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 the ancient square is Mojo's, boasting a vintage façade that has not altered in decades but hiding a modern interior of glass and steel within. After hearing a d&b audiotechnik Q-Series system in a local club where he was particularly struck by the directional accuracy of the loudspeakers as well as

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 Nanolink fitted a Geo S8 compact line array into the übercool Monsieur Bleu restaurant and bar. With its 7m height, the venue was able to accommodate Nexo CD12 subbass cabinets in the ceiling. GEO S12 cabinets were installed outside on the famous terrace, with its enviable view of the Eiffel Tower.

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 Acoustics in the capital and will help to strengthen the company's position as a d&b audiotechnik sales partner - a brand that Peter has considerable experience with. SSE is already well established in the capital as an audio installations company, but the business has recently been looking to expa

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.

The Milano Jazz Club is famous throughout the city and Spain as a whole, and is one of the most prestigious music venues for Jazz aficionados in the Catalan region and beyond. For a live music venue such as this, sound is everything, and can define the venue's reputation, as well as that of the p

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 three winners being announced at the conclusion of the concert, partly on the basis of their performances.

Finalists will also receive a vinyl copy of patten's Estille Naiant, kindly donated by Warp Records.

Confirmed jury panel members for the event include notable electro-acoustic composers,

South Africa - MGG Productions has an envious history of supplying both state-of-the-art equipment for sound, lighting, video and staging, and technical services to the broadest range of entertainment disciplines. Earlier this year, it took delivery of South Africa's first DiGiCo SD Ten console from DiGiCo's South African distributor Tadco, adding to its existing SD11.

Apart from DiGiCo's sonic performance and features, the International acceptability, software upgrades, service and back up made the SD Ten an easy choice, and MGG quickly put it to work doing two gigs back-to-back at the Metro FM Awards and Discovery Leadership Awards.

The Metro FM Awards saw the SD Ten at the Front of House position, operated by Adriaan van der Walt, with MGG's Fanie Pieterse as system tech. The console was connected to an SD-Rack via fibre with a DiGiCo Little Blue Box used to connect to a D-

Denmark - As Europe braced itself for the annual spectacle that is Eurovision Song Contest, DPA Microphones played a key part in this musical extravaganza by providing the company's d:screet Supercardioid Miniature Podium Microphones in the official press room.

Bent Iversen, key account manager for leading Scandinavian PA company, DPA Soundco (which, despite the similar name, is not affiliated with DPA Microphones), is the main sound technician for the press room. He feels that DPA Microphones' new podium microphones are ideally suited for the job and for the room acoustics.

"We installed 20 d:screet Podium Microphones, which were specified by broadcast rental company Best Broadcast Hire (BBH)," explains Iversen. "These are positioned on the press table where they are mounted on K&M table bases. Most of the people taking part in the press panels are musicians wh

UK - When it opened its doors in 1856 the National Portrait Gallery in London was the first portrait gallery in the world. Housing a collection of portraits of the people who have shaped British history and culture, the Gallery attracted over 2m visits in 2013 and offers a first-class visitor experience.

In keeping with its reputation for offering high standards to visitors, the gallery recently took steps to install a new voice announcement and paging system to enable clear communications throughout the building. POLARaudio in conjunction with Saville AV supplied Biamp's Vocia System to meet the needs of this prestigious institution.

The client required a multi-zone system to span four floors, incorporating all the public areas of the gallery. This was to provide paging facilities, including message playback to give notice to visitors of the closure of the gallery at the end

USA - Staying on the cutting edge isn't easy, especially when you've had the level of success that Life in Color has enjoyed for almost a decade. Yet, the organizers of this iconic EDM touring event have refused to let complacency rear its tired old head anywhere near their wild, wonderful and totally unpredictable paint party-music fest.

Every year, they manage to blow past expectations, and delight the senses in new ways. The 2014 Unleash Tour is no exception, thanks in part to a visual hurricane force of a lightshow created by technical director Collyns Stenzel and Duncan MacKinnon from Audio East.

"We created an entirely new show that is unlike anything we've done before," said Stenzel, who added a variety of Chauvet Professional products to his rig for 2014. "The theme of this tour 'Unleash' celebrates the freedom to cut loose and be yourself without worrie

UK - Liverpool based Adlib celebrates a landmark 30 years at the sharp end of the audio production and rental market.

The time has flashed by since Andy Dockerty established the company in 1984, taking the first steps in building a brand that would grow steadily and diversify to become one of the most successful and respected technical production solutions providers in the UK and internationally.

Driven by Andy's passion for music, sound engineering and the industry he loves, Adlib has grown and blossomed into a dynamic multi-faceted operation, currently employing 90 full time staff and a small pool of trusted freelancers. They are headquartered in large premises in Speke near Liverpool Airport.

It's built up a formidable respect as one of the best and most competent sound rental facilities and is still driven forward by that same dedication with which Andy started the compa

Rural Mayhem - US metal veterans Metallica have been announced as the Saturday night headliners on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury. They will join the previously announced headliners Arcade Fire and Kasabian at the event in Somerset on 25-29 June. It marks Metallica's debut appearance at Worthy farm and it is the first time a heavy metal band have headlined the event.

Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis says, "[Metallica] wanted to play for a long, long time and they're one of the most amazing rock bands in the world, everywhere I go people say 'When are Metallica going to play?' I said, 'They will be here one day' and this is their time now...We've done it before (with Rage Against the Machine in 1994). People think that we're prone to have Radiohead and Coldplay and Oasis but when we had Jay Z a few years ago, people said he wasn't a Glastonbury act but we have al

Denmark - Victory Tour Production has updated its rental inventory with two systems from Meyer Sound's newly expanded Leo family of products: the Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system, as well as its more compact and flexible sibling, the Lyon linear sound reinforcement system.

"Leo is already being requested by major tours," says Frank Grønbæk, project manager for Victory and head of the Copenhagen office. "Its power and long throw opens us to not only the largest stadium and festival shows in Denmark, but also to a wider market elsewhere in northern Europe. And Lyon's size and weight is ideally suited to most shows in the relatively small Danish market."

The pivotal point in Victory's purchase decision was a convincing Lyon demo in Amsterdam. "The coverage and power were very impressive," recalls Grønbæk. "I went

UK - SSL Live UK agent, HD Pro Audio is holding a workshop session for the SSL Live console at Brit Row's dedicated training centre in Wandsworth on 20 May.

"We've been working with the SSL Live on gigs and at events for several months now," commented HD Pro's Andy Huffer. "Never before has a new product met such unanimous acclaim from everyone that has experienced it. It's a dream to use and provides the way forward that engineers want, but above all it sets a new standard for live audio quality. Engineers are hearing their systems in a way they've never experienced before."

The session, commencing at 1pm, will feature multiple consoles with multitracks and will focus on operator training with experts from SSL and HD Pro on hand to provide professional guidance and advice. The session will also preview new V2 console software.

Places for the session are

France - L-Acoustics has announced the appointment of long-serving industry professional Alvin Koh as applications engineer for Asia, reinforcing L-Acoustics' growth and commitment to its customer base throughout the Asian region. Alvin will be based in Kuala Lumpur and will provide technical support to L-Acoustics customers through the company's existing regional distribution network.

Prior to joining L-Acoustics, Alvin worked for Singapore based sound rental company Pantomime Entertainment Pte Ltd, starting as a sound engineer and eventually becoming the Malaysian director of the company. In 1996 he created his own consultancy Clef Production.

Alvin brings more than 20 years of experience in leading roles such as FOH engineer and system engineer and worked with top class acts such as Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, Sting, Depeche Mode, Phil Collins, Santana and Mariah Carey .

S

Portugal - The LA122A joins the Next-proaudio LA family and is the powered version of the popular LA122. It incorporates advanced neodymium speakers, custom made by B&C and a high performance DPA amplifier module, capable of generating 1650Wrms of high-definition power for a very high acoustic pressure for medium to large scale applications.

This system is designed for use in permanent installations as well as in mobile systems. The new system comprises three models, two line arrays elements, with different coverage angles (8ºx90º and 15ºx120º) and a companion subwoofer system allowing a great configuration versatility.

The band-pass subwoofer LAs118A is equipped with a custom made B&C, long excursion, 18" neodymium woofer and is internally powered by a 2200Wrms DPAmplifier module.As it shares the same rigging technology with the LA122A and LA122WA, a flexible integra

Belgium / UK - Two new ranges of amplifiers from Belgian manufacturer Audac have now reached the shelves of exclusive UK distributor Audiologic. The SMQ (quad channel) and SMA (dual channel) ranges are available in 350W, 500W and 750W versions (for maximum flexibility of application) and offer a new standard for affordable audio amplification in both fixed and mobile audio installations. WaveDynamics(tm) DSP and 2.5" LCD display combine to offer a clear, straightforward user experience with intuitive functions overview for easy configuration.

The new ranges recently attracted much positive attention on the Audiologic stand at PLASA Focus in Leeds where potential customers were impressed to discover that the amplifiers were offered with a five year warranty. In fact so confident are Audiologic in the sheer quality of AUDAC products that a five year warranty extends across th

USA - Set 30 storeys above New York City's Garment Center, The Skylark is an elegant cocktail lounge with expansive views of the Hudson River, Empire State Building and Midtown Manhattan.

Billed as an "all-season destination", Skylark combines a high-style multi-level indoor space with an outdoor roof terrace and offers an extensive bar menu with small plates such as tapas.

Because dancing is also a priority at Skylark, Advanced Audio Technology of New York was brought in to install audio for the lounge.

AATNY's Jason Ojeda explains that "there is no specifically designed dance floor, which is typical of many lounges. That required an evenly balanced audio system throughout the venue so that no matter where you are, there is complete coverage with no high or low frequency drop offs."

Consequently, Ojeda and his team designed a system consisting of 14 Ma

Germany - Mayday, a 20-year-old electronic dance music (EDM) tradition in Germany received a sonic power boost this year with a brand-new Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement system. The 2014 Full Senses edition drew 21,000 to the Westfalenhallen in Dortmund, with headline DJs Fedde Le Grand, Moguai, and Sander van Doorn playing in the main arena through an immersive surround sound configuration.

"The sound was clean, clear, crisp, and had loads of headroom," reports Bernd Görgen, co-managing director for Wiesbaden-based schokopro, which has supplied technical production, including sound, light, video, and kinetics for the third year. "We received very good feedback from the promoter during soundcheck, and the performance throughout the night proved us right in our decision to use Lyon."

The main system comprised arrays of eight-each Lyon linear lin

USA - Lectrosonics has announced three new products in the company's L Series 'Large Bandwidth' line of wireless microphones. The new L Series units all share a wide tuning range of three standard Lectrosonics blocks, or 67.5 to 76.8 MHz, depending on the specific frequency band, and employ Lectrosonics' patented Digital Hybrid Wireless technology for compandor-free audio along with compatibility modes for interoperability with older analog systems. The new L Series product group consists of the LMb and LT beltpack transmitters, and the LR miniature receiver.

The LMb is the latest successor in Lectrosonics' line of economical beltpack transmitters designed for applications including theatre, house of worship, TV, ENG, video and film production. The LMb features an all-metal housing, wire belt clip, 50 mW of RF power, 25 or 100 kHz tuning steps (yielding up to 3,072 selectable fr

Ireland - The West Ocean String Quartet, 2013 winner of The Irish Times Ticket Award for Trad CD of the Year for their album An Indigo Sky, are now using DPA Microphones' d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphones. Supplied by DPA's Irish Distributor Big Bear Sound, the mics were chosen to capture the quartet's unique style and for their ability to deliver a true string sound with exceptional clarity.

"The assurance of knowing that wherever we play in the world, the warmth and accuracy of the d:vote 4099mics will be consistent is everything to us," says violinist Niamh Crowley. "Now, we need only be concerned with making music. To perform without our DPA mics would be unthinkable."

The West Ocean String Quartet recently appeared at Ceiliuradh (Celebration), a special evening of music, spoken word and dance held at London's Royal Albert Hall to mark the histo

UK - Pro Audio Stash (PAS) is launching a new range of custom rack faceplates and shelves with magnets.

A simple and ingenious concept unique to PAS, the magnets are fitted to the inside of the vented rack shelves and hold the face plates in place, offering extremely quick and straightforward installation ... and removal / access for maintenance.

These PAS products are designed and manufactured in the UK to the highest specifications and robust build quality for which the brand is renowned, says the company.

They have been developed with both installers and end-users in mind, offering the ultimate streamlined and aesthetically pleasing finish to any rack install.

The product consists of a 1U, 2U or 3U vented rack shelf and faceplate cut-out that has been custom designed to fit a selection of popular AV devices that are normally not rack mountable. These currently include S

UK - The Feeling is a band that has produced much of its own work and is interested in, and knowledgeable about, the technology it uses. To have a great sounding mixing console at both Front of House and monitors then becomes a must for their engineers. Jonathan Lewis and Sean Busby-Little, who respectively man these positions, knew that sonically DiGiCo was the right choice; they also knew the SD9's compact footprint would fit the bill for the venues the band's current tour is playing.

But Sean had an additional requirement from his desk. "I'm teching for myself, as well as mixing monitors," he explains. "I needed a small footprint without compromising audio quality, but I needed something that was quick and easy to set up and breakdown each day."

"My main priority is also audio quality," adds Jonathan. " I knew I would get that with the SD9

UK - Orbital Sound is planning a unique line-up of innovative international pro audio brands on Stand No: 74 at the ABTT Theatre Show 2014 (Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, 11-12 June), featuring products from Flare Audio, d&b audiotechnik, HME, Clear-Com, CSC, and TheatrePro, as well as the launch of the Orbital's new distribution product range, the Nemesis brand of theatre-specific audio playback and control solutions. In addition, Orbital is presenting a special version of its acclaimed "Mixing Musicals" training course as part of ABTT's seminar series, focusing on the practical skills and theory behind best-practice FOH mixing for modern musicals.

As Flare Audio's distributor in the UK and Eire, Orbital is showcasing the brand's extensive range of radically different loudspeaker designs - on show at ABTT for the first time. Based on the theory of Waveform In

UK - At the recent PLASA Focus event at The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, Cadac showed the latest V2.1 software update for its flagship CDC eight digital live production console.

Updating further the many V2.0 features and additional functionality within console automation, V2.1 further enables VCA group deployment, with pressing of the SELECT button on a VCA deploys the VCA group members on the console surface. Switching between input-driven and mix-driven Fader Follow is enabled at a touch of the screen. It is now possible to view and access single input channel contributions to multiple busses, or a single bus' contributions from multiple inputs when in Fader-Follow mode.

New features already incorporated in version 2 software - launched at Prolight+Sound in March - include individual channel section isolation and global automation safe in the console snapshot automation

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