Norway’s broadcaster NRK has ordered six RMS2020 radio mics for a bizarre new reality TV programme. Loosely speaking a cross between Big Brother and Fame Academy, the new show features 12 elderly contestants who will be ‘locked away’ in a ‘culturehouse’ in a remote part of Norway and challenged to write, produce and stage a cabaret show in 10 weeks. The film crew will, of course, be on hand to capture all the trials and tribulations and ego clashes which ensue. Audio Ltd mics were chosen because they are discreet and reliable for virtually any situation.
(Lee Baldock)
A new dance venue - called ‘The Locomotion’ - has opened its doors in the Dutch town of Zoetermeer. The new 2,000-capacity discotheque is equally suitable as a venue for live performance, and its sound system takes both applications into account. The owners and Electric Audio BV, the Dutch Electro-Voice distributor, decided in favour of an extensive Electro-Voice system. After a three-day installation period, the test run was a great success: "Our customers were enormously impressed with the combination of very high sound pressure levels and a complete absence of distortion," remembers Axel Nagtegaal. Then it was the turn of the disco people to test the power reserves of the system. "They, too, were highly enthusiastic - above all about the unbelievable bass kick. One sound engineer even commented that you could blow dry your hair with it!"
The equipment installed in The Locomotion includes four EV Xi-1183, four EV X-sub, 10 EV Sx-100 and 20 EV EVID 4.2 enclosures, plus two EV SX-A250 DJ monitors. Power is provided via EV’s P-3000 and P-2000 amplifiers.
(Lee Baldock)
MixArt Ltd from Russia has been named Allen & Heath Distributor of the Year for 2002. The award is given each year to the distribution company which has done most to the support the brand and its customers in their territory. A special plaque was presented to the president of MixArt, Dmitriy Modin, during a dinner held for Allen & Heath's distribution team at Langans Coq d'Or restaurant in London during the recent PLASA show (Earls Court Exhibition Centre, 8-11 Sept 2002).
MixArt are based in Moscow, with a satellite facility in St. Petersburg and plans for another in Siberia. Allen & Heath's sales and marketing director, Bob Goleniowski, explains why MixArt was chosen to receive the award: "Rather than just looking at overall sales figures, we consider criteria such as the way that the distributor looks after our customers, how well they communicate with us and how fully they get behind our full range of live sound, DJ and fixed installation products. We want to work with people who are as passionate as we are about our mixers. We have a very strong distribution network across the globe and there were several strong contenders for the award, but when I spoke to my team about it we unanimously agreed that Dmitriy and MixArt deserve recognition for the hard work and dedication they have demonstrated in building the profile and reputation of the brand in Russia."
(Lee Baldock)
Audio Logistics and Richmond Studios founder Toby Alington has been commissioned by leading Welsh film and TV production company Presentable for the audio production of the latest series of the successful BBC Wales light entertainment show Mike Doyle, being filmed in Studio C1 at BBC Broadcasting House in Cardiff.
Filmed in front of a live audience with a live band, the format includes music, comedy, chat and celebrity guests, and is captured with a seven-camera shoot and some 70 channels of audio to cater for the large band and 24 channels of radio microphones. The sessions are recorded direct to digital multi-track with a full PA system and monitor setup from Welsh company AB Acoustics, provided through Audio Logistics. The audience mix is engineered by Clinton Cast with the monitor mix by AB Acoustics owner Huw ‘Buzz’ Evans.
Post production is handled by Toby Alington and mixed at The Soundworks’ 5.1-equipped Studio 1 in Cardiff, using the studio’s SSL Axiom digital desk with Pro Tools. Alington explains: "It’s a huge privilege to mix these shows, because of the fantastic musicianship in the band. Under the direction of David Firman, there are players of the calibre of Steve Sidwell - Robbie Williams’ musical director for his big band shows at the Royal Albert Hall - and Phil Todd, one of the finest saxophonists in the world; they are the country’s top session musicians, and the songs are beautifully arranged standards, old and new. It’s real entertainment music television produced to a very high level - which is v
Wlodek Sielski, director of business development with Digigram SA, is expanding Soundbits, his business development and marketing consultancy for the pro audio and broadcast industries, to cater for the converging and expanding world markets. To aid this expansion, he will leave his permanent position from 1 January 2003, while remaining as a key consultant.
Digigram’s co-founder and president of the executive board, Philippe Girard-Buttoz, commented: "Wlodek has been with Digigram for 15 years, and his extensive knowledge of the industry and understanding of the worldwide markets has been invaluable. He commands great industry respect and we are delighted to keep Wlodek/Soundbits as an important consultant. However, I understand his need to expand his own operation, and he is just the man to cater for the changes and needs of our fast-moving industry."
In the last 10 years at Digigram, Sielski has been instrumental in stimulating the growth and expansion of the company worldwide. In the late 90s, he set up and ran the distribution network for Digigram’s non-OEM products. As director of business development since January 2001, he has been particularly involved in Digigram’s networked audio technologies. "After working almost exclusively for Digigram - a great company with great people - for many years, I want to expand my professional horizons beyond a single customer base," said Sielski. "As a consultant to Digigram, I’ll stay close to a company for which I have a lot of passion and admiration, and hopefully contribute
JBL Professional's EVO speakers have been installed into a multipurpose room inside Vienna's new Leopold Museum. The 117-seat room is used for a variety of functions including concerts, podium discussions, movies, and presentations. One of the new museums in Vienna's art district, the five-story Leopold Museum houses the art exhibition of Rudolf Leopold, with over 5,000 paintings including works by artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and Oskar Kokoschka.
The installation was completed by audio specialists, Georg Vanek and Frank Bocksteiner / Ton&Technik, who chose EVO because of its functionality and ease of use. Aside from audio quality, another factor in the decision to choose EVO was its compact and elegant design and ability to be mounted horizontally, allowing for speaker placement below the ceiling line. Vanek, pleased with the installation, stated: "It sounds very good; plays very good; everything fits."
Bocksteiner agreed, saying: "Achieving an acoustical solution of the highest standards, such as in this venue, is only possible in liaison with clients and brand names we trust. Over the course of my career, JBL has proven that they don't compromise any quality."
The installation turned out so well that the installers were asked to install other systems in the building: the museum's coffee shop, Café Leopold, now features several other JBL products including the Marquis Series MS28, Control 1, and EON G2 speakers.
(Lee Baldock)
Show Presentation Services (SPS) has recently provided full audio-visual and staging facilities, including live camera work, at the high level BSkyB 'Leadership Forum' for 320 of its senior management executives from all over the country. The annual event for BSkyB's senior managers, held in the London Suite at the Marriot Hotel, Heathrow on 13 September, 2002, was hosted by Sky News's political editor, Adam Boulton.
SPS has been developing the event format with BSkyB over the past eight months, working together on the stage and set design, as well as planning the seating layout, lights, sound and cameras. Neil Smith, the manager of the project at SPS said: "We have had a good working relationship with BSkyB for the past six years now, so we were delighted to be working on the forum again this year. An event of this size and content takes extensive planning in the months leading up to it, with a whole team of lighting, sound and camera engineers planning every tiny detail. A final crew of 26 people from SPS worked at the forum on the day, which is large compared to other corporate events that we have worked on."
The stage that SPS built consisted of an elliptical centrepiece, with two main projection screens either side of centre, linked to twin Barco projectors: 60" plasma screens were then placed next to these screens at the edges of the stage. So as not to distract from the main activity, SPS built a production unit at the back of the stage in order to house the portable production units, computers for on-screen graphics and technicians. This is also w
Aztec, the innovative new live console from Audient, has just completed a 14-date preview tour of Ireland with American Hot!, London’s newest musical show. Rental company Thames Audio supplied the desk for the tour via UK distributor Expotus. Tour sound designer and FOH engineer was Jem Kitchen with Thames Audio’s Graham Simpson acting as co-designer and systems engineer.
The tour began at the Bakewell Arts Festival on Sunday 11 August. It then visited The Palace Theatre, London; the An Grianan Theatre in Letterkenny, County Donegal; Waterfront Hall, Belfast; Leisureland, Galway; The Everymen Palace Theatre, Cork; The University Concert Hall, Limerick, before finally stopping on 28 September for two performances at the RDS (Royal Dublin Society) Concert Hall, Ballbridge, Dublin.
Graham Simpson of Thames Audio, says of the desk: "The Aztec was sonically very transparent, lightweight and ergonomically friendly. It was a pleasure to use and complemented the [Funktion One] speaker system perfectly."
(Lee Baldock)
Simplifying the setup for turntablists worldwide, Shure recently announced the release of the M44-7-H Turntablist Cartridge pre-mounted on a Technics headshell. Scratch DJs can now virtually eliminate set-up time and install this model directly onto a turntable tone arm. Shure’s premium scratch needle, the M44-7 has earned a reputation because of its ability to deliver great sound without skipping. Along with ultra-high skip resistance, the M44-7 offers a high output and minimizes record wear, making it the battle needle of choice for champion scratch DJs worldwide, including the former Invisibl Skratch Piklz, X-ecutioners, and The World Famous Beat Junkies. The M44-7-H will debut in Shure's exclusive new line of DJ cartridge packaging. This exciting new clear-tube package is both reusable and recyclable.
(Lee Baldock)
Some of the biggest names in television gathered at the Royal Albert Hall recently for the 2002 National Television Awards. RG Jones was the principal audio contractor for the event, which was broadcast on ITV on 15 October. Engineer Simon Hodge saw this as a perfect opportunity to put the new compact Nexo GEO system through its paces, which was duly supplied by SSE, along with Camco amplification.
According to Simon, as a complete package GEO was "a joy to work with." He explained that the main issues of the event were to do with sight lines. "As a major televised show for the television industry it was crucial that we have a physically tiny system so that it did not interfere with sight lines either for the audience, or more importantly for the many cameras filming the show. GEO was fantastic in this respect. We had the two hangs positioned quite wide behind the lectern and stage mics so that they were out of shot for the presentations, but we still got more gain from the system than from a traditional central cluster. The directivity of the system worked really well for us we were able to achieve smooth, even coverage with plenty of level from a system small enough to pack into the back of a transit van! I'll definitely be specifying GEO again."
The system used for the National Television Awards comprised two hangs of 16 x S805 cabinets and 1 x S830 cabinets each plus a further four CD12 subs per side.
(Lee Baldock)
In one of the largest ever conference system installations of its kind, Philips CSI has supplied a high-specification Concentus DCN (Digital Congress Network) system to the German government’s impressive new Bundeskanzleramt international conference centre in Berlin. The Philips Concentus system had to meet much more stringent demands than are normally encountered: up to 15 simultaneous language translations and the ability to display Cyrillic, Arabic and other non-standard character on built-in displays. It also had to cope with large numbers of delegates while being easy to use and to have an attractive aesthetic design for this prestigious new government facility.
To meet the need for simultaneous interpretation and language distribution for the new Berlin conference facility, Philips supplied a 140-position Concentus DCN system. The top of the range Concentus is able to handle up to 15 languages with interpretation desks designed by working interpreters. A second, smaller Concentus system was installed in a separate plenary room for press conferences - this is an 8-position system incorporating non-standard 'voice-seeking' microphones in place of the standard pluggable stem microphones to give participants more freedom of movement when fielding questions from journalists.
This major order was won against fierce international competition by the Salzbrenner Stagetec Mediagroup, a strategic Philips CSI partner and value-added re-seller/installer for the German market. Salzbrenner chose the Philips Concentus as the ideal solution for this impressive 333 long confe
Toploader, one of the UK's most successful live bands of the last two years, are currently touring the country with a flexible line array rig from EAW. The three-month tour takes in venues of all shapes and sizes - which meant that the choice of speaker system became even more sensitive than usual. "I loved the sound of the KF760 system when I heard it at Hammersmith Apollo," recalls FOH engineer Andrew Thornton, "but I admit I was concerned about the idea of bringing it into theatres and having to groundstack it for some show. In the end, though, it's proved to be much more flexible than a 'normal' system."
It has proved so flexible, in fact, that the tour's system technician Pete Hughes, who is responsible for the Canegreen-supplied system, opted to fit single wheelboards to the 16 KF760 and KF761 cabinets, in order to be able to split the arrays differently for each gig. Where flying points are available in the optimum positions, Hughes and Thornton hang up to six long-throw KF760 and two wide-coverage KF761 enclosures, while at smaller venues the system is split between groundstacks and flown arrays, and may even be entirely built on the floor if needed. 12 EAW SB1000 subwoofers ("still the best sounding sub in the business"' according to Thornton) provide ample low-end power.
"This way of dealing with the system means that we can cope with any room," enthuses Thornton, "with conventional narrow-horn boxes, we would still need a lot of them in a small venue, just to achieve the horizontal coverage." Thornton has been
Digigram, an innovator in digital audio network solutions, announces the release of Mac OS X drivers for its VXpocket v2, VXpocket 440 and VX222 sound cards. "The release of the Mac OS X drivers make it possible to achieve the best professional audio with the latest Apple OS," said Digigram managing director Philippe Delacroix. The drivers are fully compliant with both Mac OS X v10.1 and v10.2 (Jaguar). The VXpocket range enables serious audio production on laptops. The VX222 had earned popularity for Mac-based video and other applications through an effective pairing of reliability with professional analogue and digital interfaces.
(Lee Baldock)
Following the news earlier this week that London-based sound specialist Orbital had purchased two new D5 Live consoles from DiGiCo, the company has now given details of the first theatrical use of the D5 Live, at the International Festival of Musical Theatre in Cardiff. Here, the desk is being employed on a number of events, including the European debut of the Broadway musical Ragtime.
Orbital is issuing an invitation for all interested parties to visit them at their London base to find out more about the D5 Live, including the enhancements which have been made to Orbital’s second desk which have increased its capacity to manage even the biggest theatre productions. For more information, contact Chris Headlam at Orbital via the e-mail address given below.
(Lee Baldock)
Stage Electrics is holding a sale of theatrical and disco lighting and ancillary equipment on Saturday 9 November 2002. The Auction will be held at the company’s headquarters in Third Way, Avonmouth, Bristol and will commence at 10am.
Lots will include Strand Prelude and Cantata spotlights, Par cans, Tempus Dimmer racks, flight cases, cables, disco consoles and a wide range of effects equipment. Patrick Behan, who has organized previous successful Stage Electrics Auctions, told us: "This year it has been difficult to keep the lots to 1000 as we have acquired a considerable amount of new and second-hand kit from our Newcastle branch (ex Lighting Technology). There should be loads of bargains and the usual chance to meet up with a few mates from the industry."
Auction catalogues can be requested by emailing the address below or by phoning 0117 982 7282. An electronic version of the catalogue is available from Monday 28th October with hard copies following on the 1 November.
(Ruth Rossington)
London based tour company, Canegreen, have recently purchased an EAW KF760 Line Array system. Canegreen have been actively involved in the introduction and testing of the KF760 system, mainly within the European tour environment. The Canegreen system consists of 24 KF760 long/medium throw boxes and four KF761 near fill boxes. Sub bass is enhanced by the addition of 16 EAW SB1000 cabinets.
Canegreen's Yan Stile was very focused on what was required from the system: "As opposed to the American arena tour market, touring in Europe often involves venues with differing problems when flying or ground-stacking the sound system." He added: "We used the KF760s in all types of venue, some of them not normally applicable for line arrays. But throughout we were pleasantly surprised with the results, even in venues where there were no fly points and ground space was limited. The coverage we achieved, with no compromise in sound quality, was excellent."
John ‘Bruno’ Wayte of Mackie UK agreed with Stile: "It is an important factor for the UK and European touring market that systems are as flexible as possible, tour budgets, use in varying venues and ease of set up are as important issues as the overall sound quality. We appreciate the work the guys at Canegreen have put into the system."
The KF760s are presently being put to use on the Paul Weller and Toploader tours.
(Lee Baldock)
The largest Christian Festival in the UK is staged on Shepton Mallet show grounds each summer between mid-July and the end of August. Promoted by New Wine, a Watford-based Christian organization specializing in Christian Conferences, the festival is organized by Ron Fernihough through the offices of the newly-formed Wigwam Event Management Company.
As with all modern festivals, there are a variety of performance and presentation venues, the two largest, the main stage and the tent (a four king-pole circus tent supplied by Albion Woods) both sport large d&b audiotechnik C4/C7 PA systems, while the 25 other smaller venues catering for audiences of between 50 and 1,000 people use a variety of sound systems, generally d&b or Ohm Industries equipment. "We spent a lot of time looking at sound systems for the smaller venues," said Fernihough. "Because of the six week running time of this event, and the fact that each day live programmes run from nine in the morning until midnight, it’s just not economic to have that many professional sound engineers on site. So we recruit a volunteer squad and train them here - a task undertaken largely by Charlie Jones from Wigwam. What we need from these smaller systems is ease of operation, and that’s about well matched speakers, amps and processors - these systems will be running anything from stereo tape/CD source, through spoken voice, to a 10-piece electric band. You can’t have a system that requires to be re-EQ’d for each different performance type, the small d&b and Ohm systems fit this requirement
ARX Systems, the Australian-based manufacturer of professional audio products, has appointed Electric Audio as its new exclusive distributor for Belgium and Luxembourg. ARX's managing director, Colin Park announced the appointment, saying: "Consolidating ARX distribution for the three Benelux markets with Axel Nagtegaal and his team at Electric Audio ensures strong representation and support for our signal processing and other product ranges utilizing Electric Audio’s comprehensive warehousing and extensive product support network."
Park added: "Electric Audio have appointed well-known Brussels-based company A.Prevost S.A. as the ARX Belgium sub-distributor to service and support our many Belgian users."
Electric Audio B.V can be contacted at the e-mail address below.
(Lee Baldock)
VDC has fulfilled a custom-cable order for one of the world's leading recording studios, Air Lyndhurst of London, providing full portability for its Pro Tools suites. Air's three Pro Tools systems have been racked up as 24-tracks and, using custom-made breakouts to SSL DL specification, can now be rolled into any of the Lyndhurst studios and plugged straight into the main console.
"We buy most, if not all, our custom cable from VDC," explains Tim Vine-Lott, Air's technical manager. "With anyone else, we'd have to specify pin outs for each end of the cable, but we never have to do that with VDC."
VDC provided "a vast amount of cable" to Air earlier in the year, supplying additional cable system for Lyndhurst's famous Great Hall studio and its new Neve 88R mixing console, one of only three to be installed in the UK.
(Lee Baldock)
Stardraw has introduced ‘Rubber-Banding’ as the September Feature of the Month. This much-anticipated upgrade has been under development for many months and represents a significant enhancement to their design and documentation applications.
This major new functionality means that the elements in schematic designs stay connected as you move them within the document. So, if you wish to change the look of your block schematic and move products, either by dragging the selected symbols to their new position, or by nudging them with the arrow keys, the connections follow automatically. Furthermore, Rubber-Banding operates independently of Modifiers (Snap to Grid, Snap to Object, etc.).
This is an extremely important development, says Stardraw’s marketing director, Rob Robinson: "Rubber-Banding has been at the top of our ‘Most Wanted’ list for some time, and its development was a serious undertaking. The reason for this is that computers are inherently stupid, so adding intelligence to a design tool is particularly ambitious." He continued: "Rubber-Banding, and the technology that makes it possible, will support future enhancements that were inconceivable just a few short months ago."
(Lee Baldock)
Danish pro audio manufacturer D-PAC is now offering its high power PWM/class D amplifier modules for the OEM market. The modules are capable of delivering a maximum of 50A 320V P/P depending on PSU size and construction, and have an extremely low idle power (9W) with no need for fans or heat-sinks, even during heavy use.
Anders Christensen, CEO of D-PAC Audio, explains: "We have recently bought a production facility in order to manufacture up to 25,000 modules each year, and as we only expect to use a few thousand on a yearly basis, we see the idea in obtaining extra volume by offering our outstanding modules as OEM."
"Several tests have proven our modules to be more powerful, more quiet and better sounding than everything else we have tried and heard," says Christensen. "In order to give potential customers a try, we have made an evaluation kit with well-designed PSU and output filter, and straight input into the module. It comes complete in a box with unbalanced input and heavy duty speaker terminal outputs and is solely intended for LAB use and experiments."
(Lee Baldock)
Audio plus is the first rental operator in the Netherlands to invest in the new GEO Tangent Array system from Nexo. Located in Wijchen, Audio plus is a joint venture between two independent sound equipment companies, PA Geluid, owned by Paul Achterberg and MC Audio, owned by Martijn Ceulemans. With the majority of its business coming from theatre productions and open-air festivals, Audio plus was looking for a system that could maintain steady SPLs and offer excellent coverage through the audience area, while keeping size and weight to a minimum.
After listening to GEO at a demo hosted by Nexo distributor Iemke Roos, Paul Achterberg knew he had found what he was looking for. "The sonic performance of GEO is very, very good, but the coverage throughout the soundfield and the phase coherency of the system is, in my opinion, simply outstanding," said Achterberg, who placed an order for 20 Nexo Geo S-805 cabinets (5° vertical dispersion), four Nexo Geo S-830 cabinets (30° vertical dispersion), eight Nexo CD-12 sub bass cabinets, four Nexo NX 241 digital processors and six Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers. Together with the flying gear and hardware necessary to run two smaller systems if required, Achterberg describes his versatile GEO inventory as "the best decision, sound-wise, I have ever made!"
His partner Martijn Ceulemans has invested in a Nexo PS10 monitor system, which will be matched up with the GEO rig to provide monitoring functionality. In the near future, there are plans to expand this system with additional PS10s and PS15s for the more demanding
September 2002 marked another landmark in Midas's 30-year history as the Heritage 3000 bearing serial number 500 rolled off the production line at the Kidderminster factory.
In just three short years since the launch of the award-winning Heritage 3000 it has become the industry standard for concert touring and the backbone of console stocks for rental companies all over the world. Its status as the premier console of choice for this market, particularly in partnership with the flagship XL4, is further underlined by the fact that eight out of ten of the top-grossing tours to come out of the US used Heritage 3000s or XL4 or both. According to Midas' head of sales, David Cooper, the Heritage 3000 is a perfect example of a manufacturer responding to customer demands and coming up with exactly the right product. "Our customers needed a console that could handle itself both on stage or at FOH with ease, would stand up to the rigours of touring, and still retain that unmistakable Midas sound. It also had to be at the right price. The Heritage 3000 delivered all of that and became a style icon in the process!"
The Heritage 2000 and Heritage 1000 have also been hugely popular in the installation and theatre markets and, in the case of the Heritage 1000, with rental companies as well. Over 300 Heritage 2000s have shipped since its launch two-and-a-half years ago, while the two-year old Heritage 1000 has sold 250 units, making a total of over 1000 Heritage consoles sold worldwide. "It's a fantastic achievement," said Cooper, "and one of which I think we ca
Lamba plc, exclusive UK distributor for KAM, has launched several new products under the KAM brand name. Heading the list is the KCD-800CDG - a karaoke version of the KCD-800. This twin CD mixing unit provides the option of being able to play CDG disks, enabling the DJ to integrate karaoke into CD DJ’ing. Sold individually, or as part of the KAM Karaoke Kit, this robust CD player is aimed at mobile discos, pubs, restaurants and theme bars. Its 19" rack-mount size makes it easy to install into either a KamKase or standard installation mounting. It contains industry-standard connections, with two separate phono outputs for the video signal.
Lamba has also announced the release of the KamKase Pro range of reinforced record boxes. Manufactured in 25/75 and 50/50 black, clear perspex or brush silver/aluminium extrusion, these professional road cases hold 80 pieces of vinyl. The lightweight, high-density internal foam protects its contents and the lockable butterfly catches keep the vinyl secure. The full list of features includes high-density foam lining, comfortable gel handles, reinforced lift-off hinges, detachable lid and reinforced handles; the 50/50 boxes include recessed handles with rubber feet on both the lid and base, lockable butterfly catches and riveted extrusions.
(Lee Baldock)