USA - Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West, Florida - once the favourite hangout of local resident Ernest Hemingway - recently installed a new main PA and monitor system from Martin Audio, as well as additional Martin Audio loudspeakers in the Backroom saloon located behind the stage and the upstairs Speak Easy bar. The famous club still features the original Cuban tiles floors and hosts festivals throughout the year including the Hemingway look-a-like contest. Named after the original owner Joe Russell, Sloppy Joe's has a reputation for hosting the best bands in the Keys and having the best party in town.
Unfortunately, the club's audio system was outdated and had been pieced together over the course of several years. "The last system install happened about twelve years ago," said Kevin 'Spyder' Wright, entertainment manager for the club. "When we decided to update the a
Executive Audio is a new company set up by two very well-known figures in pro audio sales, Hans Freytag and Steve Smith, following discussions at PLASA last year. The company is targeting the UAE, and already has a tidy portfolio of leading audio brands (EAW & EAW Commercial, Lake Technology Corporation, TiMax and DiGiCo) to which they are hoping shortly to add a high-profile amplifier manufacturer. The emphasis, says Freytag, is on high-end, high-performance audio, with plenty of scope for residential and commercial markets. EAW Commercial was showing its latest ceiling monitor, the CIS-400.
UK - Entec Lighting continues its successful run of theatre productions, supplying lighting equipment for the national tour of Kim Gavin's Love Shack. The show stars Faye Tozer and Jon Lee (ex S-Club 7), Noel Sullivan (ex Hear'Say) and a lively collection of hits from the 1980s. Entec won the contract by offering an excellent package, and was also highly recommended by lighting designer Simon Tutchener to producer Tristan Baker. The show was programmed by Nigel Catmur, and Jeremy Duncan was asked onboard to operate on tour, and to oversee the re-lights.
Love Shack visits all the major receiving houses in the country. The schedule is tight, with a Monday morning get-in to be ready for a show that evening, followed by a full week of shows and a get out after curtain down on the Saturday. Entec's Noreen O'Riordan says: "Theatre is a relatively new discipline to u
Other companies who were exhibiting at PALME in a supporting role, with established business relationships in the region, included leading UK manufacturers such as Midas/Klark Teknik and Martin Audio; French manufacturer L-Acoustics already works in the region with V-Dosc partner Gearhouse (who provided a V-Dosc system for Pavarotti's Dubai show in April) and ARCS user, Prism. PALME saw the regional debut of the company's Kudo system, and of its SoundVision acoustical simulation software.
German manufacturer ic audio had teamed up with Millbank in a joint-branding exercise aimed at promoting and increasing the companies' presence in the Middle East's commercial sound installation market.
A.C. Lighting has been doing business in the region for years, and was at PALME in a supporting role for existing clients, but also to work on developing the projects side of their business in the Mi
Italy - Outline's Butterfly compact line array took part in a show on an impressive scale - the first Red Bull Flugtag - Un giorno con le ali - a competition for hand-made flying machines powered by just the contestants' muscles and creativity. Presented by Andrea Pellizzari of the popular TV show Le Iene, the event was staged in Milan Linate's Idroscalo, an artificial lake 2.6km long and up to 400m wide, located in a huge natural park.
,I>Red Bull Flugtag, the brainchild of Red Bull's owner Dietrich Mateschitz, is famous in many parts of the world as well as in Italy. It's staged in the USA, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Hungary, Israel and Slovakia. 30 teams participated in the Italian event held on 12 June, launching themselves off a 40m long, 6m high ramp and landing in the water of the Idroscalo, all under the watchful eyes of a jury, which assessed their perfo
Martin Professional Middle East's CEO, Nour Assafiri, said business was excellent for his company, which has been operating since 1991, and as Martin Pro Middle East since 2002. The full lines of Martin Pro and Martin Architectural, Jem smoke machines and Mach sound reinforcement products are complemented by other distributed brands: Advanced Fibre Optics from Spain, and Eurotruss from The Netherlands.
Adam Hall, now at their third PALME, were reporting an "excellent" show, with good responses to its LD Systems audio product line, particularly the wireless mic system, which had recently voted best mic in its price class by Play Music. The company was also picking up strong interest in its protective cases products.
UK - With the coming summer season looking busier than ever, SDD Sound & Light has just taken delivery of another Midas Venice 320 and Midas 160 desk to cover the increased workload. This takes the company's stock of Venice desks to six, with a further two Venice 320 and another Verona 320/400 planned for the latter part of 2005.
The planned work programme for this year includes not only an increased number of dance and music events but a greater number of touring Shakespeare productions for the summer season. The Venice desks have proved a hit with the artists for their ability to tightly control vocals with warmth and clarity and are now being specified by the touring companies as standard.
"During the past few years it has become clear to us and our clients that the Midas desks have outperformed all of the other brands that we have used," said rental manager Howar
UK / Ireland - Harman Pro UK staged its highly successful Roadshow Presentation in Dublin, Manchester and London - demonstrating the fabulous range of new Harman technology launched at NAMM and Frankfurt. The show featured presentations from JBL Professional, Crown, dbx Professional, AKG, Lexicon, Soundcraft, BSS and Studer - the core of the Harman Group. Highlighting the new technology and audio solutions available from all these brands for a variety of professional applications, including live concert touring, portable PA, mobile disco and studio sound, the Harman Pro Roadshow has toured the US, France and Germany.
JBL's new VRX Series line array concept attracted much attention. Featuring the performance of high end line arrays in a compact, affordable and flexible 12" two-way format, VRX provides outstanding coverage and output coherence. VRX shares components with JBL'
UK - APR Audio showcased one of the biggest PA systems ever assembled in a dance tent, at the recent Homelands Festival in the south of England. Entirely comprising Electro-Voice and Klark Teknik/Midas products, the sound system in The Movement Tent was predominantly X-Line, as one would expect from APR, one of the UK's leading EV rental houses.
For a line-up that included some of the world's best drum 'n' bass DJs and MCs, APR provided a ground-stacked X-Line array system, "a massive wall of sound", according to APR's Pete Russell. Either side of a centre stage were eight Xvls 3-way line array cabinets, with 16 Xsubs. In the centre, four Xi1152 full-range cabinets provided fill, and for stage fill, another two Xb LF boxes and two Xn cabinets were used on each side. Completing the picture were XW15As for band monitoring.
UK - When Ian Croxall bought his Soundcraft Series 1 in 1978, he never dreamed he'd still be using it 25 years later. The console, built into a flightcase (believed to be the first such road-ready design to be produced in volume), has given sterling service for a quarter of a century on numerous live events, being used for recording as well as PA work. Now Croxall has traded his Series 1S in for one of Soundcraft's new GB4 desks, but only because of the channel count.
"There's still nothing wrong with the 1S," reports Croxall. "In all that time it's only ever had two small technical problems, and one of those was a blown fuse! The only reason I'm upgrading is that it has simply run out of channels to handle the sort of work we're doing these days."
Ian donated his Series 1S, complete with the original user guide, to Soundcraft, who intend to put it into a c
UAE - Dubai-based Artes Audio Visual Rentals is one of the region's leading rental companies, with services ranging from dry hires to full event management. The latest addition to the company's armoury is a Midas Verona mixing console purchased from local distributor NMK Electronics Ent for mid-sized to large events. "The Verona delivers that high-quality sound you expect from a Midas but in a compact size, which allows us to use it frequently, and for many different scenarios, says Avril Rodrigues, head of audio at Artes. "This makes it a great investment for the company."
Chicco Hiranandani, product manager at NMK, adds: "I was approached by Artes before the Dubai Jazz Festival this year to provide a FOH mixing console. At that time, we'd received the new Verona console so I offered them to try it during the three-day event. When they were able to see and h
UK - Peavey has introduced the latest additions to the PV Series: Both the 700W (1400W peak) PV 215 and 400W (800W peak) PV 115 models are 2-way trapezoidal enclosures featuring a single 15" woofer, RX14 compression driver with a 1.4" titanium diaphragm and a 90° x 40° constant directivity horn. Further features are a heavy-duty crossover, tweeter protection, plus moulded-in pole mounts. The third model, the 400W PV 118 subwoofer has an 18" Pro Eighteen woofer, optimized internal low-pass crossover, along with pole-mount adaptor.
Also new is the Messenger Light, a compact, portable sound system that can be set up in seconds. Measuring just 24" wide, the Messenger Light's robust 5-channel mixer and 100W output make it ideal for an array of applications from office presentations and small events to karaoke and everything in between. Adding to this, the Messen
Italy - 29 May 2005, marked the seventh annual 'Cornetto Free Music Festival'. Sponsored by the ice cream maker Algida, the festival has become one of the best attended live festivals in Italy, drawing this year over 100,000 music fans to the piazza in front of Milan's magnificent cathedral despite temperatures of 35°C. The event, MC'd by Ambra Angiolini and Elio delle Storie Tese, featured international stars including Avril Lavigne, Black Eyed Peas and John Legend performing on a 50m x 14m stage, with two 20sq.m screens providing Imag.
The task of providing the sound reinforcement for the spectacle was entrusted to Milano Music Service (MMS), the renowned Milanese rental company, and both the client and the audience were delighted with the results. Supported by EVI Audio's Italian partners, Texim, MMS's engineers opted for a large Electro-Voice X-Line system along with EV amp
France - EVI Audio France recently hosted its first Midas and Klark Teknik academy at the Eurodisney resort near Paris. At the event new product lines were introduced to the 50 participants by service department manager Jean Marandet and managing director, Cécile Dehlinger. The session started with a brief introduction to Klark Teknik's history, presenting all the products that have established the brand throughout the years. Jean Marandet then introduced the Helix Digital EQ System, highlighting the dedicated managing software RCS (Remote Control System).
"The audience was very impressed by the ease of use of the software and its full compatibility with Midas consoles," says Marandet. "The set-up, consisting of a Heritage 1000 and a DN9340 linked together by a laptop using wireless technology (WiFi), was functional in no time and configured live according to req
Thailand - Biamp Systems has appointed Andy Pearce to lead its sales and support operations in the Asia Pacific region. Pearce assumes responsibility for the coordination and support of regional distributors and channel partners and also the maintenance and development of successful integrator relations throughout the region. Based in Bangkok, Thailand, Pearce will report directly to Graeme Harrison, Biamp Systems VP of international sales.
With extensive industry experience both in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region with firms such as Quantel (UK), Measat Broadcast Network Systems (Malaysia), AMS/Neve (UK and Hong Kong) and Mandrill Recording Studios (New Zealand) Pearce joins Biamp Systems from Sony (UK) Ltd, England, where he was technical account manager with responsibility in the UK for product management of the Sony XDCAM range of products and Sony XPRI systems. Before joi
Australia / UK - In a surprise move, Tom Misner - president and founder of the multi-national SAE (School of Audio Engineering) Group - has announced the acquisition of the leading console manufacturer, AMS Neve. Misner, an audio technologist, visionary and educator in the music field, has maintained a strong industry association and has been a user of Neve consoles for the past 30 years. AMS Neve's MD Mark Crabtree said: "We are very happy to now be part of such a strong global organization." He added: "With the full support of the SAE Group it will enable us to increase our market share and above all accelerate the introduction of our new product range."
SAE Institute will now be providing through its network in over 45 colleges in 20 countries AMS Neve broadcast/music/film and post seminars for past and new clients. This will be a first of a kind service o
USA - The recent launch of the self-powered MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker was enthusiastically received in the market and orders began flowing in as soon as the product was announced, say the company. Although the first production run has been dispersed to nearly every continent on the globe, the majority of the initial shipments have gone to Europe, with more than 70 cabinets going to Spain alone and Best Audio/Dispatch France's Meyer Sound distributor taking delivery of 48 units.
MKM Showtechnik of Darmstadt, Germany, the first of a number of German rental companies buying the new loudspeaker, employed a dozen MICA cabinets, supported by seven 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofers in a horizontal line array at the Burggrabenfest concert in Darmstadt. The show received favourable reviews for sound in the German press.
USA - Neutrik collected a Pick Hit Award 2005 for its new OpticalCon product, presented at InfoComm in Las Vegas (8 to 10 June). Industry insiders - ranging from end-users to consultants and journalists - who visited exhibitors' booths anonymously during the show - selected the winners. The Pick Hit recipients need to be renowned for offering a wide range of products standing for the application of leading-edge technology and/or providing eminently practical solutions to today's system integration challenges. "It was difficult to come up with only 14 products out of all the contenders, but it's exciting to see such a good cross section of technologically innovative products that either provides extremely well thought-out solutions, represents the latest advancements in a particular technology, or both," the jury said.
OpticalCon is a ruggedized and dirt protected fibre
USA - Veteran front-of-house engineer John Cooper is using Lake Contour and Lake Mesa Quad EQ digital processors to maintain a consistent day-to-day sound system performance as Bruce Springsteen's five-week solo acoustic tour winds its way through Europe. The award-winning Cooper, well known for his work with The Judds and other Audio Analysts clients, is using two Lake Contours for the main left/right PA speaker set-up with a Mesa Quad EQ optimizing the nearfield and side hang systems.
Cooper, who has been in the business for nearly 30 years, has apparently become an instant fan of the Lake Technology processors. "I have immediately fallen in love with them," he comments. "It's definitely the best tool for my job." The engineer, who also mixed the mammoth world tour promoting Springsteen's 'The Rising' in 2002/2003, is looking forward to adopting Lake Contou
UK - The Royal Albert Hall (RAH) is one of the world's best-known venues, and the task of providing sound reinforcement in such a prestigious hall is a sobering responsibility amply shouldered in recent years by Woking-based Sound By Design (SBD). As part of their ongoing development of sound services available in the RAH, SBD has installed an assortment of Meyer Sound self-powered systems - highlighted by a new centre cluster of M2D compact curvilinear array loudspeakers - as well as upgrading the existing permanent loudspeaker installation in the building.
After an intensive assessment period, the company took delivery of the package of M2D cabinets to complement its existing stock of M1D ultra-compact curvilinear array loudspeakers. A new three-hang centre cluster was designed, consisting of eight central M2D units with outer hangs of eight M1Ds each, all driven by LD-3 compe
UK - Yorkshire-based Yorkshire Audio Ltd is the latest company to invest in Audient's acclaimed Aztec live performance console. Owner Bob Collinson had used Aztec on many occasions and thought it time to purchase one for a forthcoming tour, so this month he collected a new 48-channel Aztec Touring Edition. Collinson notes: "I had used Aztec on a number of gigs and loved it every time. When looking recently for a new large format console, I noted that Aztec had turned up of many riders last year and its evident success made it a very sensible option for my hire inventory."
UK sales manager, Nick Pemberton completed the sale. "As a person with Yorkshire blood in me, I understood what Bob wanted from his console: quality and flexibility, without it breaking the bank. Aztec fits the bill perfectly. As one of the finest sounding console available, Aztec's "no nons
USA - Closely following the release of the MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker, Meyer Sound has announced the 600-HP compact high-power subwoofer. Bringing the power of the 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofer to a package ideal for rigging with MICA, the self-powered 600-HP is ideal for flown applications, say Meyer, using its optional QuickFly rigging, and for those situations where the extra low-frequency extension of the 700-HP is not required, or where space is a consideration.
In addition to being the ideal partner in a flown MICA array, the 600-HP's operating frequency range of 33Hz to 150Hz provides a complement to other Meyer Sound self-powered products such as the UPA-1P compact wide coverage or UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeakers. The 600-HP's power and bandwidth handle high continuous operating levels and extreme transient information with minimal distort
USA - The San Francisco Hilton Hotel and Towers has added an Allen & Heath MixWizard WZ3 16:2 mixing console to its special event audio production equipment, which already includes a 24 mono/8 stereo input Allen & Heath GL4000 and a 24-channel GL4. The hotel chose the MixWizard for its compact size, flexibility and ease of set-up. "We're getting quite a fleet of Allen & Heath desks now and I'm excited about using the new MixWizard," said ballroom engineer, John Fagan. "It's a real space-saver; we bought a case with it as well, so it goes in, tilts up, and off we go! That's what it's all about now, a quick set-up and a quick strike."
The San Francisco Hilton Hotel and Towers offers a wide selection of ballrooms and conference spaces to handle its busy events schedule, from the 30,000sq.ft Grand Ballroom - which seats 3,300 in a theatrical configuration - down