Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Sound

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USA - When composer Joseph Bertolozzi and sound engineer Ron Kuhnke chose Tannoy Di 8DCs for an outdoor, site-specific art installation on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Mid-Hudson Bridge, they knew the speakers were going to take some punishment from the elements.

While he knew the speakers would have to function in some fairly nasty weather, he never expected they'd have to stand up to a storm like Irene. "It rains, it gets cold, but we actually take the speakers down from 31 October to 1 April," he says, "because conditions on the bridge in winter are like being in the North Atlantic."

First conceived in 2004, Bertolozzi's Bridge Music is composed exclusively from sounds created using a variety of mallets to strike the bridge's guardrails, girders, spindles and ropes - virtually every possible surface with the exception of the road - essentially transf

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UK - In the fifth annual International Series match at Wembley Stadium in, the Chicago Bears enjoyed a successful trip back to the UK by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-18. A crowd of almost 77,000 enjoyed all the traditional glitz and glamour of American football, including pre-game shows from the GooGoo Dolls, Noah Stewart and Katherine Jenkins.

Britannia Row Productions deployed an extensive Outline loudspeaker system, comprising 12 arrays of Butterfly, each stacked four high on a pair of Outline Subtech subwoofers, to handle sound reinforcement for both the various entertainments and the in-match commentary.

The project was headed up by Britannia Row's Dan Orchard, with Kieran Walsh supervising radio, Sergiy Zitnikov handling speaker technician duties and Stefan Krista managing the stage audio for the pre-match entertainment. An additional four BRP technicians dealt wi

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China - UK-based Studiomaster and Carlsbro exhibited at Music China this year, unveiling several new and improved product ranges. Immediately after the exhibition, both companies hosted a joint international distributor conference at the Ningbo HQ of their Soundking Group parent company, south of Shanghai.

Studiomaster and Carlsbro exhibited together with their national distributor Highsun Audio, showing new products, including first sight of the new Carlsbro VAC series valve guitar combo and an electronic drum kit, as well as newly revamped and uprated Stingray, Sherwood and Colt amplifier series.

International sales director Andrew Bishop stated, "Carlsbro VAC is the first series in a range of amplification which meets requirements, advised to us by our international distributors, for affordable, high performance backline amps. The styling, specification and tone of the

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Europe - Eclectic British musician, Patrick Wolf, has embarked on another European tour with a Dante-enabled Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system managing both FOH and monitors, supported by PA company, Britannia Row.

FOH Engineer, Fabrizio Piazzini, selected an iDR10 MixRack for monitors, digitally split using Dante to an iDR-16 for FOH, with an iLive-144 Control Surface at FOH and iLive-80 for monitors. A third MixRack, an iDR0, will provide the I/O for live recording via the Dante network, controlled from FOH. No additional hardware is required as Audinate's Dante virtual soundcard is installed on laptops to run multi-track recording software, Reaper.

"Patrick has a very elaborate style, so it's great the iLive system has a lot of headroom and you can really drive the inputs. Even if he goes nuts and plays really hard, it's not going to start distorting. With othe

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UK - Liverpool-based Adlib's audio division supplied an L-Acoustics K1 sound system and crew for The Specials most recent tour.

It was Adlib's second Specials tour and the first for monitor systems engineer Marc Peers who jumped at the opportunity to be onboard. "It's an absolute privilege to get to work with one of the best and most original bands of that era," he enthuses.

With up to 13 musicians and performers onstage at peak times, monitor world was quite frenetic. Peers was working alongside Specials monitor engineer Pete Abbott, who has been with them since 2009, like Adlib, coming onboard via tour manager Mike Darling.

Adlib supplied 16 d&b M2 wedges, powered by D12 amplifiers, which handled a total of 12 mixes. Lynval Golding, Neville Staple and the flute player used IEMs, together with the string section so a mix of Sennheiser G3 supplied by ADLIB and G2 o

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France - Adamson Systems Engineering has announced the addition of MPM France to the list of Project Energia beta partners. France is a key European territory for Adamson, with more than 30 vendors carrying the Y-Axis and SpekTrix series.

Brock Adamson, president and CEO of Adamson Systems Engineering, comments, "MPM has been a strong partner for many years. They are a dynamic organisation working on regional and international work. With more than 500 Adamson cabinets in their inventory, we could not ask of a better partner to lead the way with Project Energia in France. We look forward to their input as Energia progresses."

Marc Morosini, director general of MPM visited Canada last autumn to listen to one of the first finished prototypes of the E15 system. Morosini comments on Project Energia, "This system offers more power than any other cabinet, in a smaller

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USA - PLASA Focus: Austin welcomes a raft of new exhibitors as the two-day event expands its floor plan yet again. The new style of regional event, to be held 22-23 February 22-23, 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas, has doubled its footprint in the past week, with over 25 companies committed to taking part and as many applications being processed.

Joining confirmed exhibitors ETC, Barbizon, Philips Color Kinetics, Doug Fleenor Design, Strong Entertainment Lighting, Chauvet, A.C.T Lighting, Global Design Solutions, CommuniLux Productions, GLP German Light Products, Daktronics Rigging, Total Structures, Arri, Rosco, Rose Brand, Robe, High End Systems, Secoa and Clay Paky, amongst others, are new exhibitors; Elation, White Light, LSC, James Thomas Engineering, Creative Stage Lighting, Inlight Gobos, Mainstage Theatrical Supply, Martin Professional and TMB.

PLASA Focus' much t

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UK - With the live music industry heading indoors for the winter, Yamaha UK has had time to reflect on the company's most successful summer yet. As well as the major events like Glastonbury, T In The Park and many others, Yamaha technology allows many smaller productions to take place outdoors. Christchurch-based CPS Group used the company's equipment to provide a highly innovative audio system at a series of orchestral shows.CPS Group and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra spent several weekends staging seven outdoor shows at Osbourne House on the Isle of Wight, Mercedes Benz World in Weybridge, Meyrick Park in Bournemouth and Broadlands House, Romsey. All featured a Classical Prom, with the latter three venues adding a second night titled Symphonic Disco, featuring West End artists performing numbers from shows such as Mamma Mia and Saturday Night Fever.&quo

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UK - Powered by the Roland V-Mixing System and billed as A Night of Power and Romance, the recent performance at the Birmingham Symphony Hall by The Enid promised to be both technically and musically challenging for the musicians and audience alike.

Taking on the task of providing the audio equipment for a show which included more than 80 instruments, Simon Kenning and Phil Palmer from Roland Systems Group took full advantage of the flexibility of the V-Mixing System.

For the performance, which needed to be recorded as well as having many live considerations, they chose two M-480 Live Mixing Consoles in cascade mode, one S-4000 Rack with 40 inputs, 10 M-48 Live Personal Mixers for the band, conductor and organist and two of the new R-1000 Audio Recorders to do synchronized 80 track recording in 24bit 48kHz. Abbey Road provided a digital split from their recording truck

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Germany - IOSONO, a provider of spatial audio systems and Berlin-based AFMG, creators of EASE, the industry-standard for simulation of room acoustics, recently teamed up to develop a new approach to making virtual acoustical environments audible.

"Architects, their clients, engineers or even movie sound designers will enter into a new world of possibilities to engulf listeners in the sound of a virtual surrounding," says Frank Melchior, CTO at IOSONO.

"Just imagine that a number of listeners can all enjoy an identical acoustical experience at the same time, no matter where in the room they are sitting," adds Stefan Feistel, manager of AFMG. "Architects will hold their presentations not only with a slideshow of photo-realistic pictures but talking live within the acoustical situation of the room simulated in EASE. Designs of concert halls, cinemas, soun

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USA - Audica Professional has announced that it has gained UL approval for its MICROseries loudspeakers. The approvals include UL1480 and UL2043 for the MICROdot ceiling loudspeaker and UL1480 for the MICROpoint and MICROline on-wall loudspeakers. The MICROzone and MICROplus electronics are cTUVus approved.

"At this year's Infocomm the interest in Audica Professional from contractors was excellent," commented Audica Professional's sales director, Derek West, "They appreciated the styling and audio quality, but it was clear that UL approvals were needed before the product was going to be specified on a larger scale and in most public buildings. We have a great distributor, with TC Group Americas, and now with North American approvals we are confident that we will see significant growth in the American markets".

Audica Professional's MICROseries offers audio

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USA - This year's WFX Worship Facilities Show, from 9-11 November in Dallas, is shaping up to be the biggest in the event's history. Renkus-Heinz will be showcasing some of its latest loudspeaker products, including IC2 (IC Squared), the first digitally steerable array that combines the power and focus of point source loudspeaker technology with the control and flexibility of a digitally steerable line array.

Also on display will also be the newest iteration of Renkus-Heinz's Iconyx low-profile digitally steerable arrays, the IC8-R MkII and IC16-R MkII, featuring triple tweeter technology. Along with demonstrations of Renkus-Heinz technologies including RHAON Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network and BeamWare Iconyx digital beam steering and configuration software, the company will also be exhibiting their CF-101LA modular point source array loudspeakers.

Away from the booth,

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Sweden - Audiorama is a new facility in Stockholm, dedicated to staging innovative productions of sound art and electro-acoustic music. Said to be the only venue of its type in Northern Europe, it is located in an old torpedo workshop in Skeppsholmen and puts on a diverse range of events, from audio drama and sound art, through to special children and youth productions. All the events are different in their own way, but connected by their use of sound.

The venue is able to hold a seated audience of between 70 and 100 people. These audiences are entertained by productions that are exclusively audio, so a dedicated sound system has been designed for an exclusive listening experience. The system is made up of 21 loudspeakers in discrete channels, that surround the listener from floor to ceiling.

Designed by Marcus Wrangö, technical producer at Audiorama, the soundscapes are proj

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UAE - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems in the United Arab Emirates has recently supplied the InterContinental Hotel in Dubai Festival City with the new Elements speaker system. The hotel intends to use the system for various themed nights at their Mediterranean cuisine Zaytoun Restaurant where a DJ will perform throughout the night.

"The success of the Elements can be attributed to its modular design, the fact that the system can scale as per the client's requirements and most importantly it sounds good," commented Dino Drimakis, business development manager at Melody House. "The hotel will surely be pleased with their investment and will see immediate return as it can be adapted to any other events or activities in the hotel property."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Audience, performers and crew are unlikely to forget this year's bonfire night celebrations at Dunorlan Park, where a new dBTechnologies DVA T12 rig enabled all 14,000 visitors to hear the Rock Choir perform, before the evening culminated in a spectacular 30-minute long firework display.

The Dunorlan Park firework event was the first outing for the dBTechnologies DVA T12 system supplied by rental company Phonophobia. "We have been in this industry for many years now, and once you are established you tend to think the tool box is full of everything you will ever need," said Phonophobia's Mark Chant, initially sceptical of what dBTechnologies and its largest line array system could add to his inventory. On 5 November, however, it was a different story. "It was a total success! We provided clear, clean audio at high SPLs across a large audience area, flying a to

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Italy - The Venice Jazz Festival included an impressive series of concerts in San Marco Square, where Hollywood Service was engaged for the second consecutive year to provide audio production services with its inventory of Turbosound loudspeaker systems.

Among the performers this year were the Italian Navy, James Taylor, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Venice La Fenice, and the well-know Italian singer Biagio Antonacci.

But the highlight of this year's event was the appearance of Sting on 29 July in Piazza San Marco. This was just one date of his worldwide Symphonicity Tour which has seen Sting and his band accompanied by the 50-piece Philharmonic Orchestra La Fenice.

The festival organiser's intention was to highlight as much as possible the stunning architectural values of San Marco square, and this meant that the stage had to appear less invasive than the previous ye

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USA - High End Systems has announced a new Wholehog MIDI/LTC Widget and cosmetic changes to other existing Wholehog accessory products.

The new MIDI/LTC widget replaces the original LTC Widget and adds additional MIDI functionality with MIDI in/out/thru capability. Packaged in a lightweight metallic black case, the Wholehog MIDI/LTC Widget connects to any USB enabled Windows PC, Road Hog console, or Wholehog 3 console to provide a single Linear Timecode input as well as MIDI input/output capabilities.

When used in conjunction with a Wholehog 3 console, Road Hog console, or Hog 3PC software, the new MIDI/LTC Widget provides a powerful level of timecode and MIDI functionality. This configuration provides an excellent solution for backup and show control applications, says the company.

All other Wholehog Widgets have also changed packaging to a modern, lightweight metallic blac

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies' audio division has supplied a second Soundcraft Vi1 digital mixing console to Leeds based rental and technical production specialist 3D Productions. This follows high demand for the console since the company made their first investment.

3D's David Whittlestone decided to purchase the Soundcraft Vi1 consoles after considering many options. He chose them primarily because of the quality of the mic preamps, the competitive price of the console and the flexibility and expandability of the control platform. He adds that the quality of the onboard effects is excellent, "our engineers are all very happy."

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Britannia Row Productions has recently boosted its investment in Lake's LM Series Digital Audio Processors, having recently purchased another 17 units of the new LM 44 and a dozen LM 26s to add to its existing Lake inventory. This new purchase means Britannia Row now holds a total of 70 Lake LM Series units in stock.

Explaining his company's ongoing investment in Lake, Mike Lowe, finance/production director, Britannia Row, said, "We got into Lake in the very early days when the late, great Bruce Jackson came and visited us here in Britannia Row two or three times and it was pretty amazing the stuff that he showed us then. On top of the fantastic facilities that the Lake processor brought to the party, the end result was a great improvement in sound quality, and that was really the kicker for making the move in the first place."

Bryan Grant, Managing Director at

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UK - Manchester's Ritz Ballroom has re-opened after a complete £2m refurbishment, including a state Turbosound Flex Array audio system installed by Dimension Audio.

The HMV Ritz is one of Manchester's top live music and club venues, featuring in the coming months such diverse artists as Switchfoot, An Evening With Cake, Alabama 3, Thurston Moore, George Clinton with Parliament Funkadelic, Roots Manuva, and Steve Harley's Cockney Rebel.

Dimension Audio's project manager Andy Laurie headed up the install team of Ian Silcock and Pete Morgan to complete the job to a record six-week schedule, ensuring the timely delivery of the vast range of equipment and the commissioning of the Flex Array PA system.

The Ritz's main room has a capacity of 1,500 people over two floors in the style of a classic Victorian ballroom. Dimension's Andy Laurie describes the audio specification in

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World - Dolly Parton is performing across America, Europe, and Australia on the Better Day World Tour in support of her recently released album of the same name. FOH engineer and production manager Mike Fechner and monitor engineer Jason Glass, both of whom have been with Parton for several years, insisted on a Meyer Sound reinforcement system consisting of MILO and MICA line array loudspeakers.

For the US legs of the tour, Livonia, Mich.-based Thunder Audio provided a Meyer Sound system comprised of 24 MILO and 16 MICA line array loudspeakers; eight 700-HP subwoofers; eight UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers; 18 MJF-212A stage monitors; and a Galileo loudspeaker management system. In Europe, equipment support came from Major Tom Ltd. A Countryman ISOMAX headset microphone is provided for Parton in all of her shows.

Systems Engineer Patrick Johnston describes Parton's performanc

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UK Brighton venue, The Haunt, has carried out a major upgrade, installing a Soundcraft Vi1 digital console and highly specified PA system.

Situated opposite Brighton Pier, the converted cinema, which operated most recently as the Kuku Club, wanted to extend its scope from pure playback facilities to become a genuine 350-capacity circuit venue.

The technical team opted for the versatility of a Soundcraft Vi1 digital console, purchased from dealers Crystal Pro Audio and installed by experienced local production and installation company, C3 Productions.

Run by John Crawley and John Castrillon, C3 Productions was chosen for the fit-out, based on their extensive experience with high profile events, including Great Escape, the Brighton Festival, Gay Pride, Brighton Fashion Week, and Brighton and Sussex Universities' Freshers' Balls.

At The Haunt, there had been no technical infr

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USA - Audio-Technica is celebrating its 18th year of supporting the Country Music Association (CMA) Awards by providing an extensive selection of vocal and instrument microphones for its annual awards show.

The 45th Annual CMA Awards aired live in 5.1-channel surround sound Wednesday, 9 November, on the ABC Television Network from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and featured over 200 Audio-Technica microphones, including an impressive array of hard-wired mics and Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems.

The team responsible for the audio at this year's CMA's again included a who's who of broadcast audio. The audio was supervised by award-winning audio producers Michael Abbott and Tom Davis; ATK/Audiotek provided the sound system with FOH mixers Patrick Baltzell and Rick Shimer; the broadcast music mix was handled by New Jersey/California-based M3's (Music Mix Mobile'

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Germany - The organisers of the papal visit to Berlin, Freiburg and Erfurt used comprehensive communication and AV systems from Riedel Communications to ensure successful events. Riedel delivered a solution that included digital trunked radios (TETRA), Artist digital matrix intercom, as well as the fibre based media network MediorNet and the digital audio network RockNet.

Both the strict security requirements as well as the technical demands were extremely high for the five main events associated with the visit. It was crucial to build a reliable communications infrastructure in each location that was also secure from eavesdropping. In addition, the locations needed to be ready to distribute audio and video signals to both broadcast networks and to the on-site video walls.

The two largest events were held in Freiburg, including a vigil and the farewell celebration at the local

  1. Brit Row busy with Midas digital
  2. Roland Systems Group on tour with Toyah
  3. L-Acoustics K1 inaugurates Kiev UEFA stadium
  4. Gabriel Pinheiro chooses DPA for live & recording
  5. Tropical Queensland no sweat for Shure
  6. CAMCO extends D-Power family
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