USA - Allen & Heath digital mixers were once again in abundance at this year’s South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. Mixers from the whole range were used in venues across the city, from corner bars and impromptu stages, right up to the British Embassy Music showcase which saw performances from rising stars like Che Lingo, Pale Waves and Idles, as well as established UK artists including Gaz Coombes and Frank Turner. Hosted at Latitude 30, the British Music Embassy showcase sees a new act and engineer every 40-minutes, so having a system that combines ‘walk-up-and-mix’ usability with extensive built-in processing is essential to the smooth running of the event. To accomplish this, British production company, CATO Music, installed a dLive C3500 system and two S3000 systems to cover FOH, monitors and house continuity. Ano
UK - Lincolnshire-based loudspeaker manufacturer, Logic Systems Pro Audio is set to launch its third new product range inside six months, at PLASA Focus Leeds 2018. In a bid to ‘compete with the best products in the global marketplace’ the company’s team has been bolstered by the arrival of experienced systems specialist Ivor Green, who is overseeing the current development programme. “Our new products perform to the highest standards, utilising the latest, innovative technology,” says Logic Systems’ general manager Mickey Edwards, “which is matched with the design of new loudspeaker drivers producing high levels of performance. “Our development work has been significant, resulting in loudspeaker products that offer performance innovations among the best available in the world marketplace.” The first introduction was the Ci Series of cabin
Abu Dhabi - Protec helped deliver the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics IX MENA Games 2018. It opened in Abu Dhabi on Saturday 17 March. After taking a tour of the city, hitting some famous landmarks along the way, the Olympic torch finally arrived at ADNEC to the applause of the waiting 2000 spectators. Once the ‘Flame of Hope’ cauldron was lit, the show began. A video entitled Welcome to my City was played and more than 1,000 Special Olympics athletes from 32 different countries entered the arena in a colourful parade. Protec provided lighting, audio and video as well as some rigging for the show in ADNEC. HQ Worldwide provided their own lighting design and the video content. Project manager, Simon Travis reports, “Due to the openness of the venue, scaffold towers were erected around the grandstand area. For the three big ones on the open s
UK - Sound Technology, distributor of Harman Professional audio solutions in the UK & Ireland, has announced the immediate availability of the JBL Professional Pro SoundBar PSB-1. Drawing on a long history of industry-leading soundbars in the consumer space, the JBL Pro SoundBar is an active soundbar designed specifically for commercial applications. It has an optimised feature set to address the unique requirements of hotel guest rooms, cruise ship staterooms and other commercial environments. The JBL Pro SoundBar supports both fixed and variable source volume, providing compatibility with both fixed applications (where the volume is controlled at the soundbar) and variable applications (where gain is controlled at the television). In fixed volume scenarios, the Pro SoundBar offers an IR Learning capability. This allows the Pro SoundBar to “learn” the IR puls
Europe - Alt-rock outfit Paramore is amidst a whirlwind of a world tour supporting their latest release, After Laughter. For the third and fourth of five major tour legs, which saw them moving from outdoor festivals and amphitheatres to major arenas in Europe and Australia, the band selected an Adamson E-Series and S-Series audio system supplied by Eighth Day Sound Systems. The lengthy run began in Dublin, Ireland in June 2017, hitting a wide range of venues across multiple continents. Regardless of where they’re playing, though, Paramore aims to deliver a high-energy, high-impact show for a ravenous fan base every time they hit the stage, and precise, pristine, and powerful sound is critical to that mission. “Paramore is very much a vocal- and guitar-driven band, and the Adamson system’s low-mid performance and intelligibility made it easy to bring those
Portugal - A new sound reinforcement system has been designed and installed at Capitolio Theatre in Lisbon by Audiomatrix. Capitolio is a well-known space located in the centre of the city of Portuguese capital which hosts a variety of events including live concerts and corporate events as well as theatre activities. Capitolio was looking for a new sound system that could offer high sound fidelity throughout the venue for the 1500 people capacity. The system was specified by Audiomatrix technical director and FOH engineer Marco Esteves. They chose the NEXT-proaudio solution due to “a combination of its versatility, clear sound, coverage capabilities, and the easy tuning using Soundware software”. Marco Esteves used the manufacturer support to design the set-up, which comprised 12 LA122A, 2 LAs118A, as well as six ground-stacked LAs418 subwoofers as the
USA - Dallas, Texas-based Bock Technologies was recently tapped to upgrade the sound reinforcement system at the Main Arena of the Somervell County Expo Centre in Glen Rose, Texas. The Expo centre is the premier location for equestrian events and cattle futurities, industry tradeshows and award-winning performances in the region. “The existing system was worn out and just didn’t provide the coverage the multi-purpose venue required,” explains Pedro Salas, vice president of Bock Technologies. “We knew an EAW QX distributed loudspeaker system would blanket the seating areas while upgrading intelligibility and audio quality considerably. It would be more than capable of handling any event they had.” The Main Arena of the centre is a highly reverberant space, approximately 130 x 254 feet with a seating capacity up to 3,050. The space is used for rodeos, animal e
Germany - HK Audio, one of the leading German manufacturers of PA systems, is preparing to roll out “the largest product launch in the firm’s 35+ year history” at this year’s Prolight + Sound show in Frankfurt. Says the company, “Having mainly focused on PA systems for musicians in recent years, the brand with the ‘made in Germany’ quality seal is set to begin a new chapter in its illustrious history.” The first examples of a new pro audio range will be on display at HK Audio’s main Prolight + Sound booth, located at Hall 3.1 E91. They are the first components of a highly integrative product family which will comprise HK Audio’s portfolio for professional sound reinforcement services, says the company. (Jim Evans)
UK - Ohm has appointed James Jewry as director of technical integration, heading up the new tech integration department. Jewry is an experienced system design technician working with artists such as Kylie Minogue, Tom Jones and the London Symphony Orchestra. Having been involved in audio for nearly 25 years, he has worked with major tour and festival companies, designing and calibrating some of the largest audio projects around the world. Gareth Coleman, director of international sales, comments: “Ohm is focused on building a strong core team, with the imminent release of state of the art DSP software & hardware, the creation of a new technical integration team will ensure our new products have both pre and post sales customer support.” Jewry adds: “I’ve seen and heard some amazing loudspeakers built at Ohm, with over 39 years’ experience behind th
Germany - Visitors to this year’s Prolight + Sound will be able to experience DiGiCo’s much-anticipated Quantum 7 processing, which is making its working debut on Stand 3.1 E40. The company will also reveal further new developments and give visitors another chance to experience the new 4REA4 digital audio networking system. Quantum 7 has been developed with seventh generation FPGA devices that further expand audio processing power, and “ultimately allows DiGiCo to provide its users with an unrivalled amount of flexibility”. Quantum 7 expands an SD7 to over 600 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 fa
Middle East - Nexo has announced the appointment of Yamaha Music Gulf FZE (YMGF) as its official re-exporter to the Middle East and Africa. Established in 1997 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation, Yamaha Music Gulf provides its territory with the full line of Yamaha integrated professional audio products offering complete systems solutions for the broadcast, sound reinforcement/installed sound, touring, commercial recording, and post production applications as well as musical instruments and consumer audio products. Jean Mullor, CEO of Nexo, comments: "This new partnership with Yamaha Music Gulf will help us meet the growing demand for our high-quality sound reinforcement solutions in the Middle East, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Our two companies share the same philosophy and we aim to offer the professional audio market something
Spain - An invitation-only masquerade ball takes place each year in the Liceu Theatre within the historically ornate ballroom known as Sala dels Miralls. Live musicians perform while attendees dance and drink and laugh, each person a mysterious character for the evening. Unfortunately, in the past, because of the mirrored and marbled room’s highly reflective sound quality, the details of the music and the vocals were often equally mysterious. So, in its third year in 2018, the promoters of the Círculo del Liceo Masquerade Ball decided to fix the issue once and for all - with Clair Brothers. VTècnics, Clair Brothers distribution partner in Spain, recommended using the new C12 speaker system to combat the daunting acoustical challenge. Explains Josep Maria Serra, VTècnics production manager, “An event that caters to high-society elite is expected to have everyth
USA - The Richard E. Berry Educational Support Centre in Houston, Texas recently completed a major update to its AV systems featuring seven Allen & Heath dLive S Class Digital Mixing Systems and an ME Personal Mixing System. Serving the Cypress Fairbanks Integrated School District, as well as the Houston area at large, the Berry Centre hosts 4000 yearly events in its five multi-purpose venues (arena, conference centre, theatre, and two stadiums). Ford Audio Video Systems provided the Berry Centre’s new AV systems. David Shriver, Ford AV’s Houston Division job centre manager says, “Our big goal in all of this was flexibility because the centre defines ‘multi-use facility’.” Ford AV installed an Allen & Heath gigaACE network and a second Dante network to supplement the existing Dante network. Together, the three networks allow several of the dLi
USA - Esports Arena Las Vegas, which celebrated its grand-opening on 22 March at the Luxor Hotel and Casino, features a Harman Professional installation. The new Esports Arena Las Vegas is a 30,000sq.ft multi-level arena with a competition stage, telescopic seating, daily gaming stations, VIP room, two bars, and state-of-the-art streaming and production studios. The facility also features an interactive area known as The Dome that includes retro games, and a front lobby equipped with gaming stations, a streaming booth and a virtual reality station. Harman Professional Solutions provided a custom audio, lighting, and control solution made up of JBL Professional loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS audio processors, AMX control systems and Martin lighting fixtures. “Esports Arena Las Vegas is the flagship location of our growing global network of Esports propert
UK - Around 60 of the UK’s leading live mixing engineers, theatre sound designers and representatives of audio rental companies assembled in the legendary Studio Two at London’s Abbey Road Studios in March for an informal workshop on Yamaha’s RIVAGE PM series digital mixing systems. “This was a way of giving key members of the UK pro audio community a chance to informally network and learn more about Yamaha’s RIVAGE PM series systems, in an inspiring location and friendly, low-key atmosphere,” says Yamaha Commercial Audio UK/RoI sales manager Alex Warren, who co-ordinated the event with UK/RoI marketing manager Chris Irvine. After meeting for a complimentary lunch, followed by a bracing walk along Abbey Road to the studios, guests were welcomed by Chris. This was followed by an interesting potted history of the studios by its head of audio products, Mirek S
UK - Adlib, one of the UK’s longest established technical production companies, has recently invested in Sennheiser’s latest Digital 6000 series as part of an extensive refresh of its RF inventory. The system includes eight channels of Digital 6000, complete with SK 6000 pocket transmitters and SKM 6000 handheld transmitters with MD 9235 capsules. Adlib has also taken advantage of the rackmount rechargeable battery units for both the handhelds and pocket transmitters to help reduce the company’s environment footprint. “We’re getting increasingly busy and we’re finding that there’s a lot of demand for radio equipment to tour around Europe” says Adlib director Dave Kay. “We wanted to invest in the newest technology to give us more flexibility on spectrum usage. We’ve used Digital 6000 for the past couple of years on events such as Capital Radio’s
UK - Alan Ayckbourn’s The Divide, staged at London’s Old Vic theatre features sound design by Bobby Aitken, who declares, “The sound design was defined by the use of TiMax. We could never have produced that without TiMax.” Directed by Annabelle Bolton with the score composed by Chris Nightingale, Aitken recognised the potential for an immersive spatial sound design. The music is delivered via a 40-piece choir and five-piece music ensemble comprised of woodwind, strings, piano and electronics. In addition to the score, the piece is supported by the extensive use of immersive sound effects. Out Board director Robin Whittaker provided design and programming support on-site to help Aitken realise his spatial vision. Aitken was able to use TiMax to strategically create space within the music for the actors’ voices to be heard clearly. Instead of rais
UK - Following the announcement of CUK Audio taking on distribution of ClearOne, the company has appointed Fraser Sanaghan to the position of applications specialist. Sanaghan will support the conference & collaboration sales channel initially, with specific focus on ClearOne, broadening out over time to designing live and AV solutions as well. Sanaghan comes to CUK after nearly 11 years in applications support with TC Group (now Music Group) working with brands such as Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake where he was responsible for training of the distributor network throughout EMEA as well as some system design. “I’m delighted to be part of the team at CUK who have a great reputation in the industry,” says Sanaghan. “We took on distribution of ClearOne early this year so I’m excited to support their products as well as the other industry-leading brands we hav
Azerbajan - Martin Audio has appointed PRO AV LLC as its new distributor in Azerbaijan. Based in the capital of Baku, the company was registered in 2012. Today, the partners are Elshan Aliyev and Rustam Hajiyev, and over the years they have built an impressive portfolio of leading distributed brands. In order to bring Martin Audio into the fold, Aliyev had earlier approached MD, Dom Harter, whom he had known from previous companies. “There were many things I liked about Martin Audio,” he said, “notably the quality of the sound, the product line in general and the strength of the brand name. We also liked the fact that they are utterly dedicated to sound systems - rather than running a diverse portfolio like other manufacturers - and their pricing is reasonable. You could say we are more than happy with Martin Audio.” PROAV sees “enormous potenti
Germany - MDG will be exhibiting in Hall 3.0 Stand E19 with its exclusive and longest serving German distributor cast C. Adolph & RST Distribution. MDG will be bringing an exciting development to its Me Series of fog generators with the launch of Me1g, a glycol-based version of its successful Me1 fog generator. Sharing its size and form factor with its oil-based sibling, Me1g has a single nozzle and 0-100% DMX/RDM control for perfect, powerful output, but with the benefit of using any of MDG’s glycol-based fluids. MDG is the manufacturer of the AtmosphereAPS and ATMe haze generators, the Me Series and MAX Series of fog generators, and the ICE FOG range of low fog generators, in addition to the award-winning theONE atmospheric generator which can output haze and fog from a single source. A selection of these will be on the stand at Prolight+Sound 2018. (Jim
Germany - dBTechnologies will showcase upcoming releases for the VIO line array and subs family. The Italian manufacturer is going to unveil “new, powerful touring solutions” of its flagship family at the booth, while the smaller line array system VIO L208, launched last January at NAMM Show in Los Angeles, will test its acoustic performance together with subs VIO S118 R at the daily outdoor demo at Agora arena. dBTechnologies will also present a new complete portable PA for its B.H series, as well as recently launched new Opera Unica series, featuring complete networkability via RD-net protocol and Aurora Net Software. There will also be upgrades for the Ingenia column powered speakers family, enabling the cabinets to complete EQ and digital steering remote control. dBTechnologies product specialist team will present a daily showcase for Aurora Net
Germany - d&b is heading to Prolight + Sound to highlight its next generation line array. Sitting above the J, Y and V-Series, GSL delivers “unparalleled cardiod dispersion control across the entire audio bandwidth, setting a new standard for output and accuracy in large-format line arrays for the world’s largest sound reinforcement applications”. This applied evolution is the next step in d&b’s 30-year obsession to deliver precise pattern control, and effortlessly elevates the listening experience for the audience, while ensuring that the creative environment for the system engineers and mixers is revolutionized by rejecting energy to the rear and significantly reducing excitation of the reverberant field, says the company. As well as a focus on the official release of GSL, there will be further opportunities for attendees to experience the newly
USA - Eastern Acoustic Work’s (EAW) MicroWedge stage monitors continue to take the spotlight at live sound venues throughout Chicago. T.C. Furlong, president of TC Furlong Inc, reports recent sales to Lincoln Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Green Mill. “These are marquee clients that represent some of the more notable live venues in the metropolitan area,” explains Furlong. “The popularity of the MicroWedge does not seem to diminish. The small footprint is ideal for crowded stages and their high output makes them useful for any act that needs stage monitors. Plus, they are rider friendly - everyone that uses them loves them.” Furlong notes that Lincoln Hall increased their inventory by nine MW15, Old Town School Of Folk Music by eight MW12, Lyric Opera of Chicago added six MW12 while The Green Mill invested in two additional
UK - Located in the heart of London’s Westminster, the Emmanuel Centre is a trans-denominational church serving the broad Christian community in the area. The 1,000-capacity venue - a Grade II listed building with a glass dome auditorium, marble columns, high-arched windows and oak panelled walls and seating - presented a sound reinforcement challenge. The reverberation time in the main auditorium measured around three seconds, a significant obstacle to speech intelligibility, and the building’s listed status meant drilling into the structure was forbidden, ruling out the installation of flying points. To bring the increasingly multi-purpose Centre up to date, Elvis Uriona, head of sound at the Emmanuel Centre, approached long-term sound system partner Autograph Sales & Installations. Peppe Mallozzi, who led the system design for Autograph, was fam
