Tannoy Professional has named sister company, TGI/Tannoy North America Inc, as Distributor of the Year for 2001. Based on technical ability, customer service and support levels, as well as growth in turnover, the award was presented to TGI following outstanding performances in all three areas. Tannoy's sales and marketing director, Derek West, told PLASA Media: "Tannoy Professional saw excellent growth in worldwide sales during the last financial year, increasing turnover almost 50%. We have an unwritten rule that sister companies cannot win the Distributor of the Year Award but when we judged the results, one market clearly stood out as the major contributor to that growth. Combine this with their dealer and product support, which has always been second to none, and we had to tear up the rulebook and present TGI with the Distributor of the Year 2001 award."

Tannoy has also p

Sennheiser presented a total of five Sennheiser Student Achievement Awards and £2500 in prize money at this year’s LIPA Graduation ceremony. Sennheiser UK managing director Paul Whiting presented the awards during the ceremony in the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, conducted by lead patron Sir Paul McCartney, principal and chief executive, Mark Featherstone-Witty, and members of the Council and Trust. The winning students, all studying for or graduating with Sound Technology BA Degrees and Theatre Performance Technology DIPHEs, were nominated by peers and tutors for outstanding work in the course of their studies. Winning projects ranged from radio drama production, to songwriting, recording and production and theatre stage management, and included work from first and second year, as well as graduating students. Included for the first time were specific Sennheiser Awards for the TPT

Logic System Pro Audio returned from Singapore in July having exhibited at the PALA show for the first time ever. A joint venture with Del Salado Entertainment Pte Ltd, the show proved a huge success and has already spawned several new orders and a great deal of interest in the brand which is new to the region. During his stay, sales manager Dean Davoile was taken to see ‘Bali Rock’ the first Logic System installation in Singapore. The venue features a dance area with a quieter ‘chill out’ zone on the upper floor. The sound system comprises IS8’s running full range supplemented by IS24 sub bass units. Lawrence Chee, owner of Bali Rock enthused "I have been impressed with the system since day one and it still amazes me the level and quality of sound I can get from such compact and discreet cabinets."

Audio Pro Nederland BV has announced the appointment of Peter de Fouw as a partner. De Fouw, until recently managing director of TM Audio Holland BV, will concentrate mainly on developing the distribution activities and increasing the product portfolio for Audio Pro. Rolf Dijkstra, owner and managing director of Audio Pro, and de Fouw have a history of cooperation, and feel that the combined experience will be a key element in the success of the partnership and their new plans.

The Illuminated Video Workshop, the Screenco-led consortium that presented two days of innovative show magic at Three Mills Island studios last winter, is set to stage the successful workshop again at the PLASA Show. Situated in the ‘AV Gallery’ of Earl’s Court’s Top Deck, Screenco’s Mike Walker has pulled together the same top-flight technical support teams from the premier event. WAlker explained: "Judging from the number of calls from people who had been unable to attend the January event, the reputation of that two-day spectacular had really spread further than we could ever have imagined. We have been inundated with calls from people, who realising that they had missed out on something special, asking whether we would ever be running it again."

Walker’s first calls were to Edwin Shirley Staging, who agreed to provide their lozenge-shap

Baroque, a Scottish & Newcastle-owned bar situated in the centre of Derby, has recently undergone a complete refurbishment of the ground floor area. As part of the refurbishment the venue has had a new background music system installed by Derby-based Pro Technical Services. Richard Anderson, Pro Tech's service manager explains: "We were approached by Phil Meah, who manages Baroque. He told us that he was working on a concept for Scottish & Newcastle at Baroque and that he wanted a background music system for the bar."

Now, Baroque has a definite 'continental' feel about it and what Phil certainly wanted to avoid was an over-active sound system that would in his words "Blow his customers away". What Richard proposed was an RCF Monitor system comprising six Monitor 5s and two MSW 8 bass units. This gave just the right amount of sound during the day time and was capabl

Stage Electrics has provided 50 tonnes of equipment to Sidmouth International Festival 2001. Stage Electrics production department supplied technical services to the 47th International Festival in Sidmouth during July. This continues a 27-year relationship with the festival, supplying power generation, distribution, site and production lighting and main arena sound. Nine heavy goods vehicles carrying 50 tonnes of equipment including 2.1km of festoon (3,400 lamps), 6km of cable, 350kW of lighting, 30kW of production PA and 920kVA of generated power was installed by 24 crew over a one week production build. The show ran for seven days with seven operators for both lighting and sound.

Audio Analysts has appointed Bruce Eisenberg has as vice-president of touring. Eisenberg has been in the music industry for the past 25 years, and has worked with many major artist management companies and agencies. Bruce's experience and contacts with record company managers and booking agents will be a great help in acquiring major touring artists for Audio Analysts’ client base. Alan Eisenbach joins the company as the new market touring account executive. Eisenbach’s experience as Sound Engineer and Technical Coordinator for the Grizzly Rose in Denver, Colorado for the past five years has assisted in building a solid base of relationships to work with on a local and national level. "Alan’s contacts in the Rocky Mountain territory and with national touring acts will be a great asset in helping us develop the next generation of our touring clients," states A

Pioneer is launching its next generation twin-CD player, the CMX-3000, at PLASA 2001. Stylishly designed, with black rubberized buttons and a carbon finish, the CMX-3000 incorporates ground-breaking features only previously seen on Pioneer’s CDJ-1000, such as Wave display, onboard memory, hot cues and new pitch bend buttons. It also boasts a high-quality scratch mode, which allows scratching, scratch cue and backspin. The CMX-3000 brings the twin-CD player platform not only to the mobile DJ but also to small clubs, music bars and serious bedroom DJs. The Wave Display, patented to Pioneer, is a visual mapping of the landscape of each track. This is graphically represented in the display panel, showing the peaks and lows in the WAVE, and thereby guaranteeing accurate cueing on CD.

A further creative highlight of the CMX-3000 is the Hot Cue/Loop function, which memorizes up to eithe

The Lyric in Hammersmith - one of the few surviving Frank Matcham-designed theatres - has returned to Marquee Audio a year after making a major investment in sound mixing, playback, processing and sound reinforcement equipment, to have them configure a new hard disk recording studio. The theatre’s sound technician Nick Manning (pictured in the new recording studio) explained that the new studio equipment fell into the remit of the theatre’s IT upgrade, which is being funded by an Arts Council grant.

"While the theatre was working on replacing its business systems, I set about drawing up a scheme for a dedicated sound computer, which would enable us to produce sound effects for shows," explained Nick. "I then spoke to Andy Huffer at Marquee Audio about designing a hard disk recording system based around the industry-standard Logic Audio software package."

Stage Accompany has launched its new Friend Series, specifically designed for the installation market and smaller rental market. This new series of small speaker systems consists of four models - F1, F5, F7 and F9 - and has a high grade of finish, with double Speakon connectors, steel grille and flush-mounted speakers to prevent baffle-reflection. Their rigid trapezoidal cabinet design, in combination with SA’s Protexture coating and a wide range of mounting options, make the Friends also suitable for mobile applications.

West London-based Ampekko was recently contracted by Lasalle Investment Management to supply a sophisticated voice alarm and public address system for the Swansgate Shopping Centre, situated in the heart of Wellingborough.

Ampekko worked closely with project manager Neil Horswood of Neil R Horswood Services, after winning the tender to design a dual-purpose system to be integrated into Swansgate’s four spacious shopping malls.

Before finalising the system, the company’s design team performed a number of acoustic modelling tests on-site, including a full RASTI test, required because of the harsh nature of surfaces throughout the centre. They then decided on an integrated PA and voice alarm system, based around Bouyer’s digital GD 2299 - a specialist spot-messaging hard disk recorder and player that allows for up to 100 voice messages to be stored and accessed when n

Firepower is the new Royal Artillery Experience, set in the historic buildings of the Royal Arsenal on the River Thames at Woolwich.

The attraction was designed by Event Communications, whose main challenge was to overcome people’s discomfort with the reality of war. They tackled this by highlighting the role in the fight for democracy and freedom played by the armed forces, especially the Royal Artillery, which has been present at all major theatres of war involving the British Army over the last 300 years.

The centrepiece of Firepower is the ‘ground-shaking’ Field of Fire - a spectacular multimedia presentation that recreates what it feels like to be in the middle of a real battle. On entering, visitors are surrounded by various pieces of artillery. Suspended above these are four 5m wide front projection screens. Projecting onto each screen is a Barco 6300 LCD Vid

The new LiSA (Line-Source Array System) is the first Italian-manufactured line array system. Since it was designed for one of the country’s leading rental firms, Laboratorio Musica, Mike Clark talks to owner Vanis Dondi about the system.

Designed by a workgroup of three Italian acoustic researchers (Mario Di Cola, Davide Doldi and Davide Saronni), the system consists of three-way full-range high directivity line array elements for long-throw applications. Laboratorio Musicale’s Vanis Dondi, explains: "Two direct radiation 18" woofers reproduce the full bandwidth down to 32Hz, virtually eliminating the need for additional sub-woofers in many applications but, if necessary, there are also optional sub-woofers with three long excursion 18" for extra VLF power."

Three Stage Accompany neodymium ribbon compact drivers are the system’s cylindrical HF so

RCF/Mackie has been responsible for the design and supply of a sound system for the new Terminal A at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport at Fiumicino, based around the company’sRX-3000 programmable matrix system.

The new Terminal, built at a cost of ITL 125 billion, is 170m long, 80-100m wide and 20m high, with a covered surface area of 55,000sq.m. It replaces the temporary building constructed in 1997, with the aim of comfortably accommodating more than 12 million passengers a year who use Fiumicino for domestic flights and who, according to recent estimates, are due to grow to 17 million by 2005.

RCF’s association with Rome’s airports stretches back around 25 years, to when the company first started supplying sound equipment to both of Rome’s airports - Fiumicino and Ciampino. One figure that the audio team from Reggio Emilia (home of RCF and now Mackie

In what is claimed to be a UK first, high-end touring and installation manufacturer Chameleon Audio is exhibiting its Mac- and PC-compatible digital audio control system at PLASA. Developed over the last 18 months, it utilizes Apple Computers FireWire and Yamaha’s mLAN technologies.

Chameleon Audio managing director, Paul Houlden, decided to develop the system for several reasons. "Firstly, I feel remote control of audio equipment is the way forward and, secondly, there is an increasing demand from live sound companies for this type of technology. When substantial numbers of amplifiers and speakers are operated or flown in remote locations in large concert venues and stadia, should a fault occur, immediate detection of what piece of equipment has malfunctioned is virtually impossible without a sophisticated control system. Chameleon’s digital audio control system addre

For the first time PLASA is running an on-site clinic at the PLASA Show to lend useful business support and advice to member companies exhibiting at the event. This new initiative, which will also see the launch of a new health-related service, is aimed not only at existing PLASA members, but also at prospective members who can learn for themselves the advantages to be gained from using PLASA services. During the course of the Show, representatives from the Association's range of service providers will be on hand in the PLASA Clinic to answer questions and assist members. Services available include the following:

Telephone Interpreting Service provided by Comunicado: interpreters specializing in over 100 languages. Cost is charged per minute, less than half price to PLASA members.

Legal Advice Service provided by Sherman Phillips: advice on intellectual property, contract, leasehold

Dugald (Doog) Mackenzie of HW International has been killed in a tragic motorcycle accident. Doog had worked for HW for just over four years as area sales manager for the Midlands and South Wales. He died on Sunday 2 September at just 34 years of age. He leaves behind him a wife and two young children. A book of condolence will be on the HW stand at PLASA which after the show will be presented to his family. Funeral details are yet to be confirmed.

Blackburn-based Romers Electronics has specified and installed a custom-designed sound system for the new and existing stands at West Bromwich Albion Football Club. With safety issues and life-safety systems in football grounds and sports arenas top of the agenda, the need for high-level quality, reliable sound has never been greater. Audio systems are also being utilized for the increasingly popular phenomenon of pre and mid-match entertainments.

The requirement for a high quality entertainment system in addition to the safety requirements resulted in the design and construction of two new customised speakers by Arbiter - the AF1 and AF2 JBL-loaded boxes - which were built for Arbiter by Ad Lib Audio in Liverpool. Romers’ MD John Caton told PLASA Media: "We chose JBL components because Arbiter guaranteed the delivery in what turned into a very tight schedule - in time for t

After over two years protracted legal action, and at a cost in legal fees alone of over £250,000, Chris Kenyon, founder of Delta Sound, has succeeded in his claim against Bob Long and Federal Signal for breach of contract and misrepresentation in the agreement for the sale of Delta's business in 1999. Damages of over £300,000 with interest, plus costs, were awarded against Federal. In addition, the judge awarded punitive indemnity costs against Federal. The case arose as a result of the terms of the sale which valued Delta at £500,000, to be paid for on the basis of commission payments over three years. Federal denied that such an arrangement had ever been agreed.

Full story in the October issue of L&SI.

Renkus-Heinz, worldwide distributor of EASE software for ADA, has announced the release of EASE 4.0, a generational change from EASE 3.0 to a more intuitive, easier-to-use format with more accurate calculations and more realistic presentations.

Originated and owned by Dr. Wolfgang Ahnert of ADA (Acoustical Design Ahnert), Berlin, EASE has developed since its introduction in 1990 into a standard for sound system simulation software. EASE 4.0 has an improved look that features icons and better menus, making its use much simpler and more intuitive. Easy-to-use wizards help to create new projects and simplify mapping functions and ray tracing. A new ‘Objects Function’ allows users to select any items in the drawing, including vertices, faces, edges, seats, lights or speakers, group them together and then save them into a separate file as an object. The object can then be import

JBL Professional President Michael MacDonald has announced the appointment of two vice-presidents of sales for the company's worldwide sales efforts and a new vice president of manufacturing operations. Doug Daniel and Tom Weeber have been promoted to VP of international sales and VP of US sales respectively, whilst Jeffery Groenke has been named VP of operations at the company's Northridge, CA headquarters.

Doug Daniel has been with JBL Professional since 1992 in the position of director of European sales and is a seasoned industry veteran. Weeber has been with the JBL sales department since 1993, where he started as regional manager and was later promoted to senior director of US sales. Prior to JBL, Groenke was general manager and engineering manager of Axiohm Transaction solutions and has also been an engineer for Hewlett Packard.

Stanton has enjoyed a record dance season this summer - courtesy of UK distributors, Lamba plc. Its extensive range has provided the cartridges of choice at all the major UK summer festivals, including V2001, Creamfields and the Reading Festival, while the Ministry of Sound requested a selection of MP4s and Trackmasters for their European tours and the Knebworth House extravaganza in August.

Determined not to miss out, London’s leading superclub, Fabric, has also been utilizing Trackmasters, i-Tracks and 500 AL cartridges at the request of their DJs. Lamba marketing manager, Paul Bierton, told PLASA Media: "Dance venues are going Stanton crazy, and when people like Alan Green, Cream’s technical manager, request 21 605SK cartridges for use at Creamfields, it can be difficult to keep up with demand." Even individual DJs such as Paul Oakenfold specifically requested

QSC Audio Products has named Derek Covin as its new manager of inside sales. A 13-year veteran of the pro audio industry, Covin will oversee the daily activities of sales associates based at QSC world headquarters in Southern California, and assist with the implementation of various sales and marketing programs such as special promotions and trade show preparation. "It's my goal to have this department function as an indispensable resource for both internal management and independent representatives in the field," Covin said. "As a vital link in the customer service chain, we'll constantly remain at hand to enhance and maintain our existing business relationships, as well as build new ones."

Covin comes to QSC from Alesis Studio Electronics, where he held a number of positions ranging from manager of global sales administration to western regional sales manager. Whi

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