UK / Italy - Midas and Klark Teknik hosted their first international distributor conference in the beautiful setting of the shores of Lake Como in Italy at the end of September. Over 120 representatives from over 50 nations attended the two-day event, which culminated in a spectacular Gala Awards dinner at one of Italy's leading hotels, the Villa d'Este on Lake Como.
According to David Cooper, recently appointed director of sales and marketing for Midas and Klark Teknik, the event was a thoroughly worthwhile exercise, and appreciated by invitees and hosts alike. "With the possible exception of the products themselves, our distributor network is the most important tool of our trade, so it's important both for us and for them that our communication channels remain strong ... Not only was it enormously valuable for our customers in terms of what they learned about new products and future company direction, but fantastic for us in the amount of good and useful feedback we received from our distributors."
The Gala Awards night included a total of 11 awards given for distribution achievements across both brands. For Midas, Distributor of the Year went to EVI Audio France, while AVAB-CAC in Norway and EVI Audio Japan carried off the accolades for Best European Distributor and Best ROW distributor respectively. Best New Distributor went to Sound Communications Ltd in Ireland, and the well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award went to the inimitable Stefano Cantadori of Audiolink in Italy. For Klark Teknik, Distributor of the Year went to Telex USA while Intersoni
USA - SIA Software, a Loud Technologies (formerly Mackie Designs) brand and Lake Technology, innovators in digital audio signal processing, announced the release of a new plug-in for Lake Contour that provides full integration between the Contour Controller software and SIA SmaartLive, the industry standard analysis package for sound system optimization. Available in October from Lake Technology, the SmaartLive plug-in shows spectrum, spectrograph and transfer functions directly within the intuitive Contour Controller graphical interface, giving engineers the power to listen, measure and adjust an entire performance sound system on a single display. Using the Contour wireless tablet, this can be done from anywhere in a venue in real-time - even during a live performance.
"This is the first time a loudspeaker processor like Contour has been fully integrated with professional measurement tools like SmaartLive, and the feedback so far has been fantastic. Having everything you need on a single display makes system tuning incredibly easy and useful in both touring and installed sound system set-ups," said Justin Baird, Lake's product manager for Contour.
Jamie Anderson, product/market manager for SIA software added: "Lake Contour is an extremely powerful processing tool and we are pleased to bring SmaartLive's advanced system measurement capabilities to Lake Contour users.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - Coastal Acoustics announced the appointment of Chris Hollebone as general manager in a move to strengthen its sales and marketing resource. Coastal and sister company Harris Grant Associates, have completed a number of highly prestigious assignments this year and with an eye on significant expansion in 2004, this was the appropriate time to make a move.
Hollebone has previously held senior management positions at Sony Broadcast & Professional, TimeLine and DTS. Latterly he has been running his own sales and marketing consultancy and providing articles for a number of trade publications. Neil Grant, MD of both Coastal and HGA commented: "We asked Chris to review Coastal's portfolio and provide suggestions on how to maintain this momentum. One of the conclusions was that we needed additional sales, marketing and general management support. Who better than Chris himself."
Hollebone responded by saying: "HGA will be celebrating twenty successful years in business in 2004 and the future has never looked brighter for both design and Coastal's installations. It will be a delight to work for a company that still has quality at the top of its agenda and is taking its professionalism into new business sectors."
Coastal Acoustics has recently completed the AV and communications installation on two super yachts with another under construction. The company has also just finished the first phase of the new theatre installation at Tate Modern and have upgraded several Boxer installations at leading studios. Studio Davout in Paris recently installed a
USA - Loud Technologies announced two additions to its worldwide sales organization - longtime pro audio sales professionals David Christensen and Kurt Metzler. As director of international sales, Christensen, involved with pro audio most of his life, will be responsible for directing all international sales efforts for the entire portfolio of Loud Technologies brands including Mackie, EAW, Tapco and RCF. Christiansen brings extensive industry experience in building successful international sales organizations within the professional audio industry including Solid State Logic, Sony and Euphonix Inc.
Frank Loyko, senior vice president of sales at Loud Technologies commented: "Export markets make up a significant portion of Loud's current revenue and hold great potential in helping us to realize our sales goals in 2004. In order to realize this potential, we chose a senior level leader with a proven track record. Dave will bring tremendous focus to our international sales efforts and allow us to significantly strengthen our business relationships worldwide."
"Loud Technologies has an extremely focused sales team as well as a strong portfolio of brands," stated Christensen. "I'm thrilled to be joining this team and am looking forward to working with Loud's network of international distributors to fully leverage the potential of these brands in international markets."
Metzler, an industry veteran with 24 years of professional audio sales experience, will be responsible for the installed sound market in the United States-including Mack
UK - Telford-based Press Red Rentals Ltd has acquired the rental business of Soundsense from the liquidator, Bristol-based Bishop Fleming. Established in July 1997, Soundsense rented audio-visual, sound and video nationwide. The company was placed into voluntary liquidation on 17 September, at which point Bishop Fleming was appointed liquidator.
Press Red Rentals has acquired certain assets and goodwill from the liquidators for an undisclosed fee. Managing director Mark Stoner commented: "We are pleased to have been able to close this deal quickly and efficiently as it means we can offer continuation of service to thosecustomers who previously rented from Soundsense. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those customers who have been so supportive during this transitional period."
The business will trade under the Press Red banner.
(Le Baldock)
UK - Entec Sound & Light has supplied production lighting and audio equipment to the highly successful Skin 'Trashed' tour that has just completed its UK and European legs. Skin's FOH sound engineer Paul Ramsey and lighting designer Chris Oldfield have both enjoyed a good working relationship with Entec for some years, so they were the obvious choice as equipment supplier. Being essentially a club tour, the Skin production team, led by tour manager Andy Burnstein, toured their own consoles, specials and essentials, integrating them with the various house systems as they went.
Paul Ramsey has been working with Skin since 1996 and the Skunk Anansie days. He's a big d&b fan and says had he been able to take a full box system on this tour, that's what it would have been. However, they used the house stacks and racks at each venue, and took in their own DiGiCo D5 console, mics and cables and a couple of d&b B2 subs to augment the bottom end. This proved a "saving grace" - with the Skin show being sexy and sub heavy.
Ramsey says he "loves" the D5 and has been using one since May, when the tour started. He's maximizing the console's onboard effects, keeping his outboard rack expedient and tidy with a TC 2290 delay, an SPX 990 for distortions and radio vocal effects, and an Avalon 737 valve preamp/compressor/EQ on Skin's vocal.
LD Chris Oldfield first worked with Entec at the Marquee Club, when it moved from Wardour Street to Charing Cross Road, and has used them regularly ever since to supply kit for his various projects. For Skin, he adopted a 'l
UK - Wharfedale Pro has produced two complete powered systems, which will be making their debut at the Music Live expo, at the NEC in November. The PM500 and PM600 powered mixer systems have been designed to deliver optimum sound in a variety of applications - from live music performance and playback, to sound reinforcement or public address. Not only that, but they are road tough and simple to transport and set up.
The PM500 Series comprises of a PM500 powered mixer, two PT10 two-way 10" loudspeakers and a DM1.0 dynamic mic (with all cabling). The PM600 system incorporates the PM600 powered mixer, two PT12 two-way 12" loudspeakers and a DM1.0 mic (with cabling). The PT loudspeakers form an integral part of the system: these are high-output, high efficiency loudspeakers, featuring Wharfedale Pro proprietary drive units and a purpose-built high quality Electro-Dynamic HF driver (with overload protection). The PM mixer section is protected by a tough carpet-covered surround.
The PM500 and PM600 mixers respectively feature five and sx mono input channels, with separate Mic and Line input. Other features include Tape In, Digital Delay, Record Out, EFX Send/Return (on PM600), power On/Off on front, parallel speaker outputs (and main line output) on rear, built-in 120W power amp (on PM500) and 230W amp (on PM600), 2-band EQ (3-band EQ in PM600), thermal protection, XLR plus ¼" input socket.
The DM1.0 microphone displays a tight cardioid pattern to minimize feedback problems and effectively reject signals not originating directly in front of the mic ca
UK - Carlsbro has introduced a range of 8" and 10" passive and active moulded speaker cabinets for smaller fixed installations. Following the introduction of the Gamma range of 12" and 15" cabinets, the two new additions to the company's range are aimed at smaller applications.
Andrew Bishop, owner of Carlsbro, commented: "Repeat orders are flooding in from existing customers who are familiar with the Gamma range and we now need to spread the message to users who may have forgotten that Carlsbro, who have not been active in the installation market for some time, have speakers which will make your customers very happy - resulting in extra business for you."
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Sound installation company TASC is supplying a portable DJ system of Nexo PS15 full-range cabinets to Apres in Birmingham, which is opening a dancefloor area for the Christmas party season. Just months before, TASC completed the installation of a full house system at neighbouring Mechu, one of the busiest of Birmingham's destination clubs, which features Nexo PS10s and PS8s.
With an award-winning interior by RAW Design, Mechu is a successful bar/restaurant/late lounge club. Arron Smith of TASC designed and installed an all-Nexo sound system, featuring six PS10 full-range cabinets and three LS500 sub bass units. Compact Nexo PS8 speakers and LS400 subs are located throughout the club, amounting to nearly 30 in total. "Nexo PS cabinets are one of my very favourite products," enthuses Arron Smith. "Sometimes it's a struggle to get a customer to spend more and move up to Nexo but, once they hear it, they wonder why they thought of using anything else."
The Nexo system is powered by Crown MT amplifiers, all equipment supplied by Fuzion plc. "I hadn't used Crown for a long time, but they work well with the PS cabinets - it's a good blend," says Arron. "The client is over the moon with the results. The clarity, quality and sonic performance of the system is just amazing. The great thing about PS speakers is that you can drive them hard, at silly levels, and they handle it easily. If I could install Nexo all day long, I'd be very happy!"
(Lee Baldock)
UK - tsg the Sheffield based media programming and systems company have recently installed a novel background music/speech system into Reg Vardy plc's new Vauxhall dealership in Nottingham. The brief from the Sunderland-based retailer, which runs 78 dealerships in England and Scotland, was to provide an 'invisible' background music solution for the main showroom area, whilst also providing a clear intelligible paging facility for the workshop, forecourt and service parking areas. tsg met this brief by specifying and installing Armstrong i-ceiling NXT panels in the showroom area, thus making for a very clean and unobtrusive installation.
Steve Dunn, marketing director at tsg said: "I was very satisfied with the final result, and I am particularly pleased with the i-ceiling's ability to handle both music and speech, especially as the ceiling panels are located relatively high in the showroom area. We have already had excellent feedback from the installation of this product in Iceland Frozen food Stores, and I was keen to see how the product performed in a showroom setting. The colour matching of the loudspeaker panels alongside traditional Armstrong ceiling tiles is seamless and visitors to the showroom will be hard pressed to identify the loudspeaker panels."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
Switzerland - Audio Tech KST AG has been appointed the exclusive distributor for Midas and Klark Teknik in Switzerland. Experienced distribution specialists who already carry a number of high-end pro audio brands, Audio Tech sees the Midas and Klark Teknik ranges as a perfect complement to its existing portfolio, since it already carries a number of other Telex brands, but doesn't have any high-end mixing consoles or signal processing.
Audio Tech managing director Richie Seeger commented: "With Midas and KT we now have the best two brands in the world in their field. That's great news for us and we are looking forward to doing some good business with them. If their recent distributor conference in Lake Como is anything to go by, we've got some exciting times ahead."
Sales and marketing director for Midas and Klark Teknik, David Cooper said of the appointment: "Audio Tech are an experienced distributor who knows their market inside out. They know our products, and most importantly, they know how to support their customers. We are expecting this to be a successful partnership."
(Ruth Rossington)
UK - MIPRO have launched a compact, portable and completely self-contained PA system - the MA-705. This little unit delivers 50 watts rms into a high-performance 8 inch driver, that can be run on internal batteries for six hours from a four hour charge. A wired microphone, two wireless microphones, CD and other audio sources can be mixed simultaneously to the input. The MA-705 has optional extras such as an anti-shock CD player and advanced dual-channel UHF/VHF diversity receiver modules for long distance range reception, which are free from signal dropouts and interference. The elimination of an external antenna protects from breakage in transit, and the MA-705 is small enough to be used on a simple tripod stand or to be placed on a desk.
The compact design means that this unit can be set up anywhere: garden fêtes, election meetings, schools, seminars, parties or any venue that needs clear and powerful sound, from different sources delivered with the minimum fuss and maximum output.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - When television star Neil Morrissey was challenged to help a worthy cause for an upcoming ITV series With A Little Help from My Friends, pro audio distributor SCV London and staging and trussing specialist LiteStructures were among the companies he called on to help him complete the task. The voice behind Bob the Builder chose to help children's charity 'Kids Company' renovate a derelict community centre and wanted it to have a stage, so that kids could follow in his footsteps.
Morrissey called SCV London's marketing director, Steve McDonald, and asked him for a Fostex VF-160 Digital Multitracker for free. Steve was more than happy to give the Men Behaving Badly star the equipment to assist the charity, which works with deprived children. The Fostex VF-160 will be used to teach youngsters the elements of sound recording.
Morrissey also put in a call to LiteStructures' managing director Adrian Brooks to provide a stage for the centre. While Brooks was surprised to receive the call from Morrissey, he was only too pleased to help. To make the most of the space, the 6 x 4m stage needed to be demountable, so LiteStructures supplied LiteDeck staging, complete with handrails and steps, as it can be stored easily when not in use. AstraLite was fixed in place on the ceiling to form the lighting grid and, with Triple E's Unirail fitted, it also formed the support for the wool serge house curtains from J&C Joel Ltd. LiteStructures also provided on-site staff for the two-day installation. Morrissey was thrilled with the finished result, saying: "You'v
UK - CP Sound has completed an audio installation in St Mary & St Nicholas with All Saints Church in Leatherhead, Surrey, after being approached by organist and technical manager David Oliver to submit a sound system design and specification for the medieval building.
It was made clear that they didn't want a conventional house of worship system of 100V line column speakers and radio links. Hosting frequent band sessions and focusing on contemporary evangelical music for in-church entertainment, they wanted a more live music/rock and roll style sound, with 'stage' monitors and infills to ensure those sitting at the sides would also get a good sound. This off-beat nuance of the project appealed to CP's Colin Pattenden, "It's great working with people who are prepared to be experimental to achieve the best result" he comments.
The aesthetic requirement was for speaker enclosures that blended into the existing architecture and ambience. Pattenden chose white JBL Control 29 speakers to get the coverage, rigged unobtrusively to the inside of the arches running down the nave. The FOH mixer is an Allen & Heath 16/2 16-channel - allowing plenty of headroom - located in a custom-constructed oak surround to match the pews - at the entry door end of the nave. The monitors are CP Sound's own wedges.
The company also supplied and installed a small 8-channel Soundcraft Spirit E6 as a 'clergy' mixer that feeds into two RSE amplifiers, located to the side of the pulpit. The RSE's were specially modified to eliminate fan noise during the sermon and are housed in a w
UK - Sony Pictures Digital Networks (SPDN) new version of its Sound Forge software, the company's award-winning professional digital audio editor, has now been released. An industry standard for over a decade, this is the first new professional software release from SPDN since it purchased all of Sonic Foundry's desktop production software assets in July.
The new software includes many powerful features such as automated time-based recording, audio threshold record triggering, VU meters for recording and playback, enhanced spectrum analysis tools, directX plug-in effects automation, white, pink, and brown noise generators, media explorer previewing, project file creation and support for 24fps native DV video files.
Sound Forge software is one of the industry-standards for audio editing, recording, effects processing and media encoding on the PC platform. It is used worldwide for production in leading recording studios, post production facilities, broadcast and media complexes, home studios, radio stations and training facilities. The application includes an extensive set of customisable processes, effects and tools for manipulating audio and creating streaming media. It also offers support for a wide range of file import and export options for most industry formats.
Andrew Schneider, SPDN senior vice president for Media Software and Services said: 'The release of Sound Forge 7.0 demonstrates our dedication to producing world-class software for our customers, this latest version, combined with our other flagship products for video and audio production, Vegas 4.0
UK - Leading rental company Capital Sound Hire has increased its already substantial stock of Martin Audio touring enclosures, by making its first investment in the British manufacturer's W8LC Compact Line Array.
The London PA specialists have purchased 26 W8LCs - principally for use as main PA in smaller venues, and for auxiliary side hangs and delays in the big arenas, where the larger Martin Audio W8L Line Array will typically perform principal PA duties. At the same time Capital took the opportunity to bolster its W8L stock, adding another four of the original Line Array enclosures. This will allow them to rig 14 boxes per side on the upcoming Stereophonics' British tour, where they will also be running eight of the new W8LS subs each side (using the new Compact Line Array Compact as side hangs). To drive the new W8LC system, Capital commissioned a new dedicated amplifier rack, comprising of 24 Martin Audio MA4.2s.
Capital Sound Hire MD, Keith Davis, confirmed the order soon after hearing the W8LC demo'd at the Brixton Academy. He says the decision was fairly axiomatic, since he was already well aware of the sonic properties and fast rigging attributes of the system's forebear. "The W8L is quick to rig and de-rig and we have not had a single client say that they didn't like it," he said. "It is becoming more and more popular with bands and system techs all the time, and as such, we expect to buy another W8L system in the future."
Such has been Capital Sound's workload that they have needed the new Compact Line Array to boost, rather tha
UK - MJK Productions staged a spectacular production for the Mastercard MOBO (Music Of Black Origin) Awards 2003 at London's Royal Albert Hall on 25 September. The awards were dominated by 50 Cent, who picked up the honours for Best Hip Hop Act, Best Album and Best Single, while Justin Timberlake won Best R&B Act and Big Brovaz scored Best Newcomer.
Featuring many of the production team from the Mastercard BRIT awards, the MOBOs was directed for television by Julia Knowles and produced by Sharon Ali. MJK, for the eighth year since the event's début, were in charge of the live production and a team that included Britannia Row (audience sound), 021 (broadcast sound), VLPS (lighting), XL Video (video), Outback (rigging), Steel Monkey (set) and Eat Your Hearts Out (catering).
The show featured MJK's trademark five-minute changeovers between live performances, a substantial lighting rig covering both stage and audience, an EV X-Line line array PA with left and right hangs and two side hangs for the 270° wide audience, and a letterbox-format LED video backdrop to the stage.
Outback Rigging's specialist team was brought in by MJK Productions to rig the sound and lighting systems. Outback's crew, under crew chief Dave Morrel, teamed up with the Royal Albert Hall's in-house riggers to fly the VLPS lighting system, designed by LD Al Gurdon, an Electro-Voice X-Line PA system from Britannia Row Productions, and a stage set created by Bristol-based Steel Monkey. The rig consisted of two circular lighting trusses over the audience and house lighting trusses covering the st
UK - The Dave Martin Memorial Sailing Trophy or DAMMSTY held its 12th annual sailing weekend on its usual date in the calendar, the last weekend in September, when seven boats from the audio industry sailed from Sunsail, Port Solent to Cowes, Isle of Wight, stayed overnight and sailed back on Sunday.
Saturday evening went well with 60 diners exclusively occupying the 'Red Duster Restaurant' in Cowes High Street, where the generosity of all participating raised over £400 in the raffle and around another £2,000 will go to the profoundly deaf pre-school children at the Elizabeth Foundation School in Portsmouth, bringing the total donated to over £50,000.
This hugely worthwhile industry fund raising weekend has for the past 12 years succeeded in providing a great opportunity for novice, experienced and highly efficient sailors alike who together race in Solent waters in modern sailing craft, 36ft Benito's, hired by Sunsail. Organizer Brenda White told us: "It is a unique weekend and much loved by a hard core of audio industry companies. In 2002, 11 boats went out - this year, a few less . . . let's make 2004 a bumper year for this great sailing weekend!"
The event is held in memory of Dave Martin, the founder of Martin Audio, who disappeared in 1992. For details of next year's event, contact Brenda White at the e-mail address below.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Peak 4 is a new version of the leading stereo waveform editing application for Macintosh, is now out. More than an upgrade, Peak 4 offers many new features such as audio unit plug-ins, an innovative sample-based reverb technology called ImpulseVerb, multi-processor support, redbook CD burning from within the Peak application, new DSP tools and a mastering-quality compressor/limiter called Sqweez.
Peak 4's graphic user interface has been streamlined, also, designed to appeal to Macintosh enthusiasts it has a new brushed metal look,. Now a Mac OS X-only application, Peak 4 users can take full advantage of the services within the OS. For users still on OS 9, BIAS includes an optional Peak 3.5 OS 9 installer on the CD. Christine Berkley, VP marketing for BIAS said: "We've received a huge response to Peak 4 since its unveiling, users are excited by the new look and additional features."
ImpulseVerb is a high-quality reverb-processing tool that utilizes actual reverb impulse responses recorded in real spaces, such as performance halls, cathedrals, caves, and other spaces that display individual reverberation qualities. An altivec-based convolution technology allows these natural reverb impulses to be applied to dry audio signals, giving the impression that a file was actually recorded in a particular environment. ImpulseVerb offers real time preview, so that the ideal settings can be found before processing. Peak 4 is fully multi-threaded and multi-processor capable. This means it is faster and that there's no need to wait for most processes to finish be
USA - SIA Software, a Loud Technologies brand, has announced its nomination for a Technical Excellence & Creativity (TEC) award for SmaartLive 5 software. Presented annually by the Mix Foundation for Excellence in Audio, the TEC Awards honour individuals, companies and technical sound innovations behind recordings, films, TV shows and live performances. The 19th Annual TEC Awards ceremony takes place on Saturday, 11 October, 2003 in New York City.
SmaartLive is an industry-standard for dual-channel FFT-based audio measurement software for real-time sound system measurement, optimization, and control. The software combines powerful audio frequency measurement, analysis and data logging capability with a highly intuitive, user-friendly interface and the ability to remotely control an extensive list of leading equalizers and DSP processors.
The latest release, Version 5.3, now includes a new device control display in spectrum mode that provides access to all functionality for remote control of supported equalizers and loudspeaker processors. This capability was previously only available in the software's transfer function mode.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - Style In The City have opened their latest Babushka Bar - on the prime location site of the former Buddha Lounge in Manchester's Printworks. The £500,000 vodka bar development places a high priority on music, therefore installer Tarsin Ltd has once again fitted a Nexo sound system as the core of a technology package masterminded by Peter Dyer.
Dyer's company has enjoyed a long association with Style in the City - and in addition to Babushka, has included other Style brands, such as Bed and Nylon in its work portfolio. The company adopted a Nexo/Crown model as their preferred sound system when they were building the Bed Bar in Smithfield nearly two years ago, they have raised the stakes at Babushka, Manchester - having been asked to upspec the Nexo/Crown system.
"It was obvious they were serious about their sound," remembers Dyer, "and with a growing emphasis on the musical element they asked what system we would we put into Smithfield if there were no budget restrictions? We came up with a Nexo solution - and Fuzion [Nexo's UK distributors] helped us specify the system based around, PS10s, PS8s and LS500 subs. It became an immediate success financially and was much appreciated for the sound."
The principle advantages of Nexo, Dyer maintains, extend beyond the sheer quality of the sound to the cleverness of the speaker management. "It just seems to do that bit more to prevent damage and distortion," he says. "And as for the Crown amps, they speak for themselves."
Obviously liking what they heard in Smithfield, Styl
UK - Artists playing live at Sound Control's new flagship venue - situated in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street - will have their sound mixed by a fully-featured Soundcraft MH4 multi-function desk. The first use of the new venue was for the launch of Dido's new album Life For Rent at the end of September. Soundcraft UK sales manager (North), James Baker, has long enjoyed a close relationship with the Scottish-based music chain and was quick off the mark when he learned about the ambitious plan to develop the Megastore's famous live stage and incorporate it as a key feature of the Sound Control London experience.
Sensing that some huge bands were lined up to play weekly gigs he immediately proposed installing Sound Control's flagship store with a flagship-mixing console. "I looked closely at the type of desks other bands had been bringing in - some didn't have all the busses and VCAs. We could easily have provided a Series 2 but decided to go for overkill." The 48-channel board includes eight matrixes and 16 output busses. The MH4 has been designed for FOH, stage monitors, or monitors from FOH, with a brand new bussing system that gives maximum flexibility. Soundcraft have also provided a BSS external processing rack - giving customers an idea of some of the products they should be aspiring to. This includes a pair of FCS-966 graphic equalisers, two DPR-504 quad noise gates, a DPR 404 quad compressor and a DPR-402 dual compressor.
With their first store in the South East, the Scotland-based company now boasts 12 modern supers
UK - Following the decision of brand-holder Andrew Hunt to take the sales and marketing of Matrix amplifiers into his new manufacturing company, Clive Kinton has left the firm he jointly founded with Hunt in 1995. Tony O'Neill also left the company earlier this year for family reasons.
"We have over the last eight years, steadily built the Matrix brand to be a major player in the amplifier field but production has always been a challenge. Andrew feels he has solved the problems with his latest factory and wants to optimize the profit in what is a very competitive market," said Kinton at the launch of his new sound company - Meteor Electronics.
Meteor Electronics is a specialist sound distribution company and is working closely with several manufacturers on new and developing products. A lightweight, class D amplifier range including speaker modules will be available shortly under the Meteor brand and negotiations have been completed with a world-class loudspeaker manufacturer on a range of units for the MI sector.(Sarah Rushton-Read)
UK - Artists playing live at Sound Control's new flagship venue - situated in the basement of the Virgin Megastore in London's Oxford Street - will be able to monitor their sound through Nexo floor wedges. At the same time, a Nexo PA system will broadcast top concert performances to audiences congregated at the rear of what is expected to be Europe's first all-encompassing music megastore.
The famous Live Stage in the Oxford Street Virgin Megastore has played host to some of the biggest acts around over the years. In the new exclusive partnership, this will now form a key feature of the Sound Control London experience, with some huge bands planned for gigs each week. If the clarity of sound is anything like that produced for Dido's showcase appearance at the store on 29 September, then they have a treat in store.
Sound Control has a long relationship with Nexo's UK distributors, Fuzion plc, whose regional sales manager Mick Butler formerly worked for the retail chain. "Nexo has worked well for Sound Control and was an obvious choice for the live stage," said Butler. "We are delighted that the general consensus was that the sound quality for Dido was excellent."
Mick Butler designed the Nexo system in conjunction with Sound Control based around four flown PS15s (two per side), with a pair of LS1200 subs ground-stacked under the stage. A pair of PS10s (for stage monitoring) was later added to the order. The system is tuned using dedicated system controllers (PS10TD and PS15TD). Fuzion also provided the main FOH power engine in the form of a Cr