Israel - Established in 1991, Mandel Cultural Centre is a community space located in the Jaffa region of Israel. The centre caters to the needs of the local community, and because of its prime location beside one of the largest stadiums in Israel, it is in high demand for private functions. For this project TechTop Marketing, importer of professional audio equipment, worked with installers Charmer Group installers to upgrade the facility's audio system using LEA Professional solutions. “Once Charmer Group recognised the team behind LEA Professional, they knew the technology and solutions provided would be nothing short of revolutionary,” explained Shimon Pick, director at TechTop Marketing. “LEA has a huge depth of pro audio experience behind them, and going into a significant local project like this, that level of expertise is incredibly reassuring to all parti
Italy - A Lawo 24-fader mc²36 All-in-One console and two compact Lawo stageboxes are at the heart the new 4K OB truck that Lawo partner ARET Video & Audio Engineering has designed and built for a Middle East customer. The Gulf state client manages a culture-based television channel in addition to various tourist, cultural and media activities, and plans to expand into the filming of sporting events. The new OB van features a layout that maximizes internal space while allowing interoperability between all three operational areas: the main production area, with monitor wall, slow motion equipment and character generator stand, the Audio room, with its custom acoustic insulation, and the engineering and camera control area with control of up to eight cameras via fiber-optic connection, plus two wireless cameras. Each of these areas, including the racks, has its own indepen
Poland - Overlooking the waters of the Motława river, Woosabi is Gdańsk, Poland’s latest high-end restaurant, with Asian-inspired food and drink and some of the best music and atmosphere the bustling city has to offer. No expense was spared during Woosabi’s creation, with great consideration being given to the venue’s prospective audio system and the way it can affect diners’ experience. Although the restaurant’s owners - Jocki Koeffler and Diana Sadłowska - had no prior relationship with local sound company, Offstage, they quickly identified the company as being the ideal partner for this particular installation. Offstage’s Przemysław Waszkiewicz said: “I showed them around Gdańsk so they could hear some of our other installations with their own ears. They were more than happy with what they heard, so we then went on to discuss their specific
UK - disguise has launched three Extended Reality (xR) stages in its London, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong offices. The new stages provide a dedicated space for xR innovation and customer demonstrations, allowing disguise to present new workflows. The stages are equipped with disguise’s xR solution and a proven complement of LED displays, cameras and camera tracking systems to ensure successful xR productions. For its London and LA stages, disguise has chosen long-term partner ROE Visual to deliver LED panels that bring high-quality visual effects to life on large display formats, creating immersive experiences for performers on stage and audiences at home. “It’s a pleasure to have partnered with disguise on this fantastic project. We are pleased to be at the forefront of the ever-popular technique of virtual production and it’s great to have a fully functioning
Italy - Outline has announced the launch of their latest design, the L3000 multi-purpose amplifier. The L3000 has been created to offer ‘a compact, powerful DSP-equipped multi-channel amplifier that can be configured to drive most loudspeaker configurations’. Additionally, its form factor eschews the traditional 19” rackmount format, its mechanism being housed in a ‘super-tough’, lightweight chassis using the same materials and roadworthy polyurea external coating as Outline’s tour-grade loudspeakers. Its modest dimensions make it suitable for a wide range of audio installation projects, notably those where space constraints make it impossible or impractical to find space for traditional amplifier racks. L3000 allows 3,000W of audio power to be tucked away out of sight, under a bar, on a shelf, in a cupboard or anywhere that’s convenient to the appl
Australia - Situated in Melbourne’s east, the community at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was being crowded out by a suburb fast-tracked for urban growth. Needing to relocate to a quieter location with room to expand, they became aware that a short distance down the road the St. James Uniting Church, with its striking mid-century early modern architecture, was looking to sell. A deal was done which duly led to a full-blown renovation of the church, including a sensitive, high quality audio visual fitout in the heritage-listed building. This included a Martin Audio O-Line as the sound reinforcement system. St. Paul’s Lutheran found an integrator in Mozaix that really understood house of worship requirements, and director Paul Tucker immediately struck up a rapport with the church’s building committee. Paradoxically, the original St James space had been
USA - The 10th annual iHeartRadio Music Festival, a two-day virtual streaming, radio and TV broadcast event in late September, featured a line-up of international chart-topping artists performing live in front of a virtual audience, including Alicia Keys, Bon Jovi, BTS, Coldplay, Kane Brown with special guests Khalid and Swae Lee, Keith Urban, Migos, Miley Cyrus, Thomas Rhett with Jon Pardi, Usher and others. The festival also marked the debut of the recently introduced DiGiCo Quantum338 digital mixing console, along with a new DiGiCo SD12 mixing console, at the iHeartRadio Theatre Los Angeles in Burbank, California, where many of the artists recorded their performances in the lead up to the festival’s air date. Jason Batuyong, the venue’s head of audio for the past year, has worked at iHeartRadio Theatre Los Angeles since the 20,000sq.ft space - formerly NBC Studi
UK - Green Hippo is launching an online version of its popular HippoSchool training for the first time, making it universally accessible in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The move means more emerging users of its Hippotizer Media Server range can access learning in a virtual environment ‘anywhere, anytime, while adhering to social distancing guildelines’. HippoSchool Online offers complete basic training of the Hippotizer ZooKeeper software - the control interface for Hippotizer and the hub for real-time control of the engine and all of its components. Sessions consist of two online courses that take approximately five hours to complete, with more courses in the pipeline. They are modular, with videos that the user can follow in their own time, featuring ‘Try It Yourself’ tasks to ensure full immersion into as-real-world use of the feature-packed software.
USA - Located near Mammoth Cave National Park, Coral Hill Baptist Church has long been a cornerstone for the community in Glasgow, Kentucky. Without going so far as to include moving lights or haze machines, Coral Hill’s blended services offer a wide range of musical styles, both within a given service and from week to week. When steady growth made its old, traditional sanctuary too cramped, Coral Hill Baptist Church made plans for a new sanctuary adjacent to the old sanctuary with seating for three hundred. Local AV integration firm Red Ranger Media worked with the church to design and install a Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system that would support their wide variety of musical styles and deliver crystal-clear intelligibility despite an abundance of reflective concrete and dry wall surfaces. “In moving from their old sanctuary to a new sanctuary of thei
USA - MXL Microphones has introduced an addition to its microphone line-up, the Revelation Mini FET. Inspired by the Revalation and new Revelation II tube microphones, MXL set out to create a microphone that has the same intimacy and warmth of a tube mic, but built around a FET circuit with a smaller footprint. “While everyone loves a beautiful, elegant-sounding tube mic, sometimes artists require a smaller, more durable solution,” says Trevor Fedele, director of sales at MXL Microphones. “With these needs in mind, the MXL team put a great deal of energy into the design of the Revelation Mini FET in order to preserve the classic Revelation sound while increasing the mic’s flexibility for a range of applications, both in-studio and out on the road.” MXL’s Revelation Mini FET utilises a premium 32mm centre terminating, gold-sputtered capsule combined with a l
USA - First established in 1936 as Glad Tidings Church, Good News Church, located atop the hill at 75th and Hickory in Omaha, Nebraska, eventually chose to modernise its name to better reflect the language of current times. Much more recently, that same impetus to remain fresh and relevant also prompted the church to modernise its sound system with the addition of a DiGiCo SD12 mixing console and KLANG:fabrik immersive IEM mixing solution, both supplied by the local office of Conference Technologies. According to Good News band leader Aaron Ott, who has also served as the lead keyboard player there for the past 13 years, the church took on an extensive update of its audio facilities, upgrading everything except the loudspeaker system of its 750-seat auditorium, which was built in 1975 following the destruction of the previous worship space by one of the worst tornadoes
USA - Atlona has promoted David Shamir to VP of product management. Reporting to Atlona co-founder and CEO Ilya Khayn, Shamir will continue to lead the company’s product strategy while expanding his responsibilities to oversee engineering and product development. “Our industry was already very dynamic and constantly changing, but the pandemic has accelerated many existing trends while making AV more critical in environments such as small and home offices,” said Shamir. “With Covid-19, things are changing by the minute, making it challenging to accurately predict how the AV market will evolve. We will stay as nimble as possible to address our customers’ changing needs, while offering flexible solutions that help them adapt to world conditions and whatever their ‘new normal’ becomes.” Shamir notes that the agility of Atlona’s solutions is strengthened b
UK - Cranborne Audio and UK distributor Sound Technology have announced the Camden EC1, which combines Camden preamp technology with a reference-grade headphone amplifier. “We designed Camden EC1 to make it easy for musicians, vocalists, podcasters and video producers to achieve elite-quality recordings and reference headphone critical listening,” says Sean Karpowicz, managing director and founder. Its 12-way rotary gain switch enables easy recallability of preamp gain whilst it’s dedicated mic, line, and hi-z input modes allows Camden EC1 to not only become your go-to mic preamp, but also a line-level saturator and instrument DI thanks to dedicated ¼” jack Link outputs for each channel, says the company. “Camden's unprecedented performance allows you to vastly improve the quality of your tracks,” says Elliott Thomas, product manager. “Using its
Canada - Bluesound Professional has announced the immediate availability of the BSP1000 and BSP500 network active loudspeakers. Both models incorporate integrated streaming capability designed for use in either indoor or outdoor commercial installations. The BSP1000 and BSP500 speakers are offered in choice of white or black matte finish and come supplied with an integral wall mounting bracket for easy installation. The units are powered by Power over Ethernet, allowing a one-wire connection to the speaker for both power and audio. The player in the BSP speaker is based on the established BluOS platform and is capable of playing and distributing content from local network storage as well as from a large number of streaming services, including some specifically designed for commercial use, such as SoundMachine, Custom Channels, QSIC and internet radio stations. As well
USA - Since its start in 2013, Faith Family Church in Baytown, TX has seen continued growth, quickly outgrowing its roots as a portable house of worship. Land was acquired, a campus was planned, and a 60,000sq.ft. facility with a 1400-seat sanctuary was opened in early March 2020. The integration of the church’s audio, video and lighting systems across the main auditorium and several ancillary rooms was handled by worship AV specialists Ellis Pro Media, a Continuant company. “This was a design-build, and great client to work with,” says Austin Hess of Ellis Pro Media. “We knew that Electro-Voice would be a great solution, especially paired with the new Dynacord IPX series amplifiers. It’s a product we wholeheartedly believe in, to the point where many of the designers and staff at Ellis Pro Media have EV products in the churches we attend.” A combination o
USA - The Audio Engineering Society is inviting students and educators to attend the AES Show Student Week, being held 19-23 October as part of its Audio Engineering Month events. Events will include exclusive Technical Programme content, meetings and events hosted by the AES Student Delegate Assembly (SDA), a virtual education and career fair, student competitions, student project critiques and more. AES Show Student Week partners are Audio-Technica, Genelec, IK Multimedia, and the Recording Academy Producers and Engineers Wing. Several highlights of AES Show Student Week include the Student Recording Competitions in six categories (Traditional Acoustic Recording, Traditional Studio Recording, Modern Studio Recording & Electronic Music, Sound for Visual Media, Remix, and Immersive Audio); the Saul Walker Student Design Competition sponsored by API (gear and soft
Italy - Situated at the foot of Mount Rocchetta near Italy’s Lake Garda, the Bastione is a fortress built in the early XVI century. It is one of the symbols of Riva del Garda and overlooks both the city and the lake itself. A project run by the municipality of Riva del Garda, aiming to make the bastion even more attractive and accessible to all was recently completed. A new panoramic glass lift that starts from the centre of Riva del Garda travels 200m to the foot of the bastion, where a new restaurant has opened its doors. The breath-taking panoramic view that can be enjoyed from the lift is even more extraordinary from the terrace of the Bastione Lounge & Restaurant itself; the elegant venue is open from morning to night for lunch, dinner, happy hour and musical entertainment. To create the appropriate atmosphere for this exceptional location, manager Alf
USA - 5 Words Media (5WM) is a US systems integrator based in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 2011, principally as a design/build company for houses of worship, its team also designs and installs audio, lighting and AVL systems regionally across the entertainment, education and corporate sectors In recent months, 5WM has been working through a programme of audio installations in houses of worship using Coda Audio loudspeakers. Whilst the challenges of the Coronavirus have impacted the audio industry as never before, owner and design principal, Daniel Gourley and his team have worked tirelessly within regulatory constraints to install the systems whilst churches have been temporarily closed. A recent initiative by 5WM was its #FreeChurchAV contest which invited churches across the US to pitch for a new AV system by telling their story and highlighting the benefits that upg
Canada - Solotech has announced the appointment of Omar Prashad as sales director, Ontario. Prashad will be responsible of the leadership of the sales teams (Toronto and Ottawa offices), with the objective of establishing Solotech’s business position and growing revenue and market share in the province. He will oversee the development of key existing accounts in the live performance and entertainment sectors, while ensuring a strong diversification strategy to penetrate high-promising market segments such as corporate and education. With over 15 years of experience in the systems integration business, namely at Westbury National, Advanced Presentation Solutions and DuoCom Canada, Omar Prashad has a strong background in managing and motivating sales teams, financial management and strategic planning initiatives. “Omar’s proven vision and sales development c
UK - iMAG Displays has added a Brompton Technology Hydra to its inventory. The Hydra is an advanced measurement system custom-designed for LED panels fitted with a Tessera R2 receiver card. Panels must be measured with Hydra to benefit from Dynamic Calibration, the technology that enables Brompton HDR. iMAG has invested in a Hydra not just to recalibrate its own stock of LED panels, but also to make it available for hire to other UK rental houses so they can update their own panel inventory. The decision to purchase Hydra was made before the pandemic but was put on hold whilst the company – previously focused on servicing live events – realigned its focus and looked at new business opportunities. Such an investment may seem like a bold move in the current climate, but the decision was based on seeing first-hand the benefits of Dynamic Calibration and Brompto
UK - Shure supports Kings Daughters, an all-female British band, merging rock guitars and powerhouse vocals into epic anthems. Shure supplied the new SLX-D wireless system sporting a Beta58 microphone, alongside PSM300 In-Ear monitors and a selection of Beta-series wired microphones. The kit provided helped to ensure production values on the launch of their first live streamed gig to celebrate their second single, Dancing in the Rain, produced by Brian May, to honour those lost during the UK national lockdown. The girl band joined the movement - Keep New Bands Alive and Gigging- supporting emerging bands to take the stage and perform gigs, live streamed to the world from new venue, Warehouse V. The aim is to entertain the public at home who are missing out on gigs and to encourage the viewers to donate whatever they can to help new bands on their musical journey.
UK - Following the sudden death of its legendary landlord Louis Hayle – more commonly known as Dutty Ken – the future of reggae venue, the Star & Garter in Montpelier, Bristol, was cast into uncertainty. The pub had already been saved from the hands of the tax man a few short years ago thanks to a vociferous crowdfunding campaign, and in the months after Dutty Ken’s death, fears surfaced that it would be sold and converted into flats. This threat, which could be seen as indicative of a wider phenomenon that has swallowed a number of the UK’s most well-loved venues in recent years, was enough to call the local community to action once more. With this new campaign succeeding in saving the Star & Garter for a second time, another stalwart of the Bristol music and events scene, Malcolm Haynes, stepped in to take ownership of the situation. With
South Africa - Heartfelt Arena, a 4,500-seater venue in Pretoria, and technical supplier AJR Audio have stood together in protest by hosting events, without making a profit, to prove how shows can safely continue during the Covid-19 pandemic. In July, Eugene Pienaar from Heartfelt Arena and Altus Janse van Rensburg, owner of AJR and the venue’s in-house technical supplier, hosted a drive-in church service which saw 210 cars attending the event. In August, the team took it further. They applied tape on the venue’s floor to mark out blocks and walkways. A table with chairs was placed within each block. Each block would host a family. They then held five sold-out shows for Neverland Circus, a circus that combines the traditional Brazilian, South African and a few international circus acts, also known for reaching out to less privileged communities and charities across
USA - New England audio production company, Paddle Out Productions is in the middle of a 16-week contract with M.E. Productions at the Cheshire Fairgrounds drive-in music venue - a huge open field, allowing up to 425 cars parked in every other space - hosting performances from the likes of Guster and Grace Potter. To ensure every spectator could enjoy the live performances, Paddle Out Productions deployed its recently expanded Martin Audio WPM system. Organising such an event in a large and socially distanced space has had its challenges for the events team, and Ryan Burhans of Paddle Out Productions admits that in a space like Cheshire Fairground, sound quality and audience coverage were his top priorities. “I was nervous with the size of the field that we weren’t going to fill those ‘rock and roll’ shoes that are expected now and again,” he explains. “For examp
