USA - Audinate has released its latest firmware update for the Dante PCIe soundcard. Version 3.7.1 delivers a range of new features, including audio signal presence indicators, latency statistics monitoring and packet error detection.

In addition, the Dante PCIe high performance soundcard may now be used with several popular Thunderbolt expansion chassis, to enable connection to computers such as Apple's Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and Mac mini. The Dante PCIe soundcard has been certified to run with Apple's latest version MAC OS 10.10. The soundcard will now also run on Microsoft Windows se

USA - Meyer Sound has appointed John McMahon to the newly created position of vice president of solutions and strategy.

Working closely with CEO John Meyer and executive vice president Helen Meyer, McMahon will oversee the broad-based strategic planning for new products, product management, and multi-product solutions across various vertical markets.

McMahon's new Solutions and Strategy Division aligns product management, design services, technical support, and education under one umbrella with a goal of creating a common understanding of strategic initiatives amongst Meyer Sound's

UK - TC Group has announced the appointment of Andy Rust as its VP of Marketing for Install & Tour, with responsibility for the marketing of TC Group brands - primarily Tannoy, Lab.gruppen, Lake and White Acoustic - in installed sound and touring markets.

Based at Tannoy's headquarters in Scotland, Andy has assumed the lead role in the marketing of the Install and Tour verticals, the managing of the core I&T marketing team at Coatbridge, as well as the delivery of the marketing strategy and co-ordination of other marketing teams within TC Group offices in North America, Japan and Chin

Italy - Powersoft has announced the introduction of the new DigiMod Integration Kit (IK), a true plug 'n' play solution for active loudspeakers. This offers all the components necessary to easily design a complete, but simple plug 'n' play solution around any DigiMod amp module. The result is a considerable saving in time and resource when compared with that normally required to manufacture mechanical parts and integrate external electronics.

Two elegant aluminium heatsink plates, both equipped with PowerCon input and output, are available to accommodate even the most recent DigiMod P

UK - Ed Sheeran, one of the most popular UK artists, recently ended his summer tour after 14 dates at the biggest European festivals. The singer used the same set on all dates, with AV equipment provided by Colonel Tom Touring LLC.

The stage was composed of four LED screens surrounding the singer to display graphics and content. To feed the screens, Barry Otto, owner of Colonel Tom Touring (CT Touring), selected Analog Way's NeXtage 16 (Ref. NTX1604), a powerful seamless video processor.

"My client needed to be able to manage multiple screen destinations with a small and powerf

Belgium - Every year, David Guetta visits Brussels to play one massive indoor concert. For the second year running, he has played to a capacity crowd of 16,000 at the Palais 12, using leading Belgian rental company Arto S.A and its substantial Nexo STM Series modular line array system, for the first time featuring the brand-new M28 down-fill modules.

The Palais 12 gig was the opening concert for Guetta's forthcoming world tour, so the technological wow-factor was set at the highest level. Setting up the sound systems for FOH engineer Hassane Es Siahi was Arto system tech Pierre-Lauren

Ireland / Spain - PreSonus, a leading designer and manufacturer of audio recording software, hardware and related accessories, has announced that an alliance of Algam-Music Distribucion will serve as exclusive distributor in Spain and Portugal, commencing immediately.

Algam, the leading distributor of MI and audio products in Europe, will take care of the supply chain, while Music Distribucion, a well-established distributor based in Barcelona, Spain, will be in charge of the sales and marketing activities.

"We're delighted that Music Distribucion has teamed with Algam," d

Curve Ball - A musical version of the hit British comedy film Bend It Like Beckham is to open in the West End next year. It will be written and directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also made the 2002 movie starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley. "Developing Bend It Like Beckham for the stage has been the most enjoyable creative process of my career so far," Chadha said. "It was always my intention to build on the film and to present its themes and storylines to live audiences in an exciting new dynamic way. I believe we are presenting a totally new kind of

USA - Roland has confirmed their support for Audinate's Dante audio networking solution as an optional expansion card in their new M-5000 Live Mixing Console.

Roland is a premier pro audio and video manufacturer and is most notable in the audio market for their live digital mixing consoles, digital snake systems, multi-channel recording/playback systems, and personal mixing solution - all over Cat5e/6 Ethernet network.

Roland's offering of a Dante solution addresses the need from system integrators, consultants and pro audio professionals wanting to interconnect digital audio produc

UK - Roland has today unveiled its next-generation, live-sound digital mixing console, the M-5000. The console is based on a brand new operating platform that provides more adaptability to individual workflow than any previous option.

The platform is known as O.H.R.C.A, which stands for three key concepts: Open; High Resolution; and Configurable Architecture. This combination adapts to the needs both of the application and the operator by delivering 128 freely definable audio paths, an extremely flexible user interface, expandable protocols and multiple-format I/O choices. All paths a

UK - HHB Communications has supplied dBs Music with an API 1608 console and the latest Pro Tools HDX systems for its new Higher Education Facility in Bristol, UK.

The new dBs Music premises recently opened on St Thomas Street, Bristol to cater for a range of Higher Education Degree pathways in Sound Engineering, Music Production and Game Audio. The new facility features five studios, music ICT classrooms and a lecture theatre that will provide music production training for students across the West of England. dBs Music is also an authorised training centre for Ableton, Apple Logic and

The Netherlands - Abcoude-based Soundcheck, one of the country's respected rental firms, have taken delivery of two new iP24 iMode controllers from Outline, based on its iMode's proprietary processing platform.

Soundcheck owner Rodney van Zwol comments: "I was knocked out by the sonic performance of this iP24 and how easy the iPad control software operates. The on-board features are so easy to work with, and the amount of filter processing power is simply unbelievable."

A major advancement of Outline's proprietary iMode processing platform, the iP24 is a multi-purpose DSP

World - Five time Grammy-winning Christian singer/songwriter Israel Houghton is currently in the midst of a major world tour, playing shows in six different countries. DiGiCo mixing consoles are helping him to spread the word along the way.

Nick Burns, managing director of Australian production company Forefront Productions, first mixed Front of House sound for Houghton on a tour of Australia and New Zealand a few years ago, on the recommendation of other high profile worship artists.

"It was a great call to get, as I have always been a fan. Since then I've continued to do date

Czech Republic - The O2 Arena in Prague is the latest large-format multipurpose venue to embrace Nexo's Geo S12-ST sound reinforcement systems, high-output long-throw loudspeakers developed specially for stadium and arena use.

Built for the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, the O2 Arena is home to the HC Slavia Praha and HC Lev Praha ice hockey teams and also hosts a range of other sporting and corporate events and concerts.

The venue needed to replace its existing PA system installed 10 years ago, a point source system that was, by the venue's own admission, under-specifie

Austria - Twelve channels of Shure's flagship Axient wireless microphone system have been installed for use at Bregenz's international music and performing arts festival in Western Austria.

Situated on the stunning shores of Lake Constance, the month-long annual Bregenz Festival sees the picturesque lakeside town of Bregenz in Austria taken over by regular theatrical, musical and operatic productions, with the spectacle of the Spiel auf dem See (Music on the Lake) as its centrepiece, taking place on a gigantic floating stage in the lake itself.

As with most modern live stage,

Sweden - Lab.gruppen has announced that all models of its recently launched touring platform PLM+ Series, as well as all models of the install platform D Series, are now available for shipping.

PLM+ is the new touring platform from Lab.gruppen, a platform that offers all of the performance characteristics, flexibility, and raw power of the 20000Q, but with a whole host of additional features and improvements designed to deliver real world benefits and make the life cycle of any production easier, smoother and more efficient, from the system design stage, operating, through to the fina

Spain - BITAM 2014, the international show of Broadcast, IT, Audio and Media in Spain is the event to see the new Y-Series from d&b audiotechnik. Held on 26-28 November at the Hotel Auditorium of Madrid, conveniently adjacent to the Airport, this is the venue to visit for a close up and personal look at the newest products from d&b.

Coupling, the d&b audiotechnik sales partner in Madrid will be exhibiting the D80 amplifier, the elegant xC-Series column loudspeakers and the latest in d&b loudspeaker technology, the Y-Series. With utility and flexibility in mind, the design of the new Y

Norway - Established in 1949, Riksteatret is Norway's national touring theatre. The organisation's headquarters is in Oslo's Nydalen district, where a Yamaha AFC3 system has recently been installed to help overcome the dry acoustic of its main performance space.

An offshoot of the Norwegian government's Ministry of Culture, Riksteatret stages shows in 70 venues around Norway, its mission being to ensure that nobody has to travel for more than an hour to one of its productions. Productions are developed and previewed in two venues at the Nydalen complex, the 300-seat Store Gull (Large

UK - Liverpool based Adlib has designed and delivered an L-Acoustics Kara audio system with Midas control to Lincoln's premier live performance venue, the 1600 capacity Engine Shed.

The venue is on the campus of Lincoln University and is the city's busiest live entertainment space, featuring a lively mix of music, comedy, club nights and conferences. This latest Adlib installation is one of a series of highly successful projects delivered by the company to leading student managed venues around the country.

Engine Shed engineers first came into contact with Adlib through the various

UK - The eighth annual APRS Sound Fellowship Awards Lunch is to be held at the Roof Gardens, Kensington on Tuesday 18th November.

The APRS's annual celebration, hosted by Sir George and Lady Martin, sees the recognition of six new recipients of the APRS Sound Fellowship bestowed on individuals who made a 'significant contribution to the art, science or business of sound recording'.

This year the association is recognising:

Colette Barber - Studio Manager, Abbey Road Studios

Mutt Lange - British record producer and songwriter

Jim Marshall OBE - Master of 'Loud', Marshall amps a

Australia - JoeCo reports that Gigpiglet Productions Pty Ltd is now representing the BlackBox range of multi-channel audio recorders and players in Australia. Based in Surry Hills, NSW, Gigpiglet provides production and tour management, technical event planning, equipment rental, location and studio recording services throughout the territory. Clients range from international artists, engineers and producers through to broadcast companies, sporting event planners and local government organisations.

The Gigpiglet team has worked with JoeCo's award-winning BlackBox products since the fi

USA - British breakout band Bastille burst onto the American scene less than a year ago, and has grown from a band with one hit single to a certified concert headliner due largely to its electrifying live shows. The Virgin Records-signed group began its first headlining North American tour this spring, and Thunder Audio Inc. has been an integral part of the production since before it even touched down on US soil.

The band's production team met with Thunder Audio pre-tour to discuss the challenges that they'd face in bringing the exact same show to Bastille fans every night, despite ti

The Netherlands - Jurjen Hesseling - founder of Dutch technical design and production company Jurlights - and Tom Back, co-founder of Alcons Audio, both have a single-minded 'no compromise' attitude towards delivering audio excellence in any live situation. 2014 was the third year that Jurlights deployed Alcons systems on the annual Haarlem Jazz Festival, with both companies keen to continue tweaking the systems to deliver the ultimate in outdoor audio quality.

The festival takes place over three days in August, with a main outdoor stage in the town's central market square, the Grote

UK - Featuring original songs by David Bryan, co-founder of Bon Jovi, and a storyline from Joe DiPietro, Memphis recently opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End, complete with sound design by Gareth Owen. The show stars the Queen of British soul, Beverley Knight, opposite West End star Killian Donnelly, in a compelling show that is set in the 1950s underground nightclubs of Memphis, Tennessee, with a storyline about the racial challenges of the era and a great musical mix of rock'n'roll, blues and gospel.

At the heart of the sound system is a pair of Avid Venue

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