Belgium - Tomorrowland is one of the world's most important dance festivals, attracting over 400,000 to this year's 10th Anniversary edition. Spread out over two three-day weekends in the town of Boom in Belgium, Tomorrowland headliners included David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Armin van Buuren and Aviici. Tomorrowland's success and influence now extend around the globe, with new editions being created in Brazil and the USA.

Quality sound is clearly a top priority and Tomorrowland has called on the audio pros at NoizBoyz and Phlippo Productions for the last four years. The sound crew's task is complicated as the Tomorrowland site encompasses multiple stages that are not only in close proximity, but also constantly run simultaneous acts. Reduced sound spillover from stage to stage is a key factor to festival-goers' enjoyment, but the local authorities also impose restrictions on noise l

UK - Following a successful curatorial role at PLASA Focus: Leeds, Soulsound has delivered a series of sessions as part of PLASA 2014's Professional Development Programme. The seminars, which were spread over three days, welcomed experts from the audio industry, who shared knowledge and inspired conversation.

Soulsound presented and coordinated a total of seven sessions, kicking off with Funktion-One founders, Tony Andrews and John Newsham, who were joined by sound consultant, Jim Cousins. The trio, who have an illustrious history in audio, discussed Point Source. Line Array. What do these terms really mean? - providing anecdotes and explanations along the way.

Shure's Tuomo Tolonen followed with Wireless Mastered, which unravelled some of the mysteries of radio frequencies, enabling engineers to be confident in their dealings with radio mics and IEMs, which are

USA - UK loudspeaker manufacturer PMC confirmed at AES in Los Angeles the first sales of its new QB1-A reference monitors - to Capitol Studios, with one pair destined for Studio A, the other for Studio B.

Launched this week at AES, the QB1-A is PMC's new high-end monitor. Designed to provide a new reference standard for medium-to-large-scale recording facilities in terms of accuracy, dynamics, resolution and headroom, it offers over 4800W of power per channel and incorporates analogue and digital inputs, PMC's Advanced Transmission Line (ATL) bass-loading technology, DSP control, and the latest generation of PMC's Class-D amplification and driver designs.

Capitol's engineers and management were part of a network of international industry professionals who provided invaluable feedback on the design of the QB1-A as it evolved. Prototype versions of the speakers have been install

USA - Audio-Technica unveiled the latest addition to its flagship 50 Series studio microphone range at the AES Convention in Los Angeles. The AT5045 is a hand-built, large-diaphragm, stick-design side-address condenser instrument microphone with a cardioid polar pattern designed to deliver natural, well-balanced sound with exceptional realism and depth. Available separately or as stereo pairs (AT5045P), the mics are engineered to meet the most critical requirements of professional recording.

The AT5045's large diaphragm design allows for fast transient response, low noise, high SPL handling (149 dB SPL) and impressive dynamic range (141dB). Such specifications make it an inappropriate instrument microphone, particularly suited to use on overheads, percussion, acoustic guitar, strings and other acoustic instruments requiring the capture of dynamic, detailed sound.

Featuring a p

UK - After a year's absence, 2014 saw Yamaha Commercial Audio return to exhibit at PLASA London, with the experience surpassing all the company's expectations.

Prior to the show Karl Christmas, sales and marketing manager (UK & ROI), candidly admitted that this year's return was something of a 'toe in the water' exercise at an exhibition which had become more renowned for its lighting content in recent years.

However, he and the rest of the Yamaha team were pleasantly surprised at the quantity of visitors to the company's stand, with the CIS series installation products, QL/CL series digital consoles and RMio64-D Dante/MADI converter attracting particular attention.

"We were very impressed with the number of visitors and the positivity being shown by all the professional audio dealers, rental companies, installers and, indeed, fellow manufacturers that we spoke to throu

UK - During the golden era of touring, the University of London Union (or ULU as it was then popularly known) was a favoured circuit venue for emerging bands.

With the disbandment of ULU this year (now rebranded as the 'Student Central') the ents committee, under student activities & ents manager Allan Adams, decided to bring its live space (known as 'The Venue') into the 21st century with a complete refurbishment. This included a new end to end Harman Professional sound reinforcement infrastructure designed by Ed Manwaring of EM Communications.

Manwaring has been servicing the Venue's technical requirements for the past three years, and after this long-time advocate of BSS Audio's Soundweb platform demonstrated an elegant way of enabling the Union to route either DJ or live signals to Gallery or Bar on two Soundweb BLU-100s, he was soon dismantling the 12-year old house PA sy

UK - Flare Audio has launched what they believe to be the world's first 'fully' open back headphones. The Reference R1, aimed at the pro audio and audiophile market, uses Flare's unique new approach to produce distortion free sound, even at full volume, enabling true transfer and transmission of source material.

Revealed at PLASA 2014 in London, the R1's were nominated for the show's Award for Innovation and are stopping people in their tracks with their undeniably crystal clear sound. This is enabled using Flare's groundbreaking new approach based on 'Waveform Integrity'.

"Traditional headphone designs are based around two main formats, closed and open backed. Both of these traditional approaches suffer from sound distortions in some way caused by enclosed residual pressure interference (ERPI)," explains Flare managing director and R1 creator, Davies Roberts.

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UK - When SA Sound Services were asked by the Grace Church in Milton Keynes to design and supply the sound system for their weekly evangelical worship, the Roland M-200i console and Roland S-1608 Digital Snake proved to be the digital solution.

The brief for SA Sound Services owner Steve Ashley was to come up with a compact and portable system that was easy to use and quick to setup. The reason for this specification was that Grace Church - who are without their own premises at the moment - are using a local school hall for their services. Therefore the AV - including a console, loudspeakers, digital snake, projector and screen - has to be stored away during the week and then brought out and setup by church members each weekend.

Supplied by Leisuretec Distribution, the Roland 32 channel M-200i was chosen as the digital mixing console for the system based on its compact design,

UK - SEDA, the South Eastern Discotheque Association, marked its 40th anniversary at the weekend with a gala dinner at The Britannia, Chatham. So far as is known, SEDA is the oldest DJ organisation in the world. During its four decades it has worked to educate and improve the industry and the public, and has worked with national and local government bodies and trade and industry associations, organising seminars, exhibitions and technical events.

SEDA's Honorary President, Theo Loyla, told LSiOnline: "SEDA was involved with the formation of the British Association of Discotheque Equipment Manufacturers [BADEM - the forerunner to PLASA] following the demise of Ben Cree's DJ Magazine and National Association and associated Discotheque equipment exhibition. I remember SEDA organising the meeting at the Ski Club of Great Britain in Eaton Square, with the help of folks from Opti

UK - Following a review of their playback systems, and a need to create higher capacity MADI streams, the National Theatre on London's South Bank has purchased six Optocore DD4MR-FX converters from dealers, HD Pro Audio.

These have been deployed as MADI interfaces for the venue's DiGiCo SD7T and SD10T consoles, following the introduction of the full DiGiCo integration of Optocore devices.

Commissioned by project engineer Tim Middleton, and senior sound technician Alex Caplen, the Optocore devices are distributed in pairs between the three theatres that make up the complex - the newly-named Dorfman (formerly Cottesloe), Lyttelton and Olivier Theatres. These are linked to the DiGiCo front of house consoles (SD7Ts in the Olivier and Lyttelton, SD10T in the Dorfman) with a roaming SD10T, which can be used as a rehearsal console or designer's remote.

After providing a redundant o

UK - leading supplier of Hybrid Power Generators (HPGs) for the events sector, Firefly reports that its Cygnus HPG has saved over 1m litres of diesel since its launch in April 2013.

With increasing requirements from event organisers to power events with a more sustainable, environmentally friendly approach, Firefly creates the appropriate renewable energy solution for any event, whilst significantly reducing fuel costs.

As an experienced and trusted supplier of affordable sustainable power, Firefly has been powering festivals and live events since 2007. Firefly provide turnkey low emission temporary power, technical and creative services. Working with festival organisers, from conception to implementation; Firefly provides power that doesn't cost the earth.

Andy Mead, director comments: "The 2014 summer season has been the company's best yet, as more and more events are

UK - In 2014, UK audio visual and electronics distributor CIE-Group is celebrating 50 years in business. This significant milestone is also an opportunity to look forward to new business goals and aspirations that will provide the impetus for future CIE-Group developments.

CIE-Group was established back in 1964 as Canadian Instruments and Electronics, a UK subsidiary of Toronto-based Radio Components. At this time the company specialised in the distribution of electronic testing equipment, components and connectors.

Based in the East Midlands from where it still operates today, the company has a firm foundation in the professional audio market, in particular the public address and professional audio sector. More recently however, product portfolio has been further enhanced with a number of key new distribution appointments resulting in the addition of latest AV signal distribu

USA - Just a short drive from the Mexican border and southeast of the city of McAllen, Valley International Christian Centre (VICC) recently opened a new, almost 70,000sq.ft sanctuary. This state-of-the-art church is the largest house of worship in the Rio Grande Valley and, in 2013, was recognized as one of the fastest growing churches in America by Outreach Magazine.

Music plays a vital role in VICC's worship services and, to ensure a high level of speech intelligibility and excellent music reproduction characteristics, church officials recently gave the green light to the deployment of a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalogue of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

Simon Estrada Jr. serves as VICC's campus sound engineer and the church's Praise and Worship leader. He also operates a sound services company under the name Supernatural Designz of Brownsville, T

Japan - Following 12 successful years with its Meyer Sound MSL-4 loudspeakers, the Takarazuka Grand Theatre in Japan returned to Meyer Sound when it came time to upgrade. With an emphasis on exceptional audio quality and system reliability, the 2,550-seat venue chose a design based on M'elodie and MICA line array loudspeakers.

"In my opinion, the best equipment should be robust and reliable," says Masaru Kirie of Takarazuka Stage Co., Ltd. "The new system's performance lives up to the prestigious Meyer Sound brand, and the sound quality is excellent in all respects."

The theatre's main system is anchored by left and right lower proscenium arrays of 13-each M'elodie loudspeakers and three over-proscenium L-C-R clusters consisting of seven MICA and three M'elodie loudspeakers each. Ten 700-HP subwoofers provide low-end reinforcement, with six placed overhead

USA - Symetrix has announced that Sisme has taken on exclusive distribution responsibilities for the prominent DSP brand throughout Italy.

Beginning operations with a focus on the MI market, Sisme has evolved to place its greatest emphasis on the pro audio and integration sectors. Today its distribution portfolio includes brands such as Audio-Technica, Aviom, Clear-Com, HK Audio, L-Acoustics and Powersoft - while its overall offer was strengthened considerably in 2003 by the opening of a new state-of-the-art facility situated on the central eastern coast of Italy.

"With this facility, we have all the functions for logistics, administration, accounting and more under one roof. It has really made a difference in the way that we are able to support our brands throughout the Italian market," says Sisme CEO Claudio Bugari. "We are also continuing to develop our websi

UK - The worldwide premier of the new Y-Series loudspeakers from d&b audiotechnik took centre-stage at Stand D80 in the d&b corner of PLASA London 2014.

With utility and flexibility in mind, the design of the new Y-Series from d&b audiotechnik presents both point source and line array modules. The Y7P and Y10P point source and the Y8 and Y12 line source loudspeakers each feature two 8" drivers with neodymium magnets mounted in a dipolar arrangement around a 1.4" compression driver. All models are passively crossed over, keeping amplifier channels to a minimum.

The Y-Series line array modules bear more than a passing resemblance to their larger cousins, the V and J-Series. All three Series have the same rigging design in common, while the new Y8 and Y12 share the familiar 80° and 120° horizontal dispersion characteristics, with horizontal dispersion control do

UK - Creamfields 2014 featured multiple stages catering to crowds of EDM fans, which exceeded 60,000 daily. Swedish DJ, remix artist and producer Avicii headlined the South Stage at the peak of Creamfields 2014, while his FOH engineer, Wayne 'Rabbit' Sargeant, ran the show using an SSL Live.L500 console. The main North and South Stages both featured large-scale PA systems, supplied by Britannia Row Productions, Ltd., with SSL Live consoles at front of house that kept fans raving for the three-day-long end-of-summer party.

"Avicii has a simple setup, with Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS players feeding a DJM-900NXS DJ mixer," explains Sargeant. "Unlike other engineers, I'd rather keep everything in the digital domain and avoid doing unnecessary A/D and D/A conversions, so I use the SPDIF digital output of the DJM and convert it to the AES digital format (which is accepted by m

UK - Reading University is a globally renowned institution. Ranked amongst the top 1% of universities in the world, its reputation for teaching, research and enterprise is formidable. Reading is also home to some of the country's most beautiful campuses and a number of heritage buildings. It was in respect of one such heritage site that the university contacted POLARaudio, seeking a solution to an audio headache on a grand scale.

The Great Hall, situated on the original London Road campus, is a Grade 2 listed building which hosts a wide variety of events, not least of which are graduation ceremonies for thousands of students. In response to a growing number of adverse comments in relation to the poor audio quality at such events, the university's Vice-Chancellor took the decision to improve things.

Having previously enjoyed a successful working relationship with POLARaudio, th

The Netherlands - Designed to attract over 500,000 visitors each year, Utrecht's new Tivoli Vredenburg venue covers 31,000m2 and features five auditoriums, 22 dressing rooms, 11 circulation spaces and 24 bars/restaurants. Designing a communications system for such a complex venue was a daunting task, but ASL Intercom had the right solution.

The city's Tivoli and Vredenburg venues have been major centres of music for over 30 years. Bringing them together under one roof with the city's Jazz Centre was achieved by incorporating the existing Vredenburg symphony hall into a brand new, €150m, venue and adding four major new performance spaces around it.

To make each venue within the new Tivoli Vredenburg as versatile as possible, the 22 dressing rooms are not allocated to particular auditoriums/stages. This made the job even more difficult for Utrecht-based Switch Concepts, the com

USA - Metric Halo has announced the immediate availability of its new MH Dirty Delay plug-in.

Dirty Delay is a visceral, gritty, fantastic-sounding musical feedback delay processor with integrated Character and filters in the delay path. It can create "awesome vintage echo and tape-delay style sounds as well as lush and subtle spaces in a mix". New users are already finding that it is more "real" sounding than alternative in-the-box delay processors.

Not just a musical feedback delay, MH Dirty Delay is something special. With the integrated filters and character in the feedback path you can make it clean or dirty, vintage or futuristic, subtle or nasty.

With dual delay lines, cross-feed, feedback and distortion control, Dirty Delay is capable of creating extraordinarily rich and complex textures and patterns from your audio. Dirty Delay adds texture and m

UK - Soundcraft's UK and Eire distributor, Sound Technology reports that both its award-winning Vi6 FOH console, and the latest addition to the Vi range - the Vi3000 - have both rocked the festival circuit this summer.

The Vi6 was deployed by premier hire company, Adlib, on events including Creamfields, the Liverpool International Music Festival, Kendall Calling Festival and the Wakestock Festival.

Now firmly established on riders, the Vi6 has been acclaimed as one of the easiest to use, most ergonomic, user friendly and best-sounding large format digital consoles around. Thanks to the integration of a proven DSP engine and algorithms from sister firm, Studer, the audio quality is crystal clear. The Vi6 also boasts an incredibly tactile "where you look is where you control' operating philosophy. The world-class effects and processing from Lexicon and BSS sets the Vi6 apar

UK - PLASA London 2014 welcomed visitors and exhibitors to ExCeL, London for the second consecutive year on 5-8 October and impressed with a ground-breaking show floor, an inspiring education programme and a host of important announcements. While exhibitors revealed their latest product innovations, the organisers uncovered plans for the future of the show.

Speaking at the PLASA Awards for Innovation and Sustainability 2014, held on the penultimate day of the show, PLASA's CEO Matthew Griffiths revealed some of the changes for 2015, which will redevelop the scope and delivery of the event. Under the leadership of Christopher Toulmin, PLASA's Director of the Events Division, the show is being remodelled to become a PLASA Member-focused event: developments will include moving from four days to three days, introducing a new floor plan concept, expanding the education offering and i

UK - For the first time in the UK, d&b audiotechnik GB is offering an open invitation to their Sound System Optimisation seminar. Each seminar runs for two days and invites participants on a journey through the theory and practice of acoustic measuring, adjusting and fine tuning.

Attendees should have a good understanding of sound system design, setup and tuning along with a confident understanding of basic electroacoustic principles in order to take full advantage of this seminar. This is a practical course that guides participants through the precise process of measuring and adjusting a sound system. Beginning with a good sound design and making it better. Starting with good and ending with great.

This is a busy two day seminar, delivered by the Education & Application Support (EAS) team at d&b audiotechnik GB, under the direction of the doughty Oran Burns. Participants are

The Netherlands - Tivoli Vredenburg is a new and architecturally impressive venue in the heart of the beautiful Dutch city of Utrecht. Equally impressive is its technical infrastructure, which features an array of DiGiCo mixing consoles as part of its extensive audio system.

A merger of former venues Tivoli and Vredenburg, both successful in their own rights for the past 30 years, Tivoli Vredenburg has been constructed around the existing Vredenburg theatre and concert hall, now known as the Grote Zaal or Great Hall, which remains in its original form.

The new building houses four additional rooms, Ronda, Pandora, Hertz and Cloud Nine, each of which plays host to different types of musical styles, with each designed by a different architect. Combining such disparate designs could have made the overall venue feel disconnected, but a cleverly thought out, cathedral-like foyer br

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