Germany - At ProLight+Sound 2014 (Hall 8.0, Booth B50), Lawo will present solutions for live and theatre applications. Audio mixing consoles of Lawo's mc² series and the Innovason Eclipse desk will be on show.

This year, the systems will be set up in two separate areas - in a live stage zone and a theatresector. Also being demonstrated, video streaming over IP can be used as a solution for orchestra conductor camera and backstage screens for ensemble and staff following theatre scenes on stage.

Live mixing will be demonstrated on the Eclipse GT, and on the mc²56 with another, networked daughter mc²56, mirroring the settings of the master console. Also an mc²66 will be set up to demo theatre applications.

In Frankfurt, Lawo will present the Innovason Eclipse GT live mixer, featuring new soundpad functionality that allows recorded sounds to be recalled at the push of a but

Mexico - High End Systems and Grace Audio have announced a new partnership that will enable Grace Audio, Inc. to serve as its new master distributor for LATAM (except Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela) effective 1 January, 2014.

The LATAM partnership between High End Systems and Grace Audio includes countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay. In Addition Grace Audio, Inc. has appointed the following sub-regional distributors: Mexico D.F.: Miller Mix (Roberto Devesa); Central America (except Panama): Prosound (Melvyn Chuy) and Panama: RW Systems (Jaime Sierra).

Pilar Costa, president of Grace Audio, comments, "High End Systems is the pioneer of the professional lighting and control systems industry. Over more than a decade we, at Grace A

UK - Funky Junk has added Pearl Microphones to its distribution roster.

"Having used and loved Pearl Microphones for more than 20 years, I was delighted when the opportunity arose to represent the brand in the UK," says Funky Junk's founder Mark Thompson. "These microphones have an exceptional pedigree and history. They deliver great results, particularly on acoustics instruments, and they are built to last. It's no surprise to me that vintage Pearl Microphones are as much in demand as new ones."

Pearl's chairman, Sven Olof Andersson, says, "We are extremely happy to be working with Mark Thompson and his crew of dedicated professionals in the UK. Pearl goes a long way back in Britain and we will now continue to grow there with an exciting line-up of products and new developments."

Founded in 1941, Pearl is renowned for its award-winning rectangu

UK - London-based RTS Communications recently added the Roland VR-50HD AV Mixer to their hire stock, with the unit going straight out the door to local production house Pink Banana Studios.

RTS purchased the VR-50HD from Leisuretec Distribution, who as distributors of professional audio and video products directly to trade customers, hold stock of Roland Systems Group (RSG) products including the VR-50HD. The sale was facilitated by Chris Webster from RSG who had received the initial VR-50HD enquiry from Pink Banana Studios and had demonstrated the streaming and live production features to them.

RTS is an established supplier of audiovisual, IPTV and videoconferencing services to both the public and private sector. With a number of high profile corporate and government clients, the projects that RTS are involved in include the live broadcast of government press conferences and

UK - 'Juke box' musicals based on the songs of iconic performers continue to enjoy huge popularity in the UK. Ben Elton's Tonight's The Night - The Rod Stewart Musical is currently on a major tour of provincial venues, with a Yamaha CL5 digital console ensuring that the audio production is plain sailing.

Originally staged in London a decade ago, this is the show's second UK tour. Sound designer Rory Madden of RM Sound Design specified a Yamaha PM1D for the 2006 tour, so this time out a CL5 was the obvious choice.

The CL5, a Rio3224-D and two Rio1608-D i/o units were supplied by Orbital Sound, with associate sound designer Jon Sealey operating the show.

"The advantages of both a console and multicore which are much easier to handle are obvious, especially on an intensive tour where there is just six hours for the get in and soundcheck," he says. "The CL5

Germany - As well as showing new products and its annual 'glimpse into the future' at Prolight+Sound 2014, for the first time at the show Alcons Audio is giving comprehensive demonstrations of its ground-breaking audio technology.

Exhibiting in Hall 8, Stand G60, Alcons will be launching two new compact loudspeakers, as additions to the V-series and B-series.

Featuring the all-new RBN202 2" pro-ribbon driver for the first time, the V-series is extended with a versatile micro monitor for use in a wide variety of applications, where non-compromise fidelity is required. Another series extension is shown, now being the smallest of Alcons B-series subwoofers; a long-excursion 12" custom-designed woofer in a reflex-loaded configuration, as the perfect low-frequency extension for the smaller V-series monitors.

The company will also be showing the new R-series RR12 modular

Denmark - Housed in a stylish 1U rack-mount enclosure, Neets Audio Amplifier - 120 supplies two channels of robust amplification for driving the high-quality loudspeakers typically used in larger conference rooms, lecture halls and many commercial establishments.

At the heart of Neets Audio Amplifier - 120 is the advanced ICEpower Class D module. ICEpower is an independent subsidiary of Bang & Olufsen a/s and being engineered in Denmark, ICEpower delivers robust power, full bandwidth response and extremely low distortion with 90% efficiency. In two-channel mode the amplifier can be used for stereo reproduction of video soundtracks or for driving speakers in two separate audio zones. In bridged mode, it is suitable for driving multi-way full range systems or subwoofers with 450W at 4Ω

Neets Audio Amplifier - 120 is installer-friendly in every respect. Rack installation is

Germany - Stand 8.0-F60 at ProLight+Sound 2014 will see DiGiCo exhibiting with new German distributor united-b, launching its new D2-Rack and announcing a number of new software features and an expansion of a third party development project.

The British manufacturer is also adding a second 60m2 exhibition stand adjacent to the main united-b stand at 8.0-G56. This newly designed area will allow customers a hands-on, in-depth look at selected consoles.

Previewed at ISE2014, and designed to support and expand DiGiCo's SD Range's higher sample rate I/O solutions, the D2-Rack comes with either BNC or Cat 5 MADI connections, allowing it to be used with a number of DiGiCo consoles.

By using the latest convertors found in DiGiCo's SD Racks, the D2-Rack offers a more compact, more efficient, more affordable rack solution for connection at either 48kHz or 96kHz with no I/O reduction.<

The Netherlands - Yamaha's R-Remote software was only launched a few weeks ago, but it has already made an impact on audiences in the Netherlands, where a short tour by Holland Baroque Society found it "indispensible".

Holland Baroque Society is a collective which is not only keeps baroque music contemporary and frequently performed, but works with musicians from other genres to create innovative performances, albeit with baroque always as the starting point.

Early February saw one of these ground-breaking projects bring the inspiration of 18th century French composer Jean Philippe Rameau and 20th century Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel together on stage, fusing the similarities of music composed 200 years apart into something new.

The four-date tour took place on consecutive days from 6-9 February, with performances in Groningen, Utrecht, Leiden and Den Haa

UK - West London-based rental company Entec's Sound division renewed its long term acquaintance with Bedales School, supplying a d&b sound system and crew for their annual Rock Concert event, staged in the 340 capacity Olivier Theatre on the school's picturesque campus in Hampshire.

Bedales was founded in 1893 by the innovative educator and author John Bradley with the aim of being profoundly different from other public schools of the day. Putting the key elements of the child's education, welfare and happiness right at the core of its values, Bedales continues to be one of the most sought after educational experiences in the UK, encouraging independent thinking and inquisitive minds to flourish.

Entec's relationship as a technical partner started 10 years ago with the very first Bedales Rock Concert via the company's long association with legendary rockers The Who, when guita

France - La Chaine parlementaire (The parliamentary channel) is a French television network responsible for broadcasting activity from the National Assembly of France (LCP) and the Senate of France (Public Senat) - made available through TNT digital terrestrial television.

Created in 1999 at the request of the National Assembly of France to broadcast initially twice a week on France 3, by the following year it had also encompassed the Senate of France. Today it broadcasts 24 hours from the Assembly followed by 24 hours from the Senate having obtained its own TNT frequency. This makes high demands on the transmission facilities.

Last year, production needed to improve the bi-directional communication infrastructure, and Philippe Delépine, sales engineer at Audiopole, undertook a site survey before providing a solution based around BroaMan/Optocore network components.

&

UK - X Factor winner James Arthur has gone on to sell more than 2.5m copies of debut single Impossible and see his first, eponymously-titled album enter the charts just one place off the top spot in November 2013.

For Arthur's recent solo headline tour, front of house engineer Darren Mullis employed a variety of Audio-Technica microphones - including an AE5400 cardioid condenser, AE6100 hypercardioid dynamic and AE2500 dual-element cardioid dynamic/condenser - on both vocals and backline.

"When we went into rehearsals with James we had numerous microphones to try for different applications," Mullis explains, "and we quickly settled on an Audio-Technica AE5400 for James vocal and AE6100s for backing vocals. The AE5400 is a great fit for James and its top-end dips at about 5-6k which helps get rid of sibilance. Rejection from those microphones is great, whi

UK - Since 1988, The Australian Pink Floyd Show has been taking the 'tribute act' concept to extremes by bringing the aural and visual spectacle of Pink Floyd's live shows to enthusiastic audiences around the world. The band's current European tour includes a month of UK dates, which start in mid February, for which Capital Sound Hire is providing the audio system.

The tour's venues are a mixture of theatre and arenas, so Capital is supplying a flexible Martin Audio MLA system, comprising MLA, MLAc and WS218x subs with LM front-fills. FOH sound mixed by Jonathan Brooks on a DiGiCo SD8, whilst monitors comprise a comprehensive package of Sennheiser G3 IEMs and Martin LE1500 floor monitors, mixed by Matt Coton on a DiGiCo SD10.

The Capital Sound crew includes MLA technician Marty Beath and monitor techs Robin Conway and Bheki Phakathi sharing duties over the tour's four legs.

Germany - Following a year of significant inroads into new markets and territories for their TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker products, Out Board will be exhibiting and demonstrating them again at Frankfurt PL&S 2014 on Stand A02 in Hall8.0.

This year's show will see the launch of the first of a new suite of TiMax networking interfaces dubbed Connectivity by the company. The new MADI-64 and Dante-64 Connectivity devices fit into the rear option slots of the TiMax2 SoundHub audio showcontrol matrix and playback server to provide 64channels in and out on the respective transport protocols.

Out Board anticipates these new additions will consolidate interest in TiMax across an increasing range of market sectors and help open new doors in the coming year. Already the Dante-64 solution has been supplied to the Amsterdam Zoo in a 64channel TiMax2 SoundHub system to provide an integra

Australia - Having regularly used Optocore products for events requiring custom audio distribution, Australian rental staging company, Novatech Creative Event Technology, has now gone further.

The company first adopted Optocore systems back in 2012. According to project manager (audio), James Sacca, "At the time we were looking for a solution that would transport multiple channels of audio as sends and returns. Due to the nature of the particular event, we also needed something that could be quickly cabled after a series of road closures.

The multimode fibre made this an easy task. We were more than happy with the reliability and performance that Optocore products offered and our system design engineers have continued to utilise Optocore products ever since."

Most recently they have purchased a series of X6R-FX converters, equipped with AES I/O, to move up from ana

USA / UK - Electrosonic reports that March 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the company's founding. In 1964 the company started with two rooms in London's Greenwich vegetable market. Five decades later, Electrosonic is an international, multi-million dollar business with headquarters in Burbank, California, and offices worldwide.

Electrosonic's story is complex but in many ways it parallels the history of audio-visual technology, and provides a window into how the industry and its services and products have changed.

Founded by Denis Naisbitt, Michael Ray and Robert Simpson, the company opened with the strapline "Electronic Control and Audio Systems". From the start, Electrosonic combined the manufacturing and selling of products with the building of complete engineered systems. Key product categories included electronic lighting control, multi-image slide projectio

South Africa - Stage Audio Works Technology and Engineering Group has established itself firmly, not only on the South African horizon, but also within the African continent. Building on this maxim, the company has announced the acquisition of Event Technology Namibia, a long-standing sales partner, resulting in the opening of the Southern African office based in Windhoek.

The 1350sq.m warehouse and office space will service customers across Namibia, Angola, Zambia and other neighbouring countries, offering quicker access to stock of a diverse product range, support, product service, training and much more.

Commenting on the new office, branch manager Joppie Maritz, said, "Setting up our new office in Namibia underpins our commitment to the territory. The new office will offer demonstration and training facilities and a diverse inventory ready for same-day dispatch."

UK - A collaborative event industry skills initiative, formed in 2010 by Delta Sound and White Light, welcomes Metro Broadcast and The Royal Albert Hall to the 2014 undergraduate programme. The growing initiative is an educational programme for stage technicians at the UK's leading universities and theatre schools aiming for a career in live events. The initiative helps prepare students for work and provides an opportunity to gain valuable insights into the industry offering advice on production planning, project management, creating a CV and interview tips.

The initiative reaches out to students of RADA, Central School of Speech and Drama, Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, Mountview Academy, Rose Bruford College and the Guildford School of Acting.

This project was originally created by Delta Sound's projects director Lee Dennison, and Head of Events at White Light, Stuart Cr

Europe - In response to growing industry demand, PLASA Events Ltd has announced that two new PLASA Focus events will take place in Europe during 2014.

The first of these new events - and the first PLASA Focus to be staged in mainland Europe - will take place this summer, when PLASA Focus: Brussels open its doors in the heart of Belgium's capital city, on 1-2 July. PLASA Events reports that initial interest from exhibitors has been very positive, with over 30 companies already applying for space in Brussels, including brands such as ADJ, Chauvet, d&b audiotechnik, Robe and Shure.

Having introduced the successful PLASA Focus event model in Leeds, UK, in 2009 and subsequently in various cities across North America, PLASA has long been aware of the market's desire for more of this type of event in Europe. The BeNeLux region was one of the first to be considered for a regional mark

Belgium - Antwerp-based Revolution Event Support is one of Belgium's leading production companies, supplying sound, lighting and stage design to many of the country's best-known artists. Recently the company bought a pair of Yamaha CL5 digital mixing consoles to ensure its clients enjoy state-of-the-art sound.

Founded by Bart Faut 20 years ago, Revolution is run by Bart along with around 20 freelance staff. Supplying systems for both national and international shows, the company has built up a roster of regular clients who appreciate Revolution's commitment to quality and reliability.

As a longtime user of Yamaha audio products, Bart's inventory includes M7CL, O1V96, PM3500 consoles and Nexo PA speakers. But with touring productions becoming increasingly sophisticated, more inputs and outputs were needed. Revolution therefore purchased two CL5 consoles, along with two Rio3224-

USA - Mackie has announced the release of Master Fader 2.1, the primary control app for Mackie DL Series Digital Live Sound Mixers. Master Fader v2.1 delivers new features that appeal to the professional user, including enhanced output processing.

"With 1.5m shows mixed using DL Series mixers, we wanted to focus on features that our pro users would appreciate," commented Ben Olswang, Mackie product manager. "So we added new, powerful output processing that replaces expensive outboard system processors."

Drawing from user requests, Master Fader v2.1 features a four-band parametric EQ (PEQ) on all outputs. This new EQ works in parallel with the current 31-band GEQ to give users even more control over their outputs. The new PEQ also includes separate high-pass and low-pass filters with variable slope control. Also new to each output is alignment delay. With up

UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK), distributors for QSC products in the UK, recently supplied a QSC Q-Sys audio management system to RG Jones Sound Engineering for use in the renowned Serpentine Gallery's new art space in Central London, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery.

Like the original gallery, the Sackler sits next to the Serpentine lake from which both venues take their name, but the newer gallery, which opened in Autumn 2013, is on the north side of the bridge and is envisaged as a space for the display of cutting-edge works that will complement and contrast with those on view in the original gallery.

The Magazine, as the building now housing the Serpentine Sackler is called, a former gunpowder store dating from the Napoleonic Wars, was comprehensively refurbished from 2009 to 2013 by a team led by Zaha Hadid Architects, following many decades as a humble store for park ma

Germany - Adamson Systems has announced new E12/E218 touring packages ideal for touring and rental houses that need system flexibility, fast setup/teardown and the most powerful mid-high performance in a 12" line array available in the world.

"The E12/E218 combination is ideal for sound companies looking for a flexible line array and subwoofer that can work for an act moving from a theatre to an arena to an outdoor festival," explains James Oliver, director of marketing and sales for Adamson. "We've designed the system so it can be used in front of 20,000 one night and in an intimate theatre setting the next.

"Both the new E12 and E218 have extremely efficient power handling which allows us to minimize the footprint on the stage and reduce the total cost for the end user," he adds. "There isn't a more flexible product in the world of line arr

Canada - Located near Saint John, New Brunswick, the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, which began operating in 1983, has been redesigned to meet all current nuclear facility standards. This included upgrades to its life safety systems and a plant-wide public address system completed by Backman Vidcom using Community loudspeakers for the outdoor and large indoor areas of the site.

Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Backman Vidcom is a leading specialist in commercial audiovisual design, integration and service in the Atlantic Provinces. Backman Vidcom's audio division manager, Steve O'Rourke, commented, "Since 9/11 there has been a real focus on life safety systems. Along with security, fire protection and rescue systems, the PA system plays a vital role in plant safety. In an emergency situation, the ability to hear announcements and alerts clearly can be a matter of l

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