UK - Leading sound, lighting and AV designer and installer Metropolis AV and FX has completed the design, supply and install of an entire lighting, sound and AV system at the new Sports Café in Manchester.

The £1.2 million project sees the conversion of a utilitarian 1960's office block in Quay Street, central Manchester, into an 1600-capacity sports-themed environment on two levels. Facilities include bar/dining areas with a large dancefloor, a mezzanine chill-out/games area with 16 pool tables, a Team Room used for private functions and, behind a laminated glass wall but clearly visible from the street, a basketball practice area - for those wanting a bit of physical exertion mixed with their energy drinks.

The Sports Café's technical infrastructure was designed by Metropolis's Simon Harris, working directly for Sports Café. The client specifically

UK - UK distributor, HW International has announced a number of new products from the Phonic Corporation. First is a range of powered loudspeakers with moulded plastic cabinets. Consisting of two models, the PA450 and PA550, the PA Series of speakers are bi-amplified, featuring a built-in precision 24dB/oct Linkwitz-Riley electronic crossover, a 3-input mixer, 2-band EQ and a link out. Designed to offer a flexible solution to everyday PA requirements, both full-range models are ideal for overcoming rugged and challenging sound environments, say HW.

Also now available is the eagerly-awaited PAA2 - described as a super-accurate, palm-held audio analyzer. Complete with a 31-band real time spectrum analyzer, SPL and line level meter, internal noise generator, EQ setting program allowing for microphone calibrations and speaker phase-checking abilities. The compact package also featur

New Zealand - At the end of 2002, the eagerly anticipated second instalment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, premiered in New Zealand, where the majority of the filming took place. XTA played its own part when Wellington-based Western Audio Engineering provided the sound along the red carpet at Courtenay Place in central Wellington, with an XTA SiDD at the heart of the system.

By day Courtenay Place is normally one of Wellington's busiest streets, and premier day saw over 15,000 Wellingtonians greeting the stars at this prestigious occasion. Western Audio is one of New Zealand's leading sound providers and, under the direction of Andy Craig, they provided both the people and technologies to stage this well-executed event, with two main Electro-Voice X-Array systems controlled by XTA DP226 processors, and the linking distributed system time-aligned with an additi

UK - AV8 is a remarkable new venue situated adjacent to the mile-long runway at Kemble Airfield in Cirencester. Owner Ronan Harvey has just celebrated quite a month, having successfully negotiated for the classic Gnat jet, owned by Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour, achieved a CAA licence, enabling him to operate as a commercial airfield, and successfully converted the former fire station into his new luxury bar/restaurant.

Harvey contacted an old interior design friend, Simon Radclyffe of Radclyffe Associates, to combine an Indonesian theme with an Airfix kit leitmotif - using the fabric and large ribs to soften the vibrancy of the wonderful terracotta, yellow and dark blues, hand-painted by local artist/sculptress Joanne Walker.

Manic Street Preachers' LD, Ollie Metcalfe, provided clever theatrical dichroic trackspot lighting, controlled by Hans Beier's CAV (who also provided the Ma

UK - Last February, A.C. Lighting Projects Divison were awarded the contract to design, supply, and install state-of-the-art production facilities into a major new educational venue. The ultra-modern facilities include a 300-seat theatre, main hall, lecture theatre, sound studio, media centre and dance studio, fitted out with industry standard products.

The entire installation involved more than 200 product lines from industry leading manufacturers, including ETC, Strand, Aldo Ianiro, Manfrotto, Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath, Denon and Martin. The company provided not only the complete lighting, audio and AV systems but also bespoke solutions, by the design and installation of three multimedia control lecterns, tailored for each facility's specific requirements.

Each lectern has an integrated LCD touch-screen, offering the user access to a comprehensive

USA - Grammy Award-winning recording engineer Geoff Emerick and audio equipment manufacturer Shure Inc have been named recipients of the 2003 Technical Grammy Award, in an announcement by the Recording Academy. The Technical Grammy Award is presented to individuals and/or companies who have made contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. Formal acknowledgment of the Technical Grammys will be made on 22 February at an event prior to the 45th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony.

"The creative fearlessness of Geoff Emerick and the immeasurable contribution that Shure Incorporated has made to the world of audio are the achievements of true visionaries," said Producer & Engineers Wing director Leslie Lewis. "Emerick's groundbreaking and skillful techniques continue to inspire generations and Shure's audio equipment consistently sets the stand

UK - The Blue Room is a brand new web discussion forum, set up by two keen, dedicated industry professionals, where advice may be sought and offered by anybody working in, entering or just plain interested in any aspect of life behind the scenes in the Entertainments Industry. All are welcome to visit and browse, and register as members should they wish to take part in discussions and debates about industry issues.

Forums have been created for all major industry disciplines, as well as for students, health & safety and useful outside sources of information, all alongside a place to just chat with other like-minded people. There is also a private messaging facility, where members may communicate with each other personally. Up-to-date security measures, together with sensitive, responsive moderation of the forums, help to maintain a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in which people

USA - The City of Meridian has renamed a portion of Mississippi Highway 493 in honour of Hartley Peavey, founder and CEO of Peavey Electronics, in a ceremony at Peavey International Headquarters on 31 January. Officials from the City of Meridian and Lauderdale County joined the Peavey family and employees in celebrating the accomplishments of Hartley and his company during their first 38 years of business. The new Hartley Peavey Drive runs in front of Peavey International Headquarters, stretching from nearby North Hills St. to Meridian's northern city limits.

Hartley Peavey commented: "This is truly an honour, but while it is my name on the sign, all of this certainly was not just my doing - I am merely the catalyst. Together, we're expanding our horizons and changing our products and methods. We're doing the only thing we know: innovating."

Mayor John Robert Smith p

UK - A Cerwin-Vega Intense! rig has been installed into landmark Birmingham nightclub, The Dome. First Leisure's former award-winning 3,000-capacity club is now under the private ownership of Dome Leisure Ltd, and when contracts and design manager Tim Matthews approached local retailer/installers, Matthews Electronics, they recommended the Cerwin rig - distributed in the UK by Lamba plc - as part of a complete sound and lighting solution.

The company re-used the serviceable equipment (redeploying some of the existing speakers as fills) and specified a powerful amplifier rack to drive the 21k Intense T250/T36 rig, which drives the main dancefloor system. The system is based around a QSC PL9.0 - to drive the four ground-stacked Cerwin Vega T36s and four S218 subs - and Powersoft DIGAM 7000 and DIGAM 5000 amps to run the T250 mid/highs (these are flown, using Matthews' own bespoke

UK - The double-award-winning DiGiCo D5 Live digital mixing system has been expanded with the launch of the new D5 56E 'Extended' version featuring a built-in digital effects engine and a 96-channel control surface.

It comes with a 56 mic-input stage end 'DigiRack' with 56 channels of A/D converters, 8 line outputs 100m metres of fibre optic cable and a 40 input / 40 output 'local' (desk end) DigiRack.

The 56E 'Extended' system provides up to six digital effects per channel simultaneously, including a range of exceptionally high quality reverbs, flanging, phasing, double tracking, vocoder and delays. Effects channels 5 and 6 provide digital dynamics, equalisation and compression for up to 7.1 surround sound outputs. As with the DSP engine in the D5 Live itself, the effects processor has the processing capacity to support use of every available effect at once, across all channe

UK - Adam Hall Ltd, the UK manufacturer of flightcase and cabinet hardware components, cables and stands has announced its appointment as the new UK distributor for US manufacturer SKB's range of high quality moulded cases for instruments and 19" racks. This news has already been welcomed by many current UK dealers of SKB products, say Adam Hall. Sales manager Rob Fricker commented: "This is an excellent new line for Adam Hall. Our aim is to improve the service and delivery to all SKB dealers, making the product range more accessible to the end user."

Other distribution lines for Adam Hall include Amphenol Audio Connectors, Palmer Audiotools and Racklight.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - The new 9th Edition of the famous Raper & Wayman catalogue is now available. This new edition has been retitled 'R&W Offline' to complement the company's well-known web presence at R&W Online. Featuring thousands of commercial audio products over a generous 180 pages, it showcases the company's wide scope of equipment, from the humblest of microphones, via mixers of every type through to the best in recording systems and speakers. Live as well as broadcast and recording kit abounds, and in this edition by popular request everything is now priced within the catalogue rather than in a separate list.

(Lee Baldock)

Yugoslavia - MC2 Audio has announced the first sales of its amplifiers to Yugoslavia. Music Exports chose T1000 amplifiers for a studio monitor system installed for Pink Television, Yugoslavia's "most watched" TV station and Music Exports' dealers have contracts for further studio monitor installations with T Series amps in two other locations in Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, Scottish company Northern Light, continues to win contracts with both the MC range and T Series amplifiers from MC2 Audio. Recent installations in the UK and overseas include New College, Swindon; Empire Theatre, London; Portomaso Conference Centre, Malta; and the International School, Manila.

(Lee Baldock)

USA - Mackie Designs Inc has announced that it has agreed to an equity investment by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a Boca Raton-based private investment firm. Under the proposed transaction, Sun Capital would acquire approximately 9.8 million shares of Mackie common stock, or approximately 65% of Mackie's total common stock outstanding, through the purchase of approximately 7.4 million outstanding shares from certain selling shareholders and approximately 2.4 million newly issued shares for a total of approximately $10 million in cash.

"We are excited about this transaction, which we expect to close by the first week of February," said Mackie CEO Jamie Engen. "Upon closing, Mackie will receive approximately $6.3 million in fresh capital. Just as important, we also expect to benefit from the active support and hands-on participation of Sun Capital in assist

South Korea - The 8,000-capacity Ju-An Presbyterian Church in Seoul has recently been opened with an astonishing armoury of XTA processing handling the audio. The 11 DP-Series, plus two DS800 mic/line distribution systems and 12 GQ600 Graphic EQs, are at the heart of a multi-screen video set-up for live coverage throughout the auditorium and other parts of the building.

Steve Kim of XTA's distributor in Korea, AVIX, comments: "This is a very important project, where our systems people were asked to offer the very best audio system available. This business needs the very best support, so we have established a division within our company to handle only this area. Our team consists of 12 people, from audio engineers to system integration specialists and CAD wizards."

"For the Ju-An facility, we combined Meyer UPM-1P and UPM-2P, plus a distributed audio system, for

USA - New from Electro-Voice is the 15" two-way full-range Gladiator G115 loudspeaker and the 18" G118 subwoofer. Designed to reproduce modern dance music, the Gladiator is the perfect system for the DJ, what with the Gladiator's extended LF response coupled with EV's great high frequency and vocal clarity due to RMD (Ring-Mode Decoupling).

The newly developed EV-Series woofers and crossover networks reliably produce highest SPLs at full bandwidth. RoadWood enclosures, steel grilles, high impact corners, and comfortable handles complete the package for years of reliable sound quality. Used together, EV's unique system design allows one amplifier channel to drive the sub's built-in crossover that provides the full-range output. No additional crossovers or amps are required for this true three-way system. The EV Q66 amplifier - with up to 850W per channel - is the perfec

Italy - New from Proel is the company's first venture into coaxial speakers - the Edge series. Designed for installation and touring sound users looking for high quality sound from the smallest possible enclosure, the first model in the new series is the Edge 8CXP, an 8" coaxial speaker with a 1" compression driver housed in a particularly small enclosure.

Key to the Edge's exceptional performance are two new speakers. The 8" woofer has several innovative features, including ISV (Interleaved Sandwich Voice Coil) and employs a diecast basket with double ventilation to ensure maximum heat dispersion with the lowest possible compression level. The 1" compression driver contains ferrofluid for maximum heat dispersion and features a new diaphragm manufactured from synthetic material designed with radial reinforcements to increase rigidity. The phase corrector resu

UK - Martin Capp has joined the board of Chameleon Audio as sales director, with a brief to raise the profile of the company's products globally. Capp brings with him a wealth of experience, gleaned from more than 20 years in the pro audio sector. Previous positions include sales and marketing manager for DDA, international sales manager for Audio Kinetics, UK sales manager for Tascam TEAC's professional division and, more recently, managing director of Expotus.

Chameleon Audio MD, Paul Houlden, comments: "I am delighted Martin is joining us. He has an excellent track record in the pro audio field and had already made inroads into the Asian market on our behalf while at Expotus."

Says Capp: "I'm looking forward to working with Paul to ensure these British-made amplifiers become established as a major name worldwide. My first priority is to increase awareness of

UK - Autograph Sound Recording, the theatrical sound design and rental specialist, is well known for its work on musical productions, both in the West End and around the world. However, the company is also at the forefront of sound design for a range of straight plays and dramatic productions.

The Duchess of Malfi, which opened at the National Theatre in late January, is just one of many current West End plays which Autograph is working on. Sound for the production was designed by one of Autograph's team of experienced designers Simon Baker, a former National Theatre sound supervisor who was specifically requested to work on the production by director Phyllida Lloyd. This was the first production Baker had designed at the National since joining Autograph in 1999.

The modern dress version of the play features a host of sound effects and subtle uses of music and sound, dr

Italy - Two new loudspeakers from leading Italian manufacturer B&C promise to set new performance standards in bass performance, according to UK distributor Proel (International) Ltd. The 15 TBX 40-8 and the 18 TBX 46 subwoofer offer extreme high power bass handling coupled with exceptional sound quality and reliability. Both feature 4" copper-wound voice coils with inside/outside winding on fibreglass formers, delivering very high thermal capability, which is further assisted by the use of ventilated magnetic assemblies.

Additional features include the use of dual demodulation rings for lower distortion and the employment of aramid fibre-loaded cores to improve acoustic damping and mechanical reliability. Polycotton triple roll surrounds are featured, giving high peak-to-peak excursion, the speakers feature double silicon spider designs and, finally, waterproof coatings ar

USA - Switchcraft Inc, the US manufacturer of connectors, audio and video patchbays and cable assemblies, has strengthened its international distribution by appointing Orbitec to distribute its products to the French broadcast and pro audio markets.

Stephen Waldron, Switchcraft's director of international sales, said: "Orbitec is an established stocking distributor of our products and we are very pleased to enter this enhanced relationship that will provide our audio and broadcast customers with improved product availability, service and support."

(Lee Baldock)

UK - To mark the start of the New Year, Navigator Systems has released a free upgrade to its best-selling rental management software HireTrack Eclipse.

The upgrade - which consists of more than 70 new features - comes in response to customer feedback, and demand for the new version has already been high, with the system now a regular feature of many company's business plans. One such client, Saville Audio Visual, winners of the AV Rental Company of the Year at the AV Awards 2002, has grown its rental turnover by 26% - an achievement "based around the use of HireTrack Eclipse", which is now installed in all 14 outlets. Navigator will be showing the new release at this year's Frankfurt Pro Light+Sound/MusikMesse in March.

(Ruth Rossington)

UK - EAW has appointed Sean Martin as European technical sales manger. Martin, one of the UK's most experienced international sales people, claims that the reason he's been in the business for 23 years is because "I just can't seem to get out of it". During that time, he has worked for a number of loudspeaker companies including JBL, Turbosound, Tannoy, Canon and Court Acoustics where he started out as a projects engineer.

Martin commented on his appointment: "Although my recent roles have been in international sales, I look at each system from a technical perspective. Being a member of the Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers certainly helps that aim. I am absolutely delighted to be joining EAW, as it enables me to return to the touring sound market with one of the major loudspeaker brands. It also allows me to continue the relationship I have made wit

UK - Liverpool-based Adlib Audio has taken delivery of the first of Soundcraft's new MH3 consoles. The mixing desk has gone straight out with FOH engineer Steve Cole on a two-month nationwide tour with tribute band 'Rumours of Fleetwood Mac'. The tour is playing a wide variety of town hall and theatre-sized venues, and they had been looking for a versatile and outstanding sounding console for some time, when the MH3 came on stream.

Adlib's Andy Dockerty ordered the 24-channel desk immediately. He knew its high spec and expedient sized footprint were ideal for medium-sized tours such as this one. The console is very dynamic, serving equally well for mixing monitors as FOH, in addition to being keenly priced. The MH3 has many neat features you would expect to find on a more expensive piece of kit, including an extra 4 stereo channels, which can be utilized for stereo keyboards, mi

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