Pharos - Leaderboard - May 2024

Sound

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UK - Flare Audio's PA system has been selected due to its 'clarity of sound' for powerhouse electro quartet Node's first concert in 15 years. Node Live will take place in the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at the Royal College of Music in London on 27 February 2015.

The detailed ambient sonic landscape created by the band requires true clarity of sound and definition with even coverage and dispersion, as they fill the stage with an array of instruments and vintage analogue synthesizers, creating both a sonic and visual experience for the audience.

Just two X2As and two X5As will provide the 390 capacity venue with high definition coverage, whilst six SB21Cs (Flare's flat panel bass, awarded the 2013 PLASA Award for Excellence), will deliver the full and controllable bass needed for the dense textural soundscape the electronic super-group are renowned for. Because of the scope

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UK - Of all the buildings set within the historic cloisters of Oxford, one that really stands out is the Chapel at All Souls College - one of the city's oldest, whose origins date back to 1438-1442. Built by master mason Richard Chevynton, the original structure of the carved reredos (screen altarpiece) dates from around 1447 but the Chapel was almost completely rebuilt following its destruction by Puritans, followed later by a mid-19th century renovation, heavily influenced by Victorian design ideals.

The chapel contains 40 stalls, for the 40 Fellows of the original foundation and a high chapel roof - but the difference in reverberation times, and therefore audibility, between a full chapel scenario to an empty one was palpable. And this was causing major concern.

And so the facility's regular service specialists, City AV, were brought in to assist. The company, which has pro

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Germany - Nexo has announced the appointment of satis&fy, one of Europe's leading full service companies for event production, as a new distributor in Germany. The two companies have been working together since satis&fy invested heavily last year in Nexo STM modular line array systems as well as the latest compact line array Geo M6.

"We've been increasing our sales business over the last few years," explains Martin Ramrath, head of satis&fy's audio department, who will be handling Nexo sales. "To be true to what we're doing, as well as to the market, we are only selling those products that we've tested successfully in our rental business. As we believe in Nexo as a good partner and manufacturer of high end technology, it's the next logical step to also represent their products. Nexo's ranges have many applications across a lot of different market segments. Besides

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Norway - Hajfell is hosting the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships this winter and, with the original sound system installed 20 years ago for the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, the Hafjell Nationalanlegg decided a new system was required. The investment is part of a major overall upgrade of the national slalom slope, financed by the Norwegian government.

Hafjell is located just north of Lillehammer and is one of Norway's largest ski areas, with a starting point 1030m above sea level and a vertical drop of 835m. During the Winter Olympics in 1994 it was the venue for the slalom and giant slalom events and is the now the national arena and training facility for these disciplines. Following the Olympics, the resort was further developed and currently consists of 30 trails serviced by a cable car, three chair lifts and 11 ski lifts. Hafjell and its co-owned neighbouring venue t

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USA - At Aspen Ridge Church in Evergreen, Colo., steerable Meyer Sound CAL 32 column array loudspeakers cut through a reverberant room to bring exceptional music and speech clarity for the congregants. The result shows that even and intelligible audio coverage is possible in sonically challenging spaces when acoustical treatment is not an option.

"I've been blown away by the sound quality, and since our worship space doubles as a gymnasium during the week, I'm extremely impressed by the way the CAL directs sound right where the people are, and not on the walls and ceiling," states Kerry Cox, the church's associate pastor of worship arts. "We wanted to make the room sound right, and CAL really fits the bill. I was also happy to replace the old cluster with the sleek CAL loudspeakers, which really cleaned up the look of the stage."

The new system was designed

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The Netherlands / Israel - Kramer Electronics made two new product introductions aimed at long-distance, reliable and high-performance transmission at ISE 2015. Kramer is among the first to incorporate Valens' Colligo chipsets.

The TP-590RXR and TP-590TXR are "ground breaking" range extenders that let users connect any device over a single twisted pair cable without compromising on quality or performance. Kramer's range of extenders implement the entire set of features supported by HDBaseT 2.0, including USB 2.0.

"Kramer is one of the first to incorporate Valens' Colligo family of chipset in its new extenders. This will significantly expand the reach and functionalities enabled by HDBaseT, and benefits installers worldwide," said Eliran Toren, vice president of sales, at Valens.

"Kramer is at the forefront of developing and manufacturing HDBaseT prod

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USA - The Fred Bramlage Coliseum, commonly referred to as 'The Octagon of Doom', is a 12,528-seat multi-purpose arena that is home to the men's and women's basketball teams for Kansas State University.

University officials recently decided it was time to upgrade the eight-sided building with new sound and video systems that are in line with state of the art technology. System design company Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) specified a new sound reinforcement system that features EAW QX Series loudspeakers. Promedia UltraSound, located in Martinez, California handled the installation.

"The existing system was an old, large-format, horn-based, scoreboard cluster that had long outlived its usefulness," explains Mark Graham, WJHW. "The goal was to increase the fan experience with higher quality audio and an upgraded center-hung scoreboard and video prese

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USA - Electrosonic has opened a new office in the San Francisco Bay Area, which will support Electrosonic clients in the region and serve as a resource for new business development. The Bay Area office is located in Livermore and features 3,000sq.ft of office and warehouse space.

"We are very excited to announce the opening of our new San Francisco Bay Area location," says Jim Bowie, president of the Electrosonic Group. "Over the last few years, Electrosonic has steadily increased the number of our Bay Area clients. This office will support them, keep pace with their evolving needs and help us grow in the region."

The Livermore location is a full-service office providing Bay Area businesses with complete solutions, including audio-visual design consulting, systems integration and operational support.

"Opening our office in the Bay Area allows us to k

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UK - One of the oldest loudspeaker companies in the world, Tannoy is a brand that is synonymous with sound, their pre-war horn technology being such a part of everyday life that the phrase 'over the Tannoy' entered the Oxford English Dictionary to describe a public address system. After being at the forefront loudspeaker technology ever since, the company has produced a brand new product that takes that horn heritage into a whole new area of application.

The Tannoy THL-1 tunnel loudspeaker provides a robust, durable and highly cost-effective solution for Emergency Voice Alarm/Communication (EVAC) systems in the physically and acoustically hostile environment of road tunnels. In an application notorious for high ambient noise levels and excessive reverberation, the THL-1 transmits crisp, controlled and intelligible voice announcements throughout the space from a minimum nu

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USA / UK - Ashly Audio has announced the appointment of Sound Directions as its exclusive distributor in the United Kingdom. The Chessington, Surrey-based company will distribute Ashly's entire line of products, including Ashly's networked multi-channel amplifiers, Protea DSP-equipped amplifiers, and customizable user interfaces, such as Ashly's iPad app.

Stanislas Boivin-Champeaux founded Sound Directions in 1998. "From the very start, we've worked closely with our customers to demystify the vast array of technologies that are available in the installed A/V market," he said. "When it benefits our clients, we happily design and programme systems that work flawlessly under the pressures and challenges of the real world. We've seen countless systems designed by others that left end-users with a system that they did not understand and could not operate. We go the ext

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The Netherlands - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) used ISE 2015 to focus on awareness of the importance of RF spectrum availability for all users of wireless microphones. Under the slogan 'Losing Your Voice', SDUK are aiming at the growing market of professional and semi-professional users of RF technology, from the conference audio and systems integrators at ISE to live performers and organisers of commercial and non-commercial events.

The goal is to better inform this wide range of users about the growing challenges to the unhindered use of wireless microphone systems as a result of continued UHF spectrum allocation to the mobile communications and data industries.

"Over the past few years, the user base for wireless microphone technology has expanded far beyond the professional touring, broadcast and theatrical industries, the programme making and special events sector, o

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Hungary - The end of January saw Chromasound, DiGiCo's Hungarian distributor, invited to demonstrate the advantages of DiGiCo consoles at the MPRT - the Hungarian Professional Technical Event Company.

Founded at the beginning of 2014 and based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, the MPRT was set up to help train and educate those working in the theatre, cinema, television, radio and concert touring industries.

Chromasound was invited to introduce DiGiCo consoles to its members during an eight week series of events, where it worked alongside eight different brands.

"We were delighted to accept the invitation," says Chromasound managing director Imre Makkay. "We took three DiGiCo consoles - an SD8, SD9 and SD11 - to the Fono Budai Zenehaz, a cultural centre in the heart of Budapest."

Imre, along with three of Chromasound's sound engineers, Barna Hidasi,

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Canada - Two nearly identical venues have become the first theatres in Canada to be equipped with the Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement systems: Edmonton's Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (NAJA) and Calgary's Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (SAJA).

Both long-time Meyer Sound users since 1983, the 2,538-seat auditoriums selected Lyon as they looked to upgrade from their trusty M2D line array loudspeakers, a decision made jointly by Mark Belkie and Paul Schmitz, technical coordinators for audio at SAJA and NAJA, respectively.

"In our extensive listening and assessment process, Lyon set the benchmark that all other competing loudspeakers had to meet or exceed, and none could do so," reports Belkie. "We've found that Lyon is a significant step forward in terms of clean and effortless SPL, giving us systems that can easily handle the requirements of

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USA - At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards held at Los Angeles' Staples Centre, audio manufacturer Sennheiser once again delivered reliable and detailed wireless audio to a host of world-class recording artists including Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Beyoncé, Madonna, Tony Bennett, Annie Lennox, Miranda Lambert and many others.

Sennheiser user Sam Smith scooped up four awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album; Ed Sheeran performed a guitar-centric, stripped down version of his blockbuster Thinking Out Loud, singing through a Sennheiser SKM 2000/MD 9235 combination, and Beyoncé delivered the performance of a lifetime through the Sennheiser Digital 9000 wireless system.

During a ceremony that featured no less than 23 live performances, Beyoncé's powerful rendition of Thomas A. Dorsey's Take My Hand, Prec

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UK - Northern Stage Services Ltd, the specialist lighting, sound and stage solutions provider, has completed the acquisition of the business of Lancelyn Lighting and Lancelyn Theatre Supplies.

Northern Stage Services Ltd, whose client list includes the RIBA award-winning Liverpool Everyman Theatre, Brio Leisure and Manchester Communications Academy, acquired the business on 16 February 2015, enhancing its overall offering to be UK-wide spanning the theatrical, architectural and construction sectors.

Northern Stage Services Ltd managing director, Patrick Colin, comments: "Lancelyn has a long history in both Oxford and The Wirral and its customers very much value the service given by its skilled design, manufacturing and installation teams.

"Similarly, Northern Stage Services has built up a solid reputation within the industry through our ability to work on larger, m

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UK - Welsh four-piece Catfish and the Bottlemen, winners at the inaugural BBC Music Awards in December 2014, have chosen Shure microphones for use live and in the studio. The band are now using Shure PSM1000 wireless in-ear monitoring, and an extensive complement of frontline and backline mics, including a KSM9 vocal mic for lead singer Van McCann, and KSM313 ribbons on guitars.

The new Shure equipment arrived in time for a single warm-up concert before the band played at the BBC Music Awards, where they walked away with the 'Introducing...' award for best newcomers.

"The KSM9 lends a beautifully natural sense of air and sparkle to Van's vocal, getting him to sit crystal clear on top of the mix without it sounding too forced or piercing," explains Catfish's front-of-house sound engineer Mike Woodhouse, "and the KSM313 ribbons naturally capture all the low and hi

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USA / Europe - Media Networking Alliance, Bothell, Washington, USA. The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), Swedish Radio (Sveriges Radio AB), Focusrite, Genelec, Riedel Audio & Acoustics and Shure Incorporated, are among the latest organizations to join ALC NetworX, Archwave Technologies, Attero Tech, Bosch Security Systems, Directout, Lawo, QSC, The Telos Alliance and Yamaha, in signing up to membership of the Media Networking Alliance.

The fast growing pace of membership follows the alliance's inaugural membership meeting at last October's AES Convention, and the recent AES plugfest which proved AES67 interoperability between equipment from 10 different manufacturers. Both the BBC and Swedish Radio were present during the plugfest in an observer capacity. Membership applications from several more AV manufacturers are currently being accepted.

Speaking for Shure, among t

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USA - The Audio Engineering Society hosts its 57th International Conference, the Future of Audio Entertainment Technology: Cinema, Television, and the Internet, on Friday 6 March through Sunday 8 March 2015, in Hollywood, California, at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres.

The conference will feature the AES's first-ever Immersive Audio Day (Sunday), an entire conference day packed with panels, papers, workshops and demonstrations focusing on one of the most active new areas of audio technology: immersive sound. Starting with the day's presentation by Francis Rumsey entitled Immersive Audio: Status and Challenges, the day will delve into issues pertaining to mixing, asset management and processing for these massive multichannel formats.

Immersive Audio Day will bring together both pioneers and up-and-comers in the field to discuss immersive audio formats and how they cont

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USA - Life Church of Rock Run is a Pentecostal church in Joliet, Illinois with an unabashed flair for engaging, contemporary services. Outfit with drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and plenty of spirit, Life Church rocks its message every Sunday. Knowledgeable in technical matters, the church had acquired a high-performance Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system but for budgetary reasons had omitted low-end from the system.

Understandably, the church was keen to shore up that omission, and it timed subwoofer installation to correspond with the addition of new seating that would require additional system coverage. The church hired Chicago-based Advanced Systems & Technologies (AST) to design and install the additional coverage and to overhaul the existing system. To Life Church's existing Danley SH-60 and SH-DFA, AST added two Danley SH-mini loudspeakers for fill, four Danley

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UK - Shure microphones including Beta series drum mics, KSM9 vocal mics and a UHF-R wireless system are being used extensively on the UK and international dates for Holy Holy's live presentation of David Bowie's album The Man Who Sold The World, featuring original drummer Woody Woodmansey and producer Tony Visconti on bass.

After selling out several UK venues including the Shepherds Bush Empire and the O2 Academies in Glasgow and Sheffield in Autumn 2014, the live show is returning for more dates in June 2015, and will tour Europe, the USA, Japan, and Australia later in the year.

The Man Who Sold The World (released in 1971 in the USA, and 1972 in the UK) was never toured live, as David Bowie had already put together his Ziggy Stardust stage persona and album by the time of his next live tour. In 2014, with Bowie's blessing, the album's original drummer Woody Woo

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UK - Professional loudspeaker manufacturer Void Acoustics has launched a new website (//voidacoustics.com) With a modern, responsive design, the new website is optimised for desktop PCs, tablets and mobile devices and across Mac OS and Android platforms. It is designed to offer a more engaging visitor experience, offering in-depth product information logically grouped together, a news section with current news releases, upcoming events and embedded social media feeds from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The Dorset-based maker of the Incubus system, a mainstay of many of the most popular nightclubs around the world, provides detailed product information and technical resources on its new easy-to-navigate website product pages - from full specifications and high resolution images to EASE data, 3D cabinet drawings, user manuals and crossover settings.

According to Void's sales and

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UK - Stage Electrics has updated its inventory of audio equipment with the recent addition of an L-Acoustics ARCS Wide and Focus system. The investment follows the appointment of Rob Collett to audio hire manager and his remit to ensure the standard of equipment within the hire department is in line with needs and the expectations of its customers.

One of my first roles was to evaluate the audio equipment we offered and identify opportunities to invest in new technology says Rob. "Stage Electrics' aim is always to be at the forefront of the industry and our policy is to ensure that our hire stock reflects that."

With Stage Electrics servicing high-end corporate clients, as well as West End and touring theatre productions, Rob needed a system that delivered great intelligibility, combined with a compact size and economic price point. L-Acoustics ARCS Wide and Focus wa

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Fighting Talk - Foo Fighters have revealed they will be the headline act on the first day of Glastonbury Festival. The US rockers announced the news after they were named best international band at the NME Awards. In a recorded video message, frontman Dave Grohl told music fans at Brixton Academy, south London, they were returning to the UK to play Glastonbury. They are the first major act announced for this year's event. Foo Fighters will headline the Pyramid Stage on Friday, Glastonbury's website confirmed, making their first appearance at the Somerset festival since 1998. Lionel Richie was the first 2015 performer to be announced in November. He will make his debut in the Sunday teatime slot on the Pyramid stage.

Festival Move - T in the Park will be on a new site this year and the headliners will be Kasabian. Avicii will make his debut at the festival when he closes t

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Switzerland - A new website marks the official launch of the Schertler Group of companies, as its members formalise a corporate re-branding that has been in progress for several months. The group comprises Schertler SA, Swiss manufacturer of high quality contact microphones and compact acoustic and electric amplification systems, SR Technology, the Italian loudspeaker systems manufacturer (wholly owned by Schertler since 2012) and Velvet Strings SA (developed and owned by Schertler).

The group's new website offers pro audio customers, hi-fi enthusiasts and performing musicians an extensive range of products from amplifiers, preamps and contact microphones, through to compact active and passive loudspeaker systems for live performance, home listening and installation, as well as high quality string sets for 'cello and bass, which are soon also to be available for violin, viola an

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  3. Adlib expands Soundcraft rental inventory
  4. Martin Audio MLA tames Taronga
  5. Ashly saves the day at Rocky Mountain
  6. Powersoft reinforces Avalon Hollywood
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