UK - This year's PLASA exhibition will see the launch of several new products from Mackie Designs Inc brands EAW and SIA. PLASA will be the official UK launch of the new EAW KF730 SLAM (Small Array Module) and the European introduction of EAW's innovative new DSA (Digital Steerable Array) Series.

The KF730 SLAM packs a six-driver, horn-loaded KF Series design into an amazingly compact enclosure, setting a new standard for output per cubic metre. The full-sized mid/high horn fills the entire face of the enclosure, ensuring broadband 110° horizontal pattern control. The unique Phase Aligned LF design extends horizontal pattern control into the LF and a bi-amplified powering configuration (passive mid/high) reduces total system cost and complexity.

Users can quickly and easily construct vertical arrays ranging from 4-18 KF730 enclosures. As with the larger KF760 Series, the size

USA - Apogee Sound International has announced the installation of a custom-rigged Apogee ALA-3 line array loudspeaker system in the new Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall at the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University in Atlanta. The main centre-cluster Apogee loudspeaker system, as designed by Richard Laidman of Kirkegaard Associates, features custom rigging constructed by Apogee to be ultra-compact, to enable it to retract into a very tight space in the ceiling of the 825-seat concert hall. "Apogee was extremely helpful in creating the rigging system to fit the available space," said Laidman.

When needed, the cluster is lowered from the attic space by an electric hoist system. The loudspeaker cables are reeled and unreeled, eliminating the need for the typical large and unsightly cable-catching tub. For unamplified performances, the

Greece - Situated in Markopoulo, some 40km from the gates of Athens, the new Olympic Equestrian Center is setting new standards of excellence in the riding world in terms of modernity, amenities and spectator comfort. The centre in fact comprises four different stadiums: the three outdoor stadia for dressage, show jumping and horse racing and a fourth general purpose stadium indoors. This is one of a total of 26 venues that have been, or are being, built for the Olympic Games scheduled for Athens in 2004.

The vast dimensions of the equestrian arenas posed logical and technical problems, not least in terms of sound reinforcement. Omikron Control SA was entrusted with the task of installing a sound system capable of solving the problems, and chose to rely upon products from Electro-Voice. The new DSP-controlled Precision Series amplifiers of the RL series form the heart of the ins

UK - PLASA 2003 will see the UK launch of the E Series switchmode amplifiers. The first two models, E25 (1250W/channel into 4 ohms) and E15 (750W/channel into 4 ohms), both in 2U chassis, will be on display at PLASA 2003. With a stunning new-look front panel, these lightweight amps have been designed specifically for the touring market and to the same high standards of reliability and sound quality for which MC2 Audio products have gained a world-wide reputation.

The series will be expanded with a bigger amp (2000+W/channel into 4 ohms), also in a 2U chassis, later this year. All MC2 Audio products are covered by a five-year warranty.

MC2 Audio can be found on stand EE42.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Following its move to a new facility in the main Bosch HQ in Denham, Bosch Security Systems has just opened an enhanced new integrated demonstration centre for its CCTV, Fire and Intrusion, PA and Congress products. The demonstration centre allows the company's growing product and systems range to be demonstrated at a single location, either as separate products and linked together as integrated systems.

"For the first time, our installers, consultants and customers can see our full range of products and how they can be inter-linked to form complete integrated systems for alarms, announcements, evacuation and building management - all in a single well-equipped location," said MD Joe McCann at the official opening. ""More and more installers and customers are interested in integrating remote surveillance and fire/intrusion detection along with evacuation

France - Professional audio technologies developer and manufacturer, RCF (a Mackie Designs brand), has recently been involved in an extensive audio installation at the famous Charles De Gaulle International airport in Paris. The company supplied a range of equipment to fit a public address system in the airport's new Terminal two building and Terminal two car park.

700 RCF SP400s and 300 RCF SP300 speakers were installed in Terminal two's passenger lounge, whilst for the Terminal two car park, 360 RCF loudspeakers, mounted in metallic cases, were specified. Three racks of equipment were also installed in the technical room of Terminal two: the first rack consisted of an RCF CP3100 control unit, an RCF MB3200 mainframe, an RCF RD2008 digital cassette recorder/ player for announcements, an RCF DX810 digital audio mixer/ signal processor, three RCF PS3400 power suppliers plus a spa

UK - In July 2003, Essex-based Clarity in Sound Light & Vision Ltd became Leisuretec Distribution's 100,000th customer since the Company's inception in 1990. Clarity purchased a Trantec radio mic system, used as part of a complete sound system for a swimming gala event at a leisure centre in Hertfordshire.

Clarity specializes in supply and installation of audio, lighting and visual equipment to theatres, schools, churches and leisure centres. Stuart Graham, managing director of Clarity said: "We offer superb technical support and product knowledge to our customers, built upon knowledge gained from spending the last 25 years working in the leisure and entertainment industry, including a period spent working at Leisuretec Distribution as technical sales manager."

Leisuretec's managing director Nick Spalding commented: "It was pure coincidence that our 100,000th cu

UK - Sennheiser UK has announced a significant extension - to 10 years - of the warranty period on all wired models from its Evolution microphone series. The increase, from the industry standard one year guarantee, is applicable to microphones sold in the UK since March 1st, 2003 and underscores the reliability that the Evolution series has demonstrated since its introduction in 1998.

John Steven, director of marketing for Sennheiser UK, comments: "The Evolution wired mic series has proven more successful than ever we hoped. Given careful design, stringent manufacturing techniques and high standards of quality control, we seldom hear complaints and rarely see returns. It makes perfect sense to us to underpin the sales success of the series with a full 10-year warranty. With the quality of these products, we don't expect to be seeing many more returns within a 10-year perio

USA - Musical legend Bryan Ferry is taking an array of Audio-Technica microphones across the water for a short stateside tour with Roxy Music, with AT4054s on vocal duty, AT4050s on electric guitars and overheads and AT4047s covering the acoustic guitars.

Taking a short break before full production rehearsals begin, the tour's monitor engineer, Steve May, explained why the trademark characteristics of the A-T range appealed to the sound crew. "I know it sounds like a standard press release quote, but A-T's mics genuinely sound great and are very reliable. As a live act those are the two main things that you look for in your mics, so it's no surprise that there is a strong A-T presence on the channel list for this tour and for Bryan's solo gigs. The band also use a number of Audio-Technica mics in the studio, so having a similar line-up out on the road enables us to achieve

UK - Hawthorn Theatrical selected Allen & Heath mixers for use throughout the 5th annual Sprite Urban Games, held from 25-27 July 2003 on Clapham Common in South West London, UK. This increasingly popular free sports festival, revolving around BMX, skateboard, breakdancing and music, saw several improvements this year including a larger B-Boy arena and enhanced Freestyle Motorcross (FMX) jump, as well as an impressive line-up of underground London DJs from the likes of Botchit & Skarper, Catskills, Marine Parade, FAT and the Funkin'Pussy crew.

Hawthorn provided all the audio equipment for the event, selecting Allen & Heath mixers in all the arenas. A Xone:02 scratch mixer was installed on the main stage, running through a GL2200 live sound console at front-of-house. Two Xone:02 mixers were set up for battle mixing on the B-Boy arena, run through a GL2 console. There were also Xo

UK - Cambridge Folk Festival, now in its 39th year, presented an eclectic mix of roots and folk music to a sell out audience of 10,000 avid music fans this August. Many of those fans were also musicians, with impromptu jam sessions running late into the night. The bands on stage ranged from The Sawdoctors, the Eliza Carthy Band, Robert Randolph and the Family Band.

Canegreen designed and installed three separate PA systems for each of the stages, all featuring a range of Meyer speaker cabinets, Lab Gruppen amps and state-of-the-art control systems. Pete Hughes was Canegreen's project manager for the festival, he explained: "We selected the equipment and designed the systems to suit the dynamics and style of music played over the weekend and we have received a lot of praise from the audience about the sound, which is always great."

Production manager Ken Rankin explai

Israel - Sontronics, Soundcraft's Israeli distributor, has supplied a Series 10s broadcast console for a special event that took place recently in the ancient biblical town of Nazareth in Galilee. The occasion was the inauguration of a new cultural centre and radio broadcast studio, set up as a joint Jewish/Arabic cultural initiative designed to foster understanding and co-operation. "This is the first of its kind in this troubled part of the world," explains Sontronics managing director, Sonny Shmueli.

The Series 10s broadcast console, supplied along with microphones, headphones and studio monitors, is designed for use in local and community radio stations. It is simple to use for the novice, but its fully modular design renders it versatile enough to integrate into professional broadcast environments. Frames with 12, 20 or 28 channels are available, selected from Mon

UK - Glasgow-based PA rental company Sound Acoustics has purchased a NEXO GEO S Tangent Array system from Fuzion plc, one of the first companies in Scotland to do so. Sound Acoustics' director Tommy Gorman describes walking into a GEO demo at Fuzion, and leaving with 16 boxes. That very week, the system went out on a three-month tour, and Sound Acoustics rapidly placed another purchase order.

"We've doubled the size of it subsequent to that first order, and what we have now is a rig that can handle George Benson at the Glasgow Jazz Festival, but can also be broken down into three decent conference systems. GEO is so small, so compact and bijou, and it does exactly what it says on the tin - immediately!"

The GEO S boxes have since notched up a variety of events from a touring theatre production, to a live BBC music programme, to a heavy metal festival in the Shetland

UK - Lincolnshire-based pro loudspeaker manufacturer Logic System has announced its successful move into a new 5000sq.ft factory at Gainsborough. The £500,000 move took place over a three-month period earlier this year. Operations director Sue Ellis says: "For three months we rarely had all the staff at the same site at the same time. It was a case of its Tuesday we must be painting at the new factory today! It is a testimony to the company's staff that few customers even noticed that we were moving."

With the move complete, the factory has settled down to a split shift system to keep up with current demand for product. Logic System's managing director Chris Scott told us: "No one sector has been amazing - we have just seen good solid business across all market sectors. The theme bar market has been flat for most people but with installation customer TTL working

UK - London-based pro audio distribution company Autograph Sales will have a wide range of high-end audio products on show at this year's PLASA Show, including new product from Meyer Sound, Clear-Com and ATM Flyware.

Meyer Sound's MILO line array loudspeaker system is a self-powered four-way system with three dedicated transducers for the HF band to provide detailed resolution of transient information - even in long throw applications. Also from Meyer is the UPJ-1P Variable Orientation loudspeaker - a fully integrated two-way system comprising a 10" neodymium magnet low-mid frequency driver and a 2" HF compression driver, andemploying a rotatable 80° x 40° horn.

From Clear-Com comes the Eclipse matrix intercom system, offering up to 208 communications ports in a 6-RU chassis. Each 16-port MVX-16A matrix card provides full-duplex connections with digital matrix stat

UK - This year the education programme has been relaunched to meet the changing demands of the PLASA visitor and will be hosted by the PLASA Professional Development Programme (PLASA PDP), the Association's new training initiative. A full timetable is now online and taking bookings - check out the website below.

This extended educational platform will examine current trends and issues across the wide range of the industry and provide visitors with the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and learn from the experts. The format has been revised with four different types of sessions - Technical Workshops; Business Seminars; Industry Seminars and Masterclasses.

Many of the sessions are supported by associations, trade bodies and publications and for the first time RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) are also supporting the programme. Their endorsement is clear recognit

UK - The directors of Martin Audio and TC Group have announced that on 13 August, the management team of Martin Audio purchased the company from the TC Group. The management buyout was supported by ISIS Equity Partners plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland.

David Bissett-Powell, managing director of Martin Audio, told us: "The management of Martin Audio have long aspired to independence and are pleased that under the TC Group we have had the opportunity to attain this goal. Having established strong links within the Group, we will continue to work closely with Lab.Gruppen and other group companies and expect new co-operation with TC Applied Technologies regarding digital power, processing and networking."

The CEO of TC Group, Anders Fauerskov, added: "Since the acquisition of TGI plc by TC, Martin Audio has been a well-managed and strong performer and we wish the m

UK - Audace Ltd, manufacturers of the Intelliplate programmable control system for audio-visual installations, have forged a strategic alliance with IT specialists CETSAT. The move comes in the wake of an accelerating convergence between IT and AV technologies and markets.

Bryan Waters, managing director of Audace, explains the move: "For some time we have been keenly aware of the increasing need for our customers to be able to offer, at the very least, integration of AV technology with an existing IT infrastructure. Indeed our own SuperHub controller is a classic case in point, offering control and maintenance over the intra/internet using standard networking tools. Often, the need for integration will actually lead to an involvement in modifying, upgrading or even supplying an IT infrastructure. It makes less and less sense to view IT and AV provisions as distinct and it

UK - Loudspeaker manufacturer Logic System Pro Audio has announced the appointment of two new staff members. Ade Hardy, who has joined the company from the Birmingham office of Logic dealer LMC Audio, takes on the role of sales manager. Also joining the company, in an R&D support role is Chris Turner, who has joined from Sheffield-based Academy of Sound. Turner has a background in electronics and will bring additional skills which complement the existing R&D team.

Staff changes are completed with the appointment of existing production manager Sue Ellis to the role of operations director. Sue has been with the company for a couple of years and masterminded the recent factory move. While not known for his gushing praise, Chris Scott offered a few words: "From day one, working with Sue has been like working with a partner, not an employee; her support and commitment is invalua

USA - As QSC's newly appointed global sales manager, Greg McLagan will begin lending direction to the company's worldwide sales efforts. A well-known and respected industry veteran who has logged over a decade with QSC in a number of sales and marketing positions, McLagan comes to the post with plans for increasing QSC's global market share.

"In one sense, mine is a building mission of sorts," McLagan commented."QSC has dedicated a lot of resources to the development of new products outside of its amplifier lines. Now, with the DSP, loudspeaker, network control and signal transport technologies we've added to our catalogue well on their way to becoming established here in the US, it's time to build the presence of these systems in the rest of the world too. As part of this expanded international commitment, we'll also be offering added support to both distributors

UK - beyerdynamic (GB) has recently supplied Crawley-based Advanced Digital Solutions - an integrated systems provider - with its sophisticated MCW-D wireless digital conferencing system for use in the conference chambers of Southampton City Councils.

Southampton's Civic Centre contains all the local government administration departments, as well as a spectacular purpose-built conference chamber. Advanced Digital Solutions were contacted earlier in the year to propose a conference system that would be effective, aesthetic and fall within the budget set for the upgrade. Hardest of all was the caveat that the conference benches should not have cables or equipment fixed to them and that installation was to be non-invasive to preserve the integrity of the installed furniture.

Paul Langridge of Advanced Digital Solutions said: "This project was a natural choice for beyerdynami

UK - The launch of a second generation CM Series loudspeakers at PLASA 2003 completes a product development cycle for the Logic System brand, whose first generation products were launched at PLASA 1998. The company's sales manager Ade Hardy commented: "The launch of the new CM Series gives us one of the most complete product ranges in the pro audio industry and lets us compete in a diverse range of markets. The great thing about my job is that I don't really have to sell the product, I just need to get it under peoples noses, from there the product sells its self."

Logic System's new CM boxes benefit from cosmetic changes - to bring them in line with the rest of the product range - and from upgraded cone and compression drivers. The product mix for the range, which is principally intended for stage monitoring, will remain the same with co-axial 12" + 1", 15&q

USA - QSC Audio has introduced the new SRA (Studio Reference Amplifier) Series. Based on the company's flagship DCA Digital Cinema Series, the SRA Series brings QSC's 'Power Behind the Pictures' audio standard to environments such as recording studios, film and video post-production facilities, boardrooms, and high-end residential installations, say the company.

The three SRA models, ranging from 200W per channel to 725W per channel at 8 ohms, are designed to offer the professional cinema reference standards of the DCA series, with performance optimized for demanding production and residential applications. The SRA Series is packed with features designed to meet the specialized needs of critical listening environments, say QSC, such as a very quiet variable speed fan which is virtually inaudible at low signal levels, individually addressable clip limiters and subsonic filters, b

Ireland - Irish PA company, Nolan Sound & Light, have purchased a Nexo GEO S Tangent Array System for use on the next leg of the Daniel O'Donnell tour in the UK. Proprietor Alan Nolan confirmed the order with Irish Nexo/Crown distributor Rea Sound after the Irish singing legend had been impressed with the system - particularly the large CD18 subs - when he performed through it in the States.

Nolan Sound & Light, his long-time PA provider, had earlier experienced the Nexo GEO S system closer to home when visiting Millennium Forum Theatre in Derry with another act, and played through Rea Sound's newly-supplied house system. Alan Nolan explained what had motivated him to make the investment. "Whenever I brought Daniel to the British mainland we always ended up sub-hiring the Nexo kit in - which simply wasn't cost-effective."

And so he ordered 32 GEO S805s and a pair of

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