UK - dbn once again supplied stage and architectural lighting plus LED screen to the latest Live At Jodrell Bank shows, which featured two nights of performance headlined by the Australian Pink Floyd and New Order at the Jodrell Bank Observatory site, in the shadow of the charismatic Lovell Telescope.

A sunny weekend welcomed around 6000 music fans per day to the first of two 'Live' weekender events staged by Ear To The Ground.

Nick Buckley, dbn's project manager comments, "It was great to be back working on this really special site. The atmosphere was fantastic and it's an event with a real difference of which we are very proud to be a part."

The stage was a 16m wide Serious Stages' Orbit, three bays deep, into which dbn installed three lighting trusses - front, mid and back - all fitted to the curvature of the roof to make the most of the height. A fourth

UK - One of the most popular theatres in Scotland, Pitlochry Festival Theatre (PFT)'s demanding summer rep season is complemented by an increasingly busy winter programme. More complex productions have meant that an improved audio mixing system was required, so the venue has invested in a Yamaha CL5.

For several years a Yamaha LS9 served the theatre at front of house. But the 2009 decision to stage musicals, with an annual pantomime added from the following year, meant that in due course a higher channel count and greater flexibility was needed. Following the venue's successful grant application to the Foyle Foundation, Edinburgh-based The Warehouse supplied a Yamaha CL5 and three R-series i/o units in time for the 2013 summer season, along with 24 channels of Shure ULX-D digital wireless microphones.

The Warehouse also supplied three Dante-MY16-AUD interface cards, allowing t

USA - An L-Acoustics' Kara/SB18 combination was specified by Audiotek for MGM Grand Hotel & Casino's two newest venues: Wet Republic Ultra Pool and Hakkasan Las Vegas.

In early April Audiotek purchased and installed six Kara loudspeaker enclosures and four SB18 subs in the DJ mix area of Hakkasan for its client, Angel Management Group (AMG), which operates the venue. Later that same month, an identical monitoring setup was installed at the AMG-owned 53,000sq.ft, adults-only pool club, Wet Republic. Solotech's Las Vegas office facilitated the sale of both systems.

"The combination of three Kara enclosures and two SB18 subs per side has truly become the EDM festival standard as well as an artist rider staple for all tours and clubbing events," says Audiotek managing director Frank Murray. "With Wet Republic and Hakkasan being two of the EDM world's highest-profile

UK - When Divas, the on-campus nightclub at Swansea University, was in need of a sound system upgrade, local sales and rental company Total Sound Solutions were brought in to advise.

Chris Hooke's company has enjoyed a long relationship with the Students Union, providing hire systems for special events and carrying out general maintenance at their other bars and leisure facilities over a number of years.

The Uni was already a fan of JBL's PRX loudspeaker series as Hooke explained. "They have used our [active] PRX 612 enclosures for events in the past and absolutely love the sound. However, as we had only fitted Crown XTi 4000 amplifiers as part of a technical upgrade last year, we went the passive route and specified four of JBL's PRX 412M's."

The configuration needed to be switchable depending on whether Divas was hosting a band night (when a conventional stage PA

UK - Citronic has introduced a medium-size active line array - CLA-1460 - for concert halls, night clubs, houses of worship and other medium to large size venues.

Each array comprises an active sub unit and a set of 4 full range active wide dispersion enclosures. The entire system can be tailored to the venue or application via a PC link, editing the internal DSP controller for crossover, filtering and gain characteristics.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) supplied 12 channels of Axient, Shure's flagship RF microphone system, and 18 channels of PSM1000 in-ear monitoring to PA and sound services company Britannia Row Productions for use at Live Nation's recent Wireless Festival, which this year featured acts including Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, Nas, will.i.am, Calvin Harris, Tinie Tempah and A Tribe Called Quest at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

"All UK summer festivals are busy, but Wireless is one of the busiest, with over 190 acts taking to the stages over three days this year," explains SDUK's Tuomo Tolonen. "Different acts are on different stages simultaneously all weekend; it's the very definition of a crowded RF environment, and this against the background of generalised spectrum scarcity thanks to the recent Digital Switchover. Fortunately, Axient is design

India - A QSC Q Sys audio management system, based around a Core 250i integrated processor, has been installed at the Tezpur centre of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) in Assam, north-east India, as part of a conference room refurbishment designed to provide improved audio input to an existing video conferencing system.

The new system, supplied by Pro Visual Audio, the QSC distributor in India, and installed by the Assam-based QSC System Integration Partner Cineworth Sales and Services, now offers ISI staff clear, echo-free conferencing facilities thanks to the inclusion of AEC, the Acoustic Echo Cancellation algorithm.

A standard feature in Q-Sys Designer Release 3.0 (and subsequent releases) and available for all Q-Sys Cores, AEC ensures that audio feedback is not introduced into the system to the detriment of speech quality and comprehensibility, says the company.

A

UK - Britannia Row Productions Training has been granted the status of Approved Candidate for Accreditation by the British Accreditation Council for Independent Further and Higher Education (BAC) as a Short Course Provider. This is the outcome of an inspection carried out by the BAC prior to Britannia Row Productions Training's opening.

This status allows applicants from outside the EU/EEA for the Live Sound Technology course to apply for Student Visitor Visa in order to attend the course at the company's Training Centre in London, UK.

In July 2013 Britannia Row Productions Training started its first 12-week Live Sound Technology course. The intensive full-time course is the first of its kind and is based on full integration of theoretical and practical training made possible by the dedicated training centre.

The BAC's inspection as the next step in Britannia Row Productions

USA - Sensaphonics has added Dr. Heather Malyuk as the company's new audiologist. Dr. Malyuk has worked at Sensaphonics as a clinical extern for the past year, earning doctoral student of the year honours in audiology from Kent State University. She is also an accomplished fiddle and guitar player who still gigs and teaches professionally, specialising in Old Time Appalachian music.

"During her year as a doctoral candidate here at Sensaphonics, Heather has shown exceptional audiology skills in our Musicians Hearing Clinic," said Dr. Michael Santucci, Sensaphonics founder and president. "She also has great ideas for growing our business and, as a performing musician, totally understands the unique needs and concerns of our clients. We're very excited to add Heather to our team."

At Sensaphonics, Malyuk will be running the Musicians Hearing Clinic, seeing mus

USA - Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the Icon Ultra Lounge has been a nightlife hotspot since its doors opened in 2011.

The venue features popular DJs that perform in the 4,000sq.ft lounge and also on a similarly sized rooftop. Customers expect an immersive, high quality, audio experience.

Until recently the lounge and rooftop used a rented sound reinforcement system. After Arthur Guzman, general manager at ACI Pro Audio, put on an event at the Lounge he left with ideas on how different systems might fit the venues needs better.

After sharing those ideas with Icon's owners, it was decided that he was right; it was time to install something permanent and hard hitting for both dance areas.

"Right off the bat I knew a RCF system would fit their budget and their system requirements," explains Guzman. "We did a demo of HDL 20-A line array boxes with the SUB

UK - Event production and rental company OneBigStar once again chose Roland Systems Group (RSG) for the Glastonbudget tribute festival with the entire audio solution managed by RSG products including mixing, splitting, dropboxes and monitors. The Roland M-480 and M-300 Digital Consoles, the S-1608 Stage Box and M-48 Personal Monitors all played a key role in the setup which catered for live bands and acoustic sets.

Taking place in Wymeswold, Leicestershire, the festival which has grown in size and popularity year on year, presents the best in tribute bands and local music with over 100 performances on four stages over the May Bank Holiday weekend. For the first time the 2013 event added an 80's theme on the Saturday night including performances by Howard Jones, ABC, The Christians and Heaven 17.

"Having used RSG products for the past few years at Glastonbudget and also us

USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) recently wrapped its 50th International Conference, its first dedicated specifically to audio education. The conference took place 25-27 July, at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where more than 140 educators and industry representatives met to exchange ideas and experiences.

Attendance far surpassed the organisers' initial expectations, with attendees travelling to Murfreesboro from 25 U.S. states and 12 countries, including Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The event also for the first time included a significant focus on live sound as a component of a pro audio education curriculum, a fact underscored by the event's keynote address delivered by Bob McCarthy, senior education consultant at Meyer Sound, who gave an informative and entertaining presentation on the history of the live sound indus

USA - Over the past five years, the Free Press Summer Festival (FPSF), staged at Eleanor Tinsley Park just west of downtown Houston, has quickly grown into one of Texas' most eagerly anticipated music festivals. This year notably marked the first time that the event completely sold out in advance, ultimately drawing nearly 100,000 concertgoers to enjoy 90 national and local artists performing on six stages over two days.

Houston's LD Systems once again served as the primary audio, video and lighting provider for FPSF 2013 and supplied production gear and services for the festival's four primary stages. This year, however, the company chose to deploy L-Acoustics K1 systems on the two largest stages, Mars and Saturn.

FPSF' Mars stage featured night-closing performances from EDM superstars Bassnectar and Calvin Harris preceded by a broad spectrum of musical artists like Of Monste

UK - Damon Crisp's DAC Pro-Media Ltd has proved that even in recessionary times expansion is possible when the portfolio of products - and the markets they are aimed at - are carefully considered.

Following a period of sustained growth in the Audio Visual, Installation, Education and Commercial sectors - as well as his traditional heartland of MI/DJ - Crisp has announced a relocation of his operation to a new 3600 sq. ft warehouse in Surrey, the recruitment of a further sales rep and addition of a key brand to his burgeoning portfolio.

Explaining the underlying reasons, he states, "Over the past two years DAC Pro-Media has seen growth running at over 50% and now has 'Sole UK Distributor' status with many high profile manufacturers." These brands include Mono DJ Bags, Odyssey Cases, Symphony Acoustics, Panoramic Lasers, Laser Science and Newhank AV products.

In addi

Japan - Turbosound has selected Sound House to handle distribution, customer support and service for its loudspeaker systems in Japan. The two companies already have a well-established relationship, with Sound House serving as a major distributor of parent Music Group's Behringer-branded MI products.

Sound House sales manager Kotaro Suzuki commented, "We are proud to become an official distributor for Turbosound in Japan. We will put all our effort into making Turbosound a well known name in music circles throughout Japan."

"We are delighted to be working with Japan's foremost distributor of music products," said Nigel Beaumont, head of Music Groups's Professional Division. "We are convinced that our live sound and installed sound products - including the new Milan series of portable powered loudspeakers - will fit perfectly within the Sound House port

Slovenia - The popular Ambasada Gavioli nightclub, situated in Izola, has taken possession of a Martin Audio dance system to celebrate its many years of operation, and lead it into the next generation.

The manufacturer's territorial distributors, KLS Studio, repurposed a powerful club rig from Llubljana-based venue, Inbox, after it went into demise and was taken back by the leasing company. Now the redesigned system has given the 2,500-capacity Ambasada Gavioli - which specialises in techno and house from its origins in electronica - a new lease of life.

KSL managing director, Bostjan Konic, confirmed that his company was asked to service, design and reinstall the system for owner Becic Edis - a devotee of Martin Audio's signature sound and the impact it produces at venues like the Ministry of Sound in London.

There are some notable similarities. For the Slovenian nightclub

Italy - Powersoft has announced that it has reached the milestone of 600 million Watts of audio power spread out around the world. "This impressive figure has been 15 years in the making, in which time Powersoft has strived to supply the pro audio industry with power amplifiers of the highest quality and efficiency," says the company.

"We recently had a count up and realised that we were getting close to the 600 million Watts mark," explains Luca Giorgi, Powersoft's Audio BU Director. "Nearly 600 million, but not quite. We were still missing about 3 million Watts and it became our goal to achieve this target before the end of August"

"To help reach this landmark figure, we needed to come up with an effective promotion," added Francesco Fanicchi, Powersoft's Marketing and Communication Manager "so we created the '600millionreason' ca

Bulgaria - Club Sound in the city of Shoumen is housed in an old cinema, where intensive construction work had been taking place for more than six months to convert it into a modern centre of club culture.

The architecture, comprising a small and a large hall, enables the successful staging of events of various scales, and the audio visual equipment is cutting edge.

But what owner Svilen Dimitrov wanted more than anything was luxurious sound. He embraced the idea of a system consisting entirely of products by Martin. "The choice of equipment was of paramount importance to the future of the club, which is why we invested in the best," he said. "Over the past ten years Martin Audio has had the greatest number of successful club installations, including Ministry of Sound."

Drawing on the Martin Audio heritage for accurate horn design and the legacy of the W8

Switzerland - The 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival (5-20 July) featured the usual diverse range of artists on the shores of Lake Geneva, ranging from Joe Cocker, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Prince, and Richie Hawtin, to George Benson, Brian May, Green Day, Leonard Cohen and Kraftwerk.

The jazz festival has been held in Montreux for 47 consecutive years, but the 2013 event celebrated another anniversary; it was the 20th consecutive year that Shure has been the Festival's Official Technical Partner for Microphones & Wireless Systems.

As in recent years, Shure EMEA supplied almost the complete range of current Shure microphones to Montreux's many venues, including the jazz clubs, bars, theatre stages, the so-called 'rock caves', and the floating stages on boats on the lake. Even the press office and internal broadcast crew used Shure products this year.

In total, over 1500 individu

USA - The Naval Academy Chapel is a historic focal point for the U.S. Naval Academy and the city of Annapolis, Maryland. Dedicated in 1908 and remodelled in 1940, the Chapel underwent an extensive restoration in 2009. Its classic cruciform design centres on a 121-foot-high dome, seats 2500 worshipers and includes a 268-rank pipe organ.

The Chapel's large volume, hard surfaces and large, high dome present substantial acoustical issues. As a result, the Chapel has always suffered from poor speech intelligibility and uneven coverage. In an attempt to deal with these issues, the Chapel tried several different sound systems including a distributed system and a pew-back system. Finally, in 2010, while operating with an unsatisfactory mix of these different systems, the Chapel published an RFP asking for proposals for an entirely new sound reinforcement system.

After an extended, for

Canada - When Grand Théâtre de Québec decided to update their sound system, Robert Charbonneau, head of sound assisted by Robert Caux, helped conduct over two years of testing on various loudspeaker, to ensure the new system would cover the theatre's diverse needs.

"We had very strict parameters, and wanted to make sure we saw all of our options. Different systems would come in for gain tests, vocal tests and instrumental tests; we would record the results. Then we'd move all around, so we compared the quality of the systems from every seat in the house. Being so thorough helped in the end, because now there is no doubt that the d&b audiotechnik J-Series was the right choice for our space."

Once d&b was selected, regional manager Francois Corbin worked closely with the theatre to provide custom coverage and system design. "After two years of resea

Australia - As one of the largest auditorium venues in Australia, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a bustling live music hub in Melbourne's Arts Precinct, Southbank. Since opening its doors in 2009, the MRC has been operating with DiGiCo consoles, beginning with the DiGiCo D5, then adding an SD8 and most recently, an SD11.

The MRC comprises two auditoriums: the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall (which seats 1000) and The Salon (seating 132). The Elisabeth Murdoch Hall features a 135m2 stage as well as an optional 51m2 extension when required. This has made it suitable for chamber music and orchestras alike and this is where the D1 and SD8 are most utilised. The Salon is a completely configurable space that can be tailored as required and both auditoriums feature highly engineered acoustic treatment, both internally and externally.

The MRC, located on the very busy Southbank strip, i

USA - Electric Forest is a music festival held in Rothbury, Michigan that features an electro-themed set of concerts that take place on six stages over the course of four days.

Burst Sound & Lighting Systems, based in Detroit, was tapped to provide sound reinforcement systems for the main Tripolee stage as well as The Observatory, one of the smaller stages at the festival.

"We rolled out a complete E15 line array rig for the Tripolee stage," explains Scott Ciungan, operations manager for Burst. "The system was so clean, it's like listening to a pair of studio monitors at 130 dB - absolutely pristine."

The line arrays consisted of 24 E15 boxes - 12 per side - with 24 T21 subwoofers stacked two high and 12 wide in front of the stage.

"The arrays were hung behind scrim on scat bays constructed to the left and right of the stage," Ciungan adds. &q

UK - Howard Smart has joined Turbosound as senior technical support specialist. Having started his pro audio career with Sussex-based Blue Box Company and worked with many of the UK's top production companies, Smart has a wealth of experience of both national and international concert touring spanning more than 20 years. Learning much of his audio engineering skills at the sharp end of the electronic dance music boom of the 90s, he quickly progressed to become a freelance engineer for Capital Sound, SSE, Entec, RG Jones and Audile.

, Smart was instrumental in taking Leftfield's seminal dance music studio albums on the road in 1996 and again in 2000, and has mixed monitors for Ian Brown, Moloko, Tata Young, Ed Harcourt, Massive Attack, Apollo 440 and Badly Drawn Boy.

Latterly, Smart was project manager and systems engineer for new rental company and early adopter of Turbosound'

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