UK - OHM has introduced a series of white speakers to meet the growing trend for nightspots where audio equipment needs to be heard but not seen. Stock items range from ceiling speakers, through the KS surround series and up to the BR8 wide dispersion loudspeaker popular in disco bars and small dance clubs.

Requirements for other speakers to be finished in white can be met by the manufacturing unit in Knutsford, Cheshire where OHM have been making speakers for over thirty years. Recent venues have been Walrus in Manchester, where white BR8s are in the basement disco with white LM series in the restaurant and cocktail bar, the Bar Bacchus in Warrington another BR8 installation and further from home in New Delhi, a new-build five-star hotel and multi entertainment complex will have an OHM Lunaray line-array system in white for the one thousand plus capacity nightclub.

Mounting b

Jordan - Amman's PRO4 Total Event Solutions has upgraded its rental sound systems with Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers to meet a variety of production needs in the area.

"Our goal was to raise the quality standards for live audio production in Jordan. This was why we invested in Meyer Sound," says Hisham Al Asad, production manager of Onstage, a division of PRO4 Total Event Solutions.

PRO4 is now stocked with Mica line array loudspeakers, 700-HP subwoofers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system.

The first deployment of the Mica system was at the annual Amman Summer Festival, a 24-day marathon of social, cultural, and musical events held in the city's huge King Hussein Park and attended by more than 150,000 people. "Our client, the Greater Amman Municipality, was very satisfied with the high-quality audio production at the event. Of course, we are v

USA - American Audio has introduced the VersaPort, an easy-to-use universal audio interface that provides a powerful and affordable USB solution for using CD players or turntables with DJ-ing software.

The VersaPort is a four- input channel / four- output channel sound card with microphone and headphone level control that hooks up directly to a PC via its USB connection. A USB 1.1 compliant unit, this black box lets you connect your CD players or turntables to your computer and mixer all at the same time.

A generic interface, the VersaPort works with virtually all popular Windows and Macintosh audio production software programs, including: (Windows) MME, MS DirectSound, Steinberg ASIO and Audition; and (Mac) Garage Band, Audio Hijack Pro (OSX) and Sound Manager (OS9) - and many more, says the company.

"We developed the VersaPort in response to our customers' needs for a

UK - Scottish hire company Ward Steedsy Associates recently held a free training and demonstration day at The Bongo Club in Edinburgh, to highlight the benefits of its new Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system, comprising an iDR10 MixRack and iLive-112 Control Surface.

Over 40 delegates from a range of backgrounds, including students, freelance engineers, youth music workers, event co-ordinators and promoters attended and were trained on the concept and use of the Allen & Heath's iLive digital system by Allen & Heath's product manager Leon Phillips.

There were also presentations by Funktion One, demonstrating the Resolution 4 system, and Polar Audio, who showcased the Beyerdynamic Opus drum microphones. A large Yamaha drum kit was miked up and the audience was given the chance to hear the Opus microphones, iLive and Funktion One systems in a live situation with local cover

UK - This November has seen the Top Gear Live show wreak its particular brand of motorised mayhem around the British Isles. Screeching to a halt at London's Earls Court, Birmingham's NEC and Dublin's RDS Simmons Court, the audio for Jeremy Clarkson, James May, The Hamster, The Stig and the thousands watching has been in the hands of Gareth Davies, front of house engineer for the entire tour.

"I've done this show for the past three years," he says. "We have had issues with RF in the past so when I approached Stage Audio Services of Stourbridge to put together the specification and the quote for this year's show I said it had to be Sennheiser RF technology."

With the three presenters in the middle of a large arena floor, often surrounded by speeding cars, reliable, clear audio was an absolute necessity. Which is why Davies specified Sennheiser SK 500 b

USA - Daktronics recently upgraded the sound system at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, home to the University of Mississippi football team in Oxford. The audio upgrade is part of a $6 million overhaul that includes the largest high-definition video display in the NCAA Southeastern Conference.

Home to the Ole Miss Rebels since 1915, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium holds more than 62,000. As part of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Ole Miss faces some of the top college football programmes each year. With the addition of the large high-definition LED screen before the 2008 football season, an equally powerful audio system was needed.

To that end, Daktronics designed and installed an end-zone system consisting of 12 JBL VLA601H line array loudspeakers configured in left-right hangs of six loudspeakers each. The system is supplemented by two JBL PD743 loudspeakers and two PD5212/64 loudspeak

France - The famous crocodile logo celebrated its 75th anniversary and René Lacoste's presence was once again felt in Paris as the Roland Garros stadium hosted the first-ever commercial event to be staged on the famous centre court.

Attended by 800 fashion and tennis fans, the presentation celebrated 75 years of Lacoste Clothing. Production company Prodeo had pulled off a coup by staging the event at the Roland Garros stadium, where Lacoste, the first true French tennis star, won three French Open championships.

Nicknamed the Crocodile by the press and his fans because of his pugnacity on court, in 1933, he introduced his tennis shirts with the famous crocodile logo, probably the first time that a brand name appeared on the outside of an article of clothing.

For the corporate celebrations, event services company Euroson constructed two stages on court, to accom

India - Ohm's Indian distributor, Harness Overseas has been busy of late with two major dance club renewals.

After two years of continuous use, Mumbai's premier nightspot, Poison has been renovated and re-opened in October. Club owner Aqueel, one of India's top DJs, loved his original Ohm TRS system but wanted to upgrade to something "out of this world" says the company.

Harness reworked the system completely and after carefully studying the venue suggested a Saturn system. Given seven days to reinstall the system, it was completed two days before the official opening. "Poison now has a three way active system, which not only rocks the venue but sounds sweet like honey. It is now truly an 'iron glove in a velvet hand.'" says Harness principal, Lalit Chopra.

The 6000sq.ft club has a 2000sq.ft foot dance floor, three VIP decks and three bars. The Ohm syste

Finland - Stagetracker, the performer tracking and audio localisation system from Norwegian theatre specialists TTA, has been installed in the Svenska Teater in Helsinki.

The Swedish National Theatre is situated in the heart of the city, one of six professional theatres in Finland to serve the Swedish-speaking population, and is considered to be the Swedish national stage. Why Swedish? Because Finland was part of Sweden until 1809 and its ties to the country remained strong until it became a sovereign state in 1917. Swedish is spoken by 6% of the population with roughly 40.000 Swedish speakers living in Helsinki.

Built in 1866 by a Russian architect, much of the Svenska Teater's interior is original. The auditorium has three balconies and a proscenium arch stage. On behalf of the theatre's sound team, Andreas Lönnquist describes the current system. "We have a L/C/R PA, w

Sweden - DPA microphones, including the newly-launched 4099 instrument mic range, were used for the grand opening ceremony of a major new Swedish venue, the Malmö Super Arena. The microphones were rented by DPA Soundco, a Danish rental company situated in the Örestad region, for this joint Swedish/Danish venture.

With a capacity of 15,000 for concerts and 12,500 for sports, the Super Arena is the largest in southern Scandinavia, able to attract international performers and pro sports, particularly ice hockey.

The opening ceremony featured a group of Swedish musicians playing alongside the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, a 300-piece choir and eight solo artists, giving a total of more than 200 input channels into the sound system. The musical theme for the shows was The Wonder of Swedish Music, drawing from such influences as early folklore, ABBA, Roxette, Europe and Robyn.<

USA - Concert sound provider Firehouse Productions, known for its tours with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Gabriel and other innovative artists, chose to deploy L-acoustics LA8-powered Kudo arrays for FOH on Sigur Rós' recent North American tour leg.

In addition to typically flying nine boxes of Kudo per side for the four-piece ethereal Icelandic post-rock band, Firehouse positioned six dV-DOSC across the lip of the stage for front-fill and set up four SB28 subs per side in a cardioid configuration for LF reinforcement. Two ARCS cabinets per side were also flown or ground stacked for out-fill in venues where the seating configuration wrapped around the stage. Furthermore, the tour utilised four of L-acoustics' new LA-RAK touring racks, each featuring three LA8 amplified controllers.

According to Firehouse systems engineer Jamie Pollock, who did a system prediction using S

USA - Mount Saint Mary's University is the oldest independent Catholic college in the United States. 'The Mount' boasts a history of 125 years of collegiate baseball, culminating with an NCAA Division 1 title in 2008, and a $400,000 upgrade for the school's E. T. Straw Family Stadium.

Audio-Video Group of Frederick, Maryland outfitted the field with two Community R5-66 coaxial loudspeakers, mounted on the centre field scoreboard to provide coverage to the field and adjacent areas, along with three compact R.25-99 full-range two-way loudspeakers hung on the press box behind the bleachers to cover the spectator and dugout areas.

AVG also upgraded the University's Waldron Family Stadium, home to the school's NCAA Division 1 lacrosse and soccer teams, creating a winning environment for matches. The 1000-seat venue has been outfitted with a pair of Community R-5 loudspeakers coveri

UK - Acoustic specialists Vanguardia Consulting has announced that environmental acoustics expert David Trevor-Jones has joined its management team, headed by Jim Griffiths and John Staunton. The enlarged firm also opened a London office near London Bridge on 1 November.

Vanguardia, whose Oxted, Surrey premises will continue to be its administrative base, has grown continuously since its launch in May 2006, with veteran U2 sound engineer Joe O'Herlihy being the first addition to the team later that year.

Jim Griffith comments: "David, John and I have kept in close contact since we worked together on local authority noise research projects at the GLC's Scientific Branch in the late 1980s and early 1990s. With our clients and projects becoming steadily more specialised, and environmental noise being more in the public eye than ever, David's immense knowledge and his reputat

Romania - The club La Mania on Romania's Black Sea coast which is only open in the summer months features a newly installed Dynacord alpha system. Located in Mamaia, the club can accommodate around 2,500 guests at a time.

Cornel Petcu of the Romanian Dynacord partner HSA Audio described how the system was put through its paces for the benefit of the La Mania team: "The club's sound technicians were already fully informed about the system before we arrived. They knew all about the Dynacord alpha's international references. Even so, when they actually heard the system for the first time with their own ears, they were totally convinced not only by the sound pressure levels the system was delivering but also by the quality of the reproduction."

(Jim Evans)

Germany - QSC Audio has appointed Hartmut Reichert as its new sales manager for the European, Africa & Middle East (EAME) territories.

Reichert set up and led the European sales and marketing office for Shure Inc in Chicago, establishing a European sales and marketing office from the company's European base in Heilbronn, Germany. He subsequently worked for beyerdynamic, setting up an international sales, marketing and distribution programme.

"I am certain I will be able to use the good relationships I have created with distributors, dealers and system integrators to QSC's advantage," he says. "In recent years I have followed the company's development in the market and have been enormously impressed by how they have developed from being a well-known power amplifier manufacturer, to becoming one of the most innovative and expanding systems companies in the industr

UAE - Atlantis, The Palm - the focal point of the man-made island of Palm Jumeirah, billed as the ultimate fantasy hotel and estimated to have cost around 1.5 billion dollars - launched itself upon Dubai on 20 October with a much publicised event attended by stars from stage, film, music and sport. Audio specialist Delta Sound, which has recently expanded its Dubai office, provided the sound system.

"We were recommended by technical director Simon Ransom, and worked directly for Atlantis's owners, Kerzner International," says Andy Jackson, in charge of Delta Dubai and sound designer and project manager for the Atlantis launch. "Simon asked me to design the sound design and so it made sense for Delta to look at the whole project, including supplying equipment."

With an 11-month planning period and Delta already in a significant growth period, it gave the co

Korea - The Studio '80s Dance Club in Seoul's Shin Chon university district specialises in music of the 70s through to the 90s, playing almost everything except for current chart tracks. Kim Gino, one of Korea's top DJs and a music business veteran with more than 30 years experience, owns the club which launched five years ago.

The venue's old sound system was deemed too small and inflexible, so the Studio '80s Dance Club was recently treated to a new rig. And the system of choice was an HK Audio Actor DX.

Kim Gino comments: "We selected HK Audio Actor after trying out several systems. The records of the '70s, '80s, and '90s sound really powerful and much more dynamic with Actor. That's probably because tracks weren't compressed as much back then as they are today and that's closer to the real live sound."

(Jim Evans)

UK - Cadac Electronics was placed into administration yesterday, 1 December, following the eventual collapse of a prolonged 14-week negotiation over the sale of the company. LSI Online understands that all of the staff have now been made redundant.

A notice is expected to be posted on the Cadac website shortly.

News of Cadac's troubles emerged in June, with the announcement - premature as it turned out - that the company had been placed into administration, following an unexpected fall-off in anticipated sales of the company's analogue products. However, shortly after, a new finance package was agreed with the bank and a new business plan drawn up before the administration papers were filed - as revealed by Audio File in Lighting&Sound International's July-August 2008 issue.

This final confirmation of its entr

Germany - The Milchwerk Radolfzell is a new event location on the shores of Lake Constance. In 1969 the factory was built as a production facility by a milk-processing company. After aquisition and reconstruction by the city of Radolfzell it reopened as a conference and culture centre in 1992. Following refurbishment, it now comprises eight congress rooms and two halls.

Praxl Licht- & Tontechnik under the direction of Stefan Praxl projected and installed a multi-functional system for using the event infrastructure in the smaller 200-seat hall. Audio is based on K.M.E. Versio systems.

Sound engineers, organisers and the 800 invited guests at the opening event were convinced and satisfied with the sound quality. "We like the sound and the user-friendly handling. This small, compact system with its clear design fits perfectly in our functional architecture," says a spok

International Update - A Live Earth concert scheduled to take place in Mumbai on 7 December has been called off in the wake of last week's terror attacks. Bon Jovi and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters were among the artists scheduled to appear at the event, intended to raise awareness of climate change. "We will continue to work for solutions to the climate crisis for the good of the people of India," said organisers. "But for now, our thoughts are with the victims of this terrible attack."

Events in South East Asia also saw the cancellation of another concert due to be held in Bangkok over the weekend. The Bangkok 100 Rock Festival, scheduled for 29 and 30 November in the Thai city, was to have featured appearances by Manic Street Preachers, Ash and US band Hoobastank. The announcement follows demonstrations at Bangkok's international and domestic airports t

USA - The Palace Grounds in Bangalore were transformed on 7 November into a celebration for thousands who turned out for The Great Indian Rock 2008. This international concert that featured three prominent Indian bands, Slingshot, Rainbow Bridge and Extinct Reflections and two Norwegian popular acts, Sahg and Satryicon. V&P Sound deployed an extensive Harman sound system that featured Soundcraft's Vi6 and included products from JBL, Crown, dbx, and AKG.

The sound system consisted of 20 JBL Vertec VT4889s with two main hangs of 10 per-side, 16 JBL VT4880A subs were flown in on four per-side hangs, eight JBL CSR subs were ground stacked with four per-side and VRX932LA's were used as centre-fills. Crown I-Tech 4000, 6000, and 8000 amplifiers powered the entire system and the FOH was mixed using the Soundcraft Vi6 digital mixing console running the new Version 3.0 software.<

USA - Physician's Quality Care in Jackson, Tennessee, a completely new kind of walk-in medical clinic is provided to patients giving them a one-of-a-kind non-medical experience. With audio components from JBL and Crown audio systems integration firm Internally Sound has designed a system that establishes a more hospitable environment for patrons.

The facility features a waiting room structured with a 26-seat movie theatre. JBL's Screen Array 4622 cinema loudspeakers, Cinema Series 4641 subwoofers, and 8340A Surround high power cinema surround systems, in addition to Crown's DSI 2000 amplifiers for 4622's and 4641's, and Crown's DSI 1000 amplifiers for surround systems play starring roles in this room.

(Jim Evans)

Czech Republic - SK Slavia Praha has scored another success after winning its first 1 Liga title in 17 years, installing Europe's first Renkus-Heinz RHAON-empowered audio system for its brand new Stadion Eden. The system delivers single-cable digitally networked operation throughout the stadium.

After a saga stretching back to the team's birth in Prague in 1892, the new 21,000 seat Stadion Eden opened in the Vršovice district of Prague this spring, with an innovative roof suspension that allows an unobstructed view from every seat.

Lucie Antonsonova of the company's Czech distributor, Audiopro, observes: "Sound distribution in sport stadiums is usually a big issue - there are only few which can be proud of their solution. It's often a last-minute solution because the budget has already been spent. SK Slavia Praha wanted their new stadium to set a new standard."

St

UK - Adlib Audio supplied a V-DOSC sound system to the recent Scouting For Girls UK tour which was specified by the band's FOH engineer, Andy Williamson.

It was the first time Williamson had toured V-DOSC. It was also his first time using Adlib on a full touring show although he's known Andy Dockerty and Tony Szabo for many years and worked with them on previous gigs. "Adlib work in a very personal way with all their clients, and I wanted a company that could guarantee this commitment to service and attention to detail," he states.

They used 8 V-DOSC elements per side with six of the new L-Acoustics SB28 subwoofers per side and 4 ARCS per side ground stacked. Due to the large differences in venue sizes, they also carried 24 dV-DOSC and four dVSUBS to act as side-hangs. For the arenas on the itinerary, they upped the total V-DOSC count to 24. The ARCS also served as f

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