Ireland - SLS Ribbon Speakers (PRO8CON) were recently installed as part of the audio system in a new restaurant/club in Ireland. Bru Venue situated in the historic town of Drogheda on the east coast was installed by Grandstand Audio and supplied through SLS Irish distributor Aquarius Sound and Lighting.

Barry O'Loughlin, MD of Grandstand, commented, "As a longtime advocate of Ribbon, I was delighted to bring the technology to the appreciative ears of the owners of Bru."

Jim Donohue, who was consultant on the project, said SLS ribbon provided the clarity, coverage and sonic quality required in Bru. Making the install a truly international effort, Aquarius Sound and Lighting supplied processing by XTA (England) with sub-reinforcement by Musicson (Spain) and amplification by RAM Audio (Spain).

(Jim Evans)

Afterdark is the first CD compilation album in a new series presented by Stealth, the label of US house music maestro Roger Sanchez. Compiled and mixed by Sanchez and the electro-tribal-phile Tom Stephan aka Superchumbo - Afterdark Volume 1 "exposes some exclusive cutting edge frequencies".

In producing the set, the DJs used two new digital DJ devices from Pioneer - the award-winning DJM-1000 mixer and EFX-1000 effects unit.

Pioneer's '1000 series' (the DJM-1000 mixer and the EFX-1000 effects unit) is reportedly a sought after digital set-up for DJs performing in studios as well as in clubs, with a wide range of artists creatively exploiting this combination on CD mix compilations this year. Included among these are two albums presented by Renaissance: James Zabiela's Utilities and Yousef's Frontiers mix. While Wally Lopez, resident DJ at Pacha,

UK - Bristol nightspot Panache boasts a Harman Pro integrated audio system, that provides discrete dance floor, live performance, and ambient sound reinforcement. The 850 capacity night club comprises a restaurant, three bar areas, dance floor and live stage area, effectively in one open plan space.

Panache is locally-based installer CMP's largest audio project to date. CMP's Trevor Brooks collaborated with Harman Pro UK in designing a system that achieved its objectives through a process of zoning control, and careful placement and focusing of speaker coverage.

Separate speaker systems were configured for stage and dance floor, but with a control and amplification system common to both, while varying levels of background music were provided for distinct bar and seating areas.

For the dance floor there are four JBL AM4215/95 enclosures, plus two ASB6128 subs built into the b

UK - Clockaudio's newly-announced RF product series has been developed in direct response to interference (noise) issues which have recently been introduced into microphones, IP Phones, hearing aids etc, by popular GSM-based devices such as PDAs, mobile cell phones, and mobile cell phones with two-way walkie talkie capability.

Clockaudio managing director Jim Hallington comments: "We have developed our RF Series technology through what is best described as popular demand. The ever-increasing ownership of handheld and pocket-sized portable technology - most notably Blackberries - particularly amongst the banking and business communities - has been causing major unwanted interference problems during important conferences and business meetings. Our new technology eliminates these problems."

The noise emitted from GSM based devices can wreak havoc on everything from a si

The Netherlands - The latest theatre production from Joop van den Ende Productions, Beauty & the Beast is reinforced through an Alcons ribbon sound system. Ticket sales of this touring musical have now exceeded those of the previous record holder, The Sound of Music.

The show requires 14 trailers to transport and will take in the thirteen largest Dutch theatres until June 2006. Sound design is by Jeroen ten Brinke, who has worked on many top musicals including 42nd Street, Rent, Saturday Night Fever, Cabaret and Miss Saigon.

For Beauty & the Beast, a co-production between Joop van den Ende Theatre Productions and Disney Theatrical Productions, ten Brinke used an Alcons ribbon sound system for the first time. The system consists of 28 Alcons LR14 ultra-compact ribbon line-array, four LR14B compact line-array bass, four BF3

USA - Founded in 1998, Jubilee Fellowship Church (JFC) has opened of a brand new sanctuary in Lone Tree, a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Set on a five-acre plot, the complex features a 6,730-square-foot main sanctuary that seats up to 700. Integral to the set-up is a self-powered Meyer Sound line array system designed and installed by Audio Analysts of Colorado Springs.

Audio Analyst's Robert Langlois says his main requirement for the system was that it be "flexible enough for the spoken word, yet have the impact required to handle the demands of a strong praise and worship team." He adds that the client also needed "a system that he could turn on and forget it is even there. The nature of Meyer's self-powered systems is such that an engineer, sound mixer, or volunteer doesn't have to have a working knowledge of power amplifiers and crossovers to run it. You just tu

USA - This year marks dual milestones in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the 175th anniversary of the church's founding and the 200th birthday of its founder, Joseph Smith. Two of the most ambitious celebratory events were hosted in Utah, home to the church's headquarters, at the 11,000-seat Dee Events Center basketball arena at Weber State University in Ogden.

With a cast of over 2,200 performing in the round on the arena floor, the challenge for sound system provider Webb Audio Visual was to mount a system that could provide full, high-fidelity coverage to every seat without spilling onto the stage area and causing feedback issues. Webb AV's Scott Webb opted for a self-powered Meyer Sound system and cross-rented a MILO high-power curvilinear array system from Audio West of Yorba Linda, California.

From a technical standpoint, the show was distinctly diff

UK - Bosch Security Systems has enhanced its popular Praesideo Public Address and Emergency sound system with a new remote call station and call station interface that uses standard CAT-5 (Category 5) network cabling.

The new technology extends the reach and allows remote call stations to be located up to one kilometre away from the call station controller, making it suitable for voice evacuation in medium and large buildings including airports, hotels, conference and exhibition centres, passenger terminals, factories and offices. It also allows simplifies installation and provides greater flexibility in system design.

The use of CAT-5 cabling, the industry standard for data communications in computer and IP networks, has many other advantages - it does not add to the Praesideo's system bus length and it makes call station installation much simpler and easier, says Bosch.

Th

UK - The Riverside Studios has installed a new 16-zone digital paging matrix system from Australian Monitor in its multi-arts facility in Hammersmith, London.

Funded by The Arts Council, the new expandable DigiPage architecture was engineered by consultant Matt How's, to a conceptual design by Richard Noxell Sound Services, and replaces the previous system described by Theatre Studios Manager, Barbara Egervary, as "totally inadequate".

The Riverside is an expanding facility which today embraces two main performance studios, a cinema,TV studio and production galleries,rehearsal/workshop space,numerous offices and a large contemporary cafe/bar and terrace.

The complex has been divided into 16 zones on DigiPage, each of which has a dedicated local mic/line input, with six global inputs routable to any of the zones; these are currently used for show relay and COMs from

USA - Midas consoles are playing a lead role on Sir Paul McCartney's US tour. McCartney's long-time FOH engineer Pab Boothroyd has one of his XL4s at FOH, having been using the desk almost exclusively since its launch ten years ago; monitor engineer John Roden is using two Midas Heritage 3000s on stage.

"I've always favoured the XL4 for many reasons - sound, touring reliability and familiarity when mixing a multitude of tasks in a hectic live environment instantly," says Boothroyd.

Roden is also a long-time champion of Midas consoles and has been using the Heritage since its launch. "It sounds great and is reliable too," he says. "Money and space requirements are not an issue with McCartney, I can have whatever I need to do my job and the temptation to change to a digital format was strong, but we have done several tours very successfully using the two

UK - ACC Productions of Belfast has become the first company in Northern Ireland to purchase HK Audio's Cheddar Compact Coherent Dynamic Response Array system.

"We are trying to expand the market to which our sound systems are pitched," says ACC owner Alsatian Kerri. "We do a lot of theatre and corporate events that our existing HK systems are great for, but we want to start looking at systems for bands and small outdoor festivals for which the Cheddar is ideal."

ACC has purchased 16 CDR 108 mid/high units, eight CDR 210 C sub woofers and two PRO amp racks with additional controllers to enable two smaller systems to go out on hire at the same time. The company already has a substantial inventory of HK AUDIO systems.

Access introduction to Cheddar Compact came about when UK distributor John Horny Skews brought over a demo system for the Indian Community Me

UK - Stage Electrics is now supplying ice rinks as well as more traditional lighting and sound kit they are known for providing. The company has become the sole UK distributor for the Dutch company Ice World, providing rinks and boots throughout the UK.

Stage Electrics is providing the ice and infrastructure, including lighting and PA equipment for venues ranging from shopping malls to parks across the UK. A more unusual location for one of the rinks is on the first floor of a shopping centre in London's Victoria.

Stage Electrics' production manager Andy Loveday last week led the team which tested the first rink to be delivered from Holland. Working in partnership with Aggreko who provide the chilling equipment, a 30m x 10m rink was constructed in an empty warehouse close to the company's branch in Avonmouth, Bristol. "It's been a new experience for us," he said, &qu

In case anyone had forgotten what happens to the audio at the end of all these systems, Renkus-Heinz exhibited some good old-fashioned loudspeakers. The Iconyx column speakers are very discreet, but have sonic performance specifications that will attract reverberant applications such as houses of worship. "We tackle the acoustics by having a tall array of very compact drivers, so we're able to achieve tight pattern control in the vertical plane," explained VP Ralph Heinz. "Plus, by applying DSP, we're able to do some beam steerage as well."Beam steerage in a church . . . now there's a revelation.

UK- Trafalgar Square 200 'The Spirit of Nelson' show was authored and created by production company Innovision and staged in London's most famous Square in front of 10,000 people. The hour-long live show celebrated the Royal Navy's role at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and at other crucial points in the history of Britain.

Innovision called in the services of leading production industry companies, including large format projection specialist E/T/C UK and rigging specialist Summit Steel. Durham Marenghi came on board as lighting designer.Projection was beamed onto a special retractable 'sail' made from Sunbaba's Austronet 204FR fabric, and rigged onto the centre of three masts depicting a symbolic version of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory.

The PIGI 6kW projector (complete with 'hot' backup) was located in a specially built hide, with a 17m throw distance, and fitted with a Ba

UK - The newly-opened Alma De Cuba restaurant in Liverpool, owned by the Lyceum Group, is housed in a converted church. Dating back to the late Eighteenth century, the building has been vacant since 1976 but has now undergone a major refurbishment programme.

It has been sympathetically restored and many original features have been retained including stained glass windows and archaic artwork.

The sound system has been carefully designed and installed by B+S Sound & Light of Liverpool to overcome the inevitable difficulties of such a wide open reverberant space and to provide the required music level in each of the six designated zones.

Depending on the restaurant activity and time of day, volume can be adjusted via three simple controls positioned in the main bar area. The system uses a Cloud Z8 zoner, 4 x Tannoy TDX1 and Ecler amps to drive an array of Tannoy speakers in var

In truth, it isn't often that the AES Convention - or any pro audio trade exhibition, for that matter - throws up a genuine surprise. Revelations are normally confined to the Gideon's Bible in everyone's hotel room, and not even New York itself can always liven up the routine of stage-managed marketeering.

However, EAW drew genuine intakes of breath with the - for once - justified expedient of white drapes over a mysterious bulging chassis, which turned out to be the UMX.96 digital mixing console. The model ID may not be as exciting in itself, but the arrival of a totally unexpected new player on the digital live console pitch certainly stirs things up plenty.

The formation of Loud Technologies in September 2003 has clearly influenced the kind of technical cross-fertilization behind the UMX. Teams involved in the product have included the DSP team at Acuma Labs in Victoria, BC; the a

L-Acoustics announced the new, self-powered P Series - currently comprised of the 108P and 112P. These are 2-way loudspeaker enclosures combining proprietary coaxial point source technology with self-powered performance and DSP.

The 108P is a bi-amplified, digitally processed, full-range loudspeaker containing a 1" exit HF compression driver coaxially loaded into an 8" LF transducer. The coaxial approach is designed to provide coherent point source radiation and 100° axisymmetrical directivity - i.e. identical horizontal, vertical and axial coverage. The coaxial design is also said to offer superimposed LF/HF dispersion characteristics, free of the polar lobing effects typical of traditional horn and woofer combinations.

Intended for touring or fixed installation, the 112P features rigging accessories, digital system EQ and network control and monitoring. Four application-

The whole EAW event came to somewhat overshadow the launch of the other digital live console du jour, Yamaha's M7CL - which, having first been unveiled to the world in the UK at PLASA, was receiving a slightly lower-gear US debut. Yamaha Corporation Of America's Larry Italia and Dan Craik did the honours, however, and the booth was busy for the whole show with visitors weighing up the potential impact of this desk on the US market. With or without the presence of the UMX.96, that impact is likely to be substantial much further down the verticalities of end user territory - where budget means what it always implies.

UK - Islington's Salmon & Compass independent dance clubs has undergone a major £500,000 refurbishment programme. The interior has been completely gutted and replaced by an industrial brushed stainless steel look and a Turbosound PA system from Sound Division. At the same time, club capacity has increased to 280.

"The owners, the Loizou family, wanted a sound system with full clubbing capabilities," explains Sound Division's installation manager Elliott Patterson, "and after consideration we recommended a Turbosound TCS-56/TCS-215 system, powered by Crown XS amplification, along with a new mixer."

(Jim Evans)

UK - HRH Princess Alexandra officially opened the a new £1.75m Sports Hall and Performing Arts Centre at Coombe Girls School in New Malden last month, featuring separate dedicated spaces for sports, music technology, drama and recital.

Stuart Graham's fast-expanding company, Clarity in Sound, Light & Vision, has done much in the past year to bring high production values into the educational sector; their £70,000 sound, lighting and projection design and fit for Coombe Girls School was based on industry standard devices.

With a roll of 1,500 students (including 500 attending Sixth Form College) Coombe is one of the largest facilities of this kind in the country, with an excellent reputation for drama and music. Graham realized that the facilities would be heavily used, so durability and reliability were major considerations. Wherever possible, he turned to Denon's s

UK - The first installation of Electro-Voice's new ZX1 speakers has been completed at the K-Bar private members' club in London.

EV's new generation of small-format, high-output loudspeakers was chosen by installation company Cosmic Electronics, when the K-Bar asked them to upgrade their speaker system. "The club management insisted on having a system that did justice to their high-profile reputation as one of London's most talked-about nightclubs, but they didn't want to become a discotheque," explains Cosmic's Mark Damon. "Through their sister venue, the Sugar Hut, they thought highly of Electro-Voice, and the timing of the project was perfectly suited to using the latest EV ZX speaker line."

The K-Bar is a relatively compact space, with a main bar adjoining its dancefloor, and a VIP room. In all, 10x EV ZX1i 8" two-way cabinets have been used, four

Furman Sound announced a new 20-amp regulator that delivers a stable 120V of AC power to protect equipment from problems caused by AC line voltage irregularities. The AR-20 II is said to be the only 20A voltage regulator that also filters and purifies AC power, optimizing electronic equipment performance while also providing protection from spikes and surges - using Furman's proprietary SMP+ technology.

"Voltage irregularities like sags, brownouts and overvoltages are commonplace in AC lines, and can cause sensitive electronic equipment to malfunction or sustain damage," said Dave Keller, executive VP of Furman Sound. "In addition, electrical noise on the line prevents equipment from achieving optimal performance. Our newAR-20 II is unique in that it not only protects electronics from damaging power, but also filters out the noise using the very best technology available

UK - Expanding restaurant group, Giraffe has added two further London sites to its portfolio of outlets - on the promenade outside the Royal Festival Hall and in the regenerated Spitalfields market.

Sound Division had refurbished the existing equipment in newly-acquired operations in Muswell Hill and Wimbledon, before being offered the contract to install a full JBL system on the South Bank.

"The Giraffe concept is a global one - and music is a very important part of the overall experience," said Sound Division managing director David Graham. "The quality of the sound system needs to reflect this."

In fact music assumes such high priority that Giraffe markets its own CD compilations (via Putumayo World Music) as part of a vigorous merchandising operation. It also maintains a World Music Top Ten based around ethnic music from Brazil, Africa, Jamaica, The C

Whirlwind's E Snake products now support EtherSound using Lab X Technologies' new ESX network I/O module. "Whirlwind's E Snake products are recognized as some of the most comprehensive and versatile designs in digital audio transport," said Lab X president Lee Minich. The move extends both Whirlwind's digital connectivity and EtherSound's base of digital audio protocol subscribers.

"Partnering with Lab X to leverage their ESX module was a natural choice," added Joe Barnes, Whirlwind's director of digital operations. "The module's form factor and functionality, coupled with Lab X's connectivity expertise with CobraNet and EtherSound, has quickly enabled our E Snake products to support EtherSound."As well as being experienced in both CobraNet and EtherSound systems, Lab X Technologies makes a range of hardware, firmware and GUI control applications.

Latest Issue. . .