USA - Self-described as “mission-minded”, Madison, Mississippi’s Broadmoor Baptist Church began meeting over 65 years ago following the rapid expansion of the city of Jackson after WWII. Over the decades, membership has grown to nearly 6,000 people, with over 1,500 attendees regularly attending services at the multi-structure campus located on 35 acres.
Music has always been an integral part of the church’s worship experience, and that has expanded with the church itself. Today, there are between four and eight vocalists and as many as ten musicians onstage for weekly Sunday services.
With that many musical participants, the stage at Broadmoor Baptist Church can be a busy place. That’s what led media and communications Pastor Michael Bowen and his staff to look into a more sophisticated and personalizable in-ear monitoring system. The choice, which he said was clear early on, was a pair of KLANG:vokal immersive in-ear monitor mix processors, applied one each to the band and the singers as groups, matched with a dozen individual KLANG:kontroller personal monitor controllers onstage. These were purchased and installed in September through Andrew Hicks at Stage Centre Lighting of nearby Pearl.
“We’ve been using in-ear monitoring since 2009 when we first opened this worship centre, and it served us well for over a decade, but we realised in recent months that audio technologies and quality have improved in that time,” Pastor Bowen explains. “It was time to move up.”
He notes that the church had already invested in a pair of DiG

USA - To support his fourth and newest studio album, Twelve Carat Toothache, Post Malone hit the road last fall for a 38-date North American arena tour with special guest Roddy Ricch. With PRG recently re-joining the singer/rapper as his touring sound reinforcement provider, one thing that remained unchanged on the Twelve Carat Tour was the artist’s reliance on L-Acoustics K Series loudspeakers, which had also been deployed on his last major run, 2019/20’s Runaway Tour.
Manning the FOH mix each night was Burton Ishmael, known for his previous work with Lil Baby, Nas, Big Sean, Miguel, H.E.R, and others. Supporting him at FOH was systems engineer Ben Bruns, who toured with both Jack Johnson and Harry Styles between the Twelve Carat and Runaway Tours.
According to Bruns, the sound system approach for Malone’s latest tour was somewhat unconventional, which was a direct answer to the unique layout of the stage. “The stage featured three parallel thrusts - I called it ‘the trident’ - which really made the show about Post,” he describes. “He had access to the entire arena floor, which fans absolutely loved. This design required re-thinking the classic approach of two large hangs of PA flanking a normal stage, but with a distributed system approach of eight hangs of L-Acoustics K2 arrays, I could be more precise with my Soundvision predictions, which allowed a more consistent SPL around the entire arena.”
With three arrays per side lining the left and right thrusts and two more arrays firing out at the end, much like a typical left

Belgium - Two Halloween-themed haunted houses set up by Production Pirates drew massive crowds using light and audio products from Showtec and DAP. For the two weeks around Halloween, Bellewaerde Park in Ieper, Belgium, turned into a Halloween immersion experience, with the two main attractions being the Funerarium and Mexican Massacre.
Bellewaerde Park is both a fully-fledged animal park as well as a complete theme park with many impressive coasters and rides. For Halloween 2022, Bellewaerde offered their visitors something special. They asked Production Pirates from Herentals, Belgium, to create an immersive Halloween experience by designing two haunted houses and preparing the park for opening its doors this late in the season.
Production Pirates turned to Showtec and DAP and found the light and sound equipment they needed. To dress up the haunted houses, they used 60 Showtec Club Par 12/4 RGBW LED pars. To add to the immersive experience, they installed 50 DAP Xi-5 compact but powerful installation loudspeakers. Twelve Showtec DIM-4 dimmer packs and 12 Showtec RP-405 MKII relay packs ensured that even “old fashioned” light bulbs were controllable through DMX, to have full control over all details of the scenes.
“Creating the ambiance was not the only application we have used Showtec’s products for,” says David Stuyck of Production Pirates. “They do double duty as emergency lighting. In the haunted houses we have implemented an emergency button that stops all actions in that location and sets the light to white at 100% brightness. The

USA - Located in Salem, Oregon, Alpha Sound is rapidly establishing a reputation for excellence across the US for its work in designing and installing sound systems in houses of worship. Following a recent project at St Mary’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, lead engineer Devin Sheets and the Alpha Sound team have added further to their credentials with another successful installation at the prestigious Mount Angel Abbey monastery of Benedictine monks, established 140 years ago in St. Benedict, Oregon.
“The brief at Mount Angel Abbey was to amplify the spoken word throughout the abbey with the exact same sonic character and timbre as that of the unamplified choir, while also providing pristine audio capture for the live streaming of choral music,” reports Devin. “And, of course, the system had to be as unobtrusive as possible in such a historic building.”
With line array clusters and delays deemed inappropriate in this case, thoughts turned to Nexo’s ID84 column speaker. “In a highly reverberant space with up to five seconds of decay, it’s difficult enough to understand speech at 15 feet, let alone 150 feet away at the back of the abbey,” says Sheets. “The sound of the ID84 is amazingly smooth and natural, and it fires like a laser beam to deliver total clarity right to the back. It’s just perfect for this type of application.”
Also from NEXO’s ID Series, ultra-compact ID14s are deployed to cover the nave, the choir area, an additional side chapel and organist waiting area, and six per side along the tri

USA - Harman Professional Solutions recently hosted 20 Los Angeles-based artists, musicians and content creators at an immersive product showcase and networking event. The event launches what will be an ongoing Create With programme where emerging music creators will engage with JBL Professional and AKG products in new and creative ways.
“The event was an amazing opportunity to get connected with other artists and creators,” said musician Caroline Kingsbury. “I loved seeing all the detailed behind the scenes work that goes into making the great products JBL and AKG make to help us create our best work.”
The event kicked off with a happy hour, giving attendees a chance to meet local creators in-person for the first time. Following the meet-and-greet, the creators designed their own AKG Ara microphones using paint markers. Gathered around a long table with a full spread of colours available, everyone embraced the good, old-fashioned arts-and-crafts moment by customizing a USB condenser mic with their respective, one-of-a-kind styles. By the end of the activity, there were plenty of flowers, neon colours, detailed landscapes and more painted onto 20 Ara mics at the drawing table.
Creators were then given a comprehensive tour of the Harman Experience Centre, a 16,000sq.ft audio and lighting product showcase with a 6,000sq.ft soundstage and multiple studio recording set-ups. The Experience Centre is a hands-on environment for exploring all things professional audio, from JBL Professional’s audio touring, studio and portable PA loudspea

USA - Despite the varied cultural differences across the U.S., one constant theme you can find throughout the country is a love for music. Whether it’s used as a tool to celebrate, educate or invigorate audiences, live music has long brought people together and quality audio is always the key to success in these performances.
Audio engineers around the globe have consistently turned to DPA Microphones to provide that level of sound reliability and clarity that impresses professionals and enraptures audiences. Such was the case for recent U.S. events including the Catalina JazzTrax Festival, Belmont University’s Oratorio Chorus and Orchestra, Danny Elfman at the Hollywood Bowl and the upcoming Los Angeles Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker at the Dolby Theatre.
The annual Catalina JazzTrax Festival set on Catalina Island has been made possible for the past 26 years by production manager and audio engineer Gregg Hudson of Hudson Audio. Hudson has also been aided by FOH engineer Spenser Bishop of MixOne Sound since 2008, and this season was no different. With 22 bands performing across two weekends, the festival required a quality audio production - made possible by a wide selection of nearly 20 DPA Microphones, including 4099 Core Extreme SPL Instrument, 2011 Twin Diaphragm Cardioid, 2028 Vocal and 4055 Kick Drum microphones.
“The room is like a giant fishbowl, one of the hardest I’ve ever mixed in, and the microphones made it all better,” Bishop shares. “Everything felt separate and controlled. Normally, I can’t put that

UK - James Eade, a leading expert on temporary electrical power safety, particularly in event environments, is announcing the availability of his popular electrical safety training courses for 2023.
James, who has trained almost 500 professionals in event, touring, theatre, film and television during 2022 alone, is chairman of the British Standard 7909 committee and author of The IET Practitioner’s Guide to Temporary Power Systems and the IET Code of Practice on In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment (ISITEE), 5th edition.
As a leading authority on temporary power systems, James was commissioned to serve as Head of Energy for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. In this role he oversaw all energy-related procurement and management of on-site temporary power systems. The work included some significant innovations in sports events, including the (unheard of) shared power systems between broadcast and other services, plus the extensive use of solar power and battery technologies. Working with Aggreko, he also oversaw the implementation of an efficient load-on-demand generator system which ran on hydrogenated vegetable oil.
Among a range of courses being offered for 2023 are one-day and three-day courses on the new 2023 edition of BS 7909, as well as courses providing important updates on ISITEE (which replaces PAT Testing) and new guidance for generator earthing and bonding.
Courses include the three-day Jet 7909, which covers the vital understanding and application of BS 7909 to temporary event power systems. The course, designed b

China - In partnership with Chinese authorities, L-Acoustics was recently involved with tracking down five counterfeiters who were subsequently found guilty and sentenced to jail for producing and selling counterfeit L‑Acoustics loudspeakers in China.
The suspects were arrested, and a batch of counterfeit signs, moulds, and other items was seized in Shiji Town, Guangzhou. A public hearing was held in The People's Court of Panyu District where the suspects presented their defence against the filed physical and documentary evidence, expert opinions, witness testimonies, and the victim's statements.
The court found the suspects guilty of counterfeiting a registered trademark and were initially sentenced to at least one year in prison, fined, and their activity suspended for varying years. Since probation for similar activities had been revoked in previous cases, the counterfeiters ended up with prison sentences of up to three years.
L-Acoustics loudspeakers are in high demand by artists worldwide, making the brand rider-friendly. It's no surprise that people want to create copycats to profit from its renowned reputation. However, these counterfeits pose enough dangers to make people think twice about that cheap price tag. Aside from the risk of prison sentences, various safety risks are associated with deploying untested and uncertified counterfeits.
Deployed fake L-Acoustics sound systems will not deliver the same performance as their originals and expose operators and the public to hazardous safety risks and even more severe legal liabilities

Germany - Prolight + Sound is cooperating with the Pro Musik association for the upcoming edition (25-28 April 2023). In the course of this, a new event stage will be created in the Portalhaus of Messe Frankfurt, where visitors will have the opportunity to talk to professional musicians, watch live showcases as well as interviews and lectures about music production and careers in the music business.
The event stage is part of the Performance + Production Hub, which offers a central contact point for all those interested in innovative forms of musical expression, creative studio and production tools, and DJing. The partnership with Pro Musik expands the Performance + Production Hub with topics around acoustic music, band performances and the symbiosis of analogue and digital sound worlds.
“Virtually everyone in the event business has a strong connection to music. Music and events are part of the same value chain, they are mutually dependent,” says Mira Wölfel, director Prolight + Sound. “In addition, musicians are important customers and multipliers for professional event, production and DJ technology. That’s why we are keen to make Prolight + Sound even more attractive for musicians who are interested in technology trends. We are delighted to be working with the Pro Musik association to create a central hot spot for this topic.”
“Pro Musik aims to create a communicative interface between musicians and technical service providers within the framework of Prolight + Sound,” says Axel Müller, chairman of Pro Musik. “The difficult pand

UK - As Entourage Pro, the freelance crew network and technology insights company, celebrates having successfully placed hundreds of crew on tours and gigs across the globe this summer, co-directors Joel Perry and James Stanbridge have announced the appointment of Harvey Goldsmith CBE to the Entourage Pro board to further expand their standing in the industry and help communicate the site’s suite of services to the global sector.
Goldsmith is one of the best-known names in the industry. He has acted as promoter for Live Aid and Live 8, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Jam, Teenage Cancer Trust, Madonna, Queen, Hans Zimmer and countless other international artists, and has recently launching the Nvisible Agency. He will assume the role of non-exec director at Entourage Pro with immediate effect.
“I’m excited to join this young, pioneering company,” he says. “EP has succeeded in bringing six major components of the live entertainment sector together in one accessible eco-system. Having recognised that the industry has long needed digitising, they have managed not only to create something entirely new, but something that is simple to use and benefits all stakeholders in the process.”
Perry adds, ‘We’re thrilled to have Harvey join us. He’s a true industry visionary whose wealth of knowledge has already proved indefatigable. Harvey knows that in order to implement change, you have to convince people that change is necessary. He knows better than anyone how to communicate that message and we’re already seeing the results.”
Sta

India - DiGiCo’s distributor for India, Hi-Tech Audio & Image, has achieved another DiGiCo landmark by supplying Udaipur-based rental company, Bharat Music, with its first DiGiCo SD10. “From small conferences to complex open-air concerts, DiGiCo has been the industry’s preferred choice for many years now,” says Vicky Sahu, director, Bharat Music. “Looking at technical features and market demand, we felt that DiGiCo definitely fits our work profile.”
Immediately after purchasing the SD10, Bharat Music supplied the console to various eminent Bollywood artists’ live shows including Papon, Guru Randhawa, Mika Singh and Stebin Ben. As an emerging audio-video rental company in Rajasthan, Vicky Sahu and his team are known for providing specialised services for big corporate and grand wedding events.
“DiGiCo SD10’s flexible layout and intuitive operation is greatly appreciated by its users. The SD10 is a rider friendly console and very much in demand among production managers,” notes Satyam Rajvanshi, DiGiCo application engineer at Hi-Tech Audio & Image. “For anyone who has purchased DiGiCo as their first console, I would say that the investment is a very good decision. All DiGiCo consoles are user friendly, with a fully functional user interface that allows the engineer to mix with ease. Moreover, we are always there to train and support anyone who owns a DiGiCo console.”
Akshay Rajput, sales & marketing manager from Hi-Tech Audio & Image, who is dedicated to the Rajasthan territory to promote DiGiCo amongst existing

UK - Sarah Faith Griffiths or, rather, Griff, has only been in the music business for a few years, but her candid and emotional lyrics, woven into uplifting melodies of songs like Black Hole, Good Stuff, and Head on Fire, won her the BRITs 2021 Rising Star Award. This year, the breakout star switched to Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 wireless microphone system, which has given her extra freedom on stage thanks to its eRF robustness.
With over 300m total streams and more than four million monthly listeners, Griff has amassed a large and zealous fanbase. Her 2022 debut headliner tour across the US, Europe and UK saw her play to thousands of enthusiastic fans, and she supported some of the world’s best-selling artists, including Ed Sheeran and Florence + the Machine.
Tim Boardman has acts like Solange, Tyler the Creator, AJ Tracey, Giggs, Ty Dolla $ign, Tori Kelly, Kodaline and Third Eye Blind to his list of credits, and he is now Griff’s tour manager, too. “Lionel Miller, our FOH, and I took over at the beginning of 2022 for her first US tour. It was a good time to bring in new people and try out the new gear for a very busy year ahead,” says Boardman.
Griff had used a competitor wireless microphone system on the first US leg, but when the team returned to the UK for the larger headliner concerts, they made the decision to switch to Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 wireless microphone system. “We’d had some amazing experiences with these systems on several other acts, and knew it would work well for Griff,” Boardman notes.
The system inclu

Europe - To mark the festive season, the Sennheiser Group will once again be supporting various audio and digital media organizations and associations that rely on the power of audio and music in their valuable work.
In 2022, the Sennheiser Group, which includes Sennheiser, Neumann, Dear Reality and Merging Technologies, has supported eight organizations around the world. In the APAC region, four associations have been chosen which have been vital resources for the local creative industries: the Japan Association of Stage Sound Creators, the Stage Sound Association of Japan, Star Association (Singapore), and the China Association for Recording Engineers. In EMEA and the Americas, the organizations supported include Open Up Music, Second Chance Studios, habitat4music, and Immersive and Inclusive Audio.
Open Up Music is a charity based in the UK, whose mission is to open up music to young disabled musicians. Through its ground-breaking National Open Youth Orchestra and Open Orchestras programmes, the charity works alongside young disabled musicians to tackle inequality and inspire exciting new music for the 21st century. It has also developed the Clarion, an accessible electronic instrument that can be played with any movement of the body including eye movement. Open Up Music’s work is delivered in partnership with special schools, Music Services and some of the UK’s leading arts and cultural organizations.
Second Chance Studios economically empowers people who were formerly incarcerated by employing and training them in one of the fastest-growing

UK - Nearly a decade on from clinching Best British Newcomer at the 2014 Kerrang! Magazine awards, Southampton metalcore outfit Bury Tomorrow have just completed an extensive UK and European tour in support of their well-received Cannibal album. Throughout the tour the band’s front of house engineer Dave Billings and monitor engineer Chris Cole relied on an array of Audio-Technica microphones, wireless and Allen & Heath dLive and SQ digital mixing systems.
At the heart of the band’s set-up is Audio-Technica’s latest 3000 Series digital wireless, used across guitars, vocals and for in-ear monitoring duties, while drums are delivered via Artist Elite AE3000 cardioid condensers (for overheads), compact AE2300 cardioid dynamics (for snare top and bottom), ATM250 hypercardioid dynamic (kick drum) and ATM230 hypercardioid dynamic mics for toms.
“I’ve been working with Bury Tomorrow since 2015,” says Billings, “and I’ve been using Audio-Technica microphones with them since then. I originally bought some vocal mics and fell in love with the durability and sound quality of them on tour – I’m now a massive fan of the AE3000s in particular. It’s a small-ish mic with a huge sound that’s perfect for the band.
“The new 3000 Series wireless has been amazing. The audio quality is hugely improved and the ability to swap frequencies with the push of a button – and the internal spectrum analyser – saves us so much time on tour, especially on festival dates. The band love playing smaller shows between festivals, and we’

Europe - Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats has embarked on a large-scale international tour throughout Europe, direct from its sell-out seasons at the London Palladium. Rather than touring traditional theatre venues, the tour takes in significantly larger arenas which typically pose challenges for sound designers wanting to replicate the sonic intricacies and detail expected from such a high-profile production.
With audio production supplied by Autograph Sound, sound designer Greg Pink turned to KV2 Audio loudspeakers to fulfil the task in hand.
“Having been designing musicals for over 30 years, I have used PAs from many different manufacturers, but it is without doubt that KV2 Audio’s range of loudspeakers are second to none,” states Pink. “Whether you are using them in a small theatre or a large arena they handle the job perfectly. We are currently touring a production of Cats around European arenas using a VHD system. The system looks ridiculously small in the venues, but the clarity and coverage are phenomenal. The dynamic range of the system allows us to run the system louder, if needed, without the risk of any distortion.
“The throw required in these arenas can be up to 100m which we easily achieve with just six VHD2.0s and 12 x VHD4.18 subwoofers,” he continues. “All VHD2.0s are flown, so for the audience sitting front of stage, consistent coverage is achieved with a just a pair of ESR215s and four EX26s.”
Speaking more broadly about KV2, Pink adds, “As a designer, KV2 gives you exactly what you want – clar

USA - A Christmas Carol recently arrived at Broadway’s Nederlander Theatre and sound designer Joshua D. Reid called upon Masque Sound to provide a custom audio equipment package for the holiday classic featuring Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays.
In this production, the timeless tale of Ebenezer Scrooge comes to new life as Jefferson Mays plays over 50 roles, directed by Michael Arden.
Masque Sound provided a custom audio set up for the film version of the play back in 2020, so for Reid it was just natural to bring Masque along to Broadway. “When we filmed at the United Palace, Masque Sound was wonderful to work with, so we wanted to make sure we approached them first when we moved to the stage,” says Reid. “As we started planning for the stage version of the production, we knew we were going to need a lot more in terms of equipment and we had full confidence that Masque Sound could provide everything we needed.”
Transitioning from film to the Broadway stage meant the addition of a full PA system. “For the filming, we did not really have any loudspeakers on the stage or in the house as we were mixing down the audio for film recording so it could be dissected and put it together in the studio,” adds Reid. “When we moved to the live stage version of the show, we had to add in all the loudspeakers to make it a fully aural immersive experience. Masque Sound was wonderful in providing us the PA we needed to deliver that experience to our audience.”
The PA system provided is composed of speakers from Meyer Sound. According to

UAE - Dubai’s Al Wasl Dome acts as a hub for visitors and vibrant performances alike. Originally the centrepiece of the EXPO 2020 Dubai, Al Wasl was recently repurposed into a 3,000-seat concert venue, outfitted with a 360-degree projection screen to offer an immersive audio and visual experience.
To celebrate its reopening, the dome hosted Grammy-winning Composer A.R. Rahman’s all-female Firdaus Orchestra and a 30-piece choir, accompanied by UK-based Indian singer Abi Sampa and her band, for a classical performance combining the sounds of the east and west.
To assist with orchestral reinforcement for the show, which presented a slew of acoustical and environmental difficulties, Rahman’s team called on sound designer and mix engineer Phil Wright, who turned to his tried and trusted DPA Microphones solutions for their durability and natural sound.
The sound professional selected the brand’s 4099 Core Instrument, 2011 Twin Diaphragm, 4011ES Cardioid Condenser and 4066 Omnidirectional Headset Microphones to help elevate the production. “The band and orchestra were primarily 4099s,” he explains. “This included the guitar, French horn and cello, as well as the more traditional instruments such as the tabla, harmonium, ney, oud, sitar, daf, frame drum and qanun. These are tiny, very quiet instruments and the DPA 4099s really brought out their sound within this massive orchestral texture we had going on.
“For those instruments that were a bit more open, we used the 2011s, and then the double basses in the orchestra were on my 4011ES m

USA - On 15 September, Georgia State University officials cut the ribbon on the school’s new Convocation Centre in the Summerhill neighbourhood of Atlanta. The new multipurpose 200,000sq.ft facility on the site of the former Atlanta Braves baseball stadium seats up to 8,000 and was designed to accommodate a wide range of events, including conferences, commencements, graduation ceremonies, concerts, and sports - most notably basketball as the new home of the Georgia State Panthers men’s and women’s NCAA Division I teams.
A venue this flexible needed a sound system equal to the task. It found one in the A15i loudspeaker from L-Acoustics, 42 of which use both Wide and Focus enclosures to guarantee precise coverage at every seat - comprising a sound system configurable for any occasion. System design and specification were performed by Idibri, a Salas O’Brien Company, while the system installation and integration was accomplished by Athens, GA-based Technical Services Audio Visual (TSAV).
“It’s essentially one sound system that can operate as two separate sound systems,” explains Ben Boeshans, senior consultant at Idibri. “There are clusters over the stage, court, and seating areas, and each are programmed to either fire or mute, depending upon the application. We designed in a QSC Q-SYS Core 510i as the control system, and the configurations and switching are programmed using the L-Acoustics Q-SYS plug-in, which offers streamlined native control of the amplified controllers and loudspeakers. The entire system can be reset as needed at the pus

Spain - Yamaha will be showcasing a wide range of business solutions at Integrated Systems Europe (31 January-3 February at the Fira de Barcelona), which highlight the company’s expansion into multiple application markets. Delivering efficiency, scalability, speed and control, Yamaha’s comprehensive systems aim to significantly improve the workflow for systems integrators.
In recent years Yamaha has developed a comprehensive range of products for small and medium-sized installations, offering audio quality, flexibility and ease of installation with the company’s renowned reliability. Major new products for 2023 take the company’s solutions to a new level, allowing them to cater for larger, more complex projects.
Yamaha will also be highlighting a new series of AVIXA-RU accredited, pan-European training courses and showcasing its collaboration and conferencing solutions. These can be created for every situation, from a small collaboration space or a simple boardroom, up to full bespoke solutions for auditoriums and large multi-zone areas.
Yamaha is exhibiting on stand 3E150. Nexo will be complementing Yamaha’s solutions, presenting its latest line-up of pro audio solutions on stand 7E750.

Taiwan - After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Taiwanese rock band 831 returned to the stage with a series of sold-out concerts across Asia. The Miss you 300 tour saw them performing 21 sold-out shows in major cities in China and a debut show in Singapore before they returned to Taiwan to kickstart their Upside Down World tour on home ground in the Taipei Arena.
As well as giving their fans an electrifyingly good time at the shows with their beat-heavy hits, the band also shared their personal thoughts and feelings, giving fans a glimpse of their warmth behind the rocker image. Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 has always been a mainstay of 831’s touring inventory, which has gradually expanded to include many other Sennheiser and Neumann products such as the SKM 500, MD 435 and MD 445 as well as the Neumann KM 184.
When 831’s front-of-house audio engineer Huang first heard the MD 435 and MD 445 on the snare, he was so impressed that he immediately requested for it to be deployed at the Taipei concert. He also enjoys working with the Digital 6000 series for its low latency, wide dynamic range and superb sound quality.
“Sennheiser’s Digital 6000 is impressive and has been serving the band really well. In fact, it is lead vocalist Up Lee’s only choice of microphone whenever the band goes on tour,” Huang commented.
For vocals, 831 used a two-channel Sennheiser Digital 6000 system. Up Lee used an SKM 6000 handheld transmitter while the rest of the band relied on the SKM 500 handhelds and SK 500 G4 wireless bodypack transmitters. Backin

USA - Before kick-off of each East Carolina University (ECU) football game, Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze is played over the sound system at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The crowd roars and the Pirates take the field. It’s just part of the game day experience for ECU Pirate alumni, fans, and students. It’s appropriate as the stadium dates back to the early 1960’s.
The first football game at Dowdy-Ficklen stadium was played on 21 September, 1963. At the time, the facility consisted of a 10,000-seat grandstand. Now, the facility has a capacity of 51,000 including a club level, loge boxes and suites and a new HD video / scoreboard completed in 2019. However, the audio in the facility needed an additional upgrade.
“In 2010, we put in a PA system,” said Greg Pierce, associate athletics director of external relations at East Carolina University. “As time went on, we lost amps and speakers. “Before long, the band-aids were becoming more expensive than the surgery, so we decided to do something new.”
Given the facility’s recent renovations, the new sound system needed to match the quality of experience ECU Athletics was working to create.
North Carolina-based PC Sound and Danley partner Precision Audio were selected for the project.
“This is the first installation in the country of Danley’s new J8-94,” said Precision Audio’s Scott Carneval. “One of the incredible things about Danley loudspeakers is that we can cover the entire field from the scoreboard. With other products to get intelligible sound and clarity, it re

Jordan - The Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts, traditionally held in July, transforms the ancient city of Jerash into a lively and spectacular event. In December this year, after a three-year, pandemic-enforced absence, the festival was back in force with an impressive line-up of top regional artists including Tamer Husny, Marwan Khoury, Asi Hillani, and Rabeh Saqer to name but a few.
For the eighth year running, Amman-based live production specialists, Triad Live Productions, were tasked with full sound and lighting production for the event. Their sound system of choice was KV2.
“The setup this year was a little different,” explains Triad’s general manager, Amjad T. Marar. “In the main 5,000-capacity South Theatre, we were required to install a large truss structure on stage with a height of 16m. Ultimately, that worked to our advantage as we flew a VHD2.0 cabinet left and right at 16m that took care of the upper tier seating; and thanks to its vertical dispersion of 40 degrees, it also provided perfect coverage all the way down to the bottom of the middle seating section as well.
“We set up another pair of VHD2.0s ground stacked left and right at the front of the stage at a height of 6m off the ground (on top of the subs) to cover the lower seating areas,” he continues. “In terms of subwoofers, we deployed a total of eight VHD4.18s and four VHD2.16 ground stacked left and right. A double ES1.0 system and four ES2.16s acted as side-fills and 20 x EX12 stage monitors completed the system.”
For the smaller, 2,000-capacity No

UK/USA - Clair Global, Eighth Day Sound and Britannia Row Productions supplied audio equipment and crew for Scottish singer-songwriter Paolo Nutini, as he embarked on a sell-out UK tour; his first in five years.
The tour was handled by Clair Global account manager, Andy Walker, with assistance from Brit Row’s Tom Brown. The team, based in Twickenham, facilitated the delivery of a d&b audiotechnik KSL PA system from Eighth Day Sound’s inventory, as well as Solid State Logic and Allen & Heath desks, a host of outboard gear, skilled touring personnel, operations and tour support.
“The KSL system is brand new to us as a tour,” says FOH engineer Ben Findlay. “It was available during the summer for a festival, and it sounded really good, so we decided to give it a go. It has a very authentic depth of balance, so you can have things quiet in the mix and they’re still lovely and audible. Using this, you don't have so much of a masking effect going on, so you don’t have to upend your balance to make everything work.”
In rehearsals, Nutini and his band were meticulous in wanting the new material to sound as close to the record as possible, while also taking the time to deconstruct and rebuild some of the older songs, which meant Findlay would have to adapt his mixes accordingly.
He selected an SSL L550 for the task, with a host of outboard gear including a Leslie simulator, an analogue delay, a SansAmp distortion pedal, two Rupert Neave pre-amps, a tube compressor, a Summit Audio DCL compressor, and his ‘go-to toy’, a Brica

USA - Dominated by 125ft tall spires flanking the main facade, St. James Basilica serves the spiritual needs of the community in Jamestown, North Dakota. Designed in the Gothic Revival style and completed in 1914, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as St. James Catholic Church and was elevated to a minor basilica in 1988.
The old audio system consisted of a single loudspeaker cluster at the front of the nave. Parishioners began complaining about not being able to hear the sermon clearly, and worship services could not be heard at all along the ends of the pews closest to the walls. The high ceilings and reverberant acoustics required a highly targeted audio solution, which Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers are renowned for.
Church staff reached out to Dallas Anderson, system designer at Tricorne Audio, to help design a new sound system capable of directing sound to the congregation and increasing speech intelligibility. Architectural modifications to the church were limited or not permitted due to its historic designation, which greatly reduced the options for the replacement audio system.
“St. James Basilica has amazing architecture but problematic acoustics as a result,” said Anderson. “We calculated nearly four seconds of reverberation in the sanctuary, which is immense. Our only options were to either install acoustical treatments and replace the loudspeaker cluster or install steerable arrays. Acoustic treatments weren’t allowed under the historic designation, so when steerable arrays became the only viabl