South Africa - The Academy of Sound Engineering (ASE) in Cape Town opened the doors to a second campus earlier this year, headed up by musician, engineer, producer and long-time Audient user, Keith Farquharson. Overseeing the project from the early days of its technology specification, right through to welcoming the first intake of students in February 2016, Farquharson has drawn on his considerable experience in both the live and studio business to realise this goal.

"Significant time and investment have been spent on creating recording spaces that not only sound good, but give students the feel of being in a genuine recording studio environment rather than a classroom," he explains. "To that end, having the consistency of Audient hardware in each room, has made a tremendous contribution to that."

As an Audient stalwart, it's perhaps unsurprising to find that he's specifi

UK - The might of a half pack of new EV X-line Advance was used in some style to celebrate the launch of the Christmas festivities and ceremonial light switch on, at Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent last week.

The event, managed and produced by Moonlite Productions, utilized a half pack of X-Line. The system, consisting of 24 x X2-212 Line Array elements, 12 x X12-128 Subs and TG7 Amps, was used on either side of an open top Routemaster London bus as the main system. It gave coverage of the outdoor space arranged to accommodate 15,000 guests. DJ's from Heart FM provided the playlist, along with appearances from Paddington Bear and Father Christmas himself.

The system was flown from two PA towers, with the subs ground stacked beneath, and controlled via Moonlite's Allen & Heath dLive S3000 surface.

Moonlite's sound engineer for the show, Ian Bonner comments, 'Using EVs

UK - Situated in the heart of Manchester's medieval quarter, Chetham's School of Music is the largest specialist music school in the UK and the only one in the north of England. It is also home to Manchester's newest world-class performance venue, the Stoller Hall, due to be inaugurated in April 2017.

Designed by architects Stephenson Studio with acoustic design by Arup, Chetham's turned to specialist consultants Theatre Projects to specify the sound and communications systems which were installed by Northern Light. The sound reinforcement system that best matched the brief and was in keeping with the acoustics of the room was an EM Acoustics HALO-C system supplemented by EMS-51s.

Theatre Projects' senior consultant John Riddell takes up the story. "Price and quality were equally important factors for Chetham's," he explained. "The 480-seat Stoller Hall features an acousti

Trumped - Sir Elton John will not perform at Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, a spokeswoman for the singer has said. Anthony Scaramucci, a member of Trump's transition team, had told BBC HARDtalk that Sir Elton would perform in Washington DC in January. "Elton John is going to be doing our concert on the mall for the inauguration," Mr Scaramucci said. But this was "categorically denied" by Sir Elton's representative in London. "There is no truth in this at all," she told BBC News.

During the election campaign, Sir Elton had expressed support for Mr Trump's opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Performing at a fundraising event for Mrs Clinton in Los Angeles in October, he was reported to have told the crowd, "We need a humanitarian in the White House, not a barbarian."

Mr Trump had used Sir Elton's songs Rocket Man and Tiny Dancer -

UK - Amplifier and DSP specialist Linea Research has announced the introduction of their installation focused C Series range of networked DSP Amplifiers.

Linea Research M Series amplifiers are gaining worldwide acclaim for their pristine sound quality and robust power delivery. The new C Series takes this performance and delivers it in an installation targeted, contractor friendly package. Comprising three 4-channel and three 8-channel models C Series amplifiers all offer full featured DSP control and an optional Dante interface in a compact 2u chassis with a tamperproof front panel.

44C variants comprise the high power 44C20 with 4x5000W @ 2 ohms per channel, the 44C10 with 4x2500W @ 2 ohms per channel and the 44C06 4x1500W @ 2 ohms. 8-channel 88C versions range from the 8x1250W 88C10 to the 8x750W 88C06 and the 8x400W 88C03. All 88C amplifiers can deliver their full rate

UK - Sound Technology Ltd, distributor of Harman Professional Solutions in the UK and Ireland, has announced 2017 training dates for the popular Soundcraft Vi Console and HiQnet Audio Architect courses.

Sound Technology offers a free one-day training course on Soundcraft's Vi Series consoles. This runs monthly and is open to engineers, venues, hire, installation and production companies.

The sessions are designed to adapt to the requirements of the participants and includes hardware components and connections, Vistonics interface and console operation; configuration of the console for FOH and monitor applications; diagnostics and fault finding; shows and snapshots; Soundcraft Realtime Rack; ViSi Connect iPad app, offline editor and integration with other audio equipment.

The dates for the first half of 2017 are: 25 January 2017 (Adlib, Liverpool), 22 March 2017 (Sound

UK - Centurion Club, near St Albans in Hertfordshire, is a recently developed private golf facility managed by the internationally successful Troon Golf company. Set in idyllic surroundings, no expense has been spared in creating a stunning facility. Away from the course itself, the club building offers a wide range of services including bar and restaurant, as well as private rooms for banqueting, conferencing and meetings.

Consistent with Centurion's approach to offering its patrons the highest possible quality, its management team consulted with Audiologic and integrators CDEC over provision for an audio system with zonal capabilities in separate areas across two floors. The ground floor area at Centurion has three meeting rooms which can be opened up into one large space, so flexible provision was essential. The system would include a facility for music playback as well rel

Europe - Starring Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, and recently screened on Amazon Prime, the first episode of The Grand Tour is reportedly the streaming site's biggest premiere to date. As the three former Top Gear presenters embark upon a "hilarious global adventure", Netherlands-based outside broadcast service provider United has placed Lawo in the driving seat.

The series is being shot as a multi-camera 4K HDR production at the 23.98 frame rate, as it is being aired in the US.

"United has a track record in 4K and HDR filming, including live concerts by Muse and U2, so this was the main reason we got this job," says sound supervisor Huub Lelieveld, who mixes the recordings along with Rob Ashard and Mischa Kortleve. "For audio, I and my colleague Christian Postma wanted to match the high-resolution video by creating the best audio quality pos

Germany - The Hensoltshöhe Foundation is a Bavarian Christian retreat, healing and study centre. A recent upgrade to the building has seen a prayer and two meeting rooms with moveable walls added, with a Yamaha CIS audio system delivering flexible, high quality sound for all room configurations.

Founded over 100 years ago in the town of Gunzenhausen, the Hensoltshöhe Foundation is the hub of a Germany-wide network of Christian centres. It features healthcare and rehabilitation facilities, guest houses, event spaces, meeting rooms and many opportunities for worship and reflection.

Installer Klartext AV has done many installations in houses of worship, corporate and public buildings using Yamaha CIS products, but the retractable walls of the Hensoltshöhe project presented the company with new challenges.

"This project was completely different from a typical church ins

UK - Audio equipment manufacturer Cambridge Audio recently took the less than conventional step of opening a fully equipped music venue below their London HQ. Named Melomania, this unlicensed space is for private 'invitation only' events and can cater for up to 200 guests.

With a fully equipped DJ booth and a stage for bands, the PA comprises a speaker line-array and amplifiers adapted from the high-spec consumer products that the company is more familiarly associated with. Melomania has already captured the attention and imagination of some influential music business hitters, none bigger than Warner Music, who chose the venue for the launch and first official listening session of David Bowie's unreleased 1974 album The Gouster.

One very important element in the development of Melomania is Cambridge Audio's own very talented 'house band' who perform at functions in

Canada - An early 20th century castle and museum of historic note, Casa Loma is also one of Toronto's most popular sites for concerts and other social events. The favoured event venue in warm-weather months is a glass-walled outdoor pavilion that was recently outfitted with a new distributed system of Meyer Sound IntelligentDC self-powered loudspeakers.

"I was looking at Meyer Sound from the outset as nobody else offers a comparable solution," says Wesley Thuro of Event Media Design, the exclusive AV provider at Casa Loma. "What we needed was a relatively small but extremely high quality distributed system - something like you'd find as delays in a major symphony hall. It had to be equally adaptable to any musical style, satisfy any rider, and also be easy to install and remove at the beginning and end of the season. Meyer Sound IntelligentDC was the perfect fit on every count

Germany - CatCore offers a wide choice of XLR/Cat adapters in the form of stageboxes, cable splits and rack units. The systems - in which four signals can be collected as micro-multicore - are suitable for a variety of applications. For example, these include audio subcores, DMX from the FOH to the stage or from the dimmer city to the traverses in order to ensure structured DMX cabling.

With its products, CatCore is responding to event technology developments, where network cables are now indispensible. Thanks to their standardised properties, the cables are not only excellently suited for mere network protocols but also for the transmission of DMX, intercom, analogue and digital audio formats - often across significantly longer cable distances than "real" network.

With their low price, worldwide availability, low weight and easy handling, considerable advantages arise ove

USA - "It's big." That's the reaction of many the first time they enter Rupp Arena, the 24,000-seat centrepiece of the Lexington Centre, a convention and shopping facility in downtown Lexington, Kentucky. The facility is home, appropriately, to the Kentucky Wildcats, the University of Kentucky's men's basketball team that is first in the nation in home attendance.

The arena, which dates to 1976, got through the last 40 years with sound from 'Big Bertha', a massive cluster-speaker system hung above the centre of the arena. Big Bertha was appropriate for its era, but as part of an ongoing $15m renovation that also saw a new video scoreboard installed, Rupp Arena now has a new sound system that's also commensurate with its standing and its time.

The largest L-Acoustics K2 sound system ever used as a fixed installation also brings tour-level audio that lets Rupp Arena accommod

USA - Centennial Airport (APA) - an international public use airport in the Denver/Aurora, Colorado metropolitan area - has shifted to Audio over IP as a simpler and more cost-effective means of monitoring aircraft-related noise and its effect on human life in adjacent vicinities. The multipoint system simplifies the gathering, recording and review of noise exposure data - ultimately for the benefit of maintaining and improving regional community and business relations.

Each Noise Monitoring Terminal (NMT) features a Brüel & Kjaer system with an integrated Barix Instreamer. The Instreamer encodes the aircraft noise captured at each NMT, and streams it over IP to a control centre where it's correlated with flight tracking information. These portable field NMTs are currently situated at 12 permanent, noise-sensitive sites throughout the surrounding communities, including two on

USA - For the United States Presidential election on 8 November, the BBC World Service established a temporary production and distribution facility within its Washington DC bureau.

The BBC World Service production staff utilized Dante networking from Audinate to manage and deliver live coverage to radio audiences worldwide over the BBC World Service, NPR partner stations, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 5 Live networks (as well as BBC local radio in the UK) - reaching as many as 250m listeners over a 12-hour period.

In a clear sign of the shift to digital, the use of Dante by the BBC World Service contrasted with their use of a legacy contribution and distribution architecture for live US presidential election coverage four years ago. The transition to audio-over-IP using Audinate's Dante networking technology massively improved efficiency across all business and technical aspects.

China - The G20 Summit is one of the most important events in world political and economic calendar. Its latest edition, in September 2016, was held in Hangzhou, China, and was only the second G20 convention to be held in an Asian country.

The Summit took place in the newly-built Hangzhou International Conference and Exhibition Centre, strategically located in a modern and well-served area of Hangzhou. The large and spectacular external area around the building was freely accessible during the days of the Summit and hosted breathtaking audio-visual projections that entertained a large public, arriving from the whole region of Zhejian and abroad.

The shows were reinforced with an RCF sound system that comprised 32 P Series loudspeakers, installed both on the ground and on the building's external walls. The main features of RCF's P Series are highly efficient coaxial designs

China - API has announced their partnership with Chinese distributor Beijing Pacific Budee Technology Development Co., Ltd effective 1 November 2016.

Budee was established in 2002 as an audio and video solutions company. The business focuses on music performances, AV integration, audio production, radio, television, fixed installation, consumer electronics, musical instruments and equipment and more. Budee's comprehensive product line will now include the analogue sound of API.

"API has a fantastic reputation for building high end consoles and other audio products," says Budee owner Mills Xu. "Budee, always focused on solution needs and providing the best possible service to its customers, is a well-known entity in the Greater China marketplace. API will fit perfectly with Budee's service oriented approach to bringing the 'best of the best' foreign brands to China."

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UK - A wide range of leading industry professionals attended the first UK demonstration of Adamson's loudspeakers last week.

The event was hosted by Adamson's UK partner The Warehouse Sound Services Ltd. The day-long event included a demonstration of Adamson Systems' E15 and S10 loudspeaker systems. The demo was held in Fly By Nite's bespoke arena-sized rehearsal space for touring bands in Redditch.

Earlier this year, The Warehouse was named the sole UK distributor for Adamson. Already one of the largest suppliers of pro-audio equipment in the UK, The Warehouse opened a third branch in the North of England together with sales and support based in London to support Adamson's UK growth.

Over the last few months The Warehouse has invested heavily in Adamson E15 line arrays with E119 subs, S10 line arrays and the S119 compact subwoofers, dedicated amplifier racks fitted wi

China - Electric Jungle Music Festival is the first and biggest EDM festival in South China and this year's edition was staged at the huge Shenzhen Universiade Centre, inaugurated just five years ago and designed to host not only international sports, but also large-scale events and concerts, such as the Festival, committed to creating a rich, flexible and highly interactive world-class stage offering a wide variety of on-site activities as well as the music.

The festival, which featured sets by jungle artists such as R3HAB, Knife Party and Adventure Club, was presented by Jungle Events and organised by MNET Media.

For the second consecutive year, Guangzhou Haona Audio Equipment Co Ltd. was the Festival's audio supplier.

As well as lasting longer than in the past (two days instead of one), the festival also added a new stage this year and Haona, Italian audio manufactu

UK - Austrian mic manufacturers Lewitt, in conjunction with UK distributors JHS, is running a competition to win one of its LCT640TS Large Diaphragm Condenser Microphones worth.

The LCT640TS allows the user to change the polar pattern - even after the recording has been done. With its dual output mode it provides the signal to the front and back of the microphone separately, so any kind of polar pattern can be achieved. In conjunction with your DAW you can then use the included plug-in to change the pattern even after the recording has taken place.

Plus, any two LCT640TS will always form a matched pair, making it the perfect choice for stereo applications. Or you can use one mic in Dual Output mode and adjust the stereo width later in your DAW.

To enter the competition, purchase any Lewitt microphone between 1 December 2016 and 31 January 2017, then register and enter

China - Powersoft amplification has been used to drive the sound at a powerful stage play at the Jinguan Theatre in China's Shaanxi Province.

The production ran for an entire season to sell-out houses at the 600-capacity theatre where a combination of X4, Duecanali and M-series amplifiers were specified by the Italian manufacturer's Chinese distributors, Shenzhen EZpro Sound & Light Technology Co., Ltd to drive an EAW QX364/SB1001 system.

The play, Chu Shi Biao is adapted from the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Luo Guanzhong during the Ming dynasty. It focuses on Zhuge Liang, a chancellor (or prime minister) of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, and describes historical events such as Meng Huo being captured and released seven times, as well as the Northern Expeditions and Empty Fort Strategy.

The sound rein

UK - Southampton Solent University has recently made a significant investment in Allen & Heath's dLive digital mixing system, as part of a comprehensive upgrade to its television studio teaching facilities.

A dLive S5000 surface with DM32 MixRack is in use in the TV control room for the main TV programme mix, with an additional dLive S3000 surface with DM32 employed as part of a movable PA system set-up; an Allen & Heath GLD-112 mixer with AR2412 IO rack also acts as a fixed FOH mixer for the permanent studio floor house speaker system.

"The dLives fit into a Dante-enabled system that combines the audio sources from across the facility - there are three separate areas as well as links to other TV studios," explains Ian Luxford, technical instructor (media and arts) and studio engineer. "So any of the mixers will be able to pick up any source as necessary. We have a 24-way

Poland - Warsaw-based Phono Media has been appointed by Martin Audio as its new distributor in Poland, with immediate effect.

Set up in January 2010, and operating mainly in the field of fixed installation, the company represents a number of leading pro audio brands as well as control and signal management equipment through a network of 40 authorised partners and 150 resellers.

According to company director, Jacek Stanislawski, Phono Media first approached Martin Audio when they were looking for premium quality systems for club installations. "We had a gap in our portfolio for a top quality brand which offered high-powered cabinets," he said. "The major advantage with Martin Audio is that you can see their products used on the biggest of shows with top headline acts, while in the installation sector they offer a wide range - from AM series for stadiums and arenas to CDD We

Egypt - For over a decade, Cairo Jazz Club has been at the centre of the Egyptian capital's music scene, attracting high profile artists, both home-grown and international, and helping to launch new talent. As such, it has been instrumental in the evolution of Cairo's independent music scene. In July this year, it closed its doors for its annual renovations, re-opening with a fresh look and a brand new L-Acoustics loudspeaker system.

The new system, which comprises a combination of L-Acoustics ARCS Wide and X Series loudspeakers, was designed and installed by Heliopolis-based Audio Technology, which has been working with the Club since 2006.

"The project presented us with some interesting challenges," says Amir Hany, sales & marketing manager at Audio Technology. "Cairo Jazz Club covers 200 sq.m in an L shape with exposed air conduits as obstacles, which makes even sound c

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