USA - High End Systems (HES) has announced the release of version 2.2.2 software for Wholehog operating control systems including the Wholehog 3, Hog iPC, Road Hog consoles and Hog 3PC.
"This release includes added functionality, new features, improved reliability and enhanced performance," says Brad Schiller, HES director of control systems development.
Version 2.2.2 contains the following new features: cuelist effect rate control, options for using cue time and/or macros when going backward, improved fixture selection tools and Chinese language help. Several other features and many bug fixes are also included within this release.
Version 2.2.2 marks an important milestone, says HES. Over the last three years, significant portions of the software have been rewritten to improve the system's reliability and performance. Now that most of that work is complete, a focus on new features and innovations has begun.
"We are pleased to be turning the corner and implementing more user requests and features with each release," says Robbie Bruce, HES director of software development. "Version 2.2.2 demonstrates our commitment to keep improving the Wholehog software not only in performance, but also in terms of feature set."
High End Systems is developing a detailed Mark Cues functionality, clock and calendar triggering as well as many other user requests planned for a release later this year. Beta testing will begin soon. Additional new hardware will debut early next year in addition to more new features such as Art-Net support, keystroke
UK - Sadly, we report that Richard Lyon, chairman of RW Salt Communications passed away on 1 October 2007. He had been battling cancer for just over 12 months. Richard had been co-owner and chairman of RW Salt Communications since 1997 and prior to that had been chairman of Akusta and Federal Signal.
Craig Buckley managing director of RW Salt and Richard's business partner since 2004 comments, "Richard will be sadly missed by all at RW Salt Communications. He was a supreme business and financial manager but most importantly he was decent, kind, honest and the very best friend anyone could hope for, I personally could not have asked for a better mentor and we will continue to develop our company with the same high levels of quality and integrity that Richard stood for.
"We extend our deepest sympathy to Richards family and friends at this exceptionally sad time."
(Jim Evans)
USA - Cascade Sound debuted its new DVX woofer-loaded Electro-Voice XLC line array system at this year's Oregon State Fair in Salem, which featured sold-out shows by classic rockers Heart and Steppenwolf, country artists Joe Nichols and Craig Morgan, and 'American Idol' Daughtry.
"We've successfully used a 15-box per side EV X-Array system at the State Fair for a number of years now, and our new XLC DVX has a similarly warm tonality," says Larry Carroll of Cascade Sound. "However, where the X-Arrays' coverage and throw is impressive, the results we heard from our two 11-box main XLC hangs this year were simply awesome. Plus, adding more EV to our inventory keeps the sonic standard consistently high if we want to mix and match systems.
"The XLC showed itself to be a highly intuitive and immediately satisfying system - very responsive to the engineer and very flexible towards the venue, especially from an EQ perspective," adds Carroll. "We ran LAPS (Line Array Prediction Software), fired the system up and got great audio pretty much right off the bat. Couple that intuitive aspect with the fact that EV's Monte Wise was present to provide expert assistance and fine tuning, and it was a superb first run for the rig.
(Jim Evans)
Singapore - In 1966, a Catholic church named St. Stephen's was founded in Singapore's East District primarily for the large English-speaking community - over a thousand parishioners - who lived along Singapore's East coast. Today, most of the Masses in St. Stephen's Church are still held in English, while the early morning Sunday Mass is said in Mandarin.
Local audio firm Sound Principles selected HK Audio ConTour Series loudspeakers for the sound installation. They installed twelve CT 108 full-range cabinets at strategic locations in St. Stephen's Church.
Daniel Ng of HK Audio distributor Peak Fusion in Singapore explains: "For optimal speech intelligibility we recommended the HK Audio CT 108 to our client. The CT 108 is a perfect combination of compact size and full sound. With its combination of 8" cone woofer and 1" high-frequency driver in a 90°-x-60° constant directivity horn, the CT 108 is an impressive unit, especially when it comes to speech in difficult acoustic environments like this one."
The light weight and compact dimensions of the 12 CT 108 cabinets made them easy to install at periodic intervals on the side walls of St. Stephen's Church without distracting from the sanctuary's aesthetic appearance.
(Jim Evans)
The Netherlands - Dutch rental company More Stage Services managed the audio requirements for a recent open-air cultural event called The Hague Gathering, held in the city's main square, the Spuiplein. The company selected Allen & Heath's iLive digital system, comprising the iDR10 stage rack with iLive-144 surface, as the FOH mixer.
The event was founded by local authorities to bring together different cultures living in the area through music and entertainment. Surrounded by the Parliament and government buildings, various musicians, stand up comedians, bands and politicians from the city gathered on stage. The climax of the event was a collaborative performance between a Surinamese traditional folk band and Dutch rock band, The Hague Rock.
It was the first event that Marc Noble, FOH engineer and CEO of More Stage Services, had worked with the iLive system but he was very impressed.
"The intuitive and flexible routing of the console, the short learning curve for visiting engineers, and its great sound quality made it an easy choice," says Noble. "Everything I want at FOH is in this mixer, such as high-standard emulated effect engines, output matrix, compressors, gates, and processing on all busses.''
A Renkus-Heinz line array system was also employed, and distribution zones were divided across the console's flexible, fully-processed matrix, with added delay, parametric EQ and compression, but no additional outboard processing was required.
The iLive surface's 144 channel strips are fully configurable, so channel, bus and DCA groups ca
UK - Artistic Licence has announced the launch of the new web site at www.ArtisticLicence.com. The site contains a range of features that will provide customers and the industry a genuine technical resource, says the company.
The site now provides customers with the ability to log in, save and re-use equipment lists and previous orders. A new projects section allows customers to see how others have successfully used the products.
The support section provides a wealth of information including software downloads, user guides, cad files and frequently asked questions. There is also an online technical dictionary.
The products listing is now fully searchable and cross referenced. Every product displayed will also show links to both higher and lower specification models to make the customers' decision simpler. Products also provide even more technical information, cross referencing related downloads, application note, user guides and web links to a single tab.
(Jim Evans)
UK - After establishing the concept for an upmarket bowling alley, diner and bar at Bloomsbury's Victoria House in January 2006, All Star Lanes' directors Mark von Westenholz and Adam and Charles Breeden this month opened their second site at Whiteleys Shopping Centre in Bayswater.
All Star Lanes has revolutionised the bowling industry in Britain, and the larger, more luxurious Bayswater site has seen the concept evolve into a flexible space, with eight bowling lanes (including two in a private room), a large sophisticated diner /bistro and glamorous American cocktail bar.
To develop the sophisticated switching and routing of audio and video sources, the owners again turned to the Sound Division Group - who first worked with the Breeden Brothers on their award-winning Lonsdale Bar in Notting Hill.
Technology has moved on apace since then, and the new bar would not only require iPod docking stations - but David Graham's company had to make a generous provision of insert points that on the one hand would accommodate party guests in the private room, wanting to plug in a PlayStation, to those interested in corporate hire, needing to fire up a PowerPoint display for delegates. The functionality also had to apply equally to daytime and night-time use.
SDG opted for a Harman Pro solution (with JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplification), assembling a crack site team - with the reliable Jon Carey project managing (and designing the cabling infrastructure), the experienced Martin Barbour programming the BSS Soundweb London digital control and Elliot Patterson leading S
UK - Alcons Audio reports that its fifth PLASA show was again a very successful one, with many new clients and interested potential Alcons users visiting the company's stand.
"We can look back on another very successful event, where we welcomed many new Alcons-interested people and existing clients," says MD Tom Back. "It was good to see that they could find us on the main floor of Hall 1."
Following its presentation at Frankfurt's ProLight & Sound, the Phitom "large-format pro-ribbon sound-reinforcement" design study was also present in London and proved again to be the centre-point of interest and discussion. Besides this, the Q-series pro-ribbon column arrays and the L-series pro-ribbon line-arrays were on show, including the LR16 line-array, as featuring in London WestEnd's Fame The Musical.
Back continues, "With PLASA also attracting a different user group from different territories and taking place in the second-half of the year, the show continues to be an important platform for our international presence."
(Jim Evans)
USA - The annual Behind the Scenes motorcycle raffle at LDI has become a hugely popular event. Because this year's bike is so special, The ESTA Foundation wanted everyone to have a chance to participate in the raffle, even those unable to attend LDI. A limited quantity of tickets will be available for purchase online from October 1-31 at www.estafoundation.org/bts/events/LDI2007_Raffle.htm. Tickets are $50 each or five for $200. Raffle tickets also include the chance to win the 2nd place prize of a $2500 VISA gift card or the 3rd place prize of a $1000 VISA gift card.
Raffle tickets will be available throughout the LDI 2007 show at the Behind the Scenes booth #1245 and in the evenings at the ESTA Annual Dinner, the Rose Brand Party, and LDI's Texas Hold 'Em Tournament to benefit Behind the Scenes on Saturday evening. The drawing will be held at 2pm on Sunday, November 18th in booth #1245. You do not need to be present to win.
All proceeds of the raffle go directly to The ESTA Foundation's Behind the Scenes program which provides entertainment technology industry members with grants for emergency situations, such as serious illness, injury or death.
For more information about Behind the Scenes, to donate, or to apply for a grant, visit the website address below.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - The Reproduced Sound Conference, in its 23rd year, is one of the friendliest and most informative conferences available to audio professionals, providing a great opportunity to mix and interact with people from all sides of the industry, say the organisers.
This year, in addition to the usual format of papers, more demonstrations and interactive sessions have been added, which are expected to inform and challenge even the most experienced audio professional, while being easy to understand by newcomers. The addition of a voting system brings audience interactivity to many sessions, and will provide an immediate indication of audience opinion during listening tests and demonstrations.
Papers cover a wide range of topics, with emphasis on issues relating to live music. Presenters are industry professionals including product designers, consultants, sound designers, researchers and musicians.
Reproduced Sound 23 is at The Sage, Gateshead, 29-30 November, 2007.
(Jim Evans)
Germany - The Weekend is arguably Berlin's hippest house and techno club, and with its high-flying location on the 12th floor of a Soviet block on Alexanderplatz in the former East Berlin, it's easy to see why. The outside might not win any design prizes, but the inside is all geometric lines and minimal chic with breathtaking views out over Berlin - perfect for seeing in the sunrise.
As for the sounds, Atlantic Audio had already put in a powerful, top of the range Crest-driven Martin Audio system into Week12end (on the twelfth floor, naturally), followed by a second system complete with Digitool processing from Peavey into Week15end (yes, on the 15th floor) in February of this year, and have just completed an extension of the system onto the brand new roof terrace on the 17th storey.
Jörg Sandmann, project manager for Atlantic Audio, has specified Martin Audio throughout, (Wavefront W3 for Week12end and W8LM mini line array for Week15end) all driven by Crest Audio CC Series power amplifiers. "If ever there was an amplifier that you can put in your rack and rely on to do its job for ever, even in harsh environments like a club, then CC Series is it," remarked Sandmann.
He took a slightly different approach for the roof terrace, opting for four Martin Audio LE1200 high power, low profile stage monitors which deliver high levels at close quarters that drop off rapidly once out of range, and two Blackline S218 subs powered by three Crest Performance CPX 3800s, the recently launched flagship model of the CPX range. This enables the club to stay within th
USA - Ableton has announced the expansion of its US sales force with the introduction of the team that will be dedicated to serving the entire country's distributors and retailers.
Terry Hardin joined Ableton in August as the new senior account manager. He will help increase US distribution for the company's music production software, Live 6 and Live 6 LE.
"I have been a fan and a Live user for a number of years, and I am amazed by the advances that have been made with Live 6," says Hardin. "Live is the single most musical and intuitive music production software available."
Hardin is based in Santa Cruz, California, and will be working closely with the teams in Ableton's New York and Berlin offices, including inside sales support coordinators Sam Walker and Cindy O'Shea in New York.
Working closely with Hardin are two Ableton product specialists, Huston Singletary and Laura Escudé.
(Jim Evans)
UK - RCF is to present a seminar on the new DXTsystem at Audex 2007 (18 Oct 2007, City of Manchester Stadium, UK - in conjunction with the RCF Open Day), scheduled for 3pm. in the Audex lecture theatre.
The seminar will provide a full preview of RCF's soon-to-be-released new voice alarm and venue management system, the DXT.
RCF's Phil Price comments: "The DXT system is sure to become a standard specification for any number of venues in the very near future."
The seminar, will be presented by Michele Begotti, product specialist for RCF Spa, Michele will give a complete overview of what the system is, what it can do and some basic design and functionality guides and demonstrations. Price adds: "If you are involved with voice alarm in any way then you really must see this presentation."
(Jim Evans)
USA - J. R. Clancy has received the United States patent for its PowerAssist Counterweight Automation System.
PowerAssist technology is new to the theatrical rigging industry in that it eliminates the need to rebalance counterweights on line sets. While counterweight/motor combinations have been available in several forms for many years, PowerAssist uses an innovative padded rope that fits into the existing head block, which works in combination with a roller chain and toothed sprocket to balance the weight of the batten, virtually eliminating the possibility of slippage or accidental release, says the company.
"In our 120-plus years in business, J. R. Clancy has developed many innovative products for the rigging industry - and all of them are designed with safety and security as our foremost priority," said Bob Theis, president of J. R. Clancy. "PowerAssist is not only an entirely new concept, but it is also a way to increase the safety of installed counterweight systems in schools, church auditoriums and theatres around the world. All of these venues can enjoy the security and convenience of automation without making an unscheduled investment in total theatre renovation."
(Jim Evans)
UK - Richard Martin Lighting has recently taken stock of the latest innovation from Martin Professional, the LC2140 Panel.
The LED based video screen has a semi-transparent design with easily connecting panels that allow for area coverage of up to 14m in height and no restrictions in width.
Each panel frame is 1m x 2m with LEDs laid inside an acrylic tube. The pixel pitch of the panel is 40mm which allows for excellent resolution and the design of the panel creates a seamless image, says the company.
(Jim Evans)
UK - Mojo Barriers' services have been enlisted for the current Police world tour. The company installs 300m of its aluminium Mojo Barriers at all European shows. The set-up is a classic front of stage barrier system with a secondary barrier in the shape of an arc, to segregate the audience and decrease loading on the front-of-stage barrier. The system was equipped with eight "line up" gates to safely control the flow of the crowd in and out of the secondary barrier.
Headed up by crew boss Jeroen Tap, Mojo Barriers also installed barriers around the mixing positions and delay towers in the crowd.
Mojo Barriers provided the band's aluminium Mojo Barriers for the shows in the US earlier this year and will continue to supply The Police with their product for the upcoming shows in the US, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
"Major tours like The Police are always a challenge for Mojo Barriers," says managing director Patrick Jordan. "Crowd management standards are continuously evolving and we, as a company, have to ensure we can offer the very best facilities for these high profile concerts."
(Jim Evans)
Russia - NOUK Autograf based in Moscow, has just invested in two InnovaSON Pro FX Sy80 and Sy48 console packages featuring the new FM-8VB plug-in effects modules. The consoles were supplied by StudiTech, InnovaSON's Russian distributor.
According to StudiTech's Nikita Stepanov, Autograf is one of the most highly regarded rental production companies in the country. "They were the first rental company in Russia to invest in really top-class consoles from internationally recognised brands," he explained. "Everything they do is of the highest quality and it is important to them that they maintain those standards. Hence when it came to investing in a new digital console, they saw and tested absolutely everything that was available."
Autograf decided upon InnovaSON for a number of reasons. "First and foremost, they were extremely impressed by the flexibility of the system," confirmed Stepanov. "The ability to configure the console in any way you please and the ingenious SmartFAD function which enables you to handle large numbers of inputs very easily without having to scroll through endless pages were definite point-scorers.
"Furthermore, the new technologies introduced by InnovaSON this year, all of which figure in the Pro FX packages, have lifted the consoles into a different class without affecting the price, which makes them even more attractive than before.
"I think it's fair to say that Autograf were very happy to buy the consoles from us. We have a long-standing relationship, and they know they can rely on us to p
USA - Nexxus Lighting has announced that it has closed the previously announced merger of LED and fibre optic lighting manufacturer, Advanced Lighting Systems (ALS), with and into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nexxus Lighting. The newly merged company, Advanced Lighting Systems, LLC, will continue to operate out of ALS' manufacturing facility in Sauk Centre, Minnesota.
In addition, Nexxus Lighting announced that the non-binding letter of intent it entered into with LightWild, LLC in Overland Park, Kansas has expired and will not be extended.
"We are very excited to have closed the merger transaction with ALS. We look forward to integrating ALS as a Nexxus Lighting company and executing our LED product development strategy for both the commercial and entertainment lighting markets," stated Mike Bauer, president & CEO of Nexxus Lighting.
"Our overall strategy for growth in solid state lighting through, among other things, strategic acquisitions is a fundamental part of our core business model and we are continuing to selectively evaluate opportunities that could facilitate expansion of our product offering and penetration into new market segments."
(Jim Evans)
UK - Remo Martufi has joined Tomcat UK in the role of channel development manager. Martufi comes to Tomcat from a well established entertainment background, working for some of the most well known companies within the industry, amongst which are Ampco-Flashlight & Blue Squares. In addition to leading the sales team, Remo will be responsible for Sales & Business Development in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets.
Paolo Dozzo, sales manager for the Vitec Staging Division - Tomcat UK's parent company, commented, "Remo is experienced in sales, marketing, customer support and communications, all of which have built him a lot of respect within the industry. We are pleased to have Remo on the Tomcat team."
(Jim Evans)
UK - The industry reference source, The White Book celebrates its 25th edition with the launch of a new website at the Showman's Show, at the Newbury Showground this month.
With more than 37,000 listings across 470 categories, www.whitebook.co.uk provides the event industry with its first dedicated search engine, claims the publisher.
Group sales manager, Michelle Tayton, said: "The White Book's experience and reputation within events organisation is second to none. With such a strong brand it made sense to launch an on-line resource that supports the directory and provides instant and accurate results at the click of the mouse."
(Jim Evans)
Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has announced the release of two new W-DMX Micro products: The BlackBox S-1 Micro Transmitter and the BlackBox R-512 Micro Lite Receiver.
"The Micro line was extended after seeing the incredible response to the R-512 Micro receiver released in 2006," says Niclas Arvidsson, international sales manager for Wireless Solution. "The unit has all the reliable functionality of the full sized W-DMX BlackBox units, but the compact size was appealing to a large number of end users."
The new Micro series builds upon the considerable successes of the full size BlackBox range. Thanks to advances in circuit miniaturisation, Wireless Solution has managed to fit the complete W-DMX system into a compact package with less than half the volume of the usual casing.
Even with the compact size, the S-1 Micro includes a full battery backup system and antenna. The battery backup system in the S-1 Micro can be utilised in two ways depending on the installation requirements and availability of power. Where power is available but not always reliable, the Micro unit's battery system performs the role of an uninterrupted power supply, ensuring seamless operation during outages.
Alternatively, in situations where power is difficult to feed to the Micro unit's location, it can provide up to eight hours continuous independent operation from a full charge. When power is available, the Micro units can accept low voltage inputs in the range 12 to 24VDC.
"We believe that the impressive combination of miniaturisation, toughness, flexib
USA - The Oregon Symphony starts its annual concert season in style at the end of each summer, celebrating popular classics in the heart of the community with outdoor performances staged in Portland's public parks.
Local company Horne Audio deployed Electro-Voice XLC loudspeaker systems for 30 August performances by the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Oregon Symphony in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, which featured a programme of classical favourites ranging from Copland to Tchaikovsky.
Horne addressed the large bowl-shaped venue with 14 delay towers in 15 time zones, a surround sound system with a circumference of approximately 1000ft.
Spaced up to 75ft apart, the towers were configured to keep every member of the audience in a near-field zone, minimising environmental effects on sound quality. Most of the towers featured three XLC127DVX enclosures, with low-end support via two XLC215 subwoofers. In addition, QRx112/75 boxes provided front-fills and delays at far the end of the venue. A total of 36 XLC127DVX and 20 XLC215 were used for the concert.
"This community event is always a pleasant way to cap off our summer work schedule," says Peter Horne. "We've done this show for a number of years now, and used to use trap boxes; for past three years we've used XLC line arrays, which provide more precise coverage and full bandwidth control. The effect is seamless, and the XLC's characteristic mid-range warmth and smoothness really impressed the organisers, especially with the added boost of the DVX drivers."
(Jim Evans)
Belgium - Introduced at the PLASA Show in London in September, Goboland's innovative black steel gobos have received a positive response from the lighting industry. Each gobo is coated with a black, heat-resistant coating, which does not burn or peel off under extreme heat. The coating minimises internal reflection, producing a crisper image with no halo effect. Encouraged by initial tests and feedback, Goboland has a patent pending on the use of this material for gobo production.
"Lantern optics have improved considerably over the years," explains Goboland's exclusive consultant, Wyatt Enever, "but the basic nature of the gobo has remained the same - until now. Goboland is known for the work it does on glass gobos, now we are extending our development to our steel range as well."
Goboland gave some 'M' size black steel gobos to ETC to try out in the ETC Source Four Revolution fixtures at PLASA 07, where they were in use for the full duration of the show.
"We like to use black gobos in our Revolutions to cut down on internal reflection and sharpen the projection," explains ETC's European marketing manager, Erik Larsen. "Our trials with black gobos in the past have resulted in a lot of smoke with the painted coating being reduced to powder. The Goboland coating, so far, shows only a slight discolouration in the heat but certainly no distortion of the image. They do exactly what I expected them to do - I can honestly say I like the new black gobos."
Martin Professional also recognised the potential of the new gobos as inn
USA - American Music & Sound confirms that Turbosound has joined the AM&S family of brands effective 1 October 2007.
"Turbosound produces the most innovative loudspeaker systems on the market," comments Lynn Martin, president of American Music & Sound. "We are honoured to have them on board, and we look forward to spearheading Turbosound's push into the American market."
"American Music & Sound is extremely well aligned to take Turbosound to the next level in the US," says Turbosound's new managing director, Simon Blackwood. "They have a number of complimentary product lines in their roster to leverage our brand and are in a perfect position to market our products through their existing channels."
"Also fantastic news for us," comments Blackwood, "is that Brad Stephens, who managed the Turbosound brand at our previous distributor Sennheiser, is moving across to AM&S to continue his role as national sales manager and so maintain continuity with the company's client base."
• This month's 123rd AES Convention in New York sees Turbosound introducing to the US market the TA-500DP self-powered, three-way, full-range loudspeaker with onboard, user-adjustable DSP.
(Jim Evans)