Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Sound

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UK - UK-based event safety consultancy Stagesafe reports the Health and Safety Executive's announcement that CDM Regulations will be enforced on the events and entertainment industry from April 2015.

The news was confirmed at last week's meeting of the Joint Advisory Committee on Entertainment (JACE) at the HSE in Westminster. The following report was produced by Michael Anderson and Lee Holloway, members of SAGE (Safety Advisors Group in Entertainment):

"This was an unexpected turn of events as it had appeared earlier this year that a "BEA" (Business Engagement Assessment) industry impact assessment process engaging with the event industry trade associations may have led to a decision not to enforce. But HSE stated that they had since received legal advice that not enforcing would breach European law and expose the government to international prosecution.

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USA - With its new Meyer Sound system featuring IntelligentDC technology, Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota is fully equipped to provide exceptional audio coverage for every function in its 1,500-capacity Lund Arena. These events range from hockey games to national programmes such as the Nobel Conference, the first ongoing educational conference in the United States to have the official authorization of the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

"With the Meyer Sound system, we have controlled and uniform sound everywhere, with ample full-bandwidth power and exceptional speech intelligibility," says Matt Dobosenki, the college's event technical services coordinator. "With the old system, the sound would build up, overexcite the room and lose coherence. Now it's clean and has plenty of punch, but it's never overbearing."

The solution selected for the ar

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Europe - November 2014 sees the birth of "a new era in live sound mixing", as Yamaha launches the Rivage PM10.

Yamaha's PM1D and PM5D digital mixers have been a mainstay of large scale live productions throughout the world for more than a decade - be they touring live music, festivals, theatre, musicals, dance, municipal or corporate events. Joining the PM series, the Rivage PM10 is a new flagship which, says the company, will again redefine the direction of the digital audio mixing industry.

Rivage PM10 features "many exceptional Yamaha innovations, delivering a true industry milestone for large format digital mixers".

At the core of the Rivage PM10 is Yamaha's quest to deliver the very best possible sound. This is achieved with the newly-developed RY16-ML-SILK Hybrid Microphone Preamplifier.

This design features an analogue section which delivers cons

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Germany - Sennheiser has announced the availability of its Dante card for the EM 9046 receiver, enabling the top-of-the-range Digital 9000 wireless microphone system to be integrated into Dante audio-over-IP networks. Also available are - as free downloads - the associated new Digital 9000 firmware version 3.0.3, and the new Wireless Systems Manager 4.2 with a set of optimised monitoring functions.

"With the EM 9046 DAN extension card, broadcast and live audio engineers can now easily integrate Sennheiser's top-of-the-range wireless microphone system into a Dante network," says Claus Menke, head of portfolio management Pro for Sennheiser. "They benefit from the system's exceptional sound with the incredible convenience of routing high-definition audio data via Audinate's Dante Controller."

Dante works with existing network infrastructure using IP and Ethern

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USA - Aboard luxury MSC Cruises ships, production company On The Blue specialises in curating rock-themed cruises through the Caribbean where stars of the '60s, '70s and '80s regale their fans night and day with their repertoires.

Excursions like this obviously require sound systems that are powerful yet lightweight and easy to rig, which prompted Cincinnati-based sound reinforcement provider Loud and Clear to fit the MSC Divina from bow to stern with K2 and other sound system elements from L-Acoustics.

In all, Loud and Clear brought five full semi loads of L-Acoustics and other equipment aboard the vessel for three different cruises: Yes' Cruise to the Edge, Monsters of Rock featuring Tesla, Cinderella, Y&T and Night Ranger, as well as the pairing of The Moody Blues with The Who's Roger Daltrey on the The Moody Blues Cruise: Return to the Isle of Wight. Loud and Clear preside

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South Africa - The two leading organisations representing the audio visual industry in Southern Africa, SACIA (Southern African Communications Industry Association) and the TPSA (Technical Production Services Association) have merged so that they can present a stronger front to clients and associates, and a louder voice to government.

"We've merged in order to represent our industry more effectively in engagements with government and regulatory bodies - and in order to better serve our members," says SACIA CEO, Kevan Jones.

While SACIA members are responsible for fixed audio visual displays such as those one sees in board rooms, shopping centre, sports arenas and houses of worship, the TPSA membership have been responsible for the spectacular effects one sees at music concerts and other similar events. Over the last few months a task group made of representatives fro

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Russia - Roland digital consoles, Roland recorders and Roland digital snakes provided the portable production and TV studio solution for the MTV EMA Pre-Party in Moscow recently. The setup comprising the Roland M-400 Digital Console, Roland M-480 Digital Console, two Roland R-1000 standalone recorders and the Roland S-2416, S-1608 and S-0816 Digital Snakes, was used for the live production, mixing and recording of the sound for the entire event which was televised for MTV Russia.

The MTV Euro Music Awards took place at the GlavClub in Moscow. The chief sound engineer for the portable studio, Evgeny Ilin, specified Roland products for the job after successfully using them for various projects during the year. On this occasion, Evgeny enlisted the assistance of Roland Russia to supply the Roland products for the event as his own almost identical Roland rig was already being used.

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Australia - Australian national public broadcaster ABC has taken delivery of two Lawo mc2 consoles - one large Lawo mc²90 and one compact mc²56 - for its ABC TV studios in Elsternwick, Melbourne. Supply, configuration, installation and commissioning were carried out by Lawo's Australian partner for audio and video broadcast equipment, Professional Audio & Television (PAT).

The system, which was commissioned recently, consists of one Lawo mc2-90 console with 105 faders and a Lawo 48 fader mc2-56 console system. Lawo's mc2-90 flagship console core was supplied with 27 MADI ports, 96 AES3 inputs and outputs, 8 DSP cards including a redundant stand-by card, fully redundant controller cards and power supplies.

After having been awarded the tender to supply the equipment and provide the installation services as head contractor in June 2014, PAT worked closely with the Lawo project

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USA - Free Chapel in Georgia has opened a new satellite campus in Gwinnett with a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system in its 900-capacity auditorium. The facility is the ministry's second venue to deploy Meyer Sound, following the success with a CQ-2 and MSL-4 loudspeaker system on its main campus in Gainesville.

"Our Gwinnett auditorium is easily one of the best-sounding rooms I've heard in a long time in terms of coverage smoothness," says Michael Henson, technical director for Free Chapel. "The spoken word clarity is outstanding. We get a straight unprocessed audio feed of Pastor Franklin's voice, and we've found that we have to do almost nothing on the console to make it sound great in the room. The clarity and presence of the Mina system create an optimum environment for worship by producing a sound that's immersive, but never distracting."

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UK - The latest in the successful series of PLASA Focus events will take place at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, Glasgow on 2-3 December 2014.

Aimed at bringing together audio and lighting experts working in the live events sector at a regional level, the show is a chance to meet representatives from industry leading companies to seek out the latest products and services - as well as a premier networking opportunity.

Event Director, James Ashwood, comments: "There's a strong selection of lighting and audio companies at the Glasgow show including Robe, Avolites, Ambersphere, White Light, Black Light, Chauvet and Sennheiser, along with key dealers such as TMB, LMC, Warehouse Sound, Apex acoustics, HDPro, FBT and Polar Audio and rigging, trussing and special effects companies. Add to that the free to attend two-day seminar program and the rigging conference -

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USA - Eventide has confirmed the formation of a strategic partnership with Yamaha to develop signature effects for a future update to its recently announced flagship live sound console, the Rivage PM10. The Eventide H3000 Live plug-in will include some of the most widely used signature Eventide effects used in the live sound industry.

"We have the utmost respect for Yamaha's deep roots in the music equipment industry. It is an honour to work with the company who is the largest manufacturer of musical instruments in the world. Their pioneering work developing some of the earliest digital consoles continues to be refined, incorporating the evolving demands for integrated workflow necessary for today's demanding live sound productions," noted Ray Maxwell, Eventide vice president of sales and marketing. "The marriage of classic Eventide effects with the state-of-the-a

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USA - The Hollywood Bowl purchased a pair of DiGiCo SD7 digital mixing consoles - one for front-of-house, one for monitors - for its busy 2014 summer series of concerts, which came to a close in late September, enabling production staff to upgrade the operation of the installed PA system to 96 kHz resolution. This year's 15-week summer series, anchored by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, featured performances by major artists from all genres of music, including Gloria Estefan, Yo-Yo Ma, Elvis Costello, Herbie Hancock, Robyn, Steve Martin and a host of others.

The iconic 18,000-seat Hollywood Bowl may have been named Pollstar's best major outdoor concert venue for an unprecedented tenth consecutive year in early 2014, but the team behind its audio technology is not content to rest on its laurels. According to Paul Geller, production director at the Hollywood Bowl for more than three

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Switzerland - Schertler has announced the release of its new, re-engineered range of DYN contact microphones. The DYN P48 Series features a collection of fully balanced, active, dynamic models with Class A electronics. Benefitting from the latest developments in microphone technology, the DYN P48 Series now combines even better sound quality with a more elegant lightweight design and more user-friendly operation, says the company.

Schertler's original DYN Series was first introduced over 20 years ago, with the contact microphones quickly achieving recognition for their ability to enhance the natural sound quality and characteristics of a range of acoustic instruments. The new P48 Series retains the best features from these original models while incorporating state-of-the-art, in-house developed active filtering technology that has enabled each microphone to be precisely matched

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Hungary - The Tokaj Festival Valley is part of a HUF 2 billion regeneration project designed to put the area of Tokaj-Hegyalja in Hungary firmly on the tourism and culture map. The complete transformation of the valley includes an open air theatre and stage, as well as a purpose built facility for cultural events, sports events and concerts aiming to boost visitors to the region and bring increased business to hotels, restaurants and local businesses. The long awaited grand opening ceremony took place recently, with Roland digital consoles, digital snakes and audio recorders playing an integral part in the live sound production.

The Festival Valley specified a reliable, flexible audio solution which could adapt to a variety of applications and configurations ranging from spoken word to theatre to rock concerts. Although part of a permanent installation, the equipment also needed

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UK - Orbital Sound, the theatre, live sound and entertainment technology specialist, has announced the appointment of Andy Simmons to the post of director of sales. Joining Orbital in November, Andy brings over 25 years of international sales and marketing experience, gained within the pro-audio sector in association with many key brands, including Crest Audio, XTA Electronics, Peavey and KV2.

Andy will be fulfilling a strategic role at Orbital, working to develop the company's long-term sales plan, while making full use of the product-specialist expertise available within the organisation.

MD Chris Headlam comments, "At Orbital we have real passion for what we do and are always looking to add extra elements that enhance our service. With Andy's arrival we are focusing on how we innovate within the whole 'sales' field, on the basis that we are already a well-established a

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Mexico - Coinciding with his stint as a coach on the fourth series of The Voice Mexico, Ricky Martin has been playing sell-out shows in Mexico, Chile and Argentina this autumn. DiGiCo helped to ensure that mix engineers 'Privet' Hedge and Steve May had the tools they needed to make the shows a success.

Most associated with global 1999 hit Livin' La Vida Loca, the Puerto Rican singer retains huge popularity in Spanish-speaking countries. Front of House engineer Privet and monitor man Steve used their usual DiGiCo SD7s on the Mexico shows, but the 'fly in' shows in Chile and Argentina meant they had to source consoles locally.

Privet and Steve are committed to using DiGiCo mixers, so the company's Fernando Delgado helped them to source SD8s in Chile and SD10s in Argentina.

"There is much talk in the business about which manufacturer's desks have the best sou

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UK / USA - PLASA's month-long elections to determine positions on its European and North American Regional Boards, together with its central Governing Body, concluded at midnight on Wednesday 19 November. Companies and individuals from PLASA's worldwide membership voted in the elections, which were conducted via a secure online poll.

There were four positions available on the European Regional Board. Ed Pagett of Panalux was elected for a second term as Chairman, Peter James of Shure Distribution as representative to PLASA's Distributor members and Malcolm Burlow of Highlite was voted as the Dealer/Retailer representative. Robert Kronman joins the Board as the new Individual representative.

Four positions were also up for election on the North American Regional Board with Todd Spencer of PSAV elected as Vice-Chairman, Tracey Cosgrove of Rosco Laboratories as Secretary, Orestes

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UK - The British Entertainment Industry Radio Group (BEIRG) has expressed its disappointment and concern regarding Ofcom's decision to remove Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) users from the 700MHz band of radio spectrum. Ofcom's decision is a real danger to some of the UK's most important cultural, social and economic events. Instead, this spectrum will be allocated to Mobile Network Operators.

The regulator's decision will mean that radio microphones and other wireless audio devices key to the UK's thriving creative industries, including West End and regional theatres, could be forced to operate in less than two thirds of the spectrum to which they currently have access. Every night over 1000 wireless radio microphones are used in London's West End alone, largely operating within the spectrum that is to be cleared.

Fears remain that, if appropriate mitigating steps

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Hungary - The Békéscsaba Jókai Theatre, 130 years old and located in the Budapest suburbs has spent over two years developing a sound reinforcement system that meets the expectation - both in sight and sound - of a modern audience whilst preserving the traditional features of the building. Perhaps not the first place you would expect to find such a ground breaking project - so much so the theatre invited representatives from Roland Europe and Japan to visit the theatre to see - and hear - for themselves.

The idea to address the issue came from the statistical evidence that when people sit in front of a movie screen they absorb 40% of the different sound effects whilst in a theatre this figure drops below 10%.The Békéscsaba Jókai Theatre has developed a system that crosses over between cinema and theatre sound in the form of a 8.1 channel surround so

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UK - Delta Sound has invested in another 43 Halo-C compact line array enclosures from UK manufacturer, EM Acoustics. This brings Delta's total inventory to over 130 units including the system installed into the Royal Albert Hall in 2013.

According to Delta's operations director, Jonathan Bell, the decision to invest in Halo-C was straightforward. "The system has already proved itself to us many times over, not least of which by winning the tender with SBD to re-equip the Royal Albert Hall. Going through that process enabled us to evaluate the system extremely thoroughly. In short, it's an extraordinary product. The clarity and detail is exceptional, but what is truly outstanding in our opinion is the level of accuracy and ability to control dispersion over significant distances.

"When the time came to increasing our inventory of rental stock, we therefore decided on

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France - France's National Theatre, the Hexagon, has been a challenging space for sound reinforcement since it was built in 1976. The perfectly shaped hexagonal room, with a seating capacity of 560, hosts 35 shows each season. It also regularly offers arts community training programmes, conferences and debates.

Olivier Delpeuch, sound engineer and head of the audio department at the Hexagon, recently underwent a search for a new sound reinforcement system for the theatre. After a thorough review, he opted for a distributed system made up of Adamson Point Series loudspeakers.

The solution was jointly developed by Adamson Systems' French distributor DV2 and sound company Music Plus. Antoine Maurel, project manager at Music Plus headed up the installation of the system.

The system is designed for flexibility, allowing it to adjust to the needs of the performances. Sound reinfor

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Australia - The University of Sydney in Australia recently unveiled the X-Lab, a 40x20m space that houses up to eight classes using advanced live lecture streaming. Using a multipoint distribution strategy based on a Dante network from Audinate, the IP-based architecture efficiently streams lecture audio to ensure as many as 240 students receive a targeted, immersive, engaging and uninterrupted educational experience.

Similar instructional laboratories previously relied on streaming live lectures to radio headsets, which created usability and safety concerns. The University of Sydney instead chose to use Dante to stream audio to hyper-directional loudspeakers positioned above each student. The Dante network delivers ultra-low latency streams over a standard network infrastructure, maintaining signal integrity and quality across the architecture to guarantee exceptional speech in

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Australia - ARX Systems has announced the Remote Switcher externally controlled stereo input signal switcher, for use in EWIS (Emergency Warning and Intercommunications System) emergency announcements, Console Switching, and remote control of signal sources in Broadcast applications.

"We developed the Remote Switcher in response to requests from integrators and installers for a unit allowing remote and external switching selection between two line level audio sources. EWIS is becoming mandatory for most new and upgraded commercial buildings and public spaces, and our Remote Switcher is a cost effective solution for noiseless and instantaneous switching between normal audio program and EWIS emergency announcements," says ARX MD, Colin Park.

"Other applications include remote switching between FOH or Monitor Consoles, Main and DJ consoles when one main loudspeaker

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Germany - d&b audiotechnik has strengthened its top management by bringing on board Sabina Berloffa as Director of Marketing. Since August this year she has been responsible for global marketing and product management, with the aim of further expanding brand awareness, developing new markets and accelerating the growth of the company. Sabina Berloffa is part of the international management team around CEO Amnon Harman.

"Sabina Berloffa has great experience in B2B marketing, brand leadership and product management. She will take a key role in the company's strategic growth over the coming years. I'm delighted to have Sabina on board", says Amnon Harman.

Sabina Berloffa adds, "I am excited to join d&b. For the last decades, the company has stood for quality in professional audio solutions. d&b has a fantastic customer base, especially in the touring and installati

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