USA - Solid State Logic, a manufacturer of professional digital and analogue consoles, is pleased to announce the hiring of Quinton Nixon as product specialist. Quinton will be based out of SSL's Los Angeles office.
Quinton comes to SSL from TC Electronic, where he served as product specialist. Prior to that, Quinton was a freelance recording and post-production engineer based in Atlanta, following three years as a staff engineer at Doppler Studios.
As product specialist, Quinton's responsibilities will include product demonstrations to SSL retail partners, in-store clinics and tradeshows. He begins this undertaking with the recent launch of Duende, SSL's new DSP-powered processing rack unit for audio workstation users.
"I was a recording engineer in Atlanta and always had a tremendous respect for SSL," says Quinton. "I'm thrilled to be working for Solid State Logic and really looking forward to engaging with the thriving user community.
"As Solid State Logic grows its channel product range, we've pulled in some great new guys to bring the products to market and give them excellent support," says Phil Wagner, president, SSL.
Solid State Logic is the world's leading manufacturer of analogue and digital audio consoles and provider of creative tools for film, audio, video and broadcast professionals. SSL's product range includes the C100 new-generation digital broadcast and C200 digital production consoles, the new C300 Master Studio System, the XL 9000 K Series SuperAnalogue console, AWS 900+ Analogue Workstation System and the XLogic
USA - After a recent remodel, Christ United Methodist Church (CUMC) in Sugar Land, Texas moved into a larger and more aesthetically pleasing space. Unfortunately, the room suffered from a twofold reverberation problem: too much of the wrong kind for one application, and not enough of the right kind for another.
The church's dual dilemmas stemmed from the spectral characteristics of the sanctuary's architectural acoustics. Any sound system that fully excited the room would produce high-frequency reverberation certain to impair voice intelligibility. At the same time, low-mid reverberation needed for depth and fullness in organ music and congregational singing would be seriously deficient. Further architectural changes to remedy the situation would have been prohibitively expensive, and likely detrimental to the visual aesthetics of the room, as well. Fortunately, consultant and audio system designer Bill Schuermann of Houston-based HFP Acoustical was able to craft a solution by first controlling dispersion of the direct sound with Meyer Sound self-powered curvilinear arrays, and then creating a controlled reverberant environment using LCS Audio's VRAS variable room acoustic system.
In designing his arrays, Schuermann faced a significant restriction. The church was insistent there be negligible impact on the visual effect of the soaring stained glass window behind the chancel. "The key to success was focusing as much energy into the seats as I could with the smallest possible cluster," he says. "We also needed excellent speech intelligibility and tig
Italy - Following a very successful first year, in which business targets for the first two years were exceeded, Star Orbit Italia has moved to larger offices. A total of 35 Star Orbit stages were erected in 2005 around Italy, ranging in size from 12m to 20m spans and extra equipment is currently being manufactured to build up the Italian stocks.
The benefit of the operation was also dramatically demonstrated on Live 8 weekend in 2005, when the UK industry completely ran out of stage roofs. But Star Events Group was able to come to the rescue provide a 20m Orbit system by shipping it over from Italy to the organisers of B-Live on Clapham Common at very short notice.
Staff in the Star Orbit Italia office speak Italian, English and French. Orbit Italia has new phone number +39 02.982.630.60.(Chris Henry)
UK - XL Video supplied video equipment and crew for the sold out arena tour of Jeff Wayne's War of The Worlds. The show - a dream of Wayne's to tour live ever since he wrote the piece in 1978 - has received great reviews for its staging and projection visuals.
The tour, run by Steve Nolan's Chromatic Productions Ltd, featured a front projected 80ft wide by 15ft high screen using eight Barco ELM R18 projectors, relaying two hours of high resolution CGI narrative visuals, created by Media Station.
The tour was project managed for XL by Paul Wood who says: "It was a great privilege and pleasure to be involved with this hugely popular and ambitious tour."
On the road was XL's Dicky Burford as chief engineer, with video director Nick Fry and a team of three engineer/projectionists and two cameramen to realise the visions of both Wayne and production designer Jonathan Park. Both were very involved in the process and brought a series of strong initial ideas to the visual equation.
All playback visuals - including the narration - were stored on four 2-channel Grass Valley Turbo IDDR hard drives (two pairs run live, plus back up devices) and synchronized to the audio track via SMPTE timecode. Overall
USA - Meyer Sound has announced that mixer Mark Frink has joined the company in the position of tour manager.
Frink has spent decades on the road mixing FOH and monitors for artists ranging from Tony Bennett to Joni Mitchell to Meredith Brooks. He also has worked on major events including the Superbowl, Pope John Paul II's 1995 Giants Stadium appearance, the New York Philharmonic/Metropolitan Opera's In the Parks concert series, and the Tibet Freedom Concert held at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Most recently, Frink acted as monitor engineer and production manager for k.d. lang on her 2004-2005 worldwide tour, on which she performed in concert halls with symphony orchestras.
Frink has also kept his finger on the pulse of the industry through his 10 years as sound reinforcement editor for MIX magazine, as well as a recent stint as tour sound editor for Live Sound International.
Frink is a long-time user of Meyer Sound products, starting in 1989, when he installed an MSL-3 system into Dartmouth College's Hopkins Centre for the Arts, staying to engineer on the system for two years. Since then, Frink has worked with many artists, such as lang, who favor the company's loudspeakers.
"I've always loved using Meyer Sound products and respected John and Helen and the approach they defined for the company," says Frink. "I feel like I've been part of the Meyer Sound extended family for a long time, and now, with years of touring experience, I'm going to enjoy bringing Meyer Sound and the touring world even closer together."
F
UK - AV and integration specialists Metropolis have completed a sound, lighting and AV installation at the new-build independently owned Common Room in Sheffield, which features the first use of their new Met3 RGB Cove Strip LED product.
The venue's owners wanted to appeal to wide mix of students, young professionals and sports fans, and approached Metropolis on the strength of their other work in this field which includes the current Sports Café brand roll out.
For the first floor Common Room - in a converted Post Office warehouse building - they wanted to create a stimulating and lively environment throughout the bars and large pool playing area with the imaginative use of sound, lighting and AV. They also wanted colour changing LED lighting in the street side windows and below the pool tables.
The project was managed for Metropolis by Stuart Clowes. The client's specific LED lighting requirements were an ideal opportunity to utilise the new Cove Strip which is made from tri-coloured LEDs.
The system is DMX controlled and features and advanced blending system to create coherent pastel colours. Thirty-one 500mm. strips were used along the windows, located in the frames. A total of 24 customised Met3 Cove Strips, each 1.6 metres long - slightly oversized - are used under the pool tables to create an ambient glow throughout the room.
Other lighting includes 10 x 1m strips down the bar and four Met3 TC12s (the Met3 colour changing PAR 56 equivalent) which were used to light the roof beams. The roof beams were one of the original and charismatic buildin
USA - Loud Technologies has appointed Jeffrey Cox to the position of vice-president for the EAW brand group. As the new business leader for the EAW brand, Cox will be responsible for defining and leading all business and product strategies, including collaborating with Loud's sales, engineering, operations and marketing teams to ensure the deployment of these plans worldwide.
Cox brings to EAW a proven track record of introducing industry-defining sound reinforcement products and building highly successful business organizations around them. As the founder and CEO of Cox Audio Engineering, he was responsible for the introduction and manufacturing of the L-Acoustics V-Dosc Line Array, a product that caused a paradigm shift in loudspeaker formatting which completely altered modern-day touring and installed systems.
"I couldn't be happier that Jeff has agreed to head EAW," said Ken Berger, senior vice-president at EAW's parent company Loud Technologies and EAW co-founder." He and I share a similar respect for industry relationships and the importance of customer service. We have both built successful companies on the foundation of these principles."
Berger continued, "I have tremendous confidence in Jeff's ability to serve EAW customers and to represent the brand within the Loud organization. His direction will add tremendous focus and momentum to our market leading product development efforts as well as brand messaging, and as such, further solidify EAW's leadership position within the live sound market."
Cox added: "EAW is an
Belgium - Barco reports that the Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht (RSC Anderlecht) has chosen Barco's latest sports perimeter LED solution for its very own Constant Vanden Stock Stadium in Belgium. The SP-10, specifically optimized for Broadcast, brings LED visualization and the broadcasting world together for the first time.
Anderlecht chose the Barco SP-10 and Sports Box management controller for its stadium as it wanted to differentiate itself from other stadiums by providing an enhanced match day experience for fans, viewers and advertisers alike. As one of the most successful Belgium football teams on the European level, Anderlecht fully recognizes the real value the SP-10 will add to the sponsorship packages that it is able to offer advertisers. With the SP-10, advertising opportunities are greatly improved and provide a better experience for viewers and greater revenue opportunities for Anderlecht. The SP-10 will also be used to show score updates, traffic news as well as spot announcements for fans.Stephan Paridaen, president of Barco's Media and Entertainment division, stated: "This is a very important moment for Barco, we have been working closely with R.S.C. Anderlecht to ensure that the solution provided would both meet and exceed their requirements, the fans expectations and crucially the sponsors needs, making this a good commercial decision for Anderlecht." Paridaen continued, "We are looking forward to a long and successful relationship with R.S.C. Anderlecht."
Herman Van Holsbeeck, general manager RSC Anderlecht quoted: "Th
USA - Circuit Lighting was once again hired to provide Robe ColorSpot and ColorWash 1200 AT fixtures for cable TV channel HBO's most popular football show Inside the NFL. The show was recorded at the Ford Museum in Detroit.
Circuit Lighting services many major TV shows and events, and their team of four was led by Mirash Lekaj for this event. This award-winning and popular cable talk show, which analyzes football teams and games, was staged in the middle of the Museum's exhibition displays.The fixtures were dotted around across the floor, on the set and on a ground supported trussing system. Being in a museum environment was very challenging - all the work had to be undertaken with great care and skill, and with the safety of the exhibits in mind at all times.
The Robe's - 12 Spot and 12 Wash fixtures, the latter with electronic ballast - were chosen because of familiarity with the product, and previous successes using them on major shows and sporting events. Circuit's Rich Tilley says: "From the hire company angle, our clients love the reliability and quality of Robe, and have responded positively to us adding them to our inventory. We're now regularly getting Robe luminaires requested over other moving lights."
Circuit is also using Robe in numerous upcoming events this summer including concerts, sporting events, festivals, tent parties etc, both indoors and outdoors. "The reliability of the fixtures makes them ideal for multi-purpose usage," says Tilley.
(Lee Baldock)
South Africa - dbx Professional Products, a manufacturer of professional signal processing products and a division of Harman International, have played a key role at the Kitchen Bar, in the ground-breaking Design Quarter, in Johannesburg.
Situated in the suburb of Fourways, it is South Africa's first truly comprehensive décor and design retail centre - a vibrant hub for lovers of cutting-edge décor products and design services, industry trend setters, socialites and restaurant patrons.
Kitchen Bar is a key feature of the development, presenting new standards of culinary excellence influenced by international trends. A crucial element in the new venue is having AV facilities to equal these standards. Harman Pro products distributor, Wild and Marr were called to the challenge.
Since Kitchen Bar was designed to be a restaurant, cocktail bar, lounge and night spot - all happening in various parts of the building simultaneously - a sophisticated DSP/routing solution was necessary. While people dining in the restaurant didn't want loud music being played, conversely, Kitchen Bar wanted the bar/venue to have precisely that in order to create a vibe.
Thus Wild and Marr devised an inventive preamplifier source routing system using a dbx ZonePRO 1260 and two dbx ZonePRO 1261's, in conjunction with dbx ZC8 remote wall panels. The ZC8 panels were installed in the various zones enabling Kitchen Bar to choose which input to play and handle its own local volume control. "In other words," said Wild and Marr's sales engineer, Justin Mamulis, "the
Denmark - Martin Professional has introduced the new Magnum 1500 - a portable yet powerful fog generator aimed at clubs, DJs and performers of all types. As a little brother to the long-time industry workhorse Magnum 2000, the Magnum 1500 features a robust 1200W (240V) heater that delivers impressive output for a portable machine.
Housed in a sturdy compact casing, the unit complements the growing Mania DJ/performer line of effect lights, colour changers, deco effects, strobe lights, scanners and promotional lights, say the company: its 2.3 litre fluid capacity giving impressively long run times.
The Magnum 1500 comes with a flying bracket as standard and an innovative 180° 'Flip Solution' allows for versatile positioning for precise horizontal or more vertical projection. It comes complete with a truss-mounting bracket for easy installation. The bracket also works as a handle to suit all mobile and fixed installations.
The Magnum 1500 includes remote control with variable output as well as a timer function for greater effect regulation. To control the unit from any DMX desk, an optional DMX interface is available and easy to install.
Based on proven technology and built from rugged components, the competitively priced Magnum 1500 houses state-of-the-art digital electronics and is designed for years of reliable service.
(Lee Baldock)
UK - Showsec managed crowds at London's Earls Court and Manchester's MEN Arena for the new format Give It A Name festival.
Give it a Name was a new indoor festival concept launched in 2005 at London's Alexandra Palace This year the festival developed to run over two days, in two cities (London 's Earls Court and Manchester 's MEN Arena ), with two stages in the two venues.
Lost Prophets and My Chemical Romance headlined 26 bands that gave tens of thousands of fans ten hours of non stop music, with two stages allowing quick change-overs, creating a great atmosphere at both venues.
Showsec manager Paul Joy ran a team of 120 trained crowd management professionals at the MEN Arena, looking after the fans front-of-house, the pit area and the backstage. Steve Reynolds ran the FOH Showsec team of 200 staff at Earls Court, and the two managers liaised through-out the weekend to make sure they were prepared to meet the various band's requirements. Joy said: "The event ran very smoothly and the relatively young crowd were very good natured. It was well organised by SJM, and even with 13 bands a day moving through the backstage area, vehicle movements and logistics were all executed very smoothly."
The success of this years' event has led SJM confirming they are planning to hold the event in 2007.
(Chris Henry)
UK - After a four-year gap, Hawthorn has again worked on Pro Retail, this year - the number one retail trade show in the UK, is held at Telford's International Centre. Hawthorn was contracted by DB Systems to provide lighting, sound, rigging, staging, power distribution, starcloth and crew for the two day event.
Hawthorn's project manager, Matt Oscroft specified Clay Paky Alpha Spots and Alpha Wash lights, supplemented with Pulsar's LED Par 36s and Thomas LED battens. For control, he chose an Avolites Sapphire and Irad Pixel drive. In order for Hawthorns to get across their design concepts, Oscroft used their new WYSIWYG suite, providing visuals and complex designs for both DB Systems and the final client, Palmer and Harvey. This software proved to be invaluable as time was limited onsite and there were no space or time for errors.
Oscroft's sound spec included Martin Audio line array and an Audient Aztec mixer for the two evenings events, this desk had the capability to cope with two live bands for both evenings, in addition to the line array, Martin Wavefront speakers were used to condense the sound to the dance floor, for the live bands.
(Lee Baldock)
US - Bandit Lites are servicing US singer Hilary Duff's UK and European tour, part of a world tour that started last year, promoting her hugely successful "Most Wanted" album.
Lighting designers Seth Jackson and B.K. Waggoner put their heads together at the outset to devise a very flexible rig that could be toured extensively, and broken down into different component parts and versions for the various sections of the tour - depending on the type of venues being played.
Their lighting company of choice on both sides of the Atlantic is Bandit Lites. Waggoner, who is also out operating the tour says, "Bandit's gear is always in excellent condition, their crew are fantastic and the service is second to none." He adds that it's also great to have continuity of supplier across the two continents.
For Bandit Lites, Lester Cobrin handles all UK and European requirements and, in the US, Mike Golden project manages the account.
The main rig is based around three trusses - a straight truss at the rear, hung with a SoftLED backdrop; a mid truss comprising two offstage semi circles that form the top of two scenic columns made from Plexiglas panels; and the front truss, which is V shaped and hung horizontally, with its apex over the centre of stage.
The slightly offbeat configuration looks very interesting and also means they can make a modest amount of lights go a long way, as well as easily getting light to all areas of the stage.
A wide selection of instruments include Vari*Lite VL3000, Martin Professional MAC 2Ks and the smaller MAC 300s as the
India - Bangalore may rank as one of the fastest growing cities in Asia but it still suffers from erratic power conditions and high temperatures - important considerations when planning any major installation of lighting and sound into a venue. When Bangalore-based Acoustic Control was contracted to both design and install a high end sound and lighting system for Christ College's new auditorium, they chose LSC Lighting products.
"The LSC dimmers and consoles are suited to India's unpredictable power conditions and extreme temperatures," said Sanjay Mudartha, director of Acoustic Control. "The dimmers have saved our lamps on many occasions when voltages exceeded safe limits, by shutting down. And despite very hot and humid conditions have never shut down due to thermal issues."
Situated on the third floor of the new block at Christ College, the auditorium seats 2,000 and is geared to host conferences and college theatre events. When not in use by the college the auditorium is rented out. It has become quite popular with Bangalore's IT community due to its up to date facilities and size. The brief that Acoustic Control received from Fr. Thomas, the College principal, was that he wanted the best but on condition that the system was easy to operate. The choice of equipment was left to Acoustic Control and cost was not a concern.
Consequently a host of LSC equipment has been installed into the venue including a top of the range maXim XXLP console, six LSC e1220 Dimmers to provide 72 channels for stage lighting, a Delta Data Splitter, a LSC DMXcha
USA - Rock climbing, like most extreme sports, is equal parts skill and attitude. Learning the art of threading oneself to the side of a mountain is a task best undertaken by those who have learned to channel their adrenaline, and the staff at Earth Treks are among the best. The company, which operates offices and climbing centres in the towns ofColumbia, Timonium and Rockville, Maryland, specialises in rock and ice climbing instruction and mountaineering expeditions, and has guided several thousand climbers through international expeditions on six continents, including the Himalayas and Everest. Their facilities have even been used to train for the recent Athens Olympics.
Earth Treks recently opened their newest training facility in Rockville, a state-of-the-art indoor facility with 44 foot walls and over 15,000 square feet of varied climbing surfaces, including overhangs and stalactites. Helping to pump climbers up for the task is a powerful audio system designed by Art Reiger at Solsound, Inc. based around several Community loudspeaker systems.
"The music really helps motivate people, and we designed the system to provide coverage throughout the venue," Reiger remarks. The system is loosely broken into six zones, with a pair of Community's CPL46 full-range three-way systems suspended from the ceiling to cover the two main climbing areas. "The CPL46's blow down between the rock formations, with a pair of CPL43 two-ways covering the two smaller cave areas," Reiger continues.
Two CPL27 full-range two-way cabinets are installed at the instruc
UK - Entertainment lighting supplier White Light is this year returning to its roots: supporting the Royal Court Theatre, the theatre from which White Light was founded, during the Court's 50th Anniversary Celebrations.
The Royal Court Theatre in London's Sloane Square is Britain's leading theatre company dedicated to new work by innovative writers. The Court's 50th anniversary celebrations are centred around 8 May 2006, fifty years to the day from the 1956 opening of John Osborne's Look Back In Anger, widely judged to be the play that marked the beginning of modern British drama. Since that time, the Court has premiered plays by many writers, who include: Edward Bond, Peter Gill, Christopher Hampton, Athol Fugard, Howard Brenton, Sam Shepard, and Hanif Kureishi.
The Court's influence on theatre design has been equally important, with the theatre leading the way in the stripping back of the 'artifice' of theatre and presenting shows in carefully designed open spaces lit by exposed lighting rigs often coloured using just correction filters during the 1960s under the influence of designers such as Jocelyn Herbert and lighting designers Andy Phillips and Rory Dempster. Their influence has continued in the decades since, at the Court itself and beyond.
White Light was founded in 1971 by three staff from the Royal Court: lighting designers Andy Phillips and Rory Dempster, and theatre administrator John Simpson, along with David Henderson and Angela Fox. The company took its name from the Court's 'white light' style of lighting; one of its earliest jobs was th
Germany - A diminutive performer with a remarkably powerful voice takes the limelight when Meyer Sound's new M'elodie ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array debuts in Europe later this month. Underscoring the upbeat mood of the occasion, the M'elodie demo sessions in Germany will feature source music from a live Latin band as mixed by veteran FOH engineer Buford Jones, who also serves as Meyer Sound's tour liaison manager.
The festivities begin with four sessions on 15 and 16 May in Hannover, followed by four sessions in Wiesbaden on 17 and 18 May.
The smallest sibling in the growing MILO family, M'elodie shares the sonic signature and easy-to-use rigging of the larger MILO and MICA systems. M'elodie's trim dimensions and minimal weight are a perfect match for small theatres, ballrooms, clubs, and corporate AV applications.
The M'elodie debut marks one of the first major efforts by Jim Sides, now working with Meyer Sound's German offices to forge a tighter and more responsive relationship between fast-growing Northern European markets and the company headquarters in Berkeley, California.
"The M'elodie launch is perfectly timed to build on the phenomenal success of the M1D in Europe," notes Sides. "Now those who were asking for something just a bit bigger, but with a significant boost in power, have exactly what they want."
Preceding the Latin music set, each demo session will feature in-depth technical presentations on the technology behind M'elodie arrays and associated system components such as the Galileo loudspeaker management sy
Costa Rica - In Latin- America, outdoor festivals create a big draw, and Costa Rica is no exception. Ramon Mendiola, director of the Costa Rica Brewery, recently staged 'The Imperial Festival 2006', which included some of the biggest local, latin and international stars. Names such as Jamiroquai, who headlined day one, Hector el Father, and The Rasmus, performed for the first time in Costa Rica. Day two's headliner Sting added this event to his 2005-2006 Broken Day World Tour.
La Guacima racetrack, just outside San Jose, was host to the two-day concert held on 1-2 April and saw more than 30,000 attendees over the weekend. Sound contractor RSTV Sonido supplied main arrays of 12 Adamson Y18s and four Y10s per side, which provided enough sound pressure to fill La Guacima. The setup was designed by RSTV 's owner Virgilio Azofeifa and techs Elias Arias and ManriI Vargas, using Adamson's Shooter Software. To achieve perfect coverage for the enormous venue side shots and delay towers were used with the main array. Additional PA equipment included Meyer MSL4s for side- and front-fills, Meyer MILO's for delay towers and 20 Meyer HP700 subwoofers. RSTV used Lab.gruppen amplifiers for The Adamson arrays and XTA226 processing all around. Two Yamaha digital PM5D/RH consoles were used for FOH. Ramsa 840 and Ramsa SX1 consoles were used for monitoring purposes.
Jamiroquai, had just arrived from Venezuela where FOH engineer Rick Pope had mixed them on a big Adamson Y-Axis rig belonging to Estudio Sonido Henry S.A. and Audio Valencia. Therefore, Pope and his system tech we
USA - ESTA - the North American Entertainment Services and Technology Association - has announced that BSR E1.17, Entertainment Technology - Multipurpose Network Control Protocol Suite, the draft standard commonly called "ACN," is now available for public review until 19 June 2006.
The draft standard is a suite of protocols offering needed services in network management, device management, device description, and device control with reliable multi-cast transport on data networks that use the common Internet Protocols. There are 21 documents that describe various aspects of the suite of protocols, and they are all contained in the approximately 2.5 megabyte compressed file ACN.zip. Reviewers should also read the Readme.pdf file. It is not part of the draft standard, but it explains the structure of ACN and the changes that were made since the last public review. All the public review materials are at http://www.esta.org/tsp/documents/public_review_docs.php.
There are several small changes that have been made to BSR E1.17 since the last public review, but the most important one--the one that made this public review essential - was the change to the SLP (Service Location Protocol) templates. These have been reworked to be fully compatible with OpenSLP source code. The previous templates were valid SLP, but didn't work with OpenSLP, so implementers of E1.17 would have had to develop their own code rather than use the popular, open-source, OpenSLP.
In addition to being
UK - Harmen Pro UK is lining up four major new products to be shown at this year's ABBT Theatre Show - Soundcraft Vi6 digital live console, JBL VP Series powered reinforcement systems, AKG HUB 4000 Q Wireless Network Concentrator, and Crown XTi power amplifiers - all feature the company's HiQnet advanced audio, control, and configuration network functionality.
HiQnet, Harman Professional Group's proprietary audio system configuration, control and monitoring network, offers users rapid configuration, enhanced control and comprehensive monitoring of complicated audio systems composed of products from Harman Pro brands, says the company. System Architect, HiQnet's central control software, gives users the ability to easily set up and manage large, multifunctional audio systems from a single computer, using a single graphical user interface.
The Soundcraft Vi6 large format live digital console is designed using the proven reliability of Studer's VistaTM and On-Air 3000TM series of consoles. The Vi6 uses a derivation of the VistonicsTM user interface (VistonicsTM II), with the same type of touch-screen colour TFT monitor, with integral rotary controls and switches mounted on the glass, to enable highly intuitive operation. 32 faders are mapped out in two layers, providing a 64-channel input-to-mix capacity. Up to 16 matrix outputs can be configured from a pool of 32 busses. Harman's proprietary HiQnet network system is an integral part of the Soundcraft Vi6TM console, which means that the desk becomes a central control point for a complete Harman Pro system of wireles
Worldwide - Roland Corporation is pleased to announce a brand-new, worldwide venture to concentrate on Pro Audio, to be called 'Roland Systems Group'.
Incorporating the existing EDIROL group and the newly formed Roland System Solutions (RSS) division, Roland System Group's (RSG's) main focus is on providing video and audio solutions for all aspects of the professional market. New products such as the S-4000, 40-channel Digital Snake, and V-440HD high-definition video mixer are just the start of a continuing development programme aimed squarely at the professional audiovisual market.
With many years of industry experience, RSS UK technical sales will be handled by Martin Thomas. Martin has a proven background in both professional audio and video and is well known throughout the industry.
Neal Tomlinson, who has a long history at Roland UK Ltd., will handle RSS product development. After 11 years in technical support for Roland in the UK, Neal is ideally placed from a corporate and technical position to get the new venture established in this vitally important market.
(Chris Henry)
USA - Lectrosonics, a leading authority in high-end audio processing and wireless technology is introducing the DM84, the latest product in the DM Series of digital audio processors with LecNet2(tm) control software, at InfoComm 2006. The Lectrosonics DM Series provides easily configurable processing, mixing, and routing capabilities for sound reinforcement and conferencing applications often requiring multiple microphones and loudspeakers, says the company.
The new DM84 unit features the capability to route any combination of inputs to any combination of outputs, in addition to auto mixing via a proportional gain algorithm, sophisticated filtering on each input and output, built-in delay on each input and output and low throughput latency. The DM84 runs on the latest-generation DSP architecture and can be integrated as part of a larger system by connecting other DM units (like the DMTH4) via the Digital Audio Network Interface (DANI) bus.
The DM84 offers eight mic/line inputs with four outputs; switchable phantom power to handle condenser microphones; programmable front-panel control knobs for easy adjustment; and auto mic mixing with Proportional Gain and AutoSkew. The unit is AMX(r) and CRESTRON(r) compatible with USB and RS-232 interfaces for setup, control and daisy-chaining to additional LecNet2 devices.
LecNet2, the DM Series' user-friendly control software, operates on Windows(r) 2000 or XP PC platforms and offers deft, full command of the system via USB or RS-232 compatible interfaces. This included software yields off-line system configuration, quick
USA - Wybron has been manufacturing some of the world's most popular colour changers since inventing them over 25 years ago, and for over 15 years, the high-quality gelstrings that go into them. Wybron's ColorExpress department has been making strings for every make, model and size of scrolling colour changer manufactured. To date, over 500,000 gelstrings have been made, with the last few months seeing an especially high turnout.
ColorExpress assembles an average of 4,000 gelstrings per month, but that average is growing: the team produced a record 4,600 gelstrings in January alone - and broke that record again in March with 4,800 gelstrings, including a large order of 442 custom-made large format CXIs for The Villagio mall in Doha, Qatar. Because the CXI allows colour mixing via dual scrolling gelstrings, the order required 884 gelstrings in a 36" width. Denise Clark, ColorExpress manager said: "There were days where we could have easily been working around the clock." In spite of the pace, they still managed to get every gelstring delivered on time as ordered.
Wybron says its ColorExpress offers the only gelstring in the industry with the option of a guaranteed 24-hour turnaround. All orders received by noon and designated for next day delivery within the continental United States will ship that same day. Wybron's assembly system provides clean cuts, with all edges in exact alignment. Extensive tests were performed on tapes to find the one best suited to the intense heat of theatre lighting, and special tabs were developed for infrared sensor sys