USA - Founded in 1973 by Marie Swajeski, the Delaware Children's Theatre has made a long-standing tradition of providing live family entertainment for people throughout the tri-state area, including seasonal holiday shows like the current production of Scrooge.

Supported solely through ticket sales and a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, the all-volunteer group makes its home in the historic 100-year-old New Century Club building in Wilmington.

The building's rich history includes stints as a hospital during World War I, an ice cream parlour and pharmacy, a colleg

USA - Contemporary Christian rockers Skillet toured the United States this fall with a Meyer Sound Milo line array loudspeaker system. The Awake and Alive tour brought the Memphis-born band to 16 venues in 12 states. Skillet will return to the road beginning 28 December in Sevierville, Tenn.

Nashville-based Blackhawk Audio provided the touring rig that helped Skillet reach audiences numbering from 2,000 to 8,000, in venues ranging from large churches to small arenas. The Meyer Sound system was comprised of 16 Milo and two Milo 120 line array loudspeakers, eight M'elodie line ar

UK - Following strong global sales of its ASP8024 Dual Layer console, British manufacturer Audient has announced ASP4816, a compact, cost-effective console that maintains the key benefits of the flagship ASP8024 recording console - without the large dimensions.

Due to ship in February 2012, the ASP4816 takes many design cues from the ASP8024, with the same input and monitor design in a smaller frame size. Characterised by Audient's analogue circuitry designed by audio 'guru' David Dearden, the ASP4816 is intended as a centre piece for production studios and educational facilities.

T

The Netherlands - A Dutch language version of Wicked premièred recently at the Circustheater in Scheveningen, representing the third foreign language production that sound designer Tony Meola and associate sound designer Kai Harada have embarked on - tackling a tricky venue in the round. This production of Wicked saw Orbital Sound adding the show to its sound credentials for the first time.

Associated sound designer Kai Harada commented: "This is a really exciting production, with a very strong international cast that includes the original 'green witch' from the Ge

UK - Since September, Yamaha Commercial Audio Europe has been offering the chance to win an LS9-32 digital mixing console in its 25th Anniversary Facebook photo competition. But time is now running out, as the competition closes for entries at midnight on 1 January.

2012marks the 25th Anniversary of Yamaha bringing the first digital mixer to the market and Yamaha Commercial Audio Europe is running the photo competition in celebration. To qualify for entry, photos must be of Yamaha digital consoles in interesting or entertaining settings in use over the past 25 years and posted to http

Turkey - This summer saw Istanbul's Cemil Topuzlu Harbiye Open Air Theatre stage its annual July Summer Concert Series, a three-week festival of music which culminated in a performance by disco diva and Grammy award winner Gloria Gaynor, accompanied by the ENBE Orchestra. Ensuring that the climax to the festival would live long in the memory of Turkish music fans was a DiGiCo SD9 console.

Organised by Pera Events and conducted by founder Behzat Gerçeker, the Istanbul-based ENBE Orchestra played a selection of its own material in the first half and accompanied Gaynor throughout the se

Angola - Situated in the southern suburbs of this prosperous West African sea port, midway between the city's main railway station and its home team football stadium, the Cathedral of Benguela , Angola, Sé Catedral de Nossa Senhora de Fátima to give its proper name, is an imposing piece of modernist architecture. Unadorned, the massive concrete structure has a pleasing symmetry, the walls sloping inward to form a towering triangular building; as well as a focus for Christianity it is also a cool haven from the oppressive heat for its burgeoning congregation.

Benguela Cathedral

UK Adlib finished an outstandingly good year in the comedy - amongst other - sectors, supplying lighting , sound equipment and crew to the final leg of Russell Howard's successful Right Here Right Now UK arena tour.

Adlib first worked with the high profile funny man in 2008, and have followed his spectacular career trajectory encompassing a steadily increasing amount of live work in larger in larger venues.

The tour's lighting was designed by Adlib's award winning Ian Tomlinson, and was operated on the road by Andy Rowe, working with technicians Chris Neary, Shaun Moore and M

France - The Django d'Or International Jazz Awards festival is now in its 20th year. A Europe-wide organization, Django d'Or was founded to honour the jazz greats of our times as well as promote new talent in the spirit of one of jazz's all-time greats, Django Reinhardt. The festival's future was threatened earlier this year when a massive warehouse fire destroyed nineteen years worth of archives. The organization decided to stage a massive benefit concert to ensure the continuation of the festival, and turned to rental specialists Alpha Audio to supply the sound system, which was APG t

USA / Spain - In response to the increasing demand for Constellation acoustic systems around the world, Meyer Sound has added Mac Johnson and Ana Lorente to the Constellation team. Johnson has been named Constellation project manager, transferring from his prior position as education programmes coordinator for the company. Ana Lorente, formerly with the projects department of Meyer Sound Spain, will now serve as Constellation project designer.

"Both Mac and Ana already have extensive experience with Constellation," states John McMahon, Meyer Sound's executive director, digit

Olympic Countdown - The Olympics will cause "a bloodbath of a summer" for London theatres in 2012, Andrew Lloyd Webber has predicted. "Nobody's going to go to the theatre at all," the composer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, predicting that "most of the theatres in London will shut".

"It's going to be very tough," he said, revealing advance bookings were "about 10%" of their normal level. Three major musicals, he added, "are not going to play over the Olympics" - but he would not name them. Lord Lloyd Webber's Real

UK - Co-founded in 1863 by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Lord Leighton, and with Rodin, Churchill and Whistler amongst its former patrons, the Arts Club in Mayfair's Dover Street boasts a glamorous heritage.

Completely refurbished under the new management of Restaurateurs Arjun and Jai Waney, and property entrepreneur Gary Landesberg, they have sought to retain the heritage and charm of this authentic landmark whilst introducing the club as the hub of contemporary cultural life in London.

Designed by David D'Almada of Sagrada, the space consists of a series of individually

USA - The Pig 'n' Whistle in midtown Manhattan is typical of many of the area's taverns. What the narrow storefront space lacks in width, it more than makes up for in depth and height, spanning two floors and extending far to the back of the building it occupies.

"It's only about 25ft wide, but it's more than 75ft deep, and there's an open veranda and dining area upstairs, with a high open ceiling," says Rich Trombitas of Cornwall-based Cardone Solomon & Associates Inc.

"It's a beautiful place," says Trombitas. "The architecture is just stunning, the finish

The Netherlands - Owned by Sander Krouwel, Road Productions is based in central Holland and operates in the corporate event, theatre, one-off events, and concert touring markets. The company is a loyal DiGiCo user, being the first rental company in Holland to purchase a dual D1 Live setup back in 2004. It is now adding to its console inventory with the purchase of a DiGiCo SD8 and SD11.

Road Productions is a key player in the Dutch rental market, working with singers such as Frans Bauer and his live band, and Trijntje.

As a satisfied DiGiCo user, Krouwel invested in a DiGiCo SD9 in

Malaysia - The Vienna Boys Choir performed in the Plenary Hall of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in November, miked with DPA 2011C mics provided by Orange Events, a KL-based rental company.

Blurr Wong, owner of Orange Events, Blurr used two matched-pairs of DPA 2011C twin diaphragm compact cardioids from DPA's new Reference Standard series to mic the 30-piece choir. "These mics are special," says Blurr. "The twin diaphragm capsule design, combined with meticulous engineering, has resulted in the product being a good all-rounder mic. It sounds luscious."

Blurr

UK - Clockaudio has introduced the CW-200 dual channel wireless conferencing system.

The CW-200 provides an affordable, easy to deploy and operate solution for elementary, occasional or portable conferencing applications, says the company. The system comprises two boundary microphone transmitter units and a dual channel UHF receiver.

Receiver and transmitter are operable over 32 selectable frequencies for each channel, and feature auto scan and lock to provide transmission on an available interference-free frequency. Adjustable 'Noise-Lock' squelch and RFI shielding technology negat

Italy - Designed as a speaker solution for indoor installations where the critical acoustic environment is an issue and where moderate visual impact is required, the RCF VSA is now available in three models - VSA 2050, VSA 1250 & VSA 850.

VSA aims to address the audio signal exactly to the listening area, avoiding sending the acoustic energy to ceilings and empty floors, thus not introducing bad reflections that would affect speech intelligibility, mainly in critical environments with high reverberation time, says the company.

"The target we aimed at when designing the VSA was

USA - Renkus-Heinz has announced its EASE Level 1 Training Class schedule for 2012. The classes, conducted by Renkus-Heinz application engineers Jonas Domkus and Jim Mobley, cover the basics of using EASE 4.3 and EASE JR 4.3, with specific focus on room modelling techniques and basic electro-acoustic analysis.

Each three-day session is held at the EASE Learning Lab, located at the Renkus-Heinz headquarters in Foothill Ranch, California, with classes offered quarterly throughout the year.

All classes are based on EASE 4.3 for Windows. Ownership of and basic familiarity with EASE 4.3

USA - The restoration of Omaha's Greater Beth-El Temple is complete after a June 2008 arson attack that nearly destroyed the Apostolic Christian church, popular among Omaha's African-American community. The congregation was forced to relocate while the temple underwent a complete renovation. Left virtually an empty shell after the fire, the building required new floors, a ceiling, a stage, seating, and numerous other necessities including a sound system.

Greater Beth-El services include a full musical ensemble playing contemporary Christian and gospel music. Theatrical performances an

USA - At Winter NAMM 2012, American Audio will be unveiling a new series of "concert-quality German-engineered professional speakers", the SenSeries, as well as a lightweight and affordable power amplifier line, the XLT Series, the company says.

"Both our new SenSeries speakers and XLT amps fill niches in the pro sound marketplace, and offer solutions that end-users have told us they're looking for," said Tom Freret, national sales manager for American Audio. "That's why we are so excited about introducing these products at NAMM."

The company will also

Australia - The inaugural Equitana Sydney event was an extraordinary success with 45,000 attendees over the four days. Sydney Showgrounds was turned into an equine paradise with over 300 horses, five indoor demonstration arenas, two large outdoor competition arenas, 200 education presentations and demonstrations and 280 trade stands in the exhibition.

The key venue, The Dome, was transformed into a 5,000 seat international venue with concert lighting, sound and visuals supplied by Audio Visual Dynamics.

"The production challenges were enormous and the event could not have succe

USA - Clear-Com has named Bob Boster, previously vice president of worldwide sales, as the company's new president. Boster succeeds Matt Danilowicz, formerly company president, whose last day with Clear-Com was 31 December 2011.

"Matt's extraordinary vision and leadership turned around Clear-Com and guided it to its position as the most technologically advanced intercom company in the industry," says Chuck Miyahira, CEO of HM Electronics. "Matt has made enormous contributions to the Clear-Com business and built a strong organisation that is poised for long-term success.

UK - Electrosonic has successfully upgraded some of the key audio-visual components in the Scottish Government's Media Centre at St. Andrew's House in Edinburgh. The Centre has the facility to run presentations, record proceedings and relay images to an adjacent room.

Electrosonic's Edinburgh office refreshed the essential presentation equipment in Media 1 (seating 70), Media 2 (a small briefing/meeting or overflow room), a preparatory Green Room supporting Media 1 & 2, a back projection room (for main control and video routing equipment), and a control room (housing video preview and

UK - It all makes perfect sense, conduct an experiment for the Noise Abatement Society and what's the first thing you do? Rent in a PA system. It does make sense in one way, how else can you investigate the suppression of noise without first creating it, "but this was something completely different," said John Tinline of Encore who provided the system.

"This was another Martyn Ware Illustrious Production 3D sound installation", he continued. "The event was sponsored by the City of Brighton Council. We put 18 d&b audiotechnikQ1 loudspeakers in various places ar

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