UK - John Hornby Skewes & Co (JHS) has announced the appointment of Paul Smith as managing director, along with further changes in management, sales and administration. Founded in 1965, JHS is a family owned and led SME, distributing a range of over 4,500 products across a blend of third-party distributed and proprietary brands through a variety of channels in over 150 countries. With effect 1 April, Adam Butterworth, who joined the company in May 2006, is appointed to the position of director of sales. Adam, who has been instrumental in the growth and consolidation and success of JHS’ export business, will be bringing his considerable commercial acumen and sales skills to bear across JHS’ export and domestic sales activities. Simon Turnbull, another long serving JHS team member is appointed to the position of media and communications manager. Simon, wh
USA - Christie Digital has announced Hideaki Onishi as its new chairman and CEO. With more than 30 years of management experience in various positions within the Ushio group – parent company of Christie - Hideaki will begin his role immediately to lead Christie into its next chapter. Hideaki will replace Kazuhisa Kamiyama, who has completed his tenure with Christie and is returning to Japan to take up a new role at Ushio headquarters. “It’s a great honour to lead Christie,” says Onishi. “Christie has a proud legacy of continued innovation, in its products, manufacturing, and in its ever-evolving business models. I aim to bring strong leadership and to honour principles of respect, transparency and integrity. Kazuhisa’s work was pivotal in navigating Christie through the many challenges faced in both the industry and the wider economy in recent years. I look forwa
USA - Since its inception in 1920, Istrouma Baptist Church has grown from its humble origins as a small Sunday school class into a congregation some 4,500 members strong spread across two campuses. Occupying some of the most visible property in Baton Rouge near the Interstate 12-Airline Highway interchange, the church’s main campus recently became the recipient of an audio upgrade implemented by Pink Palace Media (PPM), a multifaceted production design company also based here in Louisiana’s capital city. Central to the upgrade is a new digital front-end incorporating an Allen & Heath dLive S7000, which joins a legacy EAW-based L-C-R system serving the main campus’ 1,600 seat sanctuary. To better support the church’s live streaming needs, a dLive C3500 additionally made its way into the broadcast control room. Bringing further form and function to the blueprint -
UK - The Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers wound up its 20th Anniversary ISCVEx event at Coombe Abbey Hotel and Country Park near Coventry on 23 March. Held annually by the Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers, ISCVEx is open to members and non-members and is a mixed programme including a manufacturers and distributors exhibition, networking and seminars events. The programme is preceded by ISCVE's annual general meeting and members’ day on which this year saw the appointments of Neil Voce as president and Jim Smith as vice-president of the Institute, both for a term of three years. The members’ day this year also included a seminar from guest speakers Dr Mike Edwards and Mr Harry Coade of Sound Matters, titled Listening, for a better world: using sound, and the art of listening, to create a brighter future. Th
USA - tvONE and Green Hippo are inviting programmers, operators and designers who use Green Hippo’s Hippotizer range of media servers or tvONE’s CORIOmaster family of video processors to take part in the CONECT Control Competition. Launched at tvONE’s CONECT Summit, which focused on how tvONE, Magenta and Green Hippo products can help professionals reimagine the AV landscape, the competition aims to showcase some of the best-use cases of the companies’ solutions for creative control. Prizes of up to $1,000 will be awarded to the best entries in three categories: CORIOmaster Video Processors; Hippotizer Media Servers; and creative install using tvONE or Hippotizer products. Submissions opened on 5 April and remain open until 14 May, with the winners announced soon after. To enter, contestants need to fill out an online submissions form and attach a file th
London-based Sparks Theatrical (Lighting) Hire has purchased seven Martin MAC Ultra Performance from UK distributors Sound Technology Ltd, which have gone straight onto the acclaimed new production of Straight Line Crazy at the influential Bridge Theatre. The Bridge is the first theatre run by London Theatre Company which was founded by Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr back in 2017. The lighting plays a prominent role in the production, lit by fast emerging LD Jessica Hung Han Yun. Said Sparks MD, Paul Anderson, “Because I design and also run a rental company I can see in the field what the designers and technicians are working with. When we were asked to supply the next show at the Bridge I suggested the MAC Ultra Performance and Jessica said “absolutely”. In addition to using six Martin MAC Ultra Performance (with the seventh as a spare) Jessica is featuring 15 MA
UK - Following a two-year research and development programme, Van Damme has introduced the Purple Patch PPE56 2x48 bantam patchbay. Working closely with the pro-audio installation team at Langdale Technical, one by one all the current shortfalls were dealt with and modern ‘wish list’ innovations were added to the design. The PPE56 Purple Patch is both designed and manufactured in the UK and incorporates features that cater carefully for modern day needs, including: Fully programmable normalling options inclusive of full-normalling, half-normalling, parallel and no normalling settings, which are adjustable whilst the patch remains terminated. Individual earthing selection for all patch points, allowing for phantom power and unbalanced signal pass through to be selected point by point. Individual 110Ohm impedance jack modules secured to the chassis behind
USA - Evolve Technology is a video gear rental company serving the live event and virtual production industries, with offices across the U.S. The company’s ethos is built around the three equal pillars of rent, buy, and learn, where clients can get customised packages to meet their production needs, as well as hands-on education and training so that teams feel confident using any new piece of equipment. In the past several years Evolve has successfully expanded into virtual production consulting and training. Recently, the company opened its new Evolve CX (Customer Experience) space in the Atlanta BeltLine. Evolve CX is a technology laboratory aimed at education and training specifically for the virtual production market, where professionals can gain valuable hands-on experience and creative studios can develop and demo content for their clients. The Evolve CX team, led by
UK - The London School of Economics’ LSE Cities runs the Executive MSc in Cities, an 18-month modular education programme for senior urban professionals who want to better understand and deliver change in cities. The travel disruption arising from the COVID pandemic prevented almost all international students attending in person the programme’s five-week teaching modules. This challenge became an opportunity to transition the Executive MSc in Cities to a blended remote teaching format, choosing Shure Microflex Complete Wireless (MXCW) as the solution for fostering the “hybrid-flex” learning model at LSE Cities. Microflex Complete Wireless System (MXCW), combined with the videoconferencing experience and technology of global solutions provider AVer Europe, enables all participants in the classroom to communicate and collaborate with far end participants in a natural
USA - The new Future Nightclub, located in the Underground Atlanta district of Atlanta, Georgia, is a crowd-favourite dance and entertainment venue for the city’s music lovers. Future Nightclub worked diligently to design an impressive production with video, lighting, and audio for the two-story venue. The Future Nightclub management team worked alongside local AV systems integration company, House of Music Productions, to accomplish this lofty goal by selecting the Pioneer Pro Audio XY Series sound system. Future Nightclub owners Keith Young and Hoosh Mishu approached House of Music Productions in late 2019 to begin the system design process after acquiring a large, oddly-shaped, two-story retail space with a large staircase in the middle to be the club’s location. However, as renovations began to take form, the space was almost completely gutted, giving the new nightcl
USA - JEM Productions Texas upgraded G&B Productions’ newly renovated studio with three sets of JBL Professional loudspeakers and a JBL Intonato 24 monitor management and tuning system. G&B Productions is co-owned by producers G.Luck and BDon, who have worked with a variety of high-profile artists as well as local Houston musicians. With their business growing, the production duo decided to upgrade their studio with improved acoustical design, custom lighting and enhanced sound. According to Gavin Luckett (G.Luck), the goal was threefold: to upgrade the studio’s main monitors for more transparent sound, to satisfy artists with loud and bass-heavy playback, and to create a flexible monitor management system to switch between sources and speakers. “We were looking for a speaker system that would impress our clients,” said Luckett, co-owner, G&B Produc
UK - Bristol-based experiential and party planning specialists, PYTCH, recently supplied local event organisers, Alfresco Disco with a full Martin Audio rig for a classic warehouse-based dance party. Comprising two stages, the sound needed to be carefully EQ’d to cope with the all-nighter’s early proceedings - when it was little more than an empty, echoey warehouse - to ramping up the volume once the venue was packed with around 2,150 revellers. But then, according to Chelsea Hopkins at PYTCH, care had to be taken to avoid sound escape in a densely packed residential area. “Although the bass was powerful the sound was directional and well contained - resulting in minimal disruption for local residents,” she confirmed. This was assisted by a cardioid pattern sub array which reduced any troublesome low frequencies. She added that PYTCH has been staging par
Colombia - The Suba district of Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá is celebrated for its inclusiveness, home to all social classes and Colombia’s indigenous peoples. It’s also where Iglesia El Lugar de Su Presencia wanted to make sure its message would be clearly heard and understood by everyone filling the nearly 4,000 seats of its newest church location. Following an onsite comparative evaluation of four brands of loudspeaker systems -and later witnessing the L-Acoustics K2 arrays in use at Christ Fellowship Church in Port St. Lucie, Florida - El Lugar de Su Presencia chose L-Acoustics for its Suba campus, which celebrated its grand opening on 20 February. Bogotá-based AVCOM, an L-Acoustics certified provider for install (CPi), integrated a full complement of L-Acoustics K, A, and X Series loudspeaker systems at the new church, which was constructed on the sit
UK - Stars including The Who, Yungblud, Paul Weller, Liam Gallagher and Ed Sheeran took to the stage at London’s Royal Albert Hall in March in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust, backed by Production AV’s cameras, screens, servers and crew. Taking place over seven consecutive nights, the series of live music and comedy gigs were performed as fundraisers for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), which provides care for people aged 13-24 with cancer. It was the second time Production AV supplied kit and crew for the events. This year’s set up comprised Production AV’s Desay M6 LED panels as a central 8m x 4.5 screen flown above The Royal Albert Hall’s iconic stage and a large, curved 23.2m x 0.9m banner of LED screen across the back of the main stage, to help drive donations. This was supported with a camera package for the relay of real-life stories and live perfor
Europe - Alcantara partnered with RØDE as the material of choice for their new NTH-100 headphones - the company’s first headphones. Alcantara covers the earcups and headband and is integrated with the style and features that the product offers. “Thanks to its softness, its breathability and its technical qualities, it improves the sensory experience and enhances the ergonomic design of the NTH-100s,” says the Italian manufacturer. “As well as providing the ultimate in comfort, the use of Alcantara also guarantees high durability and longevity owing to its resistance to wear and tear, and its ease of maintenance.”
USA - With Pearl Jam currently in the process of rescheduling its four-month North American Gigaton tour, which was postponed amid coronavirus concerns two years ago, frontman Eddie Vedder recently tested the touring waters with a brief road trip to support his new solo release, Earthling. Backed by a band including Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Glen Hansard (The Frames), Chris Chaney (Jane's Addiction), Josh Klinghoffer (touring Pearl Jam/RHCP member), and Andrew Watt (producer of Earthling) Vedder’s tour spanned nine shows across six US cities throughout February. The shows marked the first time that Pearl Jam’s long-time front-of-house engineer, Greg Nelson, manned his mix from behind a new DiGiCo Quantum338 mixing console supplied by touring sound company RAT Sound. Meanwhile, on monitors, Karrie Keyes, who has been with Pearl Jam from the s
Austria - AV Stumpfl recently released a new online information platform for its rapidly growing Pixera media server user community called the Pixera knowledge base. In addition to combining the latest written Pixera documentation with video tutorials and animated clips of key topics, visitors to the knowledge base can also contact the Pixera team by creating a support ticket from the same interface. The knowledge base covers topics related to Pixera media server hardware, software and the new show control system Pixera control. Pixera control is a distributed, software-based integration and control framework that empowers users to seamlessly host new functionalities within the Pixera media server system and to control all aspects of an extended project environment. Anything users create and integrate can be distributed across their connected systems and shares i
USA - Audix has announced that the A127 Omnidirectional Metal Film Condenser Microphone has been chosen as a finalist for the 37th Annual NAMM Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) Awards for Technical Achievement in the category of Microphones for Recording. The Audix A127 microphone is designed to capture acoustic instruments and sound sources ‘with transparency, accuracy and purity’. Utilising a reference-grade, half-inch Type 1 metal film capsule, the A 127 features a frequency response of 10Hz-20kHz, a wide dynamic range of 133dB and an ultra-low self-noise of 7dBA. The NAMM TEC award winners will be announced on Saturday 4 June 4, 2022 at the Hilton in Anaheim during The NAMM Show.
Spain - Clear-Com will have a presence at the first Barcelona-based Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show in May, exhibiting on stand #7M925. Clear-Com will be demonstrating their latest innovations including Arcadia Central Station, FreeSpeak Edge Base Station, Station-IC Virtual Desktop Client, and the latest software/firmware update to the Eclipse HX Digital Matrix platform - alongside the company’s award-winning solutions including FreeSpeak II, LQ series of IP interfaces, and the Agent-IC mobile app. “ISE has grown in importance for us over the years, and at this point it’s a critical platform for us to connect with a wide variety of market segments, including live events, installation, theme parks, sports venues - and really more than I can list here,” comments Clear-Com president, Bob Boster. “We are looking forward to reconnecting with this disparate audien
USA - Sennheiser, Neumann and Dear Reality will show a broad spectrum of products at this month’s NAB show in Las vegas. Mark Posgay, senior vice president sales, professional audio, Americas, comments: “We’re excited to be back on the NAB show floor and see our customers face to face. We will have great solutions for pristine audio capture, reliable monitoring and best-in-class immersive mixing waiting for them.” The Sennheiser Group booth features an experience zone that will present a complete Dolby Atmos mixing workflow complemented by products from Dear Reality and Neumann. Visitors can immersively mix and monitor Atmos ‘on the go’ using Dear Reality’s dearVR Spatal Connect, dearVR Monitor, dearVR Pro and a pair of studio headphones. As the zone is also fitted with a 5.1.4 AES67-based Neumann monitoring system, visitors will be able to listen to a benchmar
Australia - RØDE has announced its debut in the headphone market with the NTH-100 professional over-ear headphones. “The NTH-100s are the culmination of decades of passion and immersion in audio,” says RØDE CEO Damien Wilson. “We developed these headphones from the ground up with avid attention to every detail and an obsession with perfection, and we are incredibly proud of the outcome. “It is with absolute confidence that I say the NTH-100s are the best in their class. If you’re a creator looking for your first headphones or a seasoned professional still on the hunt for the perfect cans, your search is over.” The NTH-100s are designed for all forms of content creation at home, in the studio or in the field, including music production, podcasting and livestreaming, location recording, and video production or editing. The headphones feature c
USA - With five Primetime Emmy nominations and four CAS awards for sound mixing, Darryl L. Frank is a household name in production sound mixing in New Mexico - a state Breaking Bad elevated as a filming location. In fact, he worked on the blockbuster AMC show. Lately, Frank has been chasing actors on horseback in the acclaimed western series 1883 and miking up Tom Hanks in the sci-fi drama Finch, which explores human-robot relations on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Instead of six-guns or lasers on his hip, Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid Wireless keeps the peace by ensuring flawless sound even under harsh production conditions. Frank’s rig includes Venue2 receivers, wideband SMWB transmitters and their dual-battery SMDWB siblings, SMV and SMQV high-output transmitters, and up to 30 R1-series IFB receivers depending on production needs. All frequencies are coor
Europe - Riedel Communications has announced that the company has been named the official supplier of motor sports telecommunications for the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). After a two-decade relationship between the two organisations, Riedel will now supply the FIA with hardware and software technologies to take safety, sustainability, and innovation across all global FIA championship series to the next level. Peter Bayer, FIA secretary general for sport and FIA F1 executive director, said, “The FIA's decision to name Riedel as an official supplier of its motor sports communication is a result of a trusted relationship over two decades. It illustrates our shared commitment to use the most advanced technologies, with the safety and sustainability requirements that we have for all our championships.” Communications and signal distribution solutio
UK - Hive Media Control has unveiled a new generation of media playback and control systems comprising four hardware video media players that promise to "dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of media player solutions". The product family has been designed for use by AV integrators, architects, event producers, show designers, and brand activations. The four products are known simply as Player_1, _2, _3 and _4. They deliver HD, 4K, 4K SDI and 8K SDI respectively, with the SDI models also supporting genlock from a reference sync source. The range utlises the latest embedded GPUs by NVIDIA, and is said to offer "outstanding performance at a fraction of the cost and footprint" compared with other systems on the market. Hive was founded by Dave Green, Trey Harrison and Mark Calvert, who have together delivered video systems for global projects including the London Ol
