UK - Cadac has increased its R&D team at its Luton HQ to 25 personnel, taking on nine new engineers, including graduates from top universities in the UK and abroad.

Commenting on the major expansion of its R&D team, Richard Ferriday, Cadac brand development manager, says, "This latest round of recruitment at Cadac is a visible indicator of the renewed energy and direction in the brand in its pursuit and integration of new technologies into console design, and the continuing commitment of our parent company, Soundking, in investing in the brand and in the UK centre of operations."

Prior to the new intake, more than half of Cadac's personnel were employed in R&D, that figure is now 70 per cent. R&D director Nick Fletcher states, "These are exciting times at Cadac. We are expanding an R&D team, recognized throughout the industry for its passion and dedication to en

UK - The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The museum is a major London tourist attraction, attracting 3 million visitors annually and is world renowned for its historic collections, awe-inspiring galleries and inspirational exhibitions. As well as its many exhibits, the museum provides educational and outreach resources and science shows for schools and community groups throughout the UK. As a multi award-winning corporate event venue, the Science Museum offers large and small scale facilities for conferences, product launches, meetings and exhibitions. Whilst recently considering improvements to the audio-conferencing provision in its Director's Suite, it was to be expected that the Science Museum's authorities would settle for nothing less than the highest quality possib

Brazil - For football fans sad at the lack of a FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship this summer, the FIFA Confederations Cup provided ample compensation. Hosted by current holders Brazil, the colourful closing ceremony was mixed on a DiGiCo SD8 console.

Seen by many observers as a 'dry run' for Brazil hosting next year's World Cup, the home team emerged victorious on the pitch, beating current World and European champions Spain 3-0 in the tournament final.

Held at Rio's Maracana Stadium, prior to the final's kick off, the closing ceremony demonstrated the city's well-founded reputation for a colourful party. Loudness Sound Rental & Services was tasked with supplying the audio system for the ceremony, choosing a DiGiCo SD8, plus an L-Acoustics PA and Shure wireless microphones and IEMs.

"A big challenge for us was the project only being confirmed very close to t

UK - Yamaha Commercial Audio (UK) has announced the appointment of Stephanie Halstead to the position of commercial audio sales and marketing support.

Previously working for Yamaha's Central Operations division, Halstead's new role includes daily contact with Commercial Audio dealers and customers, as well as logistics, stock management and providing backup to the Commercial Audio sales and technical support teams.

"My previous role involved being in contact with hundreds of Yamaha dealers, whereas in CA I will be working with a smaller network of customers on a more personal level," she says. "It will be good to be able to build closer professional relationships, to properly get to know the people on the end of the phone. I'm here to help them in any way possible.

"I also wanted to expand my knowledge within the company and focus on one product group, so

Italy - Located at the heart of Milan's fashion district, the new Spazio Gessi showroom has literally been dug in underground between two historical mansion houses on Via Manzoni. The concept of showroom and meeting centre is itself revolutionary, but revolution is nothing new to Gessi.

Home to the design and manufacture of what the company calls, 'bathroom solutions,' Gessi's interior designs might more readily be termed high art. The company has built a world class reputation for innovation, style, and the successful marriage of commercial enterprise and great design; skills they readily impart through their acclaimed Academy Gessi seminar programme.

"The project was to create a space destined to be much more than a traditional showroom," said architect Luca Bresciani. "So when it came to thinking about sound and how to relay information we knew we would need

Japan - Sound reinforcement specialists, SEPT+1, who became the first user of Martin Audio's revolutionary MLA system back in 2011, have now taken the system on another high profile tour.

Sound engineer Shigenori Funahashi chose it for famous female Japanese pop singer, Ayaka Hirahara's latest 10th Anniversary Concert Tour 2013, typically using six MLA enclosures per side and three MLX subs, all ground-stacked.

Explaining his decision to use MLA, Mr. Funahashi said, "I needed to improve many issues regarding the sound for this tour - and the most important challenge was contending with the singer's vocal reflections. Because of the increasing use of in-ear monitors many of today's singers do not listen to their voice acoustically and don't hear the entire auditorium sound, including reflections bouncing off the venue walls.

"However, Ayaka does not like using IEMs

USA - Nashville-based rental provider Morris Light & Sound has one of the world's largest inventories of Nexo's new STM Series modular line array. This month, the company completes its first major tour with the system, the No Shoes Nation tour by best-selling country artist Kenny Chesney.

Kenny Chesney's 46-date tour, which began in March at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, has seen a major change to its stadium line array. Morris Light & Sound (Nashville) has provided a new Nexo STM modular system for the 2013-2014 tour. The system layout is configured with 74x M46 for mains, 74x B112 bass cabinets, 48x S118 flown subs, 16x RS18 ground subs, 12x PS10s for front-fills, 14x GEO S1210s and 2x GEO S1230s, 22x NUAR amp racks, and two Yamaha DME 64 digital mix engines with LAKE Mesa EQ cards for system tuning and console switching.

Morris Light & Sound was an ear

Mexico - Ampere Manufacturas Electronicas S.A.De C.V. has supplied and installed a new outdoor sound system for The Mandala Beach Club in Cancún, Mexico, utilizing Community iBOX and WET loudspeakers.

The Mandala Beach Club is located on a narrow spit of land off the Cancún coast and is one of the region's top clubs. It enjoys the idyllic setting of a soft sandy beach lapped by the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. The beautiful setting does, however, have a major drawback for sound equipment as the system is fully exposed to the elements.

As a result the club has previously had numerous bad experiences, with well-known brands that could not survive the humidity, high temperatures and winds that carry sand and salt. Even with being covered at night, previous systems were unable to endure the conditions. What Mandala Beach Club needed was a system that could provide high qu

Switzerland - DiGiCo's five year involvement in the Montreux Jazz Festival has brought many benefits to performers, engineers and audiences. It has also made such a positive impression on audio supplier Tonspur AG that the company has been appointed DiGiCo's exclusive Swiss distributor.

"We have been coordinating the audio for Montreux since 2007 and our first experience with DiGiCo was when they became the official console sponsor in 2009," says Tonspur owner Hansjürg Meier. "We immediately realised that there was an enormous difference in sound quality, compared to other digital mixing desks. We were also really impressed by the flexibility of the consoles and the use of the latest technology, like FPGA processing, which minimised the physical footprint."

DiGiCo made such an impact that Tonspur began selling the consoles to the Swiss and Liechtenstein ma

In The Open - A new performing arts consortium formed from six outer-London venues has been launched to tour large-scale outdoor productions within the venues' resident boroughs. The Albany theatre in Deptford, Artsdepot in Barnet and Millfield Arts Centre in Enfield have joined forces with Watermans in Hounslow, Harrow Arts Centre and Tara Arts in Wandsworth to create Circulate, the new consortium. Arts Council England has provided the group with a three-year grant of around £500,000 from its strategic touring programme, which aims to bring more shows to areas in the UK with limited access to the arts.

The group plans to take one major show annually to six high street locations close to each venue, which will be free for audiences to attend. For its first year, Circulate has commissioned London-based Emergency Exit Arts, which specialises in site-specific work, to create

Germany - Picture the scene. You are visiting an art exhibition, but the only things you can see are blank canvases. Yet the room is filling up with expectant visitors, and four people begin to fill the canvases with words. Suddenly, you recognise yourself in those words! This is exactly what has been happening in early July at the Cologne Artothek, where Juergen Staack is presenting Script, his latest art project, using Sennheiser wireless technology.

For the Script performance, Juergen Staack worked with wireless microphones and bodypack receivers. At the preview on 3 July, four ladies with different mother tongues mingled with the visitors - and they described what they observed at the event to their writing partners via a pocket transmitter with headset microphone. Each of the writers heard these descriptions in English, Russian, Japanese or Greek via a small m

USA - When Grand Canyon University's Antelopes men's and women's basketball teams joined the Western Athletic Conference this summer and upgraded to Division I, GCU Arena was in need of a sound system retrofit worthy of the new division level. To accommodate, GCU turned to the local Phoenix office of Clearwing Productions, which provided two independent L-Acoustics ARCS Wide and Kara loudspeaker systems for the 5,000-seat multipurpose venue.

Installed in late June, the arena's fixed audio system for athletic events, commencement ceremonies and other general assemblies now features 32 ARCS Wide enclosures. These are divided into four clusters of three cabinets spread across each of the long sides of the arena and complemented with a single centre cluster of four at each of the far ends. Two arrays of four SB28 subs are centrally hung back-to-back for LF reinforcement, while two s

UK - A free copy of Cakewalk Sonar X2 Essentials software is now included with every V-Mixer purchase from Roland Systems Group (RSG) providing a recording solution to go with this multi award winning range of Roland digital consoles.

Providing professional tools in a digital audio workstation (DAW Software) for live recording, the Sonar X2 Essentials package features the Skylight interface allowing you to move seamlessly among the elements, instantly going from recording to editing to mixing and back again. The software will be provided free of charge with every purchase of the V-Mixer live digital mixing consoles including the Roland M-480, M-380, M-300 and M-200i.

"The V-Mixing System has been massively popular in the UK market and it makes sense for us to offer a complete solution to our customers by including a great recording product such as Cakewalk," commente

UK - Carlsbro / Studiomaster's new joint HQ, distribution and logistics centre is now fully operational, providing UK MI and pro audio dealers, and overseas distributors with higher levels of service than ever before.

The new HQ in Milton Keynes, in the south east of England, brings together all of the two brands' key operations under one roof. R&D teams, for both Carlsbro and Studiomaster, UK and worldwide sales, international administration, service and support, international marketing, and UK and Eire distribution are all now fully operational from the new centre.

As a hub for UK and worldwide logistics, the new HQ also provides for rapid smaller stock shipments internationally, complementing large scale direct shipments out of the Ningbo manufacturing facility in China.

Commenting on the establishment of the new HQ, Carlsbro and Studiomaster assistant general manager, Pa

Switzerland - Swiss PA company, Auditech, employed the company's new Allen & Heath Qu-16 compact digital mixer as the FOH mixer at international athletics meet, Athletissima. Held annually in Lausanne, Athletissima attracts a host of top athletes and several world records have been set during the games.

The stadium's FOH audio is divided into four zones, three (north tribune, round east, round west) fed through an iDR-8 matrix mixer, with the VIP area (south tribune) fed directly from the Qu-16 FOH mixing desk. Speakers comprise an EV rig in the north tribune, Audio Performance in rounds east and west, and a Nexo system in the south tribune.

The Qu-16 manages audio from the commentators - stationed in the commentary box and trackside, as well as audio from the giant plasma screens and the closing ceremony finale fireworks. The Qu-16 also feeds commentary to a RTS HD OB truck.<

UK - The sales and Installation division of Liverpool, UK based technical solutions provider Adlib has supplied an L-Acoustics ARCS wide / focus (WIFO) sound system to audio rental company Stagetex, who are based nearby on Merseyside.

The deal was co-ordinated for Adlib by Nick Turner. Adlib Sales specialises in supplying tailor made systems to sonically discerning clients, backed up by the best levels of quality technical service and pre and post sales support.

Stagetex provides full technical production and rental services to high end corporate events and their clients embrace a wide variety of shows and presentation genres from conferences, meetings, dinners and awards shows to parties, live music and entertainment of all types.

They wanted a fully flexible excellent sounding system ... and consulted Adlib for advice and guidance.

They specifically wanted something scal

UK - TC Group has announced the appointment of Paul McMullan as its UK sales manager for install and touring, with responsibility for the Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake brands.

Based in London, McMullan brings over 14 years' experience in professional audio and technical sales to his new role at TC Group. Most recently, he enjoyed success in the touring and install markets as UK sales manager for Turbosound.

"I'm very excited about the opportunities presented by such a diverse range of technologically brilliant products that TC Group has," commented McMullan. "Having dealt with Lab.gruppen throughout my time at Turbosound, I know I am joining a dynamic and hard-working sales team."

McMullan also has extensive experience as a system technician, from small gigs to stadium shows, and has been involved in the audio offering in an impressive list of leading club

China - DPA Microphones played a significant part in the success of this year's Fortune Global Forum, which was held in June in Chengdu, China. With a series of presentations and a gala dinner with entertainment provided by 30 traditional guzheng players, opera singers, choral and pop singers and a piano performance by Lang Lang, China's premier classical pianist, several DPA d:facto vocal microphones, d:fine headset microphones and d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones were utilised throughout the events.

Attended by CEOs from some of the world's largest multinational companies, the China's Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli and other Chinese dignitaries were also present at the three day event. Prior to the event, Fortune's Audio Designer Ron Lorman contacted Ken Kimura at DPA's office in Hong Kong, and requesting help in sourcing microphones.

"I have been using DPA d:fine headset m

Switzerland - Fohhn Audio's new Focus Modular line array systems with beam steering are making their live debut at the large-scale, open-air theatre production of Das große Welttheater (The Great World Theatre) being staged at Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland. The play, by Spanish writer Calderon de la Barca, has been performed on the abbey square of the Benedictine monastery at various intervals since 1924. In more recent years it has been re-interpreted to relate to modern times.

Released just a few months ago, Fohhn's Focus Modular series has been specially developed to provide powerful coverage over very long distances in acoustically challenging venues. Remotely controllable with highly precise beam steering capabilities, the three low-mid and high frequency modules can be used in any combination to meet a range of different requirements.

At the abbey, two FM-400 l

Australia - Audio visual consultant Mozaix have supplied CityLife Church with a Soundcraft Si Performer 3 mixing console for use in their Manningham campus, in the north-eastern suburbs of Adelaide, Australia.

The Soundcraft Si Performer has a number of enhancements over and above the Si Compact, with a turbocharged version of the Si Compact engine and providing up to 80 channels to mix. Added to this are 35 buses, plus eight VCA groups and eight mute groups, a fully parametric 4-band EQ with shelf on the HF and LF bands, and LCR panning.

"The Soundcraft Si Performer was chosen mainly for work flow and the audio quality it produces," remarked Paul Tucker of Mozaix. "A number of consoles from different brands were tried but as the Church already owns a couple of Soundcraft Vi4 consoles in their main Knox campus, they were already quite partial to the Soundcraft b

Europe - American singer Lana Del Rey has had a busy 2013, with her Paradise tour taking in arenas and theatres across Europe, followed by an array of summer festival appearances. A package of Sennheiser wireless equipment is ensuring that her cinematic sound loses none of its impact onstage.

Monitor engineer Matthew Kanaris specified the Sennheiser items for the tour, which includes two SKM 5200-MKII handheld microphones with Neumann KK105 capsules for Lana's main and spare vocal, 12 sets of G3 in-ear monitors and four G3 wireless belt packs for the tour's string section.

"Lana's vocal is the most important part of the show, so we wanted to use a microphone that was perfect for her and was sensitive to the different dynamics in her voice," says Kanaris. "We have always had great results when we used the wired version of the Neumann mic, so we decided to

USA - Consumnes River College (CRC) is a community college in South Sacramento, California. As a member of the Big 8 Conference in Northern California, CRC belongs to the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) and has an active physical education and athletics program including both men's and women's soccer. In 2012, CRC expanded their programme with a new baseball and softball field. And, this spring, CRC completed two new soccer fields with back-to-back bleachers and a common press box that serves both fields.

As part of this expansion, CRC published an RFP (request for proposal) for sound systems for its new soccer fields. After considering several alternatives, they selected a design from Associated Sound of Sacramento using Community R-Series Loudspeakers.

Associated's design uses two Community R.25-94TZ loudspeakers, located on each corner of the press

UK - PLASA Events has announced the launch of the 2013 PLASA Awards for Innovation, which will be presented in the new AudioLab Arena during PLASA London at ExCeL on Monday 7 October at 6.00pm.

The PLASA Show is regarded as a major international launch-pad for new products. During its history, it has seen hundreds of product innovations introduced to the market - a trend which we expect to see continued at the 2013 event. The PLASA Awards for Innovation aim to emphasise this focus on true innovation. The procedure for entry ensures that all nominated products are vetted to show that they offer something new to the industry:

"The PLASA Awards for Innovation recognise products which advance the industry by demonstrating a new style of thinking, improving technical practice or taking a key step forward in terms of safety."

All successfully vetted products are judged a

Fringe Figures - Ticket sales at this year's Edinburgh Fringe are up by an estimated 5%, according to its organisers. The Fringe Society said more than 1,943,000 tickets were issued, with some shows still to have their final performance. It follows a slight drop in ticket sales last year caused by a clash with the Olympics being held in London. Many individual venues are reporting even higher increases, with established venues up between 20% and 30%.

The 2013 programme for the Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world, featured 45,464 performances of 2,871 shows at a total of 273 venues across the city. The programme contained 713 free shows which do not sell tickets but asked the audience to contribute at the end of the show. These shows were not included in the box office ticket sales. Kath Mainland, chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said,"Our

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