USA - As the second-oldest professional symphony in the United States, the Grammy Award-winning St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is proud of its longevity and tradition. For the past half century, the SLSO has performed in Powell Hall, a world-class acoustic concert hall that seats over 2,600. Its acoustics are excellent for the orchestra itself but far less than excellent for amplified sound. Until recently, spoken word for lectures and presentations was difficult to understand and sometimes came with feedback. Reinforcement for both instruments and vocalists during amplified concerts was also challenged with gain-before-feedback issues that were only partially remedied by destructive equalization. After extensive research, the SLSO found that Danley Sound Labs’ point-source technologies deliver excellent intelligibility and gain-before-feedback. “When I first heard t
Germany - Twenty years ago the former central railway station in the spa town of Baden-Baden was repurposed as the ticket office and foyer for a new venue, Festival Hall Baden-Baden, the country’s largest venue for opera, ballet and live classical music. Thanks to its state-of-the-art acoustics, Festival Hall Baden-Baden is renowned for its excellent sound. It also stages presentations, jazz, rock and other amplified events. For these, a new Yamaha CL5 digital mixing console is helping to keep the venue’s commitment to the highest quality audio on the right track. Since Festival Hall Baden-Baden opened in 1998, the former station’s neo-Renaissance style ticket hall and waiting rooms have formed a historic entry for visitors into the modern, 2500-capacity auditorium, which was built in the space where the track and platforms used to be. The auditorium was de
UK - Flare Audio has extended its range of ear plugs with the introduction of Sleeep, billed as “a comfortable, light, and unobtrusive way of blocking out unwanted noise, day, or night”. Sleeep builds on advances made by Flare’s previous ranges of ear plugs, Isolate and Snoozers, using an engineered metal core to exclude sound, while a comfortable memory foam tip fits snugly to the wearer’s ear, ensuring a comfortable fit for all night use. The addition of dual tips – one at each end - maximise comfort for sleeping on your side. The audio innovators have been able to reduce the size of the sleeping aid by slimming the metal core by over half from its earlier model, Snoozers, from 5.5mm to 2mm, without losing any of its audio qualities. Sleeep works by blocking sound with its metal core rather than absorbing it, as traditional earplugs do. Available in two mo
New Zealand - Specifying an Audient ASP4816 console to be at the heart of Studio A completed the studio upgrades at Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec) this July. Bringing analogue back to the School of Media Arts’ studio after a 13-year hiatus was a decision championed by music technician, Brad Morgan. Brad explains that the original studio centred around an analogue console. “Its age and maintenance downtime was becoming an issue and in 2003/2004 the decision was made to go to Pro Tools HD with a Control|24. The workflow was simple and the ease of an ‘in-the-box’ solution was convenient for staff and students. “Fast forward 13 years and the decision to create a hybrid system taking in the best of both analogue and digital workflows was something that was welcomed with open arms. External gates/dynamics and effects racks that had been in storage for man
UK - The Hackney Empire recently made for a stunning location for three days of demonstrations of 3D sound by Astro Spatial Audio, hosted by 2B Heard. The event marked the first full UK demonstrations of Astro Spatial Audio’s immersive audio solution. A guest list of industry VIPs responded, with more than 50 industry influencers gathering to experience two full demos designed to illustrate Astro Spatial Audio’s scalability. For the first demonstration, the stage of the Hackney Empire was ringed with 16 pole-mounted K-array Kayman KY102 line array columns configured for wide coverage plus eight overhead Domino KF210 enclosures and four Thunder-KMT218 double 18-inch subwoofers. Guests were invited to stroll freely around the stage as they experienced perfectly phase-free, seamless 3D audio courtesy of a single 3RU Astro Spatial Audio SARA II Rendering Engine,
UK - Situated on The Green in the gentrified North London suburb of Winchmore Hill, Buckle and Vaughan is a spacious bar / dining space that is all about atmosphere. Owned by Neil Friar, it was atmosphere that was sadly lacking when the venue opened four years ago, largely because the sound system was insufficient for the venue’s needs. Several years later and Penguin Media Solutions have been brought in to upgrade the sound with a potent Martin Audio CDD6 ultra-compact solution, using Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology. CDD series has provided the solution for many Penguin installations since its launch, and according to director of operations and project manager for this job, Dylan Thompson, “It’s difficult to justify installing anything other than CDD. It’s an attractive box, produces a great sound and has a useful dispersion. On top of that, it’s
France - The annual Yamaha Commercial Audio System Designer’s Conference (SDC) takes place in a different European country each year. This September, over 300 audio industry professionals from 36 countries joined the families and fun at Disneyland Paris. Co-hosted by Yamaha Music Europe France and Nexo, this year’s SDC was subtitled Experiencing High Quality Sound In Relation To The Five Senses and featured around 70 sessions, which mixed experiential, immersive demonstrations with lectures and discussions. The programme was organised by Yamaha Music Europe’s Ron Bakker. “My goal was to provide new ideas and insights into new audio technologies and applications, as a basis for discussions – not only about the technologies and their scientific backgrounds, but also about what we do with them now, and what we plan to do with them in the future,” he sa
Norway - Covering an area of 150 acres of wild Nordic terrain, Kristiansand Dyrepark and amusement park is one of Norway`s favourite visitor attractions and its favourite show is Kaptein Sabeltann (Captain Sabertooth). This year, the zoo decided to up the specification for audio on the show and has invested in a DiGiCo SD9 and S21, which have helped to address its complex signal distribution, an issue that its engineers say was easily solved with the DiGiCo system. Kaptein Sabeltannis one of Norway’s most popular children’s characters and has been captivating audiences through stage, film, television, cartoons and books. The show has been performed at Kristianzand Zoo since it was first written in the early 1990s and, in 1994, won a Formoe a Spellemann prize, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards, for Captain Sabertooth and the Treasure in Luna Bay.
UK - Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST) is one of the UK’s leading professional theatre companies. Their success, both nationally and internationally, has enabled the company to open a second venue in the new, £28m Studio 144 development in the centre of Southampton. Whilst the core of NST’s work remains traditional theatre, the new venue, NST City, aims to bring wider cultural to Southampton by offering more in the way of music, cinema and even circus as well as classic theatre. When it came to equipping the new venue, theatre consultants, Arup, specified a wide range of EM Acoustics’ ubiquitous EMS Series loudspeakers across the three performance spaces. NST’s head of sound, Jon Roache, wasn’t involved in the specification process, but was pleased with the choice of EM Acoustics. “I’d been using and dealing with EM for a fair while in a previous job,
UK - Monitor engineer Gavin Tempany has been out on tour Kylie Minogue. He has chosen a Solid State Logic L500 Plus for the shows, supplied by UK tour and events company Capital Sound Hire. Kylie's latest world tour follows the release of her new album, Golden. It's a project heavily influenced by the Nashville country scene, which follows through onto the stage via set, costume, and narrative in a typically theatrical set. Kylie is joined on stage by five musicians and two backing singers, and all are supported at monitor world by experienced engineer Gavin Tempany (Dave Gilmour, Hans Zimmer, Will Young, OMD) and a Solid State Logic 500 Plus console. While Tempany describes the 50 or so instrument and vocal inputs from show as "not too much compared to my usual madness", the aesthetics and design of the show have created a few side challenges. First, the moni
Argentina - Microphones from Audio-Technica are being used to capture both live and broadcast audio at Youth Olympics Games, taking place now in Buenos Aires. The Youth Olympic Games, held every two years (Winter and Summer games staggered in years opposite the adult games), are an international multi-sport event organised by the International Olympic Committee. Buenos Aires 2018 is the scenario for 32 sports and 36 disciplines. A wide selection of Audio-Technica microphones are being employed, including BP4071 Line + Gradient (Shotgun) Condenser Microphones, BP4073 Line + Gradient (Shotgun) Condenser Microphones, AT899 Subminiature Omnidirectional Condenser Lavalier Microphones and BP4001 Cardioid Dynamic Microphones (handheld, for interviews). “We are pleased to be participating in the technical setup at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games,” stated Audio-
USA - DiGiCo’s AES stand at Manhattan’s Javits Convention Centre this month will feature the highly-anticipated SD7 Quantum engine, which is now shipping to SD7 owners around the globe. Developed with seventh generation Super FPGA devices that further increase audio processing power, Quantum 7 expands DiGiCo’s flagship SD7 to over 640 channels of processing in 96kHz operation that can be connected in the outside world to approaching 3000 potential I/Os. The engine is also equipped with eight newly assignable MADI connections and two DMI slots (DiGiCo Multi-Channel Interface) for AoIP and other connectivity options from the complete family of DMI card options. There are other powerful enhancements, too, including Nodal Processing and True Solo. Nodal Processing means that for the first time processing can be applied to any node on the auxiliary section of the con
South Africa - With a general insanity and a profound love and belief in the arts, Sue Clarence and her team staged the 26th Hilton Arts Festival, hosted at Hilton College in KwaZulu Natal. This year DWR Distribution’s SOS Charity Fund and the Hilton Festival stepped in to make a difference by bussing in 70 children from the Thembelihle Primary School to see three plays and attend two workshops. Apart from the stunning weather on all three days, which was a first, what meant the most for Sue was the massive team effort from sponsors to high quality productions at this years’ festival. Everyone stood together from technical teams to cleaners, box office to arts, crafts and foodies. “We were one team and all equally important,” said Sue. “Another vital component is that the festival inspires creativity which is essential for the soul of a nation.” Earlier thi
USA - One of the most common problems for touring musicians is losing the seal on their custom acrylic in-ear monitors. The result is a loss of low frequencies – obviously a huge issue for bass players. Téja, the bassist for Janelle Monae, knows this from personal experience. “It’s a real distraction on stage, because we depend on our in-ears,” she says. “It was frustrating, because they sounded good when the isolation was there, but the seal would always pop when I was singing, or even just smiling too big, and I would lose all the bass response. I had them remade several times, but nothing helped.” Before a recent Janelle Monae show in Chicago, band and crew members met with Sensaphonics personnel Claudia Pyne (artist relations) and Dr. Laura Sinnott, Au.D., about hearing health and in-ear monitors. During the discussion, Téja brought up some of her qu
Europe - Voted ‘Best Guitarist’ at the recent European Blues Awards (2017), Finnish guitarist and singer-songwriter, Erja Lyytinen, hits the road this autumn to begin her Another World tour across Europe, accompanied by an Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixing system. Supplied by Allen & Heath’s Finnish distributors, F-Musiikki-Oy, the single SQ-5 handles both FOH and monitor duties for the tour, with Lyytinen herself commenting favourably on the sound of the SQ: “The new SQ mixer works great with the IEM and the whole band has been very satisfied with the improved sound quality.” The compact set-up comprises an SQ connected via SLink to an AR2412 AudioRack for remote I/O, which is rack-mounted with a wireless IEM system and positioned on stage for a fast, simple set-up at any venue. Sound engineer Olli Huttunen adds, “SQ-5 is a compact, v
USA - The 2018 revival of the Rogers and Hammerstein's classic musical, Carousel, has just completed its run at the Imperial Theatre in New York City with a sound design that earned the show and its Broadway Sound designer – and Tony winner - Scott Lehrer, with associate Alex Neumann, a Tony nomination this year. Lehrer asserts that traditional revivals necessitate a transparent sound system so that the audience can remain unaware of the reinforcement. To achieve this, he made extensive use of TiMax delay-matrix spatialization, and explains, “It’s part of my toolbox and people hear it and they hear my work as sounding better because of it.” For the audience to hear the full breadth of the 34 actors on the stage, as well as the 26-strong orchestra of solely acoustic instruments, Lehrer created a wide spread of time zones across the stage using TiMax2 Soun
UAE - APG has announced the appointment of Venuetech as its exclusive distributor in the Middle East. The partnership was officialised at Prolight+Sound Middle East in Dubai, where Venuetech displayed a broad range of APG products on its substantial booth. As APG’s exclusive distributor in the region, Venuetech will cover the UAE, Saudi, Oman, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, Qatar and Bahrain. This partnership opens a new market for APG - and is in line with the company’s strategic expansion: After reinforcing its presence in France and European countries (including Spain, Denmark and Benelux), the French loudspeaker manufacturer successfully developed its brand in Asia with the opening of regional offices in Singapore and Hong Kong. Grégory Dapsanse, APG’s marketing & business development director, explained: “The Middle East was for us the next logical step for
Europe - DirectOut has appointed Pilote Films of France and KDMC of Denmark respectively with the awards of Distributor of the Year 2017 and Outstanding Sales Performance of 2017. Both companies have achieved “a great result during 2017 and are confirming the positive trend in their business”. Founded in 1982 and based in Puteaux, just outside of Paris, Pilote Films is a very well-known and established audiovisual distribution company in France. It is organised into two divisions, broadcast and residential, but it very well covers also the live and fixed installation markets. According to DirectOut’s managing director Jan Ehrlich, the decision upon which company is going to be awarded as Distributor of the Year is at no time an easy one: "Many DirectOut partners performed quite well in the past year, but Pilote Films has performed incredibly well and this award
UK - As the temperatures soared to record levels, Adlib’s Glasgow based Scottish operation has enjoyed a busy and proactive summer supplying a full complement of technical services - lighting, sound and video - to a number of high profile events including the Glasgow and Edinburgh Summer Sessions, Rewind Festival’s Scottish date at Scone Palace plus sound and lighting to the 2018 TRNSMT festival on Glasgow Green. This reflects a healthy schedule of locally based business for the company who opened their Scottish operation in 2016. Adlib has worked carefully and conscientiously to expand this offering technical services and equipment that are new to the region, in the process collaborating with a network of partners, promoters and other Scottish companies. For Summer Sessions, two completely different sound and lighting systems were supplied.
Cambodia - Situated in the heart of Phnom Penh lies Cambodia’s Nagaworld complex. One of South East Asia’s most awe-inspiring, multi-purpose facilities, housing a world-class casino, a five-star hotel and one of the country’s biggest theatres, Nagaworld caters for all. DiGiCo consoles have found themselves at the centre of this huge operation, with two SD7s now a permanent fixture for the Naba Theatre contained within the complex. Placed at both FOH and monitor positions and connected via Optocore, the SD7s have quickly become an integral part of the theatre’s set up. “There are 56 channels of inputs at the stage area that cater for all the shows that the theatre is currently doing,” Nick Chua of Showtec Group, who supplied the consoles, explains. “More inputs can be taken from the SD-Mini Rack, FOH desk and the stage SD7 inputs if needed. Overall, the
Singapore - Outline has announced the appointment of Patrick Wong to the position of regional sales manager, APAC. This, the latest in a series of major recruitments within the company over the last few months, is a new position for Outline and has been created in response to the steadily increasing demand for their products throughout the region. Fluent in both Chinese and English, Patrick joins the Outline team after a decade at Sennheiser Asia during which he successfully fulfilled roles as both team leader and regional sales manager. Based in Singapore, he will be responsible for developing each region's business strategy, supporting Outline’s current distributors and reporting directly to the company’s Italian headquarters. “Outline is a brand with great heritage and reputation in the industry”, Patrick said. “My role will be to build upon this heritage
USA - UK immersive audio and showcontrol specialists Out Board will present the new TiMax 500S software for TiMax SoundHub, at AES New York 2018 (17-19 October). TiMax 500S features the already popular StageSpace spatial rendering tools, which instantly auto-calculate multiple adaptive delay-matrix localisation objects using three-dimensional data imported from CAD files or entered directly. TiMax spatial objects can be rendered and adapted for a wide variety of stage, audience and sound system configurations, and fine-tuned in rehearsal by the user, because, as Out Board maintains “experienced sound designers will tell you it’s the last millisecond or dB of adjustment that really make the spatialisation work”. TiMax 500S integrated TimeLine and PanSpace resources allow quick-and-easy intensive programming and control of multilayered immersive soundscapes, with i
Italy - Proel has announced the appointment of Access Pro Group to distribute its Axiom brand of professional loudspeaker systems in Serbia. Based in Novi Beograd, Access Pro Group has been a major player in professional audio in Serbia since 2000 when political conditions improved enough for business to flourish. Owner and director Nenad Stojanovic has pursued his passion for high end sound equipment coupled with cutting edge technology and has built a successful rental market around corporate, DJ, fashion show and festival events. "We specialise in professional audio, but being a small market we have to cover a wide variety of jobs," said Stojanovic. "Typically our main activity is systems rentals for up to around 5,000 people, which are the main events in Serbia. Clients like to see and hear systems working under real conditions, and for us this is the best way to promot
Europe - Kris Vermuyten will be promoted to the position of CEO of Apart Audio. Kris joined Apart Audio more than 20 years ago and was until now marketing & sales director. In his new role as CEO, Kris will “further strengthen Apart Audio as an innovative, global brand for small & medium sized fixed install sound solutions”. With Steve Johnson as CEO of Community Professional Loudspeakers and Kris as CEO of Apart Audio Audioprof Group will have for every brand a dedicated CEO who will have a 100% focus on developing their brand. Both Steve and Kris will report to Koen Claerbout as Group CEO of Audioprof Group International (APGI). In that way Koen can free up time for strategic initiatives to develop the group in terms of organic growth, strategic partnerships and acquisition initiatives. Additionally, Koen will be involved in other investment activities of
