UK - Delta Sound, has taken delivery of 32 EMS-122w loudspeakers from EM Acoustics for its core rental stock. The EMS-122w is a wide dispersion, high quality passive 12" enclosure designed for applications which require a compact, powerful, full-range loudspeaker.

Delta Sound operations director, Jon Bell, explained his choice. "We needed to source 32 high quality 12" loudspeakers and flying frames within a very short lead time for a specific rental project. The speakers and amplifiers needed to be installed and working within a month and would remain in situ for another nine months working six days per week for 12 hours a day during that period. Obviously the bar was set pretty high from the outset, so we needed to know that whatever we invested in would be 100% reliable, and that we could count on the manufacturer to deliver on time."

"EM Acoustics t

Germany - Paderborn-based rental company Sound Linear has invested in a complete 45°N-12 monitor system, driven by NXAMPs4x4 with ES extensions. First outing for the new system is the Ina Müller Tour, starting mid-November in Germany and running until the end of March 2012. The tour is carrying 12x 45°N-12.

"The decision to add the 45°N-12s to our comprehensive Nexo inventory was made during the first demo we had from Reinhard Steger at a Nexo seminar last year. I think I can say, we were one of the first to make up our mind," says Kalle Hogrefe, director of Sound Linear.

Guido Sehrbrock, another director of Sound Linear and the monitor specialist in the company, agrees. "Having listened to the wedges perform well in many different applications, we have been watching their reputation grow, and were just waiting for the right time to invest."

France - Des Femmes by Canadian writer and director, Wajdi Mouawad, is a controversial production of a trilogy of Greek tragedies by Sophocles. A dramatic and unsettling blend of theatre and rock music, the tension generated by Des Femmes is significantly heightened by the participation of French rock star Bertrand Cantat, formerly of the group Noir Désir.

Cantat, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend, actress Marie Trintignant, in 2003 during a violent domestic dispute, wrote the music for the production and is performing a certain number of dates. The rest will be performed by singer Igor Quezeda. Mouawad justified the inclusion of Cantat by saying, "Electra, Antigone and The Women of Trachis are plays about justice and revenge . . . Cantat's presence at the edge of the action will make those themes more powerful."

He

UK - Flight case manufacturer 5 Star has supplied well over 1000 cases to West Midlands-based AV rental specialists Central Presentations (CPL) in the last seven years, which have ranged from audio equipment, 19" racks, projector, plasma and LCDs and video production cases.

5 Star's Keith Sykes says: "Clients like CPL are invaluable. They are extremely busy year-round, their work is always varied and interesting and they are constantly expanding the equipment and rental stock, all of which needs flight casing for on-going road work. Consequently, we are involved in supplying a full range of standard and special cases."

The latest CPL 5 Star case project has involved a custom designed set of road cases for CPL's newest series of 'fly away' portable video production units (PPUs).

This is a smaller PPU specifically designed to service the proliferation of project

Australia - In order to keep up with the digital audio console market, corporate events specialists AVCorp was recently on the hunt for a new console.

"We needed a console that had 32 channels, was small and compact and had everything at your fingertips," explained Mike Papas, owner of AVCorp.

The Soundcraft Si Compact 32 console fitted the bill. "I know that if you get product from Jands you always get very good back up service," said Papas. "Our Soundcraft Si has proved to be a very cost-effective, powerful mixer and a natural choice for a company such as ours. Oh, and it sounds great too."

"My guys love it. They were wary at first as it's a relatively new console to the market and they weren't familiar with it. However we discovered that you only need an hour or two to get your head around it. Now, even the most sceptical have become the

UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributors of Midas and Klark Teknik in the Middle East have recently upgraded the PRO6 console of Sound & Stage to a PRO9. Providing the Dubai based rental company with an additional 24 inputs for a total of 80 inputs, 8 aux returns for a total 88 inputs and 35 mix busses.

The company has also added the DL431 microphone splitters and the DN9696 High Resolution Audio Recorder to their system, providing greater flexibility and broadcast quality recording capabilities.

"Sound & Stage have made the natural progression to re-investing in their Midas digital system by increasing the I/O and having the recording capability for the high end shows they produce," commented Chicco Hiranandani, business development manager at NMK.

He added, "The best part is that they have invested in the DL431s which are an amazing com

UAE - Matrix Audio Visual & Entertainment, a Dubai based rental firm has recently purchased the new HK Audio Elements speaker system from Dubai based distributors Melody House. The rental firm has been using the system for various corporate and DJ events around the city with "an overwhelming response" from both clients and attendees to their functions.

Matrix provides both entertainment and AV services to the UAE and the region. With recent investments in a new facility at the Dubai Investment Park, purchases in AV equipment, the company is growing to meet their existing and new clients' requirements. The recent purchase of the Elements system highlights their focus to reinforce their inventory with modular, scalable and innovative solutions.

"The Elements is a perfect fit for Matrix as they do a variety of shows for their clients," commented Dino Drimakis,

UK - Audio Light Systems has installed a Theatre Plan specified sound system at Notre Dame School, Cobham. The recently completed school theatre required a sound system that would be of high quality and solid reputation.

Twenty-two boxes were supplied including MSE-159, EMS-61, i-5.5, i-2.2 and M-10 loudspeakers. Mixers, processing, source and amplification were also supplied as part of the package.

"The sound was really impressive; EM acoustics really deserve the name they are making for themselves," said Steven Aitchison, project engineer Audio Light Systems.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has introduced the newest addition to their Distributed Design Series of ceiling and surface mount loudspeakers.

Featuring identical components to the D6 ceiling model, the DP6 pendant loudspeaker offers "the superior sound quality, exceptional intelligibility and unparalleled performance that has quickly established the Distributed Design Series as a favourite among installed sound professionals".

A true coaxial loudspeaker with an HF compression driver, the DP6 offers Community's patented Carbon Ring Cone Technology and Tru-Phase high-frequency waveguide for consistent, wide dispersion up to 16 kHz. Uniform voicing allows the entire range of Distributed Design ceiling, surface and pendant mount loudspeakers to be combined in a single installation with no compromise of consistency from zone to zone.

The DP6 is equipped wit

UK - Continued expansion of their specialist installations division has prompted Pro Audio Systems to recruit Neil Muir to its full time staff.

Muir is well known throughout the UK production business following his stint at Yamaha Commercial Audio where he specialised in digital audio networking technologies. A graduate in electronic engineering from the University of York, his decade of experience in the production industry includes hands-on touring work as well as sales and project management.

He also manages to find time to pursue his interests as a professional musician, in which capacity his recent projects include playing trombone for indie favourites Shed Seven on their recent UK tour.

Pro Audio Systems MD Brian Lumb said: "The complexity and sophistication of the installation work we are increasingly being called upon to undertake made it vital to recruit someon

UK - Mike Glover of Essex Sound & Light (ESL) has spent 2011 engaged in installation projects as far afield as Delhi and Spain - but he saved one of his best creations for a nightclub right on his own Southend doorstep.

Chameleon has been a landmark venue since it first opened as Mr. B's Discotheque in the mid-80s. The venue subsequently underwent many iterations and corporate ownership changes before falling into demise following the collapse of CanDu Entertainment three and a half years ago.

As a result, enterprising local entrepreneur Dick De Vigne (whose eponymous 500-capacity Dick De Vigne's nightclub is the lynch-pin of the burgeoning Warrior Square scene nearby), snapped up Chameleon on Lucy Road from the receivers.

Not only does Lucy Road provide the traditional nightlife heartbeat of Southend but De Vigne also owned this place previously (first as Discotheque Buzz a

India - Game of Legends, a new sports bar located in City Square Mall, Rajouri Garden, New Delhi, has been given a Tannoy sound system by install experts Audio Jewellers.

Design consultants and AV contractors Shitij Harnwal and Narinder Pal Singh from Audio Jewellers worked closely with architect Luvpreet Singh to produce an excellent sounding venue without compromising the aesthetics of the sports bar.

Working with a strict budget and keeping in mind the extensive requirements of an integrated system, Audio Jewellers specified a complete solution that delivers on all counts, turning to Tannoy's new VX Series in one of the first installations of its kind in the region.

The system comprised two Tannoy VX 12 high performance loudspeakers, eight Di5 ultra compact loudspeakers, and six Tannoy Mercury compact stand-mount loudspeakers. These were supplemented by four VS Series sub

UK - Audio Light Systems has completed the AV installation in the Moffat Auditorium at the National Museum of Scotland as part of the £46m epic transformation.

The auditorium which was originally a 1950's screening cinema was fully refurbished & modernised. It now houses an 8m screen, Christie Digital HD10K-M high definition projector which is fed via a Analog Way SME100 seamless switcher. An Allen & Heath iDR system processes and controls the audio from Tascam & Bluray systems.

The Extron & Crestron systems provide easy end user control with an 8.4" WIFI Touch screen.

"Our museum portfolio has increased dramatically in the last few years. We are very proud of our workmanship which leads to repeat business as attention to detail is incredibly important in these environments," says Stephen Dishon, project engineer at Audio Light Systems.

(Jim Evans)

Poland - Laying between Gdansk to the south and Gdynia in the north lays the lesser known resort city of Sopot on the Baltic coast. Here the new Ergo Arena and Entertainment Hall (EAEH) has taken the seemingly perfected sports arena design up another notch.

"In the way of other such buildings the Ergo Arena can accommodate almost all the indoor sports to world championship standard," said Piotr Jankiewicz from Konsbud-Audio who installed the arena's sound system, "hockey, volley and basketball, even combat sports; and from the outset the architectural design has fully addressed the needs of touring shows, you can fly the biggest productions here."

The challenges of the audio system have also been anticipated by the architects (KIPP Projekt of Poland),as Jankiewicz explained. "This is a maximum 15,000 capacity arena for standing events, so it's in the '

UK - Following the announcement yesterday (20 December) of Westminster School's purchase of Lawrence Hall from the Royal Horticultural Society, organisers of the ABTT 2012 Theatre Show moved swiftly to announce the event will be transferring to a new venue.

The Show's director, Roger Fox, spoke to assure both exhibitors and visitors that the 2012 Show would be going ahead, explaining: "This announcement has come as a surprise to us today and at a time when planning for the 2012 Show was well advanced. Discussions to secure an alternative venue are already in progress, which we see as also an opportunity to offer improved facilities for our exhibitors and visitors."

At present it is unsure if the Show's previously published June 2012 dates will be available at an alternative venue, but all effort is being made to avoid changes to the timing of this important annual ev

UK - Duran Audio will be running a three day training course at City Hall, Cardiff from 6-8 February 2012. These days are aimed at consultants, sound system designers, installers and users who wish to learn more about AXYS products and software. All three days involve a combination of presentations, demonstrations and practical activities. There will also be some 'free time' set aside for attendees to experiment with the products.

Day one will focus on the AXYS Intellivox range. The Intellivox range, first introduced in 1996, was the pioneer of beam steering. AXYS Intellivox units have since been installed in airports, atriums, railway stations, shopping malls, theatres, concert halls, museums, and many more difficult acoustic environments all over the world to provide highly intelligible speech reproduction in environments.

Day two will focus on how to successfully design and

UK - Friendly Fires are playing their biggest tour to date with a Midas PRO6 live audio system on monitors, supplied by SSE Audio.

It was the band's vocalist Ed Macfarlane who prompted the change to Midas. "We did a couple of shows with an XL3 and he loved the sound of it," explains monitor engineer Simon Lutkin. "We then encountered some PRO6s and XL8s at festivals, which sold it to us both. I had used Midas digital before on FOH and knew the sound quality was equal to, if not better than, most analogue desks. When I started using the PRO6 in rehearsals I knew it was going to work straight away. I now have the best of both worlds - a great familiar Midas analogue sound in a flexible digital package."

Working with between 32 and 40 inputs per show, Lutkins is dealing with four stereo IEM feeds, six wedge mixes, sidefills and a butt kicker. "I'm using A

The Netherlands - Pan Acoustics, the German designer and manufacturer of beam steerable loudspeaker systems with the brand names Pan Beam and Pan Jericho, will be featuring a number of new products at ISE 2012 (7F210, Hall 7, stand nr. 210).

At ISE 2012 Pan Acoustics will introduce a new 'small ' active digitally steerable compact column speaker within the Pan Beam range, the PB04, and within the Pan Jericho range the proto type of a High Power 'Crowd Control ' system, the PJ16.

The PB04 is offering user-friendly Windows software to control all parameters such as beam control, four-band parametric EQ, volume control, focus distance and opening angles. It offers the same design and enclosure as the well-known PB08, but is half of the height and therefore it is suitable for installations, where PB08 is oversized. PB04 works with the same software and in the same network together

UK - The refurbishment of School Hall at Eton College provided yet another opportunity for the simplicity and functionality of the Roland REAC system and M-300 mixer to shine. Specified by Andrew Hingley from HHB Communications, the M-300 was installed alongside S-1608 and S-0816 digital stage boxes to form a multi-function sound system.

The hall itself had undergone a major refurbishment taking almost a year to complete and due to its ornate structure, the sound system installation had to be as discrete as possible. The hall is a large building and with the mixing position being virtually the furthest point from the stage, Hingley had to find a way to cover the distance whilst avoiding unsightly cable runs.

The hall is generally used for assemblies where a simple mic and playback is sufficient but can, on occasions, need to cope with big band jazz concerts and multitrack reco

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 college, and a dinner theatre, as well as many years as a nexus of the women's rights movement. Recognized on the list of U.S. National Historic Places, its stage has played host to speakers as varied as Margaret Sanger and Woodrow Wilson.

In support of the DCT's efforts, Community Professional Loudspea

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 array loudspeakers, four MSL-4 loudspeakers, four UPA-1P loudspeakers, 14 700-HP subwoofers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system.

"It's their small headlining rig," explains Blackhawk Audio's Jamie Nixon. "They work a lot: they do a lot of secular tours as a support act. When

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.

The main input channels feature Audient's Class A preamp and 4 band EQ, a combination found in hundreds of ASP8024 equipped studios, where many users no longer feel the need to reach for their outboard preamps and EQ. The console features 40 faders, 16 bus routing, six auxes, two dedicated cue sends,

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 German show - Willemijn Verkaik. Although a fluent German speaker, Willemijn is Dutch and so the perfect choice to reprise her brilliant role as Elpheba - she is effectively coming home!

"The Circustheater is a challenge - with a circular seating area, it presents a number of acoustic difficult

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://www.facebook.com/YamahaCommercialAudioEurope,where an entry form and complete terms and conditions are available.

The company has also revealed the celebrity judge who will choose the winning photographs in January. Radiohead bass guitarist Colin Greenwood is an accomplished photographer, whose

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