Europe - In light of the company’s ‘rapid growth and the obvious necessity to provide its customers with innovative answers to new workflow models’, Lawo has established a CTO Office staffed with experts from all areas, dedicated exclusively to achieving the overall strategic goals of Lawo’s product and R&D organisations. The CTO Office drives innovation and marketable solutions for current and future developments and ensures that the forward-looking initiatives of the corporate strategy are delivered. Phil Myers, Lawo’s CTO, explains: "The CTO Office will implement the execution of our customer-centric strategy across the organisation. Lawo is well aware that the delivery of products involving audio, video, networking, and control infrastructure is no longer enough. Customers increasingly expect seamlessly integrated solutions rather than technically robust as
USA - The Emmy and Tony-award winning Broadway producer Michael J. Moritz Jr. calls Broadway home, and it seems quite happy to call him a marquee resident. He is a co-producer for Hadestown, earning him a 2019 Tony Award for Best Musical, and most recently before that he won an Emmy for his audio work on From Broadway with Love: A Benefit for Orlando. Other tips of the accolade iceberg include a Tony nomination for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and On The Town, as well as collaborations with Lin-Manuel Miranda and Bernadette Peters. As muso and techie, he keeps his personal Lectrosonics M2 Duet kit - comprising M2T transmitters and M2R receivers - at arm’s reach. “I’m usually the showrunner or producer or wearing the musical director hat - or all of them,” says Moritz of his role. But where production personnel that far “above the
India - Mezzo, Powersoft’s flexible Mezzo 604 amplifier platform is driving the multi-zone background music system providing the soundtrack for Fig at Malcha, a new high-end dining experience in the heart of the Indian capital, Delhi. Fig at Malcha is an ‘eco-contemporary’ café, bakery and bar offering all-day dining at Malcha Marg, near Chanakyapuri, New Delhi's historic diplomatic quarter. The second Fig restaurant, after the original destination in Gurgaon, Fig at Malcha combines Japanese design with Nordic lifestyle, featuring a curated menu based on local and seasonal produce from local farms, GMO-free meat and cage-free eggs. It is also home to a Parisian-style bakehouse that offers fresh breads, pastries and ‘farm-to-cup’ speciality coffee. According to Gunbir Sing, founder and co-owner of BBW Distributors, for their second café the Fig team desired
UK - A new K-array sound system has been installed at Homerton College’s architect-designed dining hall as part of a multi-million pound extension to the Cambridge college’s campus. Providing natural vocal reinforcement in the vaulted dining hall, the Vyper-KV52 line arrays complement the warm timber-panelled interior, blending into the strikingly modern architecture. Originally founded in Homerton, East London, the college relocated to Cambridge in 1894 as a teaching college and only in 2010 became a full part of the University of Cambridge. The city’s newest college is also the most populous, with accommodation blocks housing upwards of 900 students, and had outgrown the original the timber clad neo-gothic Great Dining Hall which was no longer sufficient to cope with providing some 1,000 meals a day. A new dining hall was commissioned early last year with
South Africa - The theatre audio workshop, with audio engineer Christo Davis, was held on 13 February at Gearhouse Splitbeam in Bez Valley, Johannesburg. The event, hosted by DWR Distribution, was an intimate session where Christo, who for the past 20 years has globe trotted and worked on a range of productions from the Blue Man Group to Jersey Boys before returning to South Africa, shared his knowledge with like-minded people. “I was very excited and a little bit nervous at presenting my first workshop,” said Christo, who has worked almost exclusively on the DiGiCo Platform for the past decade. “Public speaking is not my strongest point, but I wanted to share my experiences, connect with the delegates, have an open and relaxed chat around the console and install a passion for theatre audio.” He says that DiGiCo theatre software has been carefully desig
France - Home to the French rugby league team the Catalans Dragons, Stade Gilbert Brutus in Perpignan underwent a two-phase expansion in 2006 and 2010 to bring capacity up to 13,000 with three all-seater stands. The southern French city is also home to the rugby union team USAP, whose home stadium Stade Aimé Giral is equipped with a Nexo Geo S12 sound system, installed by local AV technology specialists Sud Media System. Impressed by the sound at their neighbour’s stadium, Stade Gilbert Brutus recently contracted Sud Media System to install a Nexo system at their ground, following a public tender process. The choice of several prestigious sporting venues including Croke Park in Dublin, Optus Stadium in Perth, Japan’s Toyota Stadium and the French national stadium the Stade de France, Nexo’s Geo S12 has earned a reputation for performance, dependability and
UAE - Procom, distributor of K-array group products in the Middle East, recently inaugurated an interactive multi-room demo space at its headquarters in Dubai. Situated in Dubai Investment Park, Procom wanted to create an accessible space that would allow clients full access to a range of cutting-edge K-array, KGEAR & KSCAPE equipment in a setup that mimics real-world environments. This installation is a continuation of the Procom and K-array collaboration, following several recent high-profile projects including Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, the City Walk in Dubai and Iris Meydan. An extensive range of products from the K-array family was deployed across multiple environments including a demo room, meeting room, reception area, and training centre to showcase K-array solutions across applications as varied as live entertainment, corporate installations and hospitality
Europe - NEXT Audiogroup has introduced the Audio Configurator, an innovative solution that streamlines the process of choosing the NEXT Audiocom’s products for any installation. It is the latest addition to NEXT Audiogroup's range of technology, designed to simplify the process of selecting the right solution. With its user-friendly interface, the Audio Configurator eliminates the need for technical expertise, allowing anyone to easily configure and customize the ideal audio system. The tool uses audio packs to generate tailored audio product packs that are optimized for each installation. “At NEXT Audiogroup, we understand that selecting the right audio products can be a daunting task, especially for those who are not familiar with the different possible products combination. We believe that the Audio Configurator will be a game-changer, making it easier than eve
USA - Renkus-Heinz has announced its attendance at NAMM 2023 from 13-15 April at the Anaheim Convention Centre in Anaheim, CA. Attendees at NAMM 2023 can experience the Renkus-Heinz sound solution in person at booth 14001 and the Hilton Lobby centre stage, where live music will be played Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights exclusively through Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers. Renkus-Heinz team members will also be on the floor at NAMM, including CTO Ralph Heinz, product manager Brandon Heinz and western regional sales manager Garrison Parkin. “We aim to bring the best sound quality imaginable to our customers, and NAMM is the perfect place to display the live sound solutions we deliver for concerts, theatres, touring and more,” Ralph Heinz said. “Music is a driving force in many of our lives, and we’re excited for guests to experience the powerful, high-fidelity aud
USA - To provide incoming productions and touring artists with a rider-friendly sound reinforcement, Warner Theatre’s production manager Ryan Patsy teamed up with consultant David Bateman, CTS-D, of Acentech and integrator Todd Pander of Dobil Laboratories to outfit the historic theatre with new JBL VTX Series line arrays and subwoofers. Commissioned in 1929 by the then-named Warner Brothers Productions and opened in 1931, the Warner Theatre is a landmark located in Erie, Pennsylvania. The venue operated as a cinema theatre until it was sold to the city of Erie in 1976 and converted to a performing arts centre. In addition to being the home of the Erie Philharmonic, Lake Erie Ballet and the Erie Broadway Series, the Warner Theatre regularly hosts concerts and performances by touring artists like Kenny Rogers, Jerry Seinfeld, ZZ Top, Kenny G, Alice Cooper, Rob Zombie and ma
Italy - Taking place between 2 and 4 April 2023, Music Inside Rimini is the only show in Italy dedicated entirely to audio, video, lighting and control technologies for music and entertainment. Rooted in the nightclub market and the vibrant nightlife of Rimini during the 80s and 90s, Music Inside Rimini is an annual event which attracts global exhibitors from professional audio, lighting and entertainment brands. Wharfedale Pro will be exhibiting at Music Inside Rimini for the first time this year. The British manufacturer will focus on its latest product developments, which will be showcased in three separate demo spaces. Simon Godfrey, sales director at Wharfedale Pro, comments, “We’re particularly excited about attending Music Inside Rimini as we’re going to be able to physically demonstrate a wide range of products. It’s one thing choosing a product from a
UK - 22live has appointed two new recruits to its team, with Aaron Boothe and James Gebhard both joining the line up as hire consultant and technical supervisor, respectively. Aaron Boothe first started working with 22live in 2022 as a hire consultant, bringing some of his projects to the team led by Paul Timmins, namely Central Cee, D-Block Europe, Beenie Man and Rema. Boothe wears many hats as a production manager, system engineer and sound engineer. He joins 22live as a hire consultant, meaning that he will be responsible for bringing clients to 22live. Boothe already works with many artists and is a well-known figure within the industry. Spencer Beard comments: “We are very pleased to welcome Aaron to the 22live team. Aaron is a great guy that will push us in front of new clients, and we really value him as both a great personality and engineer as well as
USA - Martin Audio North America has chosen the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, for its first post-pandemic open day on Tuesday, 9 May. The popular concert venue will host two sessions (a morning and afternoon event), based around a series of demonstrations and presentations featuring Martin Audio’s front-line PA systems. In particular, they will showcase the entire line up of Wavefront Precision line arrays (WPL, WPC, WPS and WPM), Torus constant curvature array (T1230, T1215 and T820) and XE stage monitors (XE300 and XE500). Lee Stein VP of sales, North America, confirmed the importance of what will be the company’s first large-scale presentation since before the pandemic. “With all the new products we’ve introduced over the last few years, now that social gatherings are happening again, we wanted to give current and prospective custom
UK - Infused with the rhythms of South Africa, the sound design for Mandela at London’s Young Vic is defined by the distinct signature of Paul Gatehouse. His style is conferred through his workflow and his essential favoured technologies, one of which is TiMax TrackerD4. That the Young Vic has recently invested in TiMax TrackerD4, which Gatehouse deems, “a great asset”. He adds, “It meant that we were able to be ambitious in our thinking with what is essentially a smaller budget approach.” The production features 22 cast members and Gatehouse notes, “Without the automated performer tracking that TiMax provides we’d have to manually locate the position of all the vocal objects in Soundscape, which would be a lot of cues and button pushing for the sound mixer! This way that burden is removed for us.” The Young Vic’s TiMax Tracker setup includes
USA - The top-earning country music tour of 2022 and one of the highest of any genre last year, Kenny Chesney’s Here And Now Tour grossed over $135m and saw him perform for 1.3m fans across 41 shows, including 21 stadia, making him the most popular touring country artist of the year. The tour was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 but, like so many, was derailed by the global pandemic. Chesney eventually moved the tour to 2022 and named it after his album of the same name, bringing support acts Dan+Shay, Carly Pearce and Old Dominion with him. The tour closed in Foxborough MA with two sold-out shows that hosted a total of 122,000 fans. Clair Global deployed a major audio system for all the concerts, using a combination of their Cohesion CO-12 and CO-10 line-array enclosures and CP-218 subwoofers. The three support acts used Avid, SSL and DiGiCo consol
USA - The Bowery Presents, which has built a club empire comprising venues throughout the northeast United States, took its name from perhaps the toughest street in New York history. Its club brands in the city include venerable Webster Hall, Brooklyn Steel - named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone - and Terminal 5 in the trendy Hell’s Kitchen area. What all these venues have in common is high-fidelity sound, thanks to a variety of L-Acoustics loudspeakers in use at each site. Now, a bit of sonic DNA from each of these spaces has been injected into the newest member of The Bowery Presents squad, Racket NYC, which opened in January, in the Chelsea space once occupied by Highline Ballroom. There, a combination of new gear and repurposed L-Acoustics kit from those other four venues came together to let the 650-capacity Racket continue one
USA - Danley Sound Labs has announced the availability of a new line of amplifiers for dealers and customers. In addition to its popular DNA series amplifiers, the D series amplifiers provide high-end sound reinforcement for installation and touring use. “At Danley, we’re always looking for new technologies and ways to allow for innovation in sound,” said Skip Welch, director of sales & marketing at Danley Sound Labs. “In addition to our DNA series amplifiers, the new D series line offers a new option for our dealers and customers that features a very powerful digital signal processing (DSP) suite and a number of power options to make this amplifier series a very useful tool.” The Danley D series amplifiers feature a powerful Class-D power stage that delivers ‘high output power, high efficiency and low heat generation’. The D series provides processin
Europe - Ahead of a string of major announcements in the region, PK Sound has appointed event industry veteran Tim Timmermans to the role of Central European partner support. Based in Limburg Province, Netherlands, Timmermans will work closely with PK’s David Roselló, Southern European partner support, and Canadian HQ staff in developing and serving the company’s growing European network. “PK Sound’s robotic line source technology is a total gamechanger, and the PK Alliance model puts these advanced capabilities into the hands of the next generation of live sound providers with an unrivalled total cost of ownership,” offers Timmermans. “We’ve already deployed T10 and Trinity Black systems for high-profile applications in venues throughout Europe with incredible results, and the industry is taking notice. I look forward to empowering more users throughout the E
USA - After nearly eight years of regular visits on a rental basis, Meyer Sound Leopard compact line array loudspeakers have taken up permanent residence in the Silva Concert Hall of the Hult Center for the Performing Arts in Eugene, Oregon. The rental system was provided by locally based George Relles Sound, with Relles returning earlier this year as the integrator for the permanent installation. The new resident system made its debut in the 2,447-seat venue with a performance of Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) by the Eugene Concert Choir with composer Paul Winter as the featured soloist. One week later, the system supplied sound for a showing of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, with a live performance of the John Williams score by the Eugene Symphony. “Everything is going great with our new system,” says Hult Center general manager Jeff Weinkauf, “bu
UK - At first glance an inconspicuous cuboid venue, Lightroom presents a blank canvas set to host a varied programme of original creative content. The opening show DAVID HOCKNEY: BIGGER & CLOSER (not smaller and further away) is set to be the first in a series of exhibitions, created in collaboration with leading artists and innovators. The Hockney show features a specially created score written by American contemporary composer Nico Muhly and sound design by Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry. Lightroom’s sound system is supplied by Berlin-based pro audio company Holoplot’s revolutionary X1 Matrix Array and was installed by Creative Technology. Four and a half years in the making, Lightroom was conceived by award-winning design studio and production company, 59 Productions, and is a joint venture between them and London Theatre Com
France - Launched last summer, the multi award-winning Chasseurs de Tornades attraction at the Futuroscope theme park in Poitiers is a breathtaking 360-degree immersive experience that follows the adventures of a team of tornado hunters. The landmark project, which cost 21m euros to build, features the largest circular LED screen in Europe. Hollywood visual effects specialist, François-Xavier Aubague, directed and produced the media content, which is mixed with live action scenes. The new ride is experienced from a moving platform that rises, falls, tilts and turns with the action, accompanied throughout by L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology. Originally launched in the ‘90s to showcase futuristic technologies, Futuroscope has evolved into a technology-focussed theme park with rollercoasters, immersive rides and cinematic experiences. The newest a
UK - The 2023 BRIT Awards, presented by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), were held on 11 February 2023 in recognition of the best in British musical talent. Airing on ITV to 3.3m viewers, and watched by thousands in the live audience, London’s 02 Arena hosted the 43rd edition of the BRIT Awards, an event which Britannia Row has worked across for many years. The company supplied a full DiGiCo control package, L-Acoustics PA sound system design, RF management and crew as managed by Britannia Row director, Lez Dwight and account executive Tom Brown. Continuing to facilitate a live sound placement for students from the BRIT School’s Production Arts course, Brit Row also enabled two students to get hands-on with the entire process of delivering a large-scale event. From the warehouse prep to load in and set up, the live performances, de-rig, venue load out and w
UK - Audio-Technica has announced that its ATND1061DAN Ceiling Array is now certified for Microsoft Teams Rooms as part of a Q-SYS system. Audio-Technica partnering with Q-SYS unifies and streamlines network configuration and control, resulting in a simplified integration and setup process for installers and end users as well as remote monitoring and management and more. With this new certified offering, users can take advantage of the flexible and scalable Q-SYS audio, video and control platform and have confidence in clear and articulate audio quality, rejection of unwanted sounds and the option to trigger camera position pre-sets using the real-time positioning data from the Audio-Technica microphone. When deployed in high-impact spaces from executive boardrooms to lecture halls, the ATND1061DAN ceiling array microphone delivers clear voices to the far end, even wit
India - Reminded of somewhere you’ve been before? Deja Brew, an Indian restaurant and bar situated in the stylish district of M Block Market in Greater Kailash 2, New Delhi, demands attention with its instantly memorable name. Backed up with high quality food, a multitude of brews and five-star service to match, the location has quickly gained popularity. The venue is the brainchild of Naveen Sachdeva, the founder of Cherish Hospitality, along with Parth Chadha and Aashish Goyal. The trio has created a successful concept that is already a favourite spot for many, much like their popular brand, Ministry of Beer. In keeping with the upmarket feel of the new venue, Deja Brew required a compact, yet exceptional sound system to match. Genelec was chosen. With a full house, Deja Brew comfortably seats 80 people across two storeys, with seating areas distributed in small, i
