UK - Analogue mixing console manufacturer Audient has announced the extension of its scrappage scheme to all UK customers. Purchasers willing to trade-in their old console will receive £2000 off the published price of a new ASP8024 or ACS8024 high resolution mixing desk until the end of June 2010.

Sales Director Luke Baldry explains: "As we had hoped, this scheme has been very successful with studios as well as colleges and universities, providing an easy way of releasing capital from their older consoles. There are a number of older consoles out there, particularly digital consoles that are becoming unreliable and difficult to service. This scheme provides the perfect opportunity to upgrade to one of our brand new analogue consoles."

The scheme accepts any old console, be it analogue or digital, and is subject to qualification.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Intercom specialist RTS announced at this week's NAB show in Las Vegas a strategic business partnership with IntraCom Systems.

IntraCom's core product is VCOM, the IP software matrix intercom system for professional communications, which runs on standard computer and network infrastructure and is based upon a client/server architecture. RTS has partnered with IntraCom to develop a platform that intelligently marries each company's intercom systems, offering the market "unprecedented interoperability, flexibility and value".

"This partnership will bring together the latest and most advanced professional level IP intercom product with RTS - the long-acknowledged leader in hardware communications systems," comments Dave Brand, chief development officer and co-founder of IntraCom. "We are pleased to partner with RTS to bring unprecedented value to th

USA / France - Digigram is making a change to the distribution of the company's end-user products in North and South America.

Starting 1 May 2010, Point Source Audio (PSA) will become Digigram's Master Distributor for these territories. PSA will take over all aspects of distribution and will be the main point of contact for Digigram's representatives and resellers.

James Lamb, who has been Digigram's business development manager for the Americas for the past 10 years, is now part of the leadership at PSA and will help to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of service. Lamb points out that, "we are fully prepared for the transition and our goal is that there will be no disruption in sales, prices or service support for Digigram's dealers and business partners."

Philippe Delacroix, president & CEO Digigram states: "North and South America have always enjoy

UK - A Victorian building in Covent Garden has been reopened as a burlesque cabaret diner following a £2m conversion by owners, restaurateur Trevor Davies and his son Adam.

The 130-cover site has a rich heritage. Formerly used as a stable for elephants and horses by the Royal Opera House in Victorian times it was most recently trading as a jazz venue when the two entrepreneurs saw it.

The aptly-named Circus - which has been designed by Tom Dixon - features a quartz dining table running the length of the club which transforms into a dance platform later in the evening. This is surrounded by a bar at the far end and a second dining room to the side of the DJ booth, as well as a lounge set to the rear of the venue.

London-based AV integrators, The Sound Division Group, have specified the first new Allen & Heath Xone:DX with Serato ITCH software to enable Adam Davies to fu

USA - Miami-area production company, Drummer Boy Sound, has added an Allen & Heath iLive-T digital mixing system, comprising an iDR-48 MixRack and iLive-T112 Control Surface, to its hire stock.

Founder and CEO, Harold Cummings, comments: "I took an iLive-T system out on a couple of demos and was blown away with what it could do, especially for such a great price. Our roots are in live sound, and we do a lot of high-profile events around Miami. When I began using the console system at those shows, I can't tell you what a difference it made; small footprint, easy and fast to set up, no outboard gear - and it sounds fantastic."

One of the first events Cummings managed with his newly purchased iLive system was the National Day of Prayer at Miami's Faith Centre. The venue seats about 4,000 worshipers, and the event was also recorded by the Telemundo network.

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UK - RCF will be showing newly developed products for both their Professional and Commercial catalogues - with the flagship being the UK debut of the VSA 2050 Digital Steerable Column at PLASA Focus in Leeds this month.

Visitors will be given a special sneak preview of this multi-amplified vertical steerable array which "embraces the new generation of digital technology".

With inbuilt DSPs, the audio signal sent to each speaker is processed and optimised for controlling its vertical acoustic dispersion pattern. This will make it a suitable speaker for indoor installations where the critical acoustic environment is an issue and where moderate visual impact is required.

Also showing under the RCF Professional banner will be examples from the new ART 4 Series, and the NX 10-SMA and NX 12-SMA.

The ART 4 Series is the new addition to the ART series portable speakers f

Germany - ProLight&Sound 2010 saw Dutch loudspeaker manufacturer Alcons Audio creating a buzz on the trade show floor with an array of products that sees it confirm its place as a major player in the pro audio market.

On show were the LR7 micro pro-ribbon line-array and LR7B micro line-array bass unit, plus the Cinema Ribbon Monitor System (CRMS) three-way reference cinema sound system, first seen at this year's ISE Show.

However, the most noteworthy product on display was the new LR24 pro-ribbon line-array system, which is a major development for Alcons and marks an important advance for the company within the concert touring and large-scale installation market.

Designed to be able to deliver the same SPL as equivalent products in the mid-size line-array category, but with 15dB less distortion, the Alcons LR24 system utilises Alcons' pro-ribbon technology.

"We were e

USA - Renkus-Heinz has expanded its engineering staff with the appointment of Derrick Pierce to the position of staff loudspeaker engineer.

The California native returns to the state after more than a decade in design engineering and product development with loudspeaker manufacturers JL Audio in Florida. A designer of several award-winning products, Pierce has also held high-level engineering positions with Niles Audio and Menlo Scientific., and contributed to the development of several patents.

"I'm really pleased to be joining a company as forward-thinking as Renkus-Heinz," Pierce remarks. "For me, this is truly the ideal opportunity to maximize the skills I've acquired through my years of loudspeaker design, and take things to a whole new level. I'm looking forward to taking on the challenge of designing the next generation of Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers."

UK - Building on the successful Big Day Out events of the last two years, Shuttlesound is taking product demos to another level with the announcement of the first Big Day Outside over the second May Bank Holiday weekend. In conjunction with the Glastonbudget festival near Nottingham, a collaboration between the technical and performance sectors of the industry will allow Shuttlesound guests to demo three different Electro-Voice line array systems in a bona fide festival environment.

Glastonbudget is Europe's largest festival for tribute bands and new acts. Dubbed 'the Mecca of tribute', the event is now in its sixth year and will see more than 6,000 fans gather to see 130+ bands. With six stages on site, production services company OneBigStar has ample opportunities to set out the Electro-Voice stall on behalf of Shuttlesound. With XLC providing a fir

France - Aviom is providing several of its best-selling products to help streamline audio monitoring for the 10-piece orchestra for a new production of The Lion King at the historic Theatre Mogador in Paris. Co-produced by Stage Entertainment and Disney Theatrical, this presentation relies on an Aviom-based monitoring system to simplify the audio setup and workflow.

Sound designers Steve Kennedy and John Shivers specified Aviom personal monitoring gear for this project. The audio setup, which was provided by Dispatch, consists of a Yamaha M7CL digital mixing console with a 16-channel Pro16 A-Net Interface card installed. The A-Net card is connected to three A-16D Pro A-Net Distributors and 19 Aviom A-16II Personal Mixers to provide 16 channels of monitor mix content to the orchestra's 10 musicians as well as providing a monitor feed to the main audio desk. The production

Asia Pacific - QSC has strengthened its presence in the Asia Pacific market, recruiting two experienced audio professionals to help consolidate the company's market profile in the region.

With immediate effect, Sebastian Chong takes on the role of product specialist, Asia Pacific Region, while David Fuller joins the team as sales manager for the territory.

Before joining QSC as a product application specialist, Sebastian Chong worked as a technical sales manager with Architectural Audio in Singapore for six years, a company recognised as a leading distributor of installed DSP products in Asia.

"I have been seeking an opportunity to take my experience in installed audio to a regional scale and the position at QSC is a perfect match," he says. "QSC is recognised worldwide as an industry leader, and I'm ready to achieve strong company growth with its exciting pro

UK - RG Jones has been providing the sound for Raymond Gubbay's Classical Spectacular concerts for over a decade, and if there's one thing that's constant, said RG Jones' FOH engineer Simon Hodge, "it's that the audience's expectations for a loud, exciting and high quality experience keep on rising, year after year. And they do like it loud."

With over 200 musicians on stage for the recent Royal Albert Hall show, including a string section 50 per cent larger than that of the average orchestra, together with a large choir, military band and numerous soloists, the crew faced a phenomenal task long before a note was struck. Load-in at 3am was followed immediately by flying the PA - 16 cabinets per side of Synco by Martin Audio W8LC line array - to allow cabling and lighting rigging to follow. By 9am the stage was set. "Just as well," observed Hodge, "

Europe - D&M Holdings has ended its fiscal year on 31 March 2010 and announced a significant improvement in profitability. The company reports increased market shares across all regions, earning many awards internationally for its new products. It has "strengthened relationships with channel partners and improved inventory management and operations; positioning itself for further growth in 2010".

In a consolidation of its brand portfolio, D&M is continuing its investment of resources in its core Denon, Marantz, McIntosh and Boston Acoustics brands, and has announced the discontinuance of Escient Vision. Escient's technologies and R&D resources are to be assimilated within D&M's core brands. D&M Europe, however, will continue to develop and market the Escient Zone CI integrated home control system, available exclusively through DMi.

D&M Europe will continue to grow it

UK - Playing for one week only at Glasgow's 1800-seat Kings Theatre, the latest production by The Paisley Musical and Operatic Society set a new benchmark for an amateur dramatics event. Reportedly costing over £100,000 to stage, The Producers took advantage of a cleverly-designed digital audio control system, using linked RSS M-400 desks supplied by Sono Vie.

The Paisley Musical & Operatic Society was able to use the original set from the West End production, and in all other respects aspired towards the highest professional standards for their show, retaining amateur status only in the sense of not being paid. Alan Beattie of Sono Vie, the production services rental company, points out that "members of the public assumed it was a professional production, which in technical terms it was."

With 30 characters moving on and off stage, the show deployed 32

USA - Turbosound's Flex Array has made a significant contribution to the success of the Winter Music Conference in Miami's South Beach, where The Shore Club hosted an impressive line-up of DJs.

The Shore Club hosted some of the most popular events of the well-established Winter Music Conference - now in its 25th consecutive year - with the main focus of attention being the Pool and Patio venues, where a line-up of DJs such as Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Theo Parrish, DJ Hell, Peter Kruder, Metro Area, Christian Prommer, Roberto Rodriguez, Mark Farina and many more entertained the crowds of between 1,500 and 2,000 over four intensive days.

Following on from the excellent results achieved at last year's WMC, The Shore Club hotel and Miami-based event producer Tomas Ceddia of The Loud Minority were keen to bring Turbosound systems back again.

"

Germany - Attending the PL+S show in Frankfurt provided an opportunity for ETASound to close a deal with Nexo for a new Geo S12 line-array system, after a convincing one-time demo at SSE Audio Group's facilities earlier in the month.

Eddie Thomas of ETASound confirmed that he has ordered a total of 16 Geo S12 compact line-array cabinets, along with four PS15 in-fill and/or stage monitors, and power options in the shape of three NXAMP 4x4 amplifiers. Expanding his existing Nexo inventory, ETASound becomes one of the first rental companies in the world to offer the new RS18 sub, buying eight units after this latest Nexo subbass was released in Frankfurt.

SSE Sales handled the larger part of the transaction. "Buying the S12 package from SSE gave me the option to order bespoke flight cases and flying kit , and they will deliver the whole system complete and ready to go,"

Austria - Located in the spa town of Baden, the Buehne Baden Theatre hosts a wide array of productions, from plays, operas and musicals to symphony concerts, big bands and rock concerts. It has recently taken delivery of a DiGiCo SD7T console.

A feature of this historic, 1700-seat theatre is its excellent acoustics, so any new Front of House console had to match the purity of sound. The SD7T does just that and, with its significant processing power and ease of use, has brought many other advantages.

"We specified the SD7T for its flexibility and good sound, while the enormously powerful cue list, combined with the aliases, is just what we need for theatre productions and musicals," says Joerg Humer, one of the theatre's two chief sound engineers.

"We needed a powerful desk with a small footprint and SD7T proved to be just the right tool," adds Joerg's fel

UK / Germany - KV2 Audio has announced the appointment of IAD (International Audio Distribution) as its new German distributor for KV2 Audio and KX Audio products. With the appointment made just prior to this year's Prolight&Sound Show in Frankfurt, the show offered a great opportunity for both parties to work together. The show also gave IAD the chance to spend some valuable time in the company of George Krampera, founder member and head of engineering at KV2, learning about the history, philosophies and technology statements of the company.

With an ever expanding product line and an hourly appearance at this year's Portable Sound Arena, the interest surrounding KV2 at the show was high, the company reports.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - The Birmingham based Cloud One Group who provide complete packaged solutions to the events industry and in addition have their own manufacturing operation have just reinforced it's already extensive Lab.gruppen stock with the addition of ten PLM10000QBPs.

Cloud One is no stranger to the Lab.gruppen brand and already has an extensive inventory of FP6000s and FP3400s. Their latest addition will give them another 100,000 watts of power at only 13.5kg per amplifier.

Paul Stratford, Cloud One MD, commented: "We are very pleased to have invested in the PLMs and to have strengthened our relationship with Lab.gruppen and John Hornby Skewes". He added: "Apart from the obvious power-to-weight ratio and reduced job preparation time we are very much looking forward to having a one amplifier solution that will be as much at home powering a double 18" sub as it is c

Cyprus - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises have sold the first Midas PRO6 Live Audio System in Cyprus to the Pavilion.

The mixed-use venue serves as a bar, a nightclub and also a corporate venue depending on the time of the year. In addition to its resident band, the Pavilion is host to many concerts from Greece with star attractions that require a mixing console that not only meets the demanding technical riders but which also provides the venue a flexible host of options and features.

"Currently, the Pavilion's equipment manifest includes a line array system and monitoring system representing a calculated investment for the future," says Richie Hiranandani, marketing manager. "The purchase of the PRO6 system is another step in this direction. The Pavilion can rest assured that they have invested in a mixing console that has the heritage of pedigree co

UK - Adam Hall has introduced the 3-EASY from Palmer, an economy version of the Triage router. Featuring the renowned quality of our T-Series it switches the input signal (ie that of a guitar) between three outputs. For increased dynamic response and headroom the 3-EASY steps up the 9V power supply to approximately 30V.

Switching is silent and instantaneous. This is achieved by processor controlled long-life microswitches, while the actual footswitches serve as mechanical triggers only. Input and outputs are set to unity gain while output is lo-Z to prevent signal loss in FX chains and long cable runs.

Outputs 1 + 2 are floating and electrically isolated by a high quality transformer to eliminate ground loops. Since guitars need to be grounded for proper shielding output 3 is non-isolated.

When used to connect a battery powered tuner, output 1 can be grounded via a sliding s

USA - Four of Renkus-Heinz's IC Live steerable line array systems are being used to create a natural ambience in the famed Mormon Tabernacle choir's main performance space in Salt Lake City.

Called one of the world's architectural masterpieces by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright, the Tabernacle has a domed roof that creates a remarkable acoustical environment that is arguably as much a part of the Choir's sound as the voices of the men and women themselves.

As their audience has grown, the Tabernacle's 6,000-plus capacity could no longer accommodate its legions of fans, and in 2000 the LDS Church opened the doors to its new 21,000-seat Conference Centre. But as Poll Sound's Deward Timothy explains, as majestic as the Conference Centre may be, for the singers themselves it cannot match the intimate acoustics of the original Tabernacle's dome. The situation is further complica

UK - Stage lighting and audio distributors MilTec (UK) will be showing their successful MT Audio and MT Lighting product ranges at PLASA Focus in Leeds.

Designed by MilTec's technical director Graham Gosden, the Audio range consists of speakers, lightweight amplifiers (max 13.5kg) and mixers. The speaker range comprises of four mid-top speakers and four sub-bass cabinets, all constructed from birch plywood. These are complemented by two small in-fill speakers made from high density plastic. Power is supplied by six stereo amplifiers delivering up to 1850 Watts RMS per channel. Also on display for the first time in the UK will be a selection of the new MT Audio lightweight multi-channel amplifiers and 1U installation mixers.

The MT lighting LED range includes the StageWash108, a compact wash light with 36x 3W LEDs, Powercon connectors for power in and out, three and five pin XL

Thailand - Proel Group has announced the appointment of Kamol Sukosol Electric Co (KEC) to handle the exclusive distribution of all Proel products and accessories for Thailand.

Founded in 1974, KEC have been a pioneer in the Thai professional and consumer Audio field and have brought many well know international brands to Thai consumers over the years.

KEC foresees significant growth in Thailand's recording and broadcasting industry. This growth will ultimately require the support of quality audio equipment which KEC is positioned to offer. KEC's audio broadcasting group is divided into two subdivisions, each targeting different customer segments. Consumer Audio is focused on servicing the needs of individual consumer and small business users. The Kamol Pro Audio subdivision targets semi-pro and professional users.

KEC has built a solid network of over 100 provincial dealers

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