ozaki joins the company from EVI Audio Japan, where he worked with Midas and Klark Teknik products for 13 years.

"I encountered the Midas XL3 in 1993 when I was involved in the concert sound industry, and I still remember how very much I was impressed by it then," he says. "I joined the EVI Audio Group to sell Midas and Klark Teknik products in 1996 and from that time on, I have been the product manager for the bra

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14 March 2016

The XL8 v1.11 software allows the user not only to crossfade fader levels on a global basis, but to configure one or multiple groups within each snapshot recall, which can fade up and down, and at different rates of change. These 'morph' groups can be used perform the more common fader transitions, but other console parameters such as bus sends and pan positions, including surround imaging, can be programmed to morph between two states, as automated timed events.

Fade-in and fade-out times can be configured separately, and speci

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14 March 2016

Since the acoustic issues in the room can compromise the quality of the mix, the MSC1 includes JBL's RMC Room Mode Correction Technology that tunes the monitor system to overcome low frequency problems in any room. The MSC1 works with any speaker system.

The MSC1 provides the ability to monitor up to three two-channel input sources, such as a mixing console, computer workstation, and personal music player while controlling the volume of the monitor system and connected headphones.

"Our LSR6300 and LSR4300 Series Studio monitors were first speakers with R

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14 March 2016

However, there was one clear winner, Dan Hill from The Central School of Speech and Drama, whose design for Woyzeck at the Embassy Theatre showed how his research developed and influenced the final production. He clearly described ideas, concepts and influences and illustrated how they translated to the final outcome.

The judges - ALD members David Howe, Anna Watson, Natasha Chivers, Phil Gladwell, Tony Simpson, Ma