UK - Soulsound is teaming up with Birmingham City University to deliver a four-day seminar programme that will explore Calibration & Design Techniques for Modern Sound Systems. The programme, which is aimed at intermediate and experienced sound engineers, will be held at Birmingham City University, Millennium Point.

Presented by experienced sound and system engineer, Merlijn van Veen, the seminars are intended to remove the 'magic' surrounding sound systems. They will provide participants with the means and physical insight necessary to create predictable sound system designs, regardless of brand and type of speaker, and then verify the results using the dual channel FFT analyser (SIM 3, SMAART v7, SysTune, etc.).

Merlijn will thoroughly investigate the complete trans

USA - Lumileds and Arrow Electronics have announced a strategic agreement for the global distribution of Lumileds comprehensive portfolio of application optimized LEDs including high power, mid power, low power, CoB, colour and UV LEDs as well as the infinitely configurable Matrix Platform. The agreement aligns with both companies' dedication to providing customers with responsive, accelerated service and reliable, high performance solutions.

"Lighting is an extremely dynamic market and today's lighting producers expect timely delivery of the right LEDs where and when they are needed," said Emmanuel Dieppedalle, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Lumileds. "Arrow is a technology leader that is known for connecting customers with the right comprehensive solutions, quickly. We are confident that this agreement will expand our market coverage, and with Arrow, custome

Germany - GLP recently completed its most auspicious theatre installation at the hands of experienced theatre lighting designer Rick Fisher.

In taking the Santa Fe Opera production of Madame Butterfly, which he first lit in 2010, to the much larger, 3000-plus capacity Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at LA Opera, he found a dynamic role for GLP's versatile impression X4 Bar 20, from GLP's range of battens.

"There were challenges in relocating this production from the relatively small stage in Santa Fe that is also open to the elements upstage," he explains. "The night sky is their back drop and that gives a depth that completes the stage picture and in many ways allows for a simpler stage design than you might choose for a traditional venue."

To make this work in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion an impressionistically painted scrim and rear projection screen were added by

UK - PLASA Focus 2016 sees Yamaha sharing a stand with loudspeaker manufacturer Nexo and highlighting the interconnectivity of the company's professional audio systems for installation, broadcast and live production.

A focal point of Yamaha's presence will be the MRX7-D open architecture signal processor, the RMio64-D Dante/MADI conversion i/o unit and the RSio64-D Dante/mini-YGDAI convertor. In addition, the latest V4 software for CL/QL series digital mixing consoles will be on demonstration.

Complementing the Yamaha Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) range of MTX series fixed architecture matrix processors, the MRX7-D delivers simple yet outstandingly flexible control for complex, high-capacity sound systems in hotels, ballrooms, houses of worship, schools, libraries, theatres, convention centres, conference rooms and many other applications.

Featuring eight mic

USA - Norwegians Ketil Jansen and Ulrik Denizou Lund, better known as Lemaitre, can be considered a two-man melting pot of music. In the tradition of bands like Phoenix and Daft Punk, the red-hot duo effortlessly blend dance, indie, pop and even heavy swing brass into a fast smooth electro tinged sound that's all their own. Their most recent release "Closer" already has 12 million streams.

Expectations were high when Lemaitre performed at this year's Coachella festival, and the pair didn't disappoint, blending their eclectic sounds with a mesmerizing lightshow created by LD Michael Sheck of L7 Productions. A key component of Sheck's show was the 'sizzling pixel-mapped eye candy' served up on Chauvet Professional Nexus Aq 5x5 LED panels, supplied and installed by Kilroys Lighting and Production of Las Vegas.

The RGBW Nexus units were rolled out quickly on the Gobi Tent stag

UK - After dedicating over 40 years of his life to pro audio, Amber Sound's founder and owner Graham Paddon has decided to hang up his cables and retire.

Fear not though, he has left his legacy to the next generation who will be here to help where Graham left off, starting with PLASA Focus in Leeds where Claire, Aaron and Marco look forward to meeting you.

Claire Paddon has become commercial director which basically means she has to do all her own work plus some of Graham's.

As well as accounts Helen Odysseos has also taken on a large share of Graham's duties in her new role as operations manager.

Being the most experienced pro audio person in the team, Glen Thompspon leads the sales department as sales executive.

Aaron Sofocleous has recently moved into the role of technical sales and is here to help with your more complicated requirements. Marco Marini is off

UK/USA - Focusrite has announced the launch of the Red 4Pre, the pinnacle of Focusrite's interface range. The 58-in/64-out Thunderbolt Red 4Pre interface combines four of Focusrite's specially-developed digitally-controlled mic preamps, plus high-headroom instrument inputs, with dual Pro Tools HD DigiLink and Dante network audio connectivity.

Featuring Focusrite's most advanced low-noise conversion and beautiful yet robust design, the Red 4Pre interface is the perfect balance of form and function, delivering the sound quality and versatility engineers and producers around the world expect from Focusrite.

Four of Focusrite's new, specially-developed Red Evolution preamps lie at the heart of the Red 4Pre, featuring clear, honest audio performance with -129 dB EIN and 63dB of gain. Software control allows recall of settings and stereo linking, plus configuration of HPF, polar

UK - Taking a short break from pre-season planning for the busy summer ahead, Pearce Hire will return for a fourth consecutive time to the PLASA Focus regional event in Leeds next week.

PLASA Focus: Leeds is a well-established date on the industry trade show calendar, and senior personnel from Pearce Hire will be on hand at the show to meet existing and new clients who are visiting the show. The two-day show provides ample opportunity for the team to discuss event production needs, on any scale and at any venue or site (greenfield, urban or otherwise) and how Pearce Hire can provide turnkey solutions for power, lighting, audio and staging requirements.

Pearce Hire has become a regular exhibitor at PLASA Focus and will once more be promoting their production services and rental business. With an increase in events and a growing portfolio of new customers, Pearce Hire is in

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UK - Zero 88 will be exhibiting at Plasa Focus Leeds - Stand N-B12 - with several exciting new products and releases.

Following its successful launch last year, FLX8 now joins the FLX family of lighting consoles as the latest eight-universe version of the PLASA Innovation Award winning FLX product line.

FLX and FLX8 will be shown with demonstrators highlighting the latest software release - ZerOS 7.9 - and the online universe upgrade program for FLX.

This continues the planned FLX programme of feature and capability enhancements ... all continuing to making FLX an even more powerful, durable, portable and extendable lighting control console package.

ZerOS 7.9 also brings significant advancements to the whole ZerOS console line-up, as we combine the software's feature set across consoles.

Sitting alongside the FLX will be the new ZerOS Wing, allowing the expansi

USA - Video display manufacturer PixelFLEX has announced a West Coast open house designed to showcase of its innovative line of LED technologies.

Highlighted by the FLEXLite Plus, FLEXLite NXG, reFLEXion, trueFLEX, and FLEXCurtain HD, the open house will take place at INVENT (Institute of Venue and Entertainment Technology) in Los Angeles, CA, on 26-27 May, 2016. The event is free and open to all video designers, integrators and production rental houses throughout the area who may be interested in taking an in-depth look into the latest in LED video technology.

"With Los Angeles being at the epicenter for touring on the West coast, we know how important this market is for our continued growth," said David Venus, PixelFLEX Director of Marketing. "Through our headquarters in Nashville, we are able to routinely visit with clients on the East coast, but we also understand how

UK - DPA microphones played a key role in delivering exceptional sound quality to the Comhaltas National Folk Orchestra of Ireland, which made its London debut over Easter with a special concert at the Barbican.

Formed by Comhaltas Ceolt

USA - Sean Palmer, Front of House engineer for US rock band The Used, has been mixing audio for almost two decades. He has recently discovered the delights of DiGiCo's new S21 digital mixing console, supplied by Clair Brothers, PA rental company for the band's current album celebration tour. It has, he says, changed everything for him...

"I haven't used DiGiCo consoles much before," says Sean. "I've always loved the sound of the consoles and thought they were incredibly capable, but I just couldn't get my head around the workflow.

"Then I went and did training with Tom Williams at DiGiCo HQ. I learned how to create the workflow I wanted and there's nothing I haven't been able to do with the S21 since."

Sean had been using what he describes as 'an insane amount of plugins' on previous consoles. "They were all great, but there's this sterile tone to them and still a lot

UK - Arena Group supplied 59 temporary tower structures and 2,031 temporary tiered covered seats to the Virgin Money London Marathon.

Along the 26.2 mile route through the UK's capital city, Arena Group installed all the mile and kilometre marker towers, beginning at Blackheath Common's start line right through to the last marker before the finish line on The Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace.

Each tower measured 1.077m wide by 2.115m deep, stood 6m high and was cladded with Virgin Money branded Mile Marker boards. The towers that stood on opposite sides of the road were adorned with red and white helium-filled balloon arches.

Arena Group installed a total of 2,031 temporary seats across the course, with 579 seats within two covered grandstands lining either side of the Start Line. A further 1,452 seats in 12 grandstands lining The Mall offered optimum views of runne

UK - The 2016 Bhangra Showdown (TBS) event produced by Kudos AV and the Imperial College Punjabi Society is the world's biggest Bhangra dance competition and this year moved to Birmingham's Barclaycard Arena. Once again, the bar on production values was spectacularly upped.

The event featured a stunning lighting design created by Tom Grant and Nathan Wan, which used 80 Robe moving lights at its core - 16x BMFL Wash XFs, 18x MMX Spots, 24x LEDWash 600s and 12x Pointes.

Kudos AV's Hardeep Kataria was the production director and Tom, who also served as production designer commented, "The organisers wanted a wide and angled look this year and something a bit different to a 'standard' big LED wall upstage", so the stage design evolved into an LED screen at the back comprising five flown columns of Absen A3pro 3.9mm pitch screen.

Each column was hung on pairs of motors that

Germany - Two, Four and Seven Watt RGB, 45kpps@8° and a browser interface for system configuration - these are the key features of the new tarm Series.

Since tarm joined the Laserworld Group beginning of 2016, a lot of development has happened, especially in cooperation with Ray Technologies. This rersulted in the presentation of a brand new product line at this year's prolight+sound. Tarm managed to create a product setup that perfectly fits the company group's portfolio and replaces the RTI ATTO and RTI FEMTO systems.

"When engaged in product development, we managed to use many synergy effects within our company group. This lead to a price level for the new tarm Series that is far below the one of the ATTO and FEMTO and even challenges the Pure Micro units," says Norbert Stangl, CMO of the Laserworld Group.

All tarm units have very fast scanner in common, running

UK - Proel will exhibit at the annual PLASA Focus trade show at the Royal Armouries in Leeds this week.

The hot product from Proel's professional loudspeaker brand Axiom is the AX800A compact powered line array that generated serious interest at Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt recently.

Based around two transmission line back-loaded 8-inch LF drivers and a 1.4-inch high frequency compression driver, the AX800A is an suitable candidate for small and medium PA rental duties, both indoor and outdoor, thanks to its moulded enclosure and stylish design

The AX800A features a Class D amplifier module and delivers 132dB max SPL over a horizontal coverage angle of 100°. It is designed for use in a 4:1 ratio with the SW1800A dual 18-inch powered subwoofer, while a range of rigging hardware enables the assembly of flown line array hangs or easily transported ground supported sy

UK - Cadac is debuting CDC Console Software V3.01 in the UK at PLASA Focus, alongside the new CDC MC Optical Bridge and the CDC MC AES3 Stagebox.

CDC Console Software V3.01 includes a range of new features and performance enhancements for the Cadac CDC six and CDC eight live sound production consoles; the outcome of Cadac's on-going CDC development programme, driven by customer feedback and our desire to exceed the expectations of a rapidly evolving live sound market.

One of the major features found in V3.01 is Custom Fader Layers, or CFL. The current implementation allows the engineer to create a user definable layer, or group, of any mixture of inputs, busses, VCAs and Monitor faders, which can then be accessed by faders on the right hand bank. Each CFL can be named and colour coded.

Richard Ferriday, Cadac's sales and marketing director, summarises, "CDC six has fas

USA - Middle Tennessee State University's athletic teams compete in Division I of Conference USA, and its Blue Raiders athletes do most of their indoor training in the Charles M. Murphy Athletic Centre, which houses a basketball arena, multiple gymnasiums, training rooms, and a well-appointed weight room.

Local A/V integration firm Southeastern Sound Inc. recently upgraded the weight room sound system using Ashly Audio processing and amplification, which greatly improves the system's impact and simplifies the ease with which student athletes can operate it.

"The system was originally installed with excellent loudspeakers," explained Brian Cook, senior audio designer at Southeastern Sound. "However, the electronics in support of those loudspeakers were of poor quality and difficult for students to operate.

"We went in and replaced the existing processing and amplificati

UK - For the past 50 years, Plymouth-based Princess Yachts has been building motor cruisers which epitomise the last word in luxury, gracing all the world's most exclusive marinas. The company recently hosted a dinner for its international dealers, where a K-array KR102 system helped event production company SXS Events ensure that the quality of the evening's entertainment matched that of the Princess vessels.

SXS works closely with pro audio equipment supplier LMC Audio, whose service goes much further than just supplying equipment, as SXS founder and director Johnny Palmer explains. "We work with very high level clients with demanding expectations. Far from being just a 'box shifter', LMC is key in helping us to deliver the necessary high level of service. The company's London sales manager JP Cavaco is almost like another member of the SXS team - offering proactive support,

UK - KV2 has once again been chosen as the system of choice for a successful and high profile dance event taking place on 30 April in Belfast.

Cream - one of the world's most iconic Dance brands - took their Cream Tours to the T13 warehouse where a host of acts were all experienced courtesy of KV2 Audio's flagship VHD products.

The T13 warehouse is a former shipbuilding warehouse and the sold-out event saw almost 5,000 revellers take in sets from John O'Callaghan, Bryan Kearney, Will Atkinson and Standerwick amongst many more.

Production was overseen by KV2 Audio's Irish partners Just Lite who supplied a complete double VHD System from their substantial KV2 hire inventory.

In spite of the size of the venue - also notorious for noise problems - just two VHD 2.0 mid/hi's were deployed per side. The clarity and definition of such a compact system always astounds audie

USA - Renowned California-based PA company Rat Sound recently purchased an Allen & Heath dLive system, which was immediately put to work on a nationwide tour with Los Angeles based indie band, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros (ESMZ).

Formed by band leader Alex Ebert in 2007, ESMZ plays a wide range of original music that draws from folk, rock, gospel, and psychedelic roots. Promoting the band's newly released fourth album, 'PersonA', the tour is visiting venues ranging from smaller 'underplay' houses to larger auditoriums.

Comprised of a dLive S5000 control surface and DM64 MixRack, Rat Sound's dLive system is managing FOH and recording duties.

FOH engineer Steve Taylor says ESMZ's 10 members are multi-talented artists who move from one instrument to another, often in the same song, resulting in as many as sixty microphone and direct sources in the FOH mix. In many

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