Flexible loudspeakers? What else would you expect from the company that pioneered electronically steerable arrays; Duran Audio is a company that never stops thinking.

The latest loudspeaker products from the AXYS R&D lab are the Flex U-12G2, U-14G2 and UFM-265. But why flexible, are Duran making arrays that you can bend now? Not yet, but who knows what the future holds; these new products are the latest generation of the companies highly successful Flex range. Flexible because of the amount of applications that these units can be used for, they are ideal for use in Theatre as: front fills, under balcony fills, surround loudspeakers and monitors whilst equally useful in the AV/Corporate world for boardrooms & presentation audio and are an ideal choice for small bars and clubs. Being all things to all market segments doesn't mean that the sound of the units is compromised though, as the

A new trade body, the Association of Sound Designers (ASD) will be launched at PLASA 2011.

For the last 18 months a group of sound designers have been working to create a new professional association with a series of meetings to discuss what the association should do and how it should work. The meetings were held at the National Theatre, the Royal Court and the Royal Exchange with attendance from over 60 of the country's leading sound designers as well as representatives from hire companies including Autograph, Blitz, Mac Sound and Orbital; manufacturers including d&b audiotechnik and Duran Audio; and educational institutes such as the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Gareth Fry, chair of the newly-elected Board of Trustees of the ASD, said that "the meetings were a great opportunity for a lot of sound designers to meet up, some for the first time, and discuss relevant issues

China - A full range of Fohhn loudspeakers, DSP-based amplifiers, remote control and networking technology has recently been installed in a new 1200-seat theatre in Dongyang. The town, which has a population of around 800,000, is situated in the Chinese province of Zhejiang. Recent economic growth in the region has resulted in the building of the new theatre complex, which has been equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual technology.

A total of 82 Fohhn loudspeakers (both conventional speakers and line array systems) have been installed in the new theatre, including 22 AT-66 and twenty AT-10 systems from Fohhn's Arc-Series, eight AS-40 compact subwoofers, 22 Linea Series AL-20 near-field systems and four Linea AL-150 line source column speakers.

Six XM-4 wedges have also been supplied for stage monitoring. In addition, thirty-one DSP-controlled amplifiers - 20 D-2.1500, 10

PLASA 2011 will see the launch of Amptown Cases' brand new Midas Venice F Series SiP Flightcases.

The Midas Venice F Series consoles are the first of the company's products to benefit from the advantage of the SiP technology. The usual rigid foam and rubber covered rear support has been replaced by a one-piece SiP insert. The robust rubber surface and soft core of the SiP inserts guarantees a long life and the best protection for the Midas consoles.

Amptown cases developed the first SiP (Super Impact protection) insert in 1998, initially as the best protection for moving heads, mixing desks, LCD screens and Plasma displays. A soft core and almost incorruptible surface guarantees perfect shock absorption.

PLASA 2011 2-R14

Emulator, the next generation of DJ performance technology that was first showcased at London's Ministry of Sound this summer, will be officially launched at PLASA 2011. This revolutionary piece of technology for DJs combines midi-based software with touch-screen hardware to deliver what the company describes as "stunning results".

Emulator is the world's first and only fully customisable, multi-touch system for professional DJs and music producers. Using a state-of-the-art dual view multi-touch system, Emulator's large-scale interface allows the DJ to become part of the light show as the crowd witnesses their every move, giving the performer a new and exciting way to communicate with the audience.

The official launch of Emulator was organised in partnership with Ministry of Sound as part of the 20:20 project, celebrating the iconic brand's 20th year in the industry. The sh

Australia - Professional Audio Technology Pty Ltd (PAT) has delivered yet another K.M.E. Pano Series line array public address system - this time to the new sports and events hall at Sydney's prestigious Knox Grammar school.

The new sports and events hall, which consists of three basketball courts, a spectator seating gallery and everything else a sporting venue could ask for, will be used for sporting events and can also double as a concert hall comfortably holding up to 800-1,000 spectators. The Front of House concert rig consists of Line Source Units QL 1215 powered by a DA 428 with 700 Watts per channel and subs QLB 118 powered with a DA 230 amplifier with 1,500 Watts per channel. The K.M.E. amplifiers with multi channel functionality and DSP drive the entire system.

Professional Audio Technology's technology specialist Alan Liddelow was at the venue during the first sound

UK - Following SSE Hire's recent move to use Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q as its standard monitor amplifier and Lake LM26 for digital returns with festival systems, SSE Sales has now been appointed as a sub-distributor for the products.

"The Lab.gruppen PLM range was an easy choice for SSE Hire, because of the onboard Lake processing and the fact that the amps can work on a Dante network out of the box" said SSE's Alex Penn.

"The power to weight/size ratio of the PLM 10000Q and PLM 20000Q is phenomenal. We just genuinely believe that these are the best amps to use where we have the choice."

"We are very pleased to be have been appointed as a sub-distributor for Lake/Lab.gruppen because these are great products. The range of amplifiers now available from Lab will work in all market sectors, as well as providing the very best for the touring market."

UK - Mackie brings the HDA High-Definition Arrayable Powered Loudspeaker to PLASA - a new model in the popular HD Series. With the addition of the HDA, Mackie now offers a full range of high-definition loudspeakers including the ultra-compact HD1221, the HD1521 two-way and HD1531 three-way loudspeakers, and the 15" HD1501 and 18" HD1801 subwoofers.

Designed in collaboration with the EAW acoustical design team, the HDA is promoted as "a professional, powerful and extremely flexible compact line array". Configurable with up to four per side, the HDA can handle anything from mid-size houses of worship to large clubs in a cost-effective design.

"The HDA is another example of what Mackie does best: delivering high-end pro audio technology to the masses," said Ben Olswang, Mackie brand product manager. "Thanks to the integration of EAW's design exp

World - Being in discussions and close relations with the alliance since its start in June 2011, the professional audio manufacturer Yamaha has become the ninth full member of OCA Alliance. Membership had been pending due to internal proceedings at the time of the original alliance announcement.

The OCA Alliance has been formed to ensure the standardisation of the Open Control Architecture (OCA) for a wide interoperability of professional audio equipment. Since its formation in June this year the members have been working towards a final technical definition of OCA.

As with all the other members, the Yamaha Corporation was initially approached by Bosch, the initiator of the OCA Alliance, to discuss how to overcome the challenge of interoperability in the professional audio market. "We are glad to now be able to join this alliance, with which we were in close communication

UK - Cadac Holdings is launching its new flagship digital live production console, the CDC Eight at PLASA 2011. This is the British console company's third completely new console design in a year.

Specified for high end sound touring and fixed installation applications, the circa £45K console boasts a "high agility" user interface, accessed via two 24 inch 16:10 high definition LCD touch screens; a further centre located 6-inch LCD touch screen accesses the system control and automation. Combined with a far less menu dependent operating system than other digital consoles, the CDC Eight is promoted as "exceptionally smart, nimble and intuitive in operation".

The CDC Eight features a high I/O count for a desk at this price point, offering 128 input channels - expandable to 256 - and a standard 48 outputs. Two frame sizes offer 16 or 32 faders. Built upo

USA - Sensaphonics has announced the immediate availability of the Dry & Store Zephyr, an electronic desiccant system "so effective it actually deodorizes while it dries earphones". The Zephyr combines gentle heat, moving air, and a powerful desiccant (drying agent) to extract moisture and body oils while drying earwax for easy removal.

In testing with customers whose high levels of sweat and body oils can cause their IEMs to fail, using the Dry & Store Zephyr eliminated all residual moisture from the earphones. Significantly, close examination of the earphones in Sensaphonics labs showed no build-up of body oils inside the earphones, even after two months of use, says the company.

"We're very excited by this product, especially for IEM users whose high levels of sweat can actually cause product failure," states Sensaphonics president Michael Santucci. &quo

UK - Flare Audio has announced the arrival of their new Triwave Flying System for the Triwave i10 multi format loudspeaker, which will be on flown demonstration at PLASA 2011 on stand 1-J13.

Designed by Flare Audio and milled in the UK by specialist engineers, the Triwave Flying System is made from solid aerospace aluminium and highlights the best of British high precision design and engineering, the company says.

The system is lightweight, quick to fly and capable of flying up to 33 Triwave i10 speakers. The system is fully contained with no loose parts.

The company states: "During beta testing at music concerts this summer Triwave produced stunning audio comparable only to true studio reference quality, which captivated audiences and impressed the FOH sound engineers using the new system. Triwave requires no system EQ, which results in a flat response that has an incr

UK - In order to keep pace with the success and high demand of the recently introduced Resolution 3, Funktion One has enhanced its production with a new set of tooling for the mid high wave guides. This new tooling created the opportunity to refine the technology taking the product to a new level, says the company. This has also given rise to the new stand-alone R3SH which has been used to great acclaim in venues as diverse as the National Theatre, for Danny Boyle's production of Frankenstein, to the main room at Space Ibiza. This further underlines Funktion One's stance that good loudspeakers are in no way genre specific and are suitable for all audio applications.

Demonstrations of the full range of products will be taking place throughout the show in the Funktion One demonstration room located in the Permanent Press Office, near the Terrace Restaurant on the Mezzanine

Australia - Jands has been appointed as the exclusive Australian distributer for Furman.

Founded in 1974 and based in Petaluma, California, Furman manufacture a wide range of AC power conditioning and distribution products. With a focus on AC power technologies the company offers professional grade multistage protection, line filtering, extreme voltage shutdown, true RS voltage regulation and power factor correction products.

Jands CEO, Paul Mulholland, states, "I have long admired the innovative products developed by Furman and Jands are proud to be associated with the company. In recent years I have been made aware of our customers growing need and demand for mains protection and management products. It is well known Australia power leaves a lot to be desired and professionals whose livelihood depends on equipment continuing to work will be well served by the products o

Europe - July and August have seen British artist Mika take a short summer holiday from recording his third album, The Origin Of Love, to play at 10 festivals across continental Europe. The shows provided an opportunity to give Sennheiser's latest large format condenser mic, the MK4, a live workout.

The festivals included events in Belgium, Corsica, France, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Switzerland. Mika and his band had an array of Sennheiser equipment on stage and Front of House engineer Craig Pryde took the opportunity to put the new MK4 through its paces.

"I've used Sennheiser for a long time and I use their equipment with other artists, including Alexandra Burke and The Last Shadow Puppets," says Pryde. "I was looking for a large diaphragm condenser mic and so I approached Sennheiser UK's Mark Saunders, who suggested that I try the MK4."

UK - Essex-based Event Sound & Light Ltd (ESL) has expanded its fleet of premium RCF TT+ line array components after investing in further TTL33-A compact active three-way enclosures and TTS28-A active 2 x 18" bass reflex subwoofers.

This takes the company's line array capability up to 24 TTL33-A (or two 12-element hangs) and 12 TTS28-A subs - with active 2-way TT25-A's providing front fills.

Formed in July 2003 following a merger of two local companies, ESL has been specialising in sales, hire and installation ever since. But according to director, Paul Galley, the key part of the business is production and the touring/live events industry.

The pooling of the two companies' respective inventories covered the immediate requirements at the outset but they soon started standardising on key components and increasing stock.

"We had some RCF ART products and the smalle

UAE - Dubai-based Se7en Productions supplies sound and vision to broadcasters from many of the United Arab Emirates leading sporting events, concerts and live television shows. The company has recently invested in two new high-definition outside broadcast trucks, of which Sennheiser equipment is an integral part.

Supplied by Sennheiser's UAE distributer Venuetech, the equipment includes 10 HMD 281 PRO single side headsets, seven ME 66 short shotgun microphone capsules with seven K-6 battery / phantom power modules, seven sets of HD 212 PRO professional stereo headphones, and six ew 122-p G3 lapel wireless microphone sets.

"Sennheiser equipment is very much the standard for the broadcast industry throughout the world," says Venuetech's technical director Elie Khairallah. "The ew 122-p G3 lapel mic system allows for very convenient camera work in electronic news g

USA - PLASA Focus: Austin 2012 is now online at www.plasafocus.com/austin, offering pre-registration email update sign-ups for visitors and application information and materials for exhibitors.

The two-day event, to be held 22-23 February 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas, continues to attract a growing list of high-profile exhibitors, who see the event as an opportunity to reach a regional market of customers and network with fellow exhibitors.

Confirmed exhibitors include GLP German Lighting Products, Daktronics Rigging, Clay Paky, Total Structures, High End Systems, Chauvet, Philips Color Kinetics, A.C.T Lighting, Doug Fleenor Design, Strong Entertainment Lighting, and Secoa, with many more expected to follow.

In addition, PLASA Focus: Tech - a recently announced audio, video, and lighting workshop and concert - will be held in tandem with PLASA Focus: Austin 2012. Th

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd., a leading one-stop provider of new and used professional equipment to the entertainment industry, showcases a selection of lighting, audio, rigging and video solutions available from its vast range of premium brands on Stand E10, Hall 1 at PLASA 2011.

Teams from all of AC-ET's specialist product divisions will be there to discuss the large, multi-million pound stockholding of over 200 leading brands available from AC-ET's High Wycombe and Leeds offices for worldwide dispatch to over 80 countries - as well as in-house filter and cable manufacturing facilities and wide range of consumables - backed up by an emergency evening and weekend delivery service.

Lighting:

The A.C. Lighting division of AC-ET will showcase the new GLP Impression Wash One and Spot One high powered LED spot and washlight moving heads. The latest mo

USA - Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica is one of New York's popular tourist destinations. Long renowned for its impressive collection of religious artwork and breathtaking 19th century French architecture, the church receives nearly 2,000 visitors monthly who come to attend services or simply to view its magnificent structural design and awe-inspiring collection of religious sculptures and artwork.

The historical basilica is visually stunning but its vaulted ceilings and abundance of hard surfaces create acoustical challenges for audio engineers during religious services. Desiring to eliminate as much reverb as possible and increase speech intelligibility, Our Lady of Victory recently installed a Renkus-Heinz Iconyx digitally steerable line array system for enhanced sound quality.

Explains John Burckhalter, pro audio/video project manager at Ronco Specialized S

USA - Richard Stratford has been appointed as president of Penn-Elcom Inc. in the USA and will head up all the company's North American operations.

He will lead the sales and operational elements of the flightcase and loudspeaker solutions specialist's busy US businesses, including its four distribution hubs, assuming full responsibility for their day-to-day running.

Stratford started his Penn career 28 years ago in 1983 on the production line of their anodising company, quickly moving up into a management role. He relocated to New Jersey in 1988 to become the general manager of that particular venture, before being appointed vice president of sales in 2003.

Says Stratford, "It is a great honour to be appointed president of North America. The US market is one of our most competitive and constantly changing in the world, and I look forward to helping produce many positiv

UK - Renkus-Heinz will show its latest products at PLASA 2011 on the POLARaudio stand (1-F2) - and visitors will have an opportunity to hear the IC Live digital beam steering system live in the Technologies for Worship Pavilion, where the system will be in use for lectures throughout the day.

Heading the list on the stand is the new IC2 - billed as the first ever high powered, medium format digitally steerable loudspeaker system. Designed for theatre and club installations and integrating digital beam steering with high power output, built in amplification and RHAON network control, it opens up a totally new product sector in pro audio, for venues looking for the ultimate in quality and control, says the company.

Each IC2 two-way 8-inch module delivers articulate musicality and powerful punch, with a versatile design that can be used as a stand-alone high-performance loudspeak

Fringe Record - Sales of tickets at this year's Edinburgh Fringe are up by 3% on last year. According to figures released by the Fringe Society 1,877,000 tickets were sold by its box office over the last three and a half weeks. It is another increase on the record breaking sales achieved in 2010. Poor weather during August and a greater concentration of venues in one part of the city did not appear to have had an adverse effect on ticket sales. During the Fringe this year there were a record-breaking 2,542 shows, with about 21,000 performers presenting 41,689 performances in 258 venues.

Off Broadway - Broadway shows were cancelled on Saturday as New York braced itself for the full force of Hurricane Irene to strike. They included Cirque du Soleil's Zarkana at Radio City Music Hall and War Horse at Lincoln Center Theatre. "The safety and security of thea

China - Hangzhou is famous for its natural scenery and its West Lake. This thriving city is also home to the Dongpo Theater, the flagship theatre of Gold Coast Culture Development, better known as the Gold Coast Company. As one of the top entertainment theatres in China, the Dongpo Theatre offers two performances nightly year -round Night of West Lake for the tourists and the Gold Coast Entertainment Show for local citizens.

Sound quality is a major consideration for all who perform at the Dongpo Theatre, which is considered a cultural and entertainment landmark. This is why a new sound reinforcement system drawn from the catalogue of D.A.S. Audio was recently placed into service.

Ms. Jie Han, Gold Coast Company's project manager, comments, "As the largest theatre chain in China, the Gold Coast Company operates over 50 theatre productions at its 14 theatres

Latest Issue. . .