UK - UK rental company SSE Audio deployed its L-Acoustics K1 large format line source system on BBC Radio 1Xtra Live at Wembley Arena in late September, rounding off a summer of outings for the system.

A total of 72 K1 boxes, with 30 dV-DOSCs, 20 KUDO large format and 18 KIVA ultra compact line source cabinets, plus 48 SB28 subs, were deployed for the event. The system was driven by 14 flown LA-RAKs housing 72 LA8 amplified controllers, connected by the LA Network Manager.

The event presented several challenges for the sound system. The nature of the bands, including N-Dubz, Tinchy Stryder and Roll Deep, called for high SPLs and sub levels. Two stages were used, one end-on for bands and one in the round for 'vocal to track' acts. The latter needed to achieve seamless 360 degree coverage around the stage, with the system sharing a rigging area with lighting etc., plus weight li

USA - The Paradise Rock Club in Boston, Massachusetts, recently renovated its performance hall to not only increase capacity, but also to keep its reputation for superior concerts intact. With JBL VRX Constant Curvature line arrays now installed, the Paradise Rock Club is evolving technologically while maintaining its classic image.

The Paradise Rock Club has played host to many of the world's leading acts throughout the decades, including U2, who played their first US gig in the Boston club. With an 850-person capacity and a stage centered along a 50-foot wall, the club provides a dynamic, yet intimate venue for live music enthusiasts.

With left and right main arrays each containing four JBL VRX932LA-1 loudspeakers, production

manager Billy 'Bud' McCarthy has upgraded the sound of the club, replacing an older, pre-existing system. Six JBL SRX712M stage monitors also line th

UK - The 2010 SMPTE Technical Conference and Expo takes place between October 25-28 and is being held at the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. The event is geared towards the world's leading motion-imaging researchers, scientists, practitioners, and manufacturers.

Calibre UK and their master representative, Marketing Specialists Inc are sponsoring the Audio Issues - Workflows for Embedding Copy Protection Watermarks in Theatrical Sountracks session, presented by Dean Angelico from Verance Corporation in the Mann Theater on Wednesday, 27th October at 10:45am at the 2010 SMPTE.

For visitors looking to gain a closer look at the latest in processing, scaling and conversion technology, Calibre UK will also exhibit their latest innovations in the technology-focused exhibit hall during the event.

Paul Carey, president of marketing specialists, Inc, conference AV chair comments: "It

World - With planning for the merger between ESTA and PLASA now in its final stages, the elections for places on the new Regional Boards, and over-arching Governing Body, are coming to a close.

The month-long ballot, which ends on 31 October, pre-empts the New Year merger date when the Associations formally unite under the PLASA name.

Members of both organizations have been actively voting to elect candidates for the new European and North American Regional Boards which will feature representatives from the following groups of members - Dealer/Retailers, Distributors, Manufacturers, Production Services, Professional Services and Rental Companies, together with a representative from both the Organizational and Individual memberships.

The Governing Body is a new concept for PLASA and is designed to ensure continuity of decision-making and strategic consistency. Whilst the Chai

UK - Grand Central is a booming club, directly south of Miami's infamous Park West club district. Grand Central offers its patrons a complete experience with live music, club D.J.'s and corporate events. The 10,000sq.ft venue can hold approximately 1200 people inside and 300 on its loft.

Grand Central's technical consultants, the Miami based Beachsound, had demoed and looked at various high-end systems from other vendors, but chose the Canadian based Adamson Systems. Beach Sound had initially become familiar with Adamson while touring the globe and was impressed with the brand's performance. Their decision for Adamson was swayed by the demo held by Adamson's director of marketing & sales, Jesse Adamson.

The presentation showcased Adamson's solid system components and the high SPL they reached while maintaining tone with undistorted clarity, all of which are conveniently packag

The Netherlands - TM Audio, Renkus-Heinz distributor for the Netherlands, has equipped two auditoriums in the City Concert Hall in Leiden with IC Live digitally beam steerable PA systems, including one system finished in metallic gold paint to match the room's décor.

The City Concert Hall is an historic building housing several multipurpose rooms, including the 19th century 838-seat Great Hall, the new 349 seat Aalmarkt Hall and the 250 seat Bree Hall.

To coincide with the opening of the Aalmarkt Hall, new audio systems were installed in both the Great Hall and the Aalmarkt.

The objective was to expand the halls' ability to host a wide range of uses ranging from jazz and classical concerts and stage musicals to corporate presentations and lectures.

TM Audio project manager Reinier Bruijns explains that although the client's original tender had called for separate sp

South Africa - Stage Audio Works, based in Johannesburg, has concluded a licence manufacturing agreement with the Total Solutions Group to manufacture the Total Fabrications range of industry standard aluminium truss products in South Africa. The agreement was signed at the end of August 2010 whilst Gustav Barnard and Jaco Kruger, head of manufacturing, visited the Total Solution Group Headquarters and factory in Birmingham UK.

The major benefits of this agreement allow clients in South Africa and Africa to access the range of proven UK truss designs, with local manufacture and back-up service with comprehensively reduced international freight costs.

Gustav Barnard, Stage Audio Works technical director commented, "It is such an honour to be able to manufacture Total Fabrication products in our factory. We are enthused and aim to maintain strict quality control standards a

UK - PLASA is hosting a special update day for members on legislative developments and business issues. The event, which takes place on Thursday 25 November at ETC's offices in West London, will see HR specialist Clive Payne providing members with an overview of recent changes and the implications for their businesses.

In addition to a focus on legislative issues, the day will also feature presentations from Simon Miller of Allan Chapman & James, who will provide an update on recent changes to the insurance market and how members can keep insurance costs down, Krystyna Gibbons of Westfield Health, who will outline the options for a cost-effective alternative to private healthcare and Paul Robson of Medialease who will talk about leasing funding, providing an overview of current market conditions and how members can get into the best possible shape to attract leasing funding when

At The Q Awards - Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, was a double-winner at the Q Awards in London taking best female and best track for You've Got The Love. Take That also made their first public appearance since Robbie Williams rejoined them in July. The band, whose comeback single, The Flood, and new album, Progress, are both due out next month, won the magazine's hall of fame award.

Kasabian were named best act in the world. Take That, who were sneaked into the awards to avoid the red carpet, were led on stage by Gary Barlow to collect their award. Another newly reformed band - Suede - picked up the Q inspiration award.

On The Move? - Almost €400,000 has been spent in the search for a new home for Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey - but so far without success, reports newspaper.

Arts minister Mary Hanafin told th

UK - Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production to the 2010 Loerie Awards staged at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town for the second year running.

The event was again produced by H-Factor, with a production and set design by H-Factor and The Loerie Awards Committee, to celebrate the most innovative creative talent in advertising, communication design and experiential media from Africa and the Middle East. The two nights of Award presentations is the biggest seated awards show in the country, and a high pressure event in terms of design and technical production, requiring plenty of invention and originality to match the occasion.

The 2010 event energised the skills and resources of Gearhouse's Sound, Lighting, AV, Media, Rigging, Structures and Power departments. Sister company Sets, Drapes,Screens built the set and supplied all the scenic elements, and the proje

UK - Just past its tenth birthday and The Lowry at Salford Quays in Salford has something to celebrate by having the first installation anywhere in the UK of d&b audiotechnik's latest E6 loudspeaker. The E6 replaces the E3, d&b audiotechnik's most popular loudspeaker ever.

"We had decided to go with E3s," said Dave Woodward, technical manager at The Lowry. "We've needed delays in the Lyric since we opened 10 years ago, but they were value engineered out at the time. Virtually everything that tours here carries d&b loudspeaker systems; so we made our decision almost by default."

The Lyric seats 1,730 with a deep circle and upper circle. "A lot of what we present here has TV actors performing drama, so the need for delay reinforcement was twofold. One, TV stars don't seem to project as well as regular theatre actors, and two, these shows generally attrac

USA - When Pyxis Industries in Riverside, California was asked by North Coast Church to bid on the design and installation of sound systems at two different locations, owner Chad Costanzo commented, "These installations had to come together extremely quickly. But our past experience with Electro-Voice gave us total confidence that everything would work out fine. And it did."

Based in Vista, California, North Coast's two newest purpose-built venues are North Coast Live and The Edge. The vendor that had originally been retained to design and install sound reinforcement systems for the sites had to pull out of the project only two months before opening day at both facilities. Pyxis got the call from North Coast, and Costanzo went to work with systems engineer Alan DiCato, deciding how to handle the project within the church's allocated budget.

While the previous provide

USA - Harman Professional has appointed John Goodrich to the newly created position of global sales manager for mass communications.

Goodrich joins Harman Professional from Altel Systems Group, where he was vice president of business development, leading the development of integrated audio/visual and communication systems for the airport, mass transit, and hospitality industries. He previously held senior sales and business development roles at Meyer Sound Labs and Innovative Electronic Designs (IED). In his new role, he will report to Michael MacDonald, Harman Professional executive vice president of marketing & sales, and will be responsible for developing Harman Professional's presence in the mass communications market.

Michael MacDonald comments, "In some verticals audio has been commoditised and as a result communication has suffered. Harman Professional brings profe

USA / Europe - Monitor engineer Ramon Morales is currently on tour with Lady Gaga. The production is all in-ears, including all the musicians, the dancers and the audio crew. "I've been a huge fan of Sensaphonics several years now," he states. "In fact, I basically insist on wearing the 2MAX when I mix. I've tried pretty much everything out there, and there's really nothing that can match it for sound quality and comfort. On Lady Gaga, the whole band is on Sensaphonics, and most of the techs are wearing them, and others are on the 3MAX as well. Everyone is really happy with them."

In terms of hearing protection, Morales sees a major advantage to Sensaphonics soft-gel silicone construction. "It's not just a comfort thing, although that's part of it," he says. "The silicone gives better isolation than anything else, which keeps everything you don

USA - American Pop-Rockers Passion Pit have been touring extensively since 2008's debut EP Chunk of Change propelled them firmly in to the limelight. They've since been riding high with 2009's follow up album Manners.

2010 has seen no let-up for the Massachusetts-based five-piece; this past Autumn they supported Muse for a string of North American dates. Tour manager Andrew Dobbins and monitor engineer Francois Pare - both a part of London-based live music production house Cato Music - spec'd the equipment for the tour, including Shure PSM900 in-ear monitors.

"Before the tour we were looking to try something new - mainly because we weren't very happy with the system we were using at the time. We were getting a lot of interference and the sound quality wasn't great. I'd heard about this new Shure system so I thought I'd try them on a tour that started back in

UK - Sir Cliff Richard celebrated his 70th birthday in October with a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, complete with a swing band and Midas PRO6s for front of house and monitors.

As the shows were more complex than Sir Cliff's usual live appearances, both PRO6s were full to capacity. Engineers Mike 'Bunny' Warren (FOH) and John 'JJ' James (monitors), who have worked with Richard for 12 and 30 years respectively, were new to the PRO6, and both were unanimous in their praise for the system.

Bunny felt the PRO6 had been a boon for the notoriously difficult acoustics of the Albert Hall. "It's definitely helped in this environment," he says. "The EQ just does what you want it to do, and I've been able to add definition between different instruments, which has been especially useful as 24 of my 56 inputs are brass. To get a difference between each of the sax

Russia - Tannoy's QFlex digitally steerable column array loudspeakers have been installed in one of Russia's most recent new-build churches - in the village of Usovo, on the western outskirts of Moscow.

Named Temple Spasa Nerukotvornogo Obraza, loosely translated as the Parish Church of the Saviour 'Not Made by Hands', the grand and imposing new complex was designed by the architect Vyacheslav Izhikov, and completed in record time last year - with the inaugural service taking place on 29 August.

The construction project was initiated by the local community and funded by Rosneft, one of Russia's largest oil and gas companies, with support from the Russian government and the formal opening ceremony was attended by Russian Prime Minister, and former President, Vladimir Putin.

Tannoy's distribution partner in Russia, I.S.P.A Engineering, was brought to the project by main AV con

Singapore - An Aviom Pro16Personal Mixing System (WFX Booth 1220) was recently installed at Aldersgate Methodist Church in Queenstown, Singapore. The church called on CODA Audio Services, an audio design and system provider based in Singapore, for a structured cabling and equipment upgrade.

One of the biggest challenges the church faced prior to the equipment upgrade was the building's hexagon shape, with the pulpit centred on one of the six sides. The live band is located directly to the right of the pulpit and the choir is positioned on the left. The separation of the choir and the band, along with the uncommon shape of the worship hall, added to the unfavourable nuances of the audio system.

With this type of design, speech intelligibility was a prime consideration for selecting the new audio equipment. The church wanted parishioners to be able to hear the services clearly,

China - The new Opera House in Guangzhou installed a comprehensive intercom system from Riedel Communications. Riedel delivered a digital intercom solution combining a Performer digital partyline system and an Acrobat wireless intercom installation. Responsible for the installation was Leifull Light & Sound.

The Guangzhou Opera House is one the three largest theaters in Asia. To provide the most comprehensive communications infrastructure for the control room, director and technicians, the opera house installed a combination of wired Riedel Performer partyline and wireless Riedel Acrobat intercom technology.

At the heart of the installation are two Performer C44 system interfaces. Performer's digital signal chain provides high quality digital audio. A total of 12 Performer C3 beltpacks are installed at the opera house. They are complemented by eight Performer CD-2 desktop cont

UK - The Roland Systems Group has started shipping its new S-MADI REAC Bridge in the UK; the initial consignment has already sold out and new supplies are being flown in. Among the first customers are Wigwam Acoustics, SFL Group, Hawthorns Theatrical and Visual Impact, buying the units for installation respectively in a church, a recording studio, a large educational project and on behalf of a leading broadcaster.

RSG's new S-MADI REAC Bridge was launched this summer. "We are seeing remarkable demand for the ability to cross-talk between devices in all sectors of the market, from recording to live production," says RSG product manager Simon Kenning. "Extending its compatibility within professional audio circles presents great opportunities for Roland."

The design of the S-MADI REAC Bridge was inspired by high levels of interest in the M-48 personal mixer sy

USA - Solid State Logic is showing a radical update to the successful AWS 900 console at AES in San Francisco. Launched in 2004, the AWS combines SSL analogue console technology with DAW control hardware in a single work surface. Over 550 consoles later the AWS has evolved through several significant upgrades.Maintaining the same 24 fader footprint, the new AWS is now available in 24 Input (AWS 924) and 48 Input (AWS 948) variants and introduces significant new features including Dual Path Channels with stereo EQ & Insert, 8 fader bay Digital Scribble Strips and 'A-FADA' (Analogue Fader Accesses DAW Automation) automation where motorized analogue faders follow DAW automation data.The increase from 24 to 48 inputs on the AWS 948 is achieved via the introduction of a Dual Path Channel Strip design where each channel has a single mic pre and two line level inputs, a new Stereo EQ and

USA - TC Electronic is introducing its LM2 stereo loudness and true-peak level meter to the US market by debuting the advanced technology at this year's AES 2010. The LM2 meter enables "unprecedented levels of loudness precision and quality in audio applications, eliminating level jumps and other aural inconsistencies for truly polished sound". With this new product, TC Electronic is taking an important leadership role in the worldwide concern for loudness standardization, says the company.

The new LM2 is one of the first products that complies with the European R128 loudness standard, as well as US standards. The meter analyzes any audio, be it speech, music or other sources, assigning it an ATSC A/85- or EBU R128-compliant loudness number. Numbers may be used to normalise programmes, commercials and music tracks, and to set metadata in AC3 transmission.

This elimin

Australia - Darwin's Marrara Sporting Complex and TIO Stadium is the premier outdoor stadium in the Northern Territory and it regularly hosts such sporting events as Australian football and cricket. Every two years it also hosts the Arafura Games, where more than 4,500 competitors from over 40 nations compete in 19 disciplines. In addition to several of the events, the stadium is used for the opening and closing ceremonies.

In late 2009 an upgrade of the audio system was approved and local consultants GHD were appointed to prepare the specification. With the heat, rain and humidity of Darwin's tropical environment, careful consideration was given to the type of loudspeakers to be used in the installation and Community R and WET Series were selected.

National contracting company Eo Design was awarded the project and went on site in early June 2010 with a completion date of end

UK - Roland Systems Group has announced new version software for its range of compact digital audio consoles, expanding functionality and increasing the scope of interconnectivity with devices using V-Link, Roland's proprietary technology which provides control of video equipment via audio gear.

One of the most important features of the new version software is the extra provisions made for integration of the console with Roland's M-48 Personal Mixing System.

An engineer's monitor function has been added to the M-48 Manager software on the M-300, M-380 and M-400 digital consoles, enabling him or her to designate an M-48 unit from which the engineer can monitor and control the balance of each musician's M-48 monitor mix. The musician's group mix can also be controlled from the engineer's own M-48. A MIX Option has been added, ensuring that only sources assigned to a group will b

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