The Netherlands - Singer Barbara Straathof is enjoying unexpected success after her exposure in season 3 of the TV show The Voice of Holland. It was the third season of the Dutch reality singing competition, created by media tycoon John de Mol, and the first sophomore season ever of the show's format. After rising demand for her appearances following her participation on the show, Straathof's first professional decision was to choose a microphone system for her rapidly building live schedule.

Barbara explained her choice of microphone, "For my live work, I decided to do a test with three different microphones. I promised my engineer that I would come and check out this system he loved but I told him that I had my mind set on a different brand. Still, I went along with his request and tested the mic system he recommended which was the Lectrosonics HH Digital Hybrid Wi

Portugal - After extensive engineering work carefully tuning the system performance to, the new Next HFA Series are coming out from production. The most anticipated system on the series - HFA206P + HFA112s is officially ready for delivery now.

This system uses an active subwoofer (HFA112s) to power the passive satellite (HFA206P). It is a system with a "fantastic ratio between the size and its sound pressure". The quality and the power of the system make it perfect for DJs and small systems for live music, says the company.

The HFA speaker series are fully powered PA systems designed to deliver high output and dynamics, extreme linearity and fidelity for unrivalled performance at a very competitive price.

Entirely made in Portugal, the HFA speaker series uses quality custom made components, loaded by birch plywood enclosures, coated by a scratch resistant textured

France - Pop star Amel Bent first took France by storm as a semi-finalist on the pop idol television show Nouvelle Star in 2004. Ten years later, she's still going strong. Currently in the midst of her Instinct Tour, Bent is performing to enthusiastic audiences across France and Switzerland, where a pair of SSL Live consoles, supplied by SGroup's Alès location, are handling FOH and monitors.

Having previously worked with Christophe Willem, Zazie and 1789 Les amants de la bastille as PA tech, FOH engineer Thibault Maestracci joined Bent in November 2013 at the start of the tour. For this production, he takes approximately 50 channels from the stage and handles FOH mixing with a system that incorporates two Pro Tools HD rigs.

"The first Pro Tools system is used as a 'toolbox,' mainly for effects for 'stem group' processing," he explains. "The second system

Scandinavia - Since 2010, Equipson and Yamaha Europe have been cooperating on a range of products under the WORKproCA brand, manufactured by Equipson and exclusively distributed by Yamaha across Europe.

Today both companies have announced that this arrangement has been modified to focus the distribution of WORKproCA products on the Scandinavian markets of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. From 1 September, the distribution of Equipson products will be managed directly by Equipson in all other European markets.

"We have enjoyed great cooperation for over three years and I believe both companies have mutually benefitted throughout this period", says Juan Jose Vila, VP marketing at Equipson S.A. "In the meantime, Equipson and Yamaha's installation products have positively evolved to a level where Equipson needs to continue developing the international m

Hungary - Interton Ltd has designed and installed a Community loudspeaker sound system for the new Nagyerdei Stadion in Debrecen, Hungary. An all-seated football stadium, Nagyerdei has a 20,340 capacity, making it the third largest capacity Hungarian football stadium and the second largest Hungarian League stadium.

Home to the Debreceni Vasutas Sport Club, Nagyerdei Stadion was opened on 1 May 2014 and the first official match was played between Debrecen and Újpest, which ended with a 3-1 victory for the host team. As well as hosting Debreceni VSC games, the stadium will host matches for the Hungarian national football team. The ground also incorporates conference and banqueting suites and has a club shop selling Debrecen merchandise.

Zoltán Horváth, chief engineer of Interton Ltd, explained the basis for the system design, "Community loudspeakers are our first choice

Europe - Designed to be closer to its customers and distributors, FaitalPRO's new website facilitates the search of information that everyone needs in Spanish-speaking countries.

The new website is built on a very fast platform and offers visitors a more complete and easy to use structure as well as being equipped with a new and powerful search engine that can provide faster and more accurate results.

Flavio Naggi, Pro-Audio Division manager of FaitalPRO, declares,"Our goal is to provide a comprehensive knowledge of our professional speakers through a hypertext structure which is easily accessible, in order to present the most viable solutions -and in a better way- to our customers and whoever needs to manufacture professional enclosures for installation, OEM and touring."

The Spanish version site is very rich in contributions and technical specifications needed to

Singapore - The penetration of Martin Audio's MLA multi-cellular loudspeaker array in new territories increases unabated. In the Far East, Singapore-based EXPO AV-INSYNC PTE (EAI) significantly boosted an inventory that also includes Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Array, by purchasing the country's first MLA System 36 from local distributors Swee Lee.

EAI managing director, Gerard Rodrigues, said he was proud to be the country's first investor in the ground-breaking system. Speaking of the acquisition, he said, "We wanted a larger format, steerable array system to add on to our inventory and it needed to represent a significant upgrade. The other main reason is that the next four upcoming gigs are all rider specific."

He says the latest purchase continues a rich legacy that began with the old Martin Audio Wavefront W3/WS2 range. "We wanted to be the first company t

Russia - Another dilapidated theatre, another story of successful regeneration. Ho-hum. But then Robert Lepage stages a performance of his interpretation of Hamlet and the world begins to sit up and take notice. While Hamlet is the tale of a man who confronts his conscious self, the rebirth of the State Theatre of Nations, Moscow, is one man's confrontation with an entirely different state of being.

Fortunately, Yevgeny Mironov's tale has a happier outcome, but the trials of resurrecting a once grand theatre that had, like Hamlet become insecure and unstable, are no less compelling.

Mironov, an ambitious young star of Russia's stage and screen, was appointed artistic director of the theatre in 2006, just as it achieved independence. His initial verdict of the venue was, "It was a real disaster, the building looked like it had been bombed." It was

UK - Universal Event Production (UEP) supplied full technical production - sound, lighting and video - to the Nike Phenomenal House, a one week only pop-up experience to celebrate football, street culture and style, music and fashion staged at the Old Sorting Office just off London's New Oxford Street.

UEP was working for brand and live communication specialist XYZ. The Tring, Hertfordshire based company has worked on many different Nike events in recent years and also with Will Mould, MD of XYZ. However this was the first time they had worked in the Old Sorting Office space which is a regular venue for offsite London Fashion Week shows and other events suiting its semi-industrial and slightly edgy ambience.

The lighting design for the Nike Phenomenal was developed by UEP's James Fickling and Mike Lindsay to encompass an eclectic collection of exhibition and interactive areas

USA - Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky held the very first Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks horse races in 1875, the year it opened. The track acquired its now-iconic twin-spires grandstand in 1895 and subsequently added to it on either side in pieces during the last century, bringing the grandstand's current capacity to 52,000.

In anticipation of the 2014 Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs commenced installation of a 171-ft. by 90-ft. video screen, the largest 4k video board in the world. Because the facility's low-fi sound reinforcement system had been designed ages ago for only spoken word reproduction, the new screen would require a serious sound system upgrade to realize its full potential and impact. Dallas-based Marsh/PMK International, LLC designed the new sound reinforcement systems for all of the outdoor areas including nearly sixty clusters in the grandstands comp

Italy - Based just outside of Milan, the latest addition to Audient's global distribution network is Leading Technologies. Responsible for Audient's compact product range, including the USB interface, iD22 and the 8-channel mic pre and ADC, ASP880, the company takes on the mantle of distribution throughout Italy, this month.

"We are very excited to start this adventure with such a high quality brand that perfectly fit into our portfolio complementing and completing our offer," says Leading Technologies' CEO Marco Porro. "The addition of Audient products will help expand our reach into high tech audio across the country," he adds, citing the fact that the majority of the British manufacturer's products feature the renowned mic preamps designed by industry heavyweight, David Dearden.

With nearly 40 years of experience in the pro audio industry, Leading Techno

UK - Allen & Heath's new Qu-24 compact digital mixer has been installed in the prestigious Cambridge Union Society.

Founded in 1815, the Cambridge Union can claim to be the oldest continually operating debating society in the world, with participants including heads of state, business leaders, actors, academics and politicians.

Having extensive experience in the university, cathedral and heritage sectors, installer About Sound was appointed to specify and install a new audio system as part of an AV refurbishment. The brief was to provide a digital console that inexperienced users would be able to walk up to and operate.

"Qu-24 fitted the brief perfectly, and has lots of fantastic additional features. The mixer is housed on a balcony over the chamber, so the Qu-Pad app is a great benefit, allowing the engineer to judge levels and mute and unmute channels from within the

UK - With BPM: DJ and Electronic Music Production Event co-locating with the newly formed PRO: Audio and Lighting Technology Show at Birmingham's NEC (13-15 September) RCF has opted to increase its presence in order to feature a wider representation from the Italian company's extensive portfolio.

Exhibiting on stand #G1, RCF UK's Phil Price states, "We have traditionally fared well at BPM among the DJ community; but we welcome the addition of PRO as it exposes our new portable/touring and install portfolio to an entirely new segment. This will give us the best of both worlds."

Among the popular series on display in the LIVE range will be the evergreen ART, D-Line and NX series. But visitors will be especially keen to hear the new Evox portable column speakers, which will be on demonstration in the PA Experience, along with the stunning new ART745A.

The former are r

UK - The Live Event Hire Programme is a new initiative from Roland that has been established to promote the growing network of UK rental companies supplying Roland professional audio and video products for hire. The Roland Systems Group website (www.rolandsystemsgroup.co.uk) provides the hub of the programme, creating an online resource for customers wishing to source Roland products for hire and get in touch with suppliers directly.

"The aim of the Live Event Hire Programme is primarily to help raise market awareness of the service providers in the rental market by giving prospective clients a clear picture of which companies have which products available for immediate hire - and of course making it easy to for them to get in contact by following a link from the Roland Systems Group website," says Chris Webster, RSG business development manager.

"We are looking

USA - A hotdog eating contest might not sound like much of a sound production challenge, but when one of the Fourth of July's more unusual celebration events attracts over 30,000 people to a three hour show, featuring an MC, rock band, loads of playback and the actual contest, on a Coney Island street corner, providing professional sound reinforcement across the impromptu "venue" is no walk in the park. Add the seasonal steamy humidity and an edge of a hurricane downpour, and things get pretty sticky.

This year's - the 98th - Annual Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest saw the event's regular sound production company and FOH engineer since 2005 - Audio Production Services (Amawalk, NY) and Mark Fiore - take their first 'test flight' with the Cadac CDC eight-32 digital production console. "The Cadac was available from the company's new US division

UK - The 4HM MADI-MON and ASBO were deployed right through this summer's comprehensive BBC coverage of the Glastonbury festival. Held over three days and featuring artists as diverse as Dolly Parton, Kasabian and Metallica, the BBC provided comprehensive coverage of the festival across multiple media platforms.

Renowned UK OB specialist, Arena, implemented the MADI-MON to monitor and convert all channels of the primary incoming MADI stream being supplied from their VT truck at the festival. The MADI-MON was used across all three days of transmission and also during the rigging and testing process prior to broadcast. Much of the BBC's coverage from Glastonbury was routed through 4HM's equipment, including the One Show, news and the dedicated live festival coverage itself.

MADI-MON simultaneously converts the selected incoming MADI stream to AES/EBU and AES3-id, and it wa

Switzerland - The 12th Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition concluded on 12 July following a close finish in the Petit Théâtre at Montreux Palace, Switzerland, during the middle weekend of internationally renowned Montreux Jazz Festival.

As ever, there were excellent performances by all three finalists, but in the end, after much debate steered by the 2014 leader of the competition jury Sweet Georgia Brown, 20-year-old Alita Moses from Connecticut, USA was announced as the 2014 winner of the competition's first prize, following compelling renditions of Miles Davis's Four, Gershwin's Someone To Watch Over Me and Magda Giannikou's Amour T'es Lá?.

Laura Perrudin and Myriam Bouk Moun, both from France, won the second and third prizes respectively. This year's contest was notable for its collaborative atmosphere: at one point during rehearsals for the

Belgium - Amongst the myriad of events across Europe this year commemorating the Great War centennial, few can be more epic and ambitious than 14-18 Spektakel Musical staged in the vast Nekkerhal venue in Mechelen, Belgium.

Among the many technical challenges this production presented, making the audio work was a significant one, leading sound designer Guido Olischlager to specify a TiMax SoundHub audio showcontrol system. It had been decided that the entire 1800-strong audience block would move up and down the length of the 130m long arena, so it was essential to deploy a multi-channel distributed sound system and fully automated dynamic delay-matrix processing that is a TiMax speciality.

The show's designers had been tasked with making the staging work consistently across the whole length of the venue, with the director requiring soldiers and cavalry to move cinematic

USA - In choosing its touring sound reinforcement system, the Wanderlust Yoga Festival had very specific requirements: to provide both pristine vocal clarity for yoga instruction in the daytime and high-impact musical reinforcement for evening revelries. With the tour's truck space and trussing constraints, the production also needed a system with an exceptional power-to-size ratio and versatility. All of this has led to the selection of a Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker system, supplied by DBS Audio Systems of Coatesville, Penn.

"In prior years we had used four different systems from four different suppliers, with inconsistent results," says Sage Anthony Plakosh, production manager for the tour. "This year we wanted to assure that the yoga teachers and musicians would get a consistent experience from venue to venue."

The main Wanderlust system is a

USA - Built in the early 1970s, Westfield Hawthorn Mall is located in the Chicago suburb of Vernon Hills. Its classic mall architecture boasts four anchor stores, 180 retail spaces, and 1.3m square feet of space. However, until recently, its sound system possessed the lifeless quality of 1970s-era contractor-grade components. Music was low-fidelity, speech was of poor intelligibility, and volume throughout was too loud during slow times and too quiet during busy times.

Renaissance Communications Systems, located nearby in Franklin Park, Illinois, overhauled Westfield Hawthorn Mall's sound system. In addition to replacing the ceiling speakers, Renaissance also gave the mall modern auto-levelling control and multi-zone support using two Ashly Audio ne8800M 8-In x 8-Out Protea DSP System Processors and two 8-channel Ashly ne8250.70 Network Amplifiers.

"Certainly, one big iss

UK -Three leading UK-based audio console manufacturers - DiGiCo, Allen & Heath and Calrec - have joined forces to create a pro audio group. Confirmation of the group's formation comes after 18 months of talks with private equity fund management firms Electra Partners and ISIS.

It is understood the companies will still retain their "different skills, customer relationships and the identities of each brand".

A statement outlining the move says that the DiGiCo team has spent the last 18 months consulting with Electra Partners about the possible combination of both Allen & Heath and Calrec with the DiGiCo family. The culmination of this "brings together three British console companies to create a new professional audio group, while retaining their unique skills, customer relationships and the identities of each brand".

James Gordon will become Group CEO suppo

UK - The most recent event organised by the Shure Academy European Audio Network, the microphone manufacturer's European education and training arm, was another in the continuing series of Wireless Mastered RF microphone workshops hosted by Shure Distribution UK's RF specialist Tuomo Tolonen.

The 22 July date differed from all of the previous such sessions, however, as it took place in the prestigious surroundings of the Champions' Suite at Emirates Stadium, North London - Arsenal Football Club's home ground. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it proved popular; the event was full to capacity, and the only spare seats were the three reserved in the front row for the siting of the overhead projection system.

Attendees at Emirates were given a thorough grounding in the operation and capabilities of modern wireless microphone technology during the day with specific reference to Shure's QLX-

Switzerland - Lausanne's Haute Ecole de Musique (HEMU) is the leading music college in French-speaking Switzerland. Offering degree and Masters level courses in classical, jazz and modern music, it opened a brand new performance venue in June 2014 which features a comprehensive Yamaha and Nexo audio system.

HEMU's new BCV Concert Hall is located in Lausanne's Le Flon district. Historically one of the city's poorest areas, the project is the latest instalment of a long-running drive to improve its fortunes. Designed to host a wide range of concerts, as well as rehearsals, exams, conferences and film screenings, the BCV Concert Hall features Yamaha and Nexo equipment throughout.

Supplied by Zap Audio and installed by Vevey-based Auditech, the main 300-capacity performance space features a Yamaha CL3 digital mixing console and Rio3224-D i/o unit. Output is via a Dante network to

USA - Brian Wiser has been named president of sales - North America for Bosch Security Systems, Inc. In this position, he will lead the sales, support, training, customer service and marketing organizations in North America.

Joining Bosch in August, Wiser will replace Jeremy Hockham, who will take on a new assignment for Bosch in Europe, effective 1 October, 2014. In the interim, Wiser, Hockham and the Bosch management team will work together to ensure a smooth transition for customers.

Wiser joins Bosch with more than 25 years of channel sales and marketing experience. He most recently served as a senior vice president for specialty, direct and consumer markets in North America for technology distributor Ingram Micro Inc. Throughout his career, he has repeatedly delivered accelerated growth and increased profitability for the divisions under his leadership.

"Brian is a

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