UK - Who wouldn't want to be in Leeds on a sunny spring day with all the delights of the PLASA Focus event laid out before you? As usual, long before the need for a mid-morning latte, the place was busy with visitors and exhibitors alike. Nowhere was busier than the d&b audiotechnik stand in the New Dock Hall where the three latest products were on display.

Mounted against a backdrop of vaulted gothic cathedral windows was the rather elegant xC-Series of column loudspeakers, comprising the 16C, 24C and 24C-E. Designed specifically to deliver the d&b System reality in those difficult r

UK - MilTec (UK) Ltd had another busy PLASA Focus show this year with a stand in the New Dock Hall and an audio demo room in the Holiday Inn hotel next door. Both positions were themed to promote MilTec's increasing British manufacturing base. Visitors to the demo room had the opportunity to try out a traditional Kentish ale or a G&T made with London dry gin.

As well as promoting fine British ale and spirits, the company also used the additional space to demonstrate their Blakite range of British speakers along with their own signal processing equipment. New products on show included

USA - Meyer Sound has bolstered its marketing efforts by recruiting Karen Ames for the newly created position of vice president of marketing and communications.

A veteran communications professional who has worked with a diverse range of artists and institutions - from the San Francisco Symphony to George Thorogood - Ames joins the Meyer Sound senior leadership team to head up its global marketing and communications strategy. She is charged with the overall leadership for corporate communications, marketing, advertising and sponsorships, social media, public relations, philanthropy, a

USA - Though he was born in Pasadena, CA, vocalist / composer / performer Gerardo Ortiz was reared in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico. These days, Ortiz is recognised as a stand-out artist in the NorteƱo-Banda, Corridos music genre and, in 2011, he dominated the Billboard Mexican Music Awards. Ortiz is presently on tour and, to ensure the best audio fidelity with consistent coverage, he relies on loudspeakers drawn from the Aero Series 2, Convert, and Road catalogs of Valencia, Spain-based D.A.S. Audio.

Los Angeles-based International House of Music, Inc. (IHOMI), a full service music and

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Royal Record - London's Royal Albert Hall enjoyed a bumper year in 2013, posting record audience numbers of 1.71 million and operating income of £18.6m, up 10.4% on the previous year. The figures represent the most successful year of trading in the venue's 143-year history with 390 events driving a 7% increase in audiences. The venue recorded its highest ever operating surplus of £5.3m. The Hall's own promotions - which included performances of Carmen, Swan Lake and live orchestral accompaniment to films including Fantasia and Singin' in the Rain

South Africa - A Martin Audio OmniLine micro-array, much favoured by houses of worship, has been installed in the 1500-seat Old Apostolic Church (OAC) Christian church at Mayfield Park in Gauteng, South Africa.

Audiosure, Martin Audio's territorial distributor successfully tendered for the work to install and commission a complete sound system in the new sanctuary, working from the OAC's specifications. OmniLine was central to the bid and the installation was carried out by their clients, JRTL Projects.

With Audiosure's Thys Venter overseeing the project, OmniLine first needed to me

Spain - Space Ibiza has marked its 25th anniversary by being crowned 'Best Club in the World' in the prestigious DJ Mag Top100 Clubs awards for the fourth time in seven years. The venue, which is highly regarded by clubbers and operators around the globe, has been home to a Funktion-One sound system since 2002.

Since opening in 1989, Space Ibiza has received a host of awards and has consistently impressed with its forward thinking operational and music policies. DJ Mag's 'Best Club in the World' prize is one of the most renowned awards in the nightclub industry. Winners are chosen thr

UK - The SDUK Systems Group, the installed sound division of Shure Distribution UK, has appointed experienced sales manager James Nicholds to the role of Midlands regional sales manager, installed sound.

James brings with him eight years of audio-visual sales experience in the corporate, educational and public sectors, culminating in his most recent position as regional business development manager for Northern Light, where he consulted on, designed and sold AV systems to private companies, integrators, universities, and local authorities.

Based in Lincoln, he will assume responsibi

USA - The Public Theatre in New York City has been a symbol of culture and community since its opening in the 1950s. The theatre has facilitated a variety of performances throughout the years, and is committed to nurturing both artists and audience. From the world premiere of Hair, to the annual, and beloved, free Shakespeare in the Park, The Public Theatre constantly searches for new, creative opportunities to fulfill its mission.

In 1998, the non-profit organization in the heart of the East Village opened the 200- seat live performance venue known as Joe's Pub.

Joe's

UK - Electrosonic will provide corporate and oil and gas industries an in-depth look at the latest audio-visual and collaboration solutions at its Technology Day on 4 June at the AECC in Aberdeen. Over 30 leading technology companies are participating at this free event.

The event will give attendees a real insight into how state-of-the-art technologies can increase productivity and communication between teams, as well as how new collaborative technologies can improve business performance.

During the Technology Day, a member of the Electrosonic team will guide each visitor through t

New Zealand - AcousticDesign loudspeakers from QSC, driven by GX3 and RMX850 amplifiers, have been installed at a stylish new bar/restaurant in the Wynyard Quarter, a recently redeveloped harbourside area in New Zealand's second city, Auckland. The splendidly named Urban Turban wears its Mumbai influence on its sleeve, offering fine Indian cuisine and beers and a high-quality sound system in a top people-watching spot on the waterfront.

Local AV contractor Halogen Audio was asked to install some loudspeakers for the restaurant's external pavement areas. As a long-standing user of QSC

UK - London Fields' new establishment, The Laundry, has just completed the installation of a Flare Audio X3/Q18 sound system for its sizeable basement event space and café/bar, to handle an eclectic mix of live music, club nights, cinema and screenings. The brainchild of Radiohead band member Ed O'Brien and businessman Raj Nayak, The Laundry brings together a host of creative and musical talent, comprising 26 separate creative areas including the basement and café/bar areas.

Raj's experience includes running a venue in Shoreditch, giving him a clear perspective on what h

UK - Norfolk based KV2 Audio installer Saturn AV have completed a permanent installation in an events marquee at The Ivy House Hotel, Oulton Broad, Suffolk.

The marquee required a discreet solution for both DJ playback and live band reinforcement that needed to adhere to strict noise regulations regarding SPL. To tackle these issues a distributed system was chosen to achieve maximum coverage at lower SPLs.

Having completed successful installations using KV2's passive ESD Series Saturn AV director Olly Smith had no hesitation in returning to the product range.

Eighteen KV2 Audio tw

The Netherlands - The LR24 is a three-way, 'larger-format' line-source sound system, to be used as vertical array, either in stacked or flown configuration, for even the largest sound reinforcement applications.

The LR24 combines a HiFi-grade sound quality with very high SPL capabilities. Loaded with Alcons' proprietary pro-ribbon technology for mid and high frequencies, the LR24 offers very fast impulse response with full-dynamics, up-to-90% less distortion under lowest power-compression. The all-natural (Isophasic) cylindrical wavefront of the pro-ribbon HF transducer enables a prec

France - Exactly two years after Nexo first showed its STM Series modular line array system to the world, the company hosted its first-ever owners' conference. A richly international crowd from 16 countries made the trip to Paris, representing 22 of the first rental companies to adopt Nexo's new flagship PA technology. The group included five brand-new system owners, yet to be announced, from Germany, USA, Canada, India and China.

Nexo's Concert Sound team encouraged the STM owners to share their successes with the system in all kinds of musical applications, from simple acoustic jazz

UAE - Home to 1,200 retail businesses and covering 1.1m square miles, The Dubai Mall is the world's largest shopping and entertainment destination to date, according to the Construction Week website. To provide intelligible yet discreet background music for shoppers, 939 Meyer Sound MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers have been installed. Dubai-based Mediatech Design Group (MDG) designed the system, with Abu Dhabi-based Systech Middle East handling installation and integration.

"MDG has successfully specified Meyer Sound products on a number of projects in the past where performance

USA - Mixing multiple wedges and in-ear mixes for a large band with a dynamic musical set requires a flexible console that can quickly be operated manually. For this reason, an SSL Live console is on the road with iconic Latin rocker Carlos Santana, whose perennial monitor engineer, Brian Montgomery, is using it to mix both stereo wedges for Carlos and IEMs for his band. Following last winter's residency at Mandalay Bay's House of Blues (HoB), Santana has been globetrotting, making stops at the Dubai Jazz Festival, Johannesburg's FNB Stadium, Cape Town's Grand Arena and the New Orleans

The Netherlands - With Yamaha's CL series digital mixing consoles well-established in the professional audio and broadcast industries, an increasing number of educational establishments are specifying them to give students the most up-to-date hands-on experience. Amsterdam School of the Arts is the latest example.

Amsterdam School of the Arts comprises six educational facilities offering graduate and postgraduate level courses: the Academy of Fine Art in Education, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Netherlands Film Academy, Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture and de Theat

The Netherlands - In the Noord Holland city of Alkmaar cheese is the driving force behind the local economy. As one of the oldest cheese markets in the country, Alkmaar is especially proud of its heritage.

Thousands of visitors descend on the Waagplein (Weighing Square) to take in the delights of the four hundred year old market, held every Friday morning during the summer months. Exactly the right spot for a venue offering all day food and night time club entertainment to establish itself. A decision as sharp, in fact, as a really ripe wedge of aged Gouda.

On the western side of th

France - The former auditoria of the Cinematheque Francaise have been transformed into Yoyo, a new space in the famous Parisian arts complex, the Palais de Tokyo. With a capacity of 300 seats (500 standing) in the largest room, Yoyo will be able to host conferences, concerts, fashion shows, parties and film screenings. This private-hire space also features Nexo's Geo S12 line array system paired with LS18 subs, the first to be installed in Paris.

The loudspeakers for the new Yoyo space are not the first to be installed in the Palais de Tokyo. In early 2013, the installation company Na

UK - SSE Audio Group has appointed Peter Codron as sales & installations manager, based at the company's London office and warehouse in Park Royal.

This appointment strengthens the Group's London operations, ensuring that customers in London and the South East are fully served. Peter has worked in the audio industry for all his career, first in the rentals business, before developing his own successful recording studio in the '90s. He then moved into the sales side of the industry, where he has worked for the last decade at Entec.

In his new role, Peter will represent SSE and Wigwam

Spain - Having worked with many European venues and festivals such as SONAR, Intermusic and Sonimag , freelance sound engineer Julian Zafra has decades worth of experience in the business of sound.

Collaborating with artists on areas such as design and installation, Zafra's years of experience means that these days, he has no trouble in identifying the right gear to fit the latest job. When he was recently tasked with working on the Milano jazz club installation project in Barcelona, he could think of only one loudspeaker brand that would meet the high expectations of the job at hand.

UK - The Music Faculty at the University of Oxford and leading audio specialist Sennheiser UK have announced the first Oxford/Sennheiser Electronic Music Prize [OSEMP]. OSEMP has been developed as an annual event to help promote innovative and communicative electronic music composition in the UK.

Sennheiser, known for their long-standing support of various educational bodies, have provided generous prizes for first, second and third place. Finalists will be notified in October 2014 and will then be invited to take part in the OSEMP showcase event in Oxford on 8 November 2014, with the

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