Norway - Last month saw the first show with the new Soundcraft Vi Series V3.0 software in use as Norwegian band Secret Garden finished off this year's tour with a special concert including a symphony orchestra.

Secret Garden has been touring China, Korea and Norway since April with two Soundcraft Vi6 consoles and AKG microphones. The last concert of the tour was a special outdoor show incorporating a 27-piece symphony orchestra in the band's hometown of Kristiansand, Norway. With the orchestra and nine musicians/singers on stage, the need for more than 64 channels was obvious.

"When we planned this gig earlier this summer we aimed to use a third Vi6 for the orchestra, but the timing for a stable beta version of the new V3 software was perfect to make it possible to just add, a DSP card in the FOH local rack and a second stagebox to run the required 95 channels from one co

UK - Harman Professional today gave System Architect Version 1.8 its European debut at PLASA 08 yesterday. New advances include the ability to copy HiQnet parameter strings directly to the Windows clipboard for pasting into third-party control interface applications enabling system-wide control from control interfaces such as those manufactured by AMX and Crestron.

System-wide events can now also be triggered from device-specific error conditions, such as recalling a preset for a zone based on the conditions of individual amplifiers. A user-definable selection of controls can be automatically readdressed to different devices/parameters on a Custom Control Panel in a few simple steps, and advanced zonal control is now possible. A Fast Meter control has been added for improved meter response and device synchronization has been simplified and improved.

"With System Architect

UK - AKG Acoustics is displaying the D7 vocal microphone at PLASA08. Similarly to its predecessor, the D5, AKG's D7 is billed as a dynamic microphone that delivers clear sound for lead and backing vocals for live sound applications. The D7 additionally features an improved capsule design that contains a humbucking coil and a high-pass filter along with a sleek redesigned look, says the company.

"PLASA is a great opportunity for us to showcase the D7 along with all of its advantages and upgrades. Since the release at InfoComm, the D7 has been featured by famous recording artists and utilised in popular," states Alfred Reinprecht, vice president of marketing for AKG.

"The D7 microphone is one of the greatest microphones in the industry for vocals, and we are very pleased with the amount of positive attention that it is receiving. We are dedicated to providing an

UK - Aviom is exhibiting with its new UK distributor Polar Audio at PLASA 08.

John Midgley, Polar Audio's managing director, says, "We look forward to educating UK markets about Aviom's solutions and to creating additional business opportunities for Aviom's full line of products. Because Aviom systems are modular and scalable, they are ideal for a broad range of applications, including those requiring high-fidelity digital snake and audio networking solutions."

With its expanding applications from monitor mixing and digital snakes to networking and audio conferencing solutions, Aviom expects to increase its market share in the UK as it is introduced to Polar Audio's broad customer base, which ranges in market segments from broadcast to conferencing, to live sound and recording, to audio visual installations.

"Because of its vast experience in design and custom

Germany - Oktoberfest 2008, which takes place in Munich later this month, features four major tents equipped with audio technologies from Crown Audio, Soundcraft, JBL Professional, AKG and BSS Audio.

The systems for the Hacker, Weinzelt, Armbrustschtzen and Lauenbrau tents are provided by Max Ihm and Andreas Wallisch of LUTV of Forstinning.

At the Lauenbrau tent 12 JBL Professional Vertec VT4887 compact line array elements and eight JBL P744 1x18" subwoofers will be powered by eight Crown I-Tech IT4000 Series amplifiers with mixing by a 48-channel Soundcraft Series 4 console and processing by BSS Soundweb 9088 networked signal processor. Four JBL SRX712M monitor wedges will be joined onstage with a battery of AKG microphones.

At the neighboring Armbrustschtzen tent, a similar loudspeaker lineup of 12 JBL Professional VT4887 compact line array elements, eight JBL P744 s

UK - Allen & Heath has released v1.3 software for the iLive digital console range, adding new features for monitor engineering, as well as providing a platform for the iLive Editor software for online and offline show configuration.

New features in v1.3 include engineers' fader strips for wedge and in-ears, which allow separate fader control and dedicated outputs to the operator's listen wedge and IEM personal system. Optional processing and aux monitor mixes can be assigned to wedge or IEM strips, automatically appearing in the desired monitor when auditioned.

Another key feature is the addition of Real Time Analyzer (RTA) to enable the engineer to quickly identify feedback, tune room acoustics, and tailor the onstage monitor wedges. Accessed via the PAFL system, the frequency content of any input or mix, and the spectrum of the main mix, can be viewed on screen and on meters

Spain - Five students of ESAMA (Superior School for AudioVisual Media) in Andalusia, Spain, have been awarded the John and Helen Meyer Scholarship.

The scholarship programme was announced in 2007 by Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc., in conjunction with Meyer Sound España, S.A. and ESAMA, to recognize the academic excellence of five first-year students.

This year's awards were presented to David Carrasco Santos, Manuel Lazaro-Carrasco Sierra, Jose Carlos Martinez Salas, Antonio Ramos Garcia, and Alonso Velasco Tavora during the graduation ceremonies held at the Hotel Silken Al-Andalus. They each received a grant of 1,000 euros toward tuition for the following semester.

"The award is a great motivation," said award-winning student David Carrasco Santos. "We're grateful to Meyer Sound not only for the money, but for the recognition."

Meyer Sound's ever-expa

USA - FreedomFest has continued to grow; each year almost doubling in size. Accordingly, this year's event was moved to Florida Classic Park, and with close to 30,000 people in attendance it became the largest event of its kind held on Florida's West Coast.

Adamson and Hire Company Atomic Professional Audio based in Rutland, Vermont, sponsored the 2008 concert sound system. Adamson concurrently hosted a clinic on sound system design and technology aimed for church facilities of all sizes and styles of worship.

The clinic which was held immediately following Matthew West's sound check on the FreedomFest main stage, featured Benoit Cabot (Adamson tour support) and Adam MacGillivray (Adamson sales & support) covering fundamentals of system design, demonstration of Shooter, Adamson's predictive sound design software, along with various Adamson speaker products.

Sound design for

UK - Monacor International has announced the departure of Damon Crisp, who for the past 10 months has managed its UK operation in Newport Pagnell.

Crisp, who has left by mutual consent, joined the major German electronic suppliers from Numark Alesis Europe late last year and made an immediate impact.

Commented Marco Willroth, managing director of Monacor International: "We would like to thank Damon for his input and commitment, and wish him every success in his future endeavours."

Taking over as managing director, Monacor UK, is Scott Davis, a veteran of the company for the past 13 years. "This is a great opportunity for me to step up from purely an operational and sales role," said Davis.

(Jim Evans)

UK - The PRG stands at this week's PLASA08 exhibition were "a triumph of success in the face of the happiest of adversity", the company reports.

Simon Cox, PRG Greenford's deputy warehouse manager, has long been the crew chief and organiser for the company's extensive PLASA stands. However, after three years on a waiting list for a kidney transplant, Simon was given "the call" just seven days before PLASA and rushed into hospital. The rest of the PRG team rallied to the fore and were delighted and amazed to see Simon well enough to visit the show to see how they were getting on.

Everyone at PRG is delighted to see Simon doing so well and look forward to having him back to work after the great work by the transplant team at Hammersmith Hospital.

Pictured from left to right are Chris Henry (freelance), Phil Sharp (grubby lampy), Simon Cox (complete with new

UK - HHB has appointed Syntec as exclusive distributor of its products in Australia and New Zealand with immediate effect. The move comes at a time when HHB has announced important new products including the UDP-89 Professional Universal DVD/CD Player and CDR-882 DualBurn CD Recorder, and as the company ships its 10,000th FlashMic Digital Recording Microphone.

"We¹ve known Ian (Jones, HHB managing director) for many years and have admired what HHB has achieved with its location recording products," says Syntec managing director Bob Sloss. "When the FlashMic came along we just had to get involved, and we¹re equally excited about the UDP-89 and CDR-882 DualBurn."

HHB's Ian Jones says: "It makes a lot of sense to consolidate our distribution in Australia and New Zealand and Syntec was the obvious choice. In terms of product range, philosophy and even co

UK - A total of four iLive digital systems were used across three stages at the recent Surfstock festival in Cornwall. Organised by festival stalwarts, Mean Fiddler, the event included headline performances from Santogold, The Go! Team, Alphabeat and The Gossip.

Howard Marks was compere for the event, which involved two days of music across five stages - three for live music and two DJ tents - and the annual surf awards.

SPS Systems managed the PA requirements for the event, with support from fellow hire companies APR Audio, Evosound and Fearless Audio. Two iDR10 stage racks with iLive-144 control surfaces were selected for the FOH and monitors on the main stage, with an iDR10 and iLive-112 surface on the second Local Heroes stage managing both functions. Also managing FOH and monitors, there was an iDR10 with the compact iLive-80 surface for the Rabbit Hole tent, which requir

The Netherlands - This month's IBC exhibition in Amsterdam sees Audio-Technica host daily presentations focussing on the brand's involvement in the 2008 Beijing Games and launching new models in both its studio and broadcast and production microphone ranges.

Unveiled at the show are the AT2035 large-diaphragm condenser, AT2050 multi-pattern large-diaphragm condenser, AT4021 cardioid and AT4022 omni-directional condensers - the new broadcast and production models are the AT8022 X/Y stereo microphone and BP4025 X/Y stereo field recording microphone.

Sound designer of the Games Dennis Baxter is giving daily seminars on the Audio-Technica stand throughout IBC.

Richard Garrido, Audio-Technica Europe's president said, "We are very pleased that Dennis Baxter is able to join us at IBC this year. To have someone of Dennis's expertise being able share his knowledge with visitors

UK - - Radial Engineering confirms that Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) has been appointed the exclusive distributor for Tonebone in the UK.

Peter Janis, president of Radial, commented, "Over the past few years, SDUK has been tremendously successful with our Radial professional products. They have done a terrific job at elevating the awareness of our direct boxes and audio distro systems throughout the UK. Recently, SDUK also took on our Primacoustic brand with vigour. It only makes sense for us to consolidate the last piece of the puzzle and bring our Tonebone pedal range into the fold.

"The timing could not be better either. We've just released the Radial PZ-Pre acoustic instrument preamp to our international customers and it has immediately leaped to become our best selling Tonebone pedal. We also anticipate to deliver the new Bones pedals within the next 60 days whi

Germany - axxent has introduced a new power mixer in a 19" steel case, with a height of 2 RU (88 mm) - that may also be used without rack ears as a table top power mixer.

The new power mixer features two microphone inputs with 48 V phantom voltage, plus two phone jacks, while the left one is a stereo input for easy connection to appliances such as MP3 players.

The GPX2500 power mixer delivers four times 100W r.m.s. into a four ohm load. Two of the amplifiers are used for the stereo output and one each for the two monaural zones.

A very special feature for the entertainment industry is the built-in multi band limiter made by THAT Corp, that allows reduction of all output levels up to 30 dB.

(Jim Evans)

EU Update - The governing board of a new European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has held its inaugural meeting in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The European Union is providing initial funding of more than 300m euros (£238m) for the institute, aimed at generating more European technological advances. The EIT hopes to pool the expertise of universities, research bodies and businesses in new partnerships. Renewable energy and new-generation IT projects are among the priority areas.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso described business involvement in the EIT as "crucial, because the lack of business-funded R&D [research and development] explains almost 85% of the gap between the EU and the USA, for example".

Internet News - Only Japan has the broadband quality to cope with next-generation internet applications, a new study has revealed. Swe

UK - With PLASA 08 hosting the world premiere of Stagetracker FX, its new performer tracking and audio localisation system, Norwegian theatre specialists TTA reports that its four-day show attendance brought a flood of enquiries from Europe's leading cultural centres.

"Last year, we came to PLASA as visitors," said Stuart Kerrison, sales director of TTA."This year we were exhibitors and the show has given us great insight into how far TTA and the Stagetracker product have come in 12 months. We've met industry professionals from all over the world - Canada, Iceland, Singapore, Greece - who have heard about and read about our system. At both distributor and end-user level, a lot of people indicated to us that they are really excited about this genre of technology and its implementation."

Co-exhibiting with new UK distributor Ambersound, TTA was demonstrating

The Canary Islands' Heineken Jazz Festival is the most popular jazz event on the Islands' calendar. Held each year between June and July, it is staged at different venues around the islands, from open-air events and concert halls to intimate salons. There have been 15 festivals so far.

The 2008 season included performances by The Crusaders, Madeleine Peyroux, Spyro Gyra and many more.

This year sound engineer Hilario Benìtez introduced a new PA system to the event at two of the venues on Gran Canaria. "I've tried the Q-Series loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik several times on the mainland in recent years," he said, "and I've always believed it would prove an ideal system for this event. I'm so pleased David Rosello from d&b's Spanish office was able to support us with two systems for the festival this year."

Benìtez placed a simple Q1 loudspeaker rig, with a

Canada - Directed by Frédéric Dubois and staged in the recently renovated Capitol Theatre, Quebec City's new production of Les Misérables has broken new ground in terms of its simple and direct staging, and audio quality. With 32 live microphones on stage, the new Sennheiser MKE 1 lavaliere mic proved to be an asset.

Richard Lachance, vice-president of international development at Solotech, oversaw audio production and managed the selection of the required clip-on microphones and wireless systems for the show.

"One of the main sound challenges for Les Mis was that the audio had to be 5 dB to 6 dB louder than the average Broadway-type show," he explained, "resulting in an average level of 88 dB to 90 dB SPL. And for such a small theatre like the Capitole de Québec, this was a real challenge. So, we turned to Sennheiser an

UK - One of the hidden highlights of this year's PLASA Show was the presence of Martin Audio's new ASX floor-mounted active installation subwoofer, facing out into the aisles at the astonished passers-by.

Aside from the sheer size of a cabinet designed to house a 21" (530mm) transducer, Class D amplifier and full DSP, the ASX subwoofer "revolutionises ultra-efficient, low frequency sound reproduction -- achieving the highest ever SPL from a single low frequency enclosure housing a single drive unit".

The combination of transducer, amplifier and DSP provide double the output capability of a conventionally driven loudspeaker driver of the same size. When incorporated into a Martin Audio Hybrid horn design, the complete system can deliver a 152dB peak output (measured) from a single enclosure.

This is typically greater than can be achieved by two 2 x 18" (46

Chile - The Quinta Vergara Park Amphitheater, one of the most important and emblematic venues in Chile and home to the Viña del Mar Song Festival was the stage of a recent concert in which Aero line array systems were used for sound reinforcement.

The sound reinforcement was provided by Chilean company Provotec under the direction of Ricardo Marqués, who also took care of the stage monitoring, choosing the D.A.S. audio systems.

Marco Ambiado, director of Spektra, designed the set up of the PA, consoles and monitors. The main installation consisted of 12 Aero 38A powered systems (six per stage side) and 20 Aero 28A (10 per side) to provide sound coverage for the entire amphitheatre area. Monitoring was achieved through 12 low profile SML-15A powered units installed throughout the stage.

Erickson Cardona of Audiomusica and D.A.S. distributor for Chile comments, "R

UK - The PLASA Show in London last week was the setting for the landmark launch of the Mayor of London's Green Theatre: Taking Action on Climate Change initiative.

Matthew Griffiths, CEO of PLASA, who welcomed the guest speakers and audience members to the launch, told LSI: "We're very proud to be able to host the launch of the Mayor's Green Theatre Plan at PLASA08. Many of the manufacturers represented here on the show floor are already playing an active role in developing new equipment and technologies to help theatres achieve the goals set by the Mayor's Plan, and the lighting and sound industry still has a great contribution to make. PLASA and its members are very keen to work with theatres and other industry bodies, not only to help improve the power efficiency of lighting and sound systems themselves, but also to support and encourage the adoption of the many s

UK - KylieX2008, the pop princess's latest tour enjoyed rave reviews from critics and featured two DiGiCo consoles at the Front of House and monitor positions.

FOH engineer Chris Pyne and monitor man Rod Matheson are both long-term DiGiCo D5 users. This time, however, Chris swapped his D5 for a new SD7.

"I was one of the first engineers to see the SD7 and was invited into DiGiCo's 'perspex box' to operate the console at PLASA last year," says Pyne. "Then James [Gordon, DiGiCo's MD] asked me if I wanted to use the SD7 on the dates we did with Kylie earlier this year. Of course I said yes.

"We had one of the very first SD7s, which we took to production rehearsals and helped to make a few improvements to the system - DiGiCo is proactive in getting real world input from engineers."

The complexity of the show meant that Pyne had 65 inputs at FOH

MC2 Audio has announced the appointment of Audiosure as its new distributor in South Africa. Audiosure is the professional audio division of the First Technology Group, a leading importer and distributor of professional audio and lighting equipment across Southern Africa. With offices in Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein and Cape Town, Audiosure is well placed to support its nationwide network of dealers.

Audiosure's extensive product portfolio includes Wharfedale Pro, Gemini DJ, Hartke, Quad and Projection Design and its team of professional and experienced staff is led by general manager John Silver.

"Our aim," says Silver, "is to provide a comprehensive array of valuable advice to our nationwide dealer network in order to ensure the achievement of optimum product performance in a wide variety of applications and environments. I have followed the development of MC2

Latest Issue. . .