South Africa - The School of Audio Engineering (SAE) in Cape Town is the latest to add its name to the ever-growing list of educational facilities to install an Audient ASP8024 analogue desk into its teaching studios. SAE Cape Town now aligns itself with its counterparts around the globe, including SAE Institutes in Rotterdam, Milan, Bucharest, Brisbane, Amsterdam, Melbourne and New York.

This summer alone, ASP8024 recording consoles have been installed at SAE Institutes in Italy, Australia and the United States. John Jansen, director of education in the New York facility has been getting a feel for their newest arrival over the last few weeks. "The patchbay created a learning curve for the students at first," he reveals. "Once it was understood, people love it. The bus compressor is a favourite feature too. It's very flexible and a great teaching tool, because th

USA - Founded by senior pastor Perry Noble in 2000, NewSpring Church of Anderson, South Carolina has experienced tremendous growth over the past 13 years. Following the completion of its main worship center in 2006, the church began to establish satellite campuses throughout the region to accommodate its increasing number of attendees, which has now reached nearly 30,000 each week across NewSpring's eight locations.

With an ultimate goal to reach over 100,000 people every Sunday, NewSpring Church puts temphasis not only on the spoken word - which is streamed live from Anderson - but also on high-energy live music at each site boasting concert tour production values and sound levels.

Pleased with the dV-DOSC loudspeaker system installed in its 2,500-seat home sanctuary seven years ago, the church has recently been commissioning L-Acoustics certified provider LMG Systems Integra

Italy - New from Italian audio specialist Proel is the V Series of lightweight, powered PA enclosures, designed to offer exceptional performance in three very affordable 10", 12" and 15" formats.

Proel's design brief was to come up with a series of three active enclosures which would deliver crisp, punchy sound, offer exceptional reliability and portability yet sell at extremely affordable prices.

To achieve the sound and weight criteria, Proel has developed new custom drivers, a new neodymium tweeter and completely new Class D amplifiers with switch mode power supplies. To ensure reliability, the amplifier sections are sealed in aluminium boxes in the rear of the enclosures, which means they are protected from knocks, receive maximum cooling and are easily field serviceable in the unlikely event of a failure.

Delivering the exceptional sound quality are three

UK - It has been a busy 12 months at POLARaudio since the last PLASA London show. In this time the distributor has grown its portfolio with the addition of a number of new brands. These include relatively young companies with innovative ideas as well as established giants of the pro-audio industry.

POLARaudio will be on stand L60 and will occupy a larger space than in previous years to accommodate the increasingly diverse range of brands on offer. This will be POLARaudio's first opportunity to exhibit Mackie.

Another new and very welcome member of the POLARaudio family is Danish manufacturer Cornered Audio, whose range of sleek, ergonomic, low-profile wall speakers have prompted installation engineers to describe them as a 'dream come true'. AD Systems will also feature for a first PLASA appearance, with a range of professional PA solutions that pack power and accuracy into a

UK - Following the news earlier in the year of two new recruitments, London-based audio consulting firm, RH Consulting, continues to swell its resources with the recruitment of Ryan Penny, a LIPA (Liverpool Institute for performing Arts) graduate with a first class degree in sound technology.

A member of the AES, Penny has already worked on a number of major projects, including most recently as a member of the Audio and Comms team for the London 2012 Olympic ceremonies. His role within RH Consulting includes product research and project engineering for current clients as well as support for company founder, Roland Hemming, in terms of research into new projects and development of training materials.

"Ryan is a very talented individual and in the short time he has been with us, he's slotted perfectly into our organization," commented Hemming. "He's proved adept a

USA - After winning the 2013 Grammy Song of the Year and Best New Artist awards, indie pop band Fun.'s Most Nights tour has been packing music venues across 34 North American cities throughout the summer. Montreal-based Solotech is providing the tour with a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system.

"I'd heard Leo last year at Outside Lands festival in San Francisco, and I was tickled pink when I had the opportunity to take a rig out this year," says Gordon Reddy, FOH engineer for Fun. "It's a great kit, with a wonderfully smooth high end. If a typical sweet high end is like table sugar, then LEO is clarified honey."

The band's touring system includes main arrays of 14 Leo-M line array loudspeakers per side, with low-end impact supplied by a total of 24 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements. Rounding out the system are eight UPJ

USA - Living Colour is on the road with the Behringer X32 as they celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of their debut recording Vivid. To ensure consistent performances and great sound, they chose to deploy the X32 for both front-of-house (FOH) and monitor duties.

Behringer's X32 is designed to provide seamless integration for the performers and sound engineer, resulting in consistent, high-quality mixes at FOH - and the musician's in-ear and floor-wedge monitors. With full recall, motorized faders and 8 Stereo FX slots, the console ensures that the band is up and running in no time at every gig.

Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish comments, "Every night, in-ears are sounding good, floor monitors are right and we're able to record 32 channels. Well done, Behringer, I'm on board."

(Jim Evans)

China - BVCAM, APG's exclusive distributor in China has recently made its first Uniline rental sale in China. Shenzhen Shengshi Jiayi Culture Media Ltd owned by Mr Yan Wong is a major supplier to both the corporate and festival markets, catering mainly for large scale events, both indoors and outdoors. The company has invested in a very big Uniline configuration complete with subs, amplifiers and processing as well as a number of multipurpose DX15 monitor speakers for in-fills and monitoring.

According to BVCAM's Danny Huen, the Shenzhen rental specialists were attracted by the modularity of the Uniline system. "The demand here is mostly for big systems for large events, stadia and the like with audiences of 20,000 people and more," explained Huen. "The modularity of Uniline offers a level of configuration flexibility that you just don't get with traditional large

UK - PLASA London 2013, which takes place at ExCeL London from 6-9 October 2013, has announced specialist asset finance company Medialease as the sponsor for the AudioLab Arena, while eight new partners will also share their technology and expertise in the AudioLab Arena.

The AudioLab Arena, AudioLab Theatre and AudioLab Interactive, unveiled earlier this year, offer free educational sessions, demonstrations and interactive experiments giving visitors a glimpse of the technology behind the world's most spectacular live shows and venues.

"The PLASA show is a great opportunity to meet so many audio and lighting professionals under one roof. The exciting new AudioLab Arena offers a new demo and product selection experience, which we expect to be second to none. It gives users the chance to compare the latest technology in an innovative and engaging environment, which we full

UK - Martin Audio's MLA system changed the sonic landscape around the globe this summer - providing an acoustic experience and uniting the audience at premier festivals, concerts and other outdoor events as never before.

For promoters and production teams MLA enabled them to meet traditional challenges head on for the first time. The multi award-winning system's ability to provide uniform coverage right across the soundfield was matched by its scientifically proven reduction of offsite spillage and noise pollution to well within local authority thresholds.

With MLA's ability to sonically 'map' a site - optimising audience areas and 'hard avoiding' objects that might create reverberation or slapback - it has rapidly become a go-to system for promoters and local authorities alike.

There was no finer example of the award-winning system's powers than at AEG Live's Barclaycard Br

Singapore - Harman Professional has announced the promotion of Thomas Marcher to lead all sales and support operations for its professional audio and lighting technologies in the Greater Asia region. Marcher, who was deeply involved in the establishment and continued development of Harman Professional's Asia Regional Sales Office (RSO), will now take on the additional operational responsibility for Harman Professional's Singapore-based Martin Professional team. In doing so, he will report directly to Scott Robbins, Harman Professional executive vice president of sales.

"I am very pleased to put a leader of Thomas Marcher's caliber in place to lead sales operations for Harman Professional in the Greater Asia region," Robbins said. "Thomas has proven himself again and again and I have deep confidence he will prove himself to be an excellent leader and organizer of o

Spain - D.A.S. Audio celebrated its DASnet Seminar in early July, opening the event to professionals from across Europe. Sound professionals from across the continent made the trip to D.A.S. Audio's facilities in Valencia for the two-day seminar on D.A.S. Audio's audio management software. Coordinated from the company's Export Department, the technical aspects of the seminar were handled by D.A.S. Audio engineer Inmaculada Herrera.

Professionals from countries as diverse as Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, the Netherlands and Poland kicked off the two-day seminar with a tour of the D.A.S. Audio facilities, where participants had the chance to learned firsthand about the company's design process and system production. Inmaculada Herrera then followed with an in-depth lecture on the DASnet audio management application for powered cabinets and digital signal processors.

The

Germany - Nexo is to commence direct distribution of its sound reinforcement products in Germany, following the mutually-agreed termination of its long-standing distributor agreement with audiovation GmbH.

The new direct sales channel will use a network of dealers to offer a wide range of benefits to German customers, ranging from the logistical aspects of sales and marketing, to an effective and binding communication with all relevant departments of Nexo, including training and seminars at the company's offices.

Denis Baudier, Nexo's sales director, details the changes. "We will now take care of our German prospects and customers through a Nexo sales and service team, led by a responsible and dedicated regional manager. We are delighted to announce that Reinhard Steger has joined the Nexo team in the position of sales manager Germany, after nearly 20 years representing N

Australia - With a major upgrade now complete, the community of users at Wyndham Cultural Centre are already feeling the benefits of a new Tannoy sound system for the Centre's auditorium performance space, based around the popular VX Series.

The City of Wyndham is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the outer south-western suburbs of Melbourne. With a population of over 160,000, this is a thriving community that has Wyndham Cultural Centre as its heart.

This important building - which houses the Tattersall's Theatre, two exhibition galleries, the CBD library, Visitor Information Centre and café - was opened to the public in 2001, but a certain approach to construction meant there were some problems from the outset, as Gavin Hume, director of MultiTek Solutions, explained.

"The venue had some troubling times during the original construction. The the

China - Since its original incarnation in the Netherlands in 2010, The Voice television singing contest has become a global phenomenon with 39 different countries currently broadcasting their own versions of the franchise. Now in its second season, The Voice of China features two DiGiCo mixing consoles.

With an identical format to the other incarnations of The Voice, the show is broadcast on Zhejiang Television between July and September. Its head of sound is Jin Shaogang, one of China's leading live audio engineers and revered in the country for his role at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Naturally, the sound production's most important task is to make the contestants sound as good as possible, so Jin Shaogang specified an audio system which includes a DiGiCo SD7 at Front of House and an SD10 on monitors. Complemented by t

UK - Broadcast audio specialists Red TX played a pivotal role in the production of Morrissey 25: Live From Hollywood High, recorded at Hollywood High, a legacy concert film that celebrates 25 years of this enigmatic performer's solo career.

Filmed live at the Hollywood High School in Los Angeles in March 2013, this intimate gig provided the material for the first authorised Morrissey film to be released in nine years. Red TX worked closely with Nineteen Fifteen and Eagle Rock Productions, the producers for Eagle Rock Entertainment, to ensure a great soundtrack. As well as liaising closely with the US recording crew, the company was also responsible for mixing the concert - a task that took place back in the UK on board Red TX's main Outside Broadcast vehicle, Red One, with director Tim Summerhayes at the controls.

Nineteen Fifteen producer Vicki Betihavas says: "I

Hungary - Held on Óbudai-sziget (Old Buda Island), a 266-acre island on the river Danube in northern Budapest, the annual Sziget Festival is one of the largest music festivals in Europe.

Over eight days this summer, Sziget attracted 1,000 Hungarian and international artists performing at 60 venues, and welcomed a total of 362,000 fans. For the festival's main stage, a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system supported headliners including Blur, David Guetta, and Franz Ferdinand.

"Bringing Leo into the fray is a real leap forward, as it's a fantastic system with a huge throw," says Karoly Molnar, the main stage sound designer and managing director of Animative Ltd., which handled production management for Sziget. "Because the music styles are so varied at Sziget, this system is perfect. And because LEO is so linear with a flat frequency resp

France - MF Audio, founded in 1998 and based in the North of Paris, is a full service live event production company providing sound, lighting, and staging solutions.

The principle, Sebastian (Seb) Fleury has made a point to surround himself with accomplished production professionals, which has led to the success of the live event production company.

One of the other secrets to its success has been to ensure that all products in their inventory meet their four qualifications - quality, reliability, usability and versatility.

Recently, MF Audio invested in a new Adamson System Energia E15 PA, which meets their four qualifications in spades. As a long-time supporter of Adamson - with previous investments in Spek-Trix, Y10, Y18 and Metrix - it was a likely pairing that has suited everyone extremely well.

"We were looking for a line array system that would allow us to expa

Vietnam - Clubs in Vietnam have reportedly become so taken with Martin Audio sound systems that some believe it has become an automatic passport for filling their venues. One such nightspot, the 900-capacity Barocco Club in Ho Chi Minh City, is living proof of that.

After suffering a serious fire back in May this year, the club decided to make a clean start by commissioning Duc Proaudio Co. Ltd - the official distributor of Martin Audio in Vietnam - to redesign the entire sound system and rev up its essentially electronic music mix.

Duc Proaudio Co. Ltd is widely experienced in club sound systems and over the years has achieved tremendous success - particularly with Martin Audio systems. The Barocco Club refit had to be carried out on a tight time scale as it was scheduled to reopen just 90 days after the fire. And of these, only 65 days were available for the design and insta

Italy - Around 100 international guests recently attended a series of open days, product demonstrations and technical workshops hosted jointly by Outline s.r.l. and Cadac in Brescia, near lake Garda in northern Italy.

Staged within the beautiful Teatro Palabrescia during the third week in September, the main hall was given over to the complete portfolio of Outline loudspeaker systems. The Eidos 265, Mini-COM.P.A.S.S., Mantas, Spectra, Doppia, DVS and iSM stage monitor ranges were all on operational display, as was the all-new GTO C-12 compact high-power line array system. In the large and ornate foyer area, Cadac presented their Live1 analogue console plus the CDC Four and CDC Eight digital models.

Visitors from as far afield as Thailand made the trip to Outline's hometown, joining guests from the UK, Holland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, Greece

World - PLASA Members worldwide have begun voting in the Association's yearly elections, which commence this week.

The month-long ballot will decide places on PLASA's European and North American Regional Boards, together with a single seat on its over-arching Governing Body.

The role of the Regional Boards is to represent the interests of members affiliated to those regions, ensuring that PLASA offers strong on-the-ground support to members. Both the North American and European Regional Boards are looking to fill a number of places for 2014.

For the European Regional Board, Adam Blaxill, of Stage Electrics, has put his name forward for the position of Vice- Chair; Duncan Bell, of Autograph Sound Recording Ltd., has put his name forward for Secretary; Mark Cooper, of SES Entertainment Services Ltd., Peter Heath, of Roland UK Ltd., and Matt Lloyd, of Global Design Solutions Lt

UK - At PLASA London 2013, Roland Systems Group will host the UK launch of the Roland VR-50HD all-in-one AV Mixer with outputs for web streaming and recording. The Roland VR-50HD fully integrates an audio mixer, video switcher, multi-viewer touchscreen and USB video/audio streaming into a stand-alone device controllable by a single operator. This unique product adds HD/multi-format capability to the very popular VR Series that includes the Roland VR-5 and VR-3 AV mixers.

"The all in one VR-50HD saves time and money, reducing the hardware and the set-up time required and providing a plug-in-and-play solution for live events large and small," says the company. "Instead of needing a number of separate products, the VR-50HD combines an audio mixer to mix the audio inputs from various sources including microphones, a video mixer to mix video and computer sources using

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd, a leading one-stop provider of cutting-edge new and used professional equipment to the entertainment industry, will showcase a selection of the very latest lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from its vast portfolio of premium brands at PLASA 2013 (stand P40/P41).

The stand will showcase the many marques which AC-ET distributes exclusively in the UK, as well as other leading brands the company is an authorised reseller for.

AC-ET's Lighting Division

From AC-ET's Lighting division, the stand will showcase their diverse portfolio of LED lighting solutions, including an exclusive unveiling of the new LED lighting family from Vision™ alongside the latest offerings from Chroma-Q®, PixelRange, Spotlight, SGM, Philips Selecon and Mole Richardson. The Vision range also provides sole stand illuminati

UK - PLASA London 2013 is ready and raring to go, with new attractions, free seminar sessions with high calibre speakers and excellent networking opportunities all lined up for the visitors from all sectors of pro audio, lighting and stage technologies. Those that have not yet registered can still save 50% off the door price by signing up at www.plasashow.com. Over 15,000 industry professionals have already registered for this year's PLASA London event, which takes place at the ExCeL Centre, London from 6-9 October 2013.

PLASA London is supported by Platinum Sponsor Robe Lighting, Gold Sponsor Martin Professional and Silver Sponsor Clay Paky.

Chris Toulmin, Head of Events, PLASA London 2013, said: "Our move to ExCeL has given us and our exhibitors the scope to truly get bigger, brighter and louder. We are very proud to unveil the AudioLab feature which brings the latest a

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