Norway - Optocore has sold the first of its powerful new M8 and M12 MADI bridges to Biovisjon, one of Norway's leading subtitling, dubbing and one stop 'open platform' television production facilities.

The installation at its studios in Nydalen, which gives them a vast MADI routing I/O (of around 700 x 500 channels), was carried out by Danmon Norway as part of an upgrade to continue servicing broadcasters such as Norwegian TV channel NRK, TV2 and TV Norge, as well as companies requiring content for TV, video, Web, IP-TV or other media.

Since Danmon and Biovisjon each boast more than 25 years' experience - with a relationship between the two companies existing for much of that time - they were eager to explore all possibilities. And the investment proved to be a ringing endorsement of the MADI standard.

Although the original upgrade was to have been built around multiple DD2F

Bulgaria - Located in the heart of the capital, Sofia, the Bedroom Premium Club is one of the largest and highest profile nightclubs in Bulgaria. A recent upgrade has seen the club's desire to deliver the very best sound satisfied by an L-Acoustics system.

Emil Yanakiev - owner of Forte Music, one of the country's biggest audio importers and rental companies - had previously supplied an L-Acoustics system for events at Bedroom Beach, Bedroom Premium's summer extension venue. Here, sets by high profile DJs had demonstrated the positive difference that the quality of L-Acoustics loudspeakers makes to the clubbing experience, so when Vesselin Borisov, the 800-capacity venue's co-owner, decided to install a new audio system in Bedroom Premium, he approached Emil Yanakiev for advice.

For Bedroom Premium, a team comprising Emil and Forte rental manager Alex Pigov, acoustic consultan

South Korea - The National Gugak Centre in Seoul, South Korea has added M'elodie line array loudspeakers to upgrade the decade-old Meyer Sound system in its 800-seat Yeak-Dang Theatre. Renowned for its role in preserving and promoting ancient Korean musical traditions, the centre continues to count on the durability and reliability of its UPM-1P, CQ-1, and CQ-2 loudspeakers, which were reconfigured for the upgraded system.

The decision to upgrade with M'elodie was not a foregone conclusion, despite the Yeak-Dang's previous positive experience with Meyer Sound. "When it comes to government spending, it's not always easy to specify a particular brand," says Ungseop Kwon of SOVICO, Meyer Sound's Korean distributor. "The committee members listened critically to several loudspeakers and all agreed that the M'elodie was the best system for the hall.

"With a Meyer

UK - Production design and solution specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) provided full technical production - lighting, sound and video - to Bright Productions for a major global sales conference event hosted by Education First's corporate solutions division. The organisation specialises in the development of language training, educational travel, academic degree programmes and cultural exchange.

The event encompassed a two day conference with two evenings of themed entertainment and was staged in the beautiful and majestic environs of Ashridge House in Hertfordshire. Nestling in 190 acres of impeccably preened gardens and parkland, the impressive stately home was built between 1808 and 1814 on the site of the original Ashridge Priory dating back to the 13th century. It is now owned by the National Trust, and more recently, full business conference facilities were added.

Italy - More than 50,000 people assembled in Florence's Artemio Franchi Municipal Stadium on 10 November to welcome Pope Francis on his short Italian tour, to mark the Fifth National Congress of the Italian Church.

The Holy Father celebrated Mass accompanied by a 400-piece orchestra, a giant chorus of 1,037 people - and an expertly designed Martin Audio MLA system to distribute the message to the faithful who had flocked to the stadium.

No fewer than 132 Martin Audio cabinets were deployed across the stadium - provided by Lucca based Amandla Productions, while the All Access consortium (of which they were founding members) supplied the award-winning Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array.

The success of the event was due to the close cooperation between the technical managers of the respective companies, Wolfgang May for Amandla Productions and Paul 'Red' Talami for All Access.<

Secondary Ticketing - The music industry has called for action over secondary ticketing sites. Rock band Coldplay and managers of acts including Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Blur and Radiohead signed an open letter to the government calling for action over secondary ticketing sites.

Published in The Times, the letter said fans are being "ripped-off by touts who anonymously exploit fair ticket prices via online ticket marketplaces". It urges the government to put "the public's interests before the touts". A government consultation on the resale of tickets closed last Friday. "As artist managers, we deplore the increasing industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation of tickets for music, arts and sports events by ticket touts," the letter says. "The consequence in many cases is that fans will attend fewer shows, meaning that the profits made

Secondary Ticketing - The music industry has called for action over secondary ticketing sites. Rock band Coldplay and managers of acts including Ed Sheeran, Elton John, Blur and Radiohead signed an open letter to the government calling for action over secondary ticketing sites.

Published in The Times, the letter said fans are being "ripped-off by touts who anonymously exploit fair ticket prices via online ticket marketplaces". It urges the government to put "the public's interests before the touts". A government consultation on the resale of tickets closed last Friday. "As artist managers, we deplore the increasing industrial-scale abuse and insider exploitation of tickets for music, arts and sports events by ticket touts," the letter says. "The consequence in many cases is that fans will attend fewer shows, meaning that the profits mad

Bulgaria - Located in the heart of the capital, Sofia, the Bedroom Premium Club is one of the largest and highest profile nightclubs in Bulgaria. A recent upgrade has seen the club's desire to deliver the very best sound satisfied by an L-Acoustics system.

Emil Yanakiev - owner of Forte Music, one of the country's biggest audio importers and rental companies - had previously supplied an L-Acoustics system for events at Bedroom Beach, Bedroom Premium's summer extension venue. Here, sets by high profile DJs had demonstrated the positive difference that the quality of L-Acoustics loudspeakers makes to the clubbing experience, so when Vesselin Borisov, the 800-capacity venue's co-owner, decided to install a new audio system in Bedroom Premium, he approached Emil Yanakiev for advice.

For Bedroom Premium, a team comprising Emil and Forte rental manager Alex Pigov, acoustic consult

Portugal - Nexo has appointed Merging Select to represent its products in Portugal. Based in the capital city of Lisbon, Merging Select handles a portfolio of blue-chip brands, including Yamaha Commercial Audio, Steinberg and Nuage, which are sister companies to Nexo, as well as AuviTran and Powersoft.

Founded in 2007, Merging Select serves both the rental market in Portugal as well as the installation business. Projects include auditoria, theatres, multi-purpose and conference spaces, hotels and retail operations.

Merging Select aims to offer the Portuguese professional audio market something over and above 'black boxes', complementing technical solutions with a high degree of support, education and training. According to commercial director Joao Velhinho, there are two priorities. "First, helping our market to spend its money coherently in these difficult economic tim

UK - Earlier this year, KV2 Audio reported on its successful collaboration with Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance- one of the UK's top specialist higher educational institutions - during the College's annual symposium.

KV2 representatives were on hand to discuss the company's approach to loudspeaker design and offer information on all KV2 Audio's products and philosophies.

Following their experiences during the symposium, Rose Bruford College chose to invest in a number of KV2 products.

Having listened to a large selection of ESD, EX, ESM and ES products in a variety of the college's performance spaces, technical manager Jonathan Hill decided that a pair of EX 26 active 2-way 2x6" loudspeakers and the EX 2.2 active 2x12" subwoofer would be the ideal solution for a fixed install in their studio space.

In addition to this, six EX 6 active 2-way 6&

USA - The 49th Country Music Association Awards programme took place at a packed Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on Wednesday 4 November. With country music stars Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood returning as hosts for the live ABC telecast, the show again lived up to its reputation as Country Music's Biggest Night, with three hours of live performances that combined country royalty with fresh newcomers, while sprinkling in several collaborations with country outsiders.

To keep the packed program on schedule, the production relied on wireless microphones and in-ear monitors for quick set changes, eliminating cumbersome floor wedges and cables. For monitoring, the performers typically bring their own custom earphones, all of which were powered by Shure PSM1000 wireless personal monitor systems.

As always at the CMAs, all major wireless microphone brands were represente

UK - The Great Hall in Winchester, built almost 800 years ago, is an impressive building by any standards, having borne witness to some important events in British history, as well as containing King Arthur's Round Table.

The Hall is all that remains of Winchester Castle, after Oliver Cromwell ordered the demolition of the Castle, keeping the Great Hall for assemblies and the county Assizes, and it is where Sir Walter Raleigh stood trial in 1603 and where the notorious Judge Jeffreys condemned supporters of the Duke of Monmouth to death as part of the Bloody Assizes of 1685.

The famous Round Table of Arthurian legend hangs on the west wall, attracting thousands of visitors every year to admire not only the table, but also the magnificence of the Great Hall, which has been dubbed 'one of the finest surviving aisled halls of the 13th century'.

So it comes as no surprise to

USA - Way back in 1955 American Reformed Church held its first service with just 30 families in the lovely city of Luverne, located in the extreme southwest corner of Minnesota. After decades of steady growth, the now vastly-larger congregation recently completed construction on a new 800-seat state-of-the-art worship centre.

Twin Cities-based Audio Video Electronics (AVE) signed on to the project mostly after the facility layout was planned and designed. The architect for the project was Architecture Inc, based is Sioux Falls, SD with Derrick Knight, Derrick Knight Acoustics, as acoustician.

"American Reformed Church is definitely big into music," said Stefan Svärd, owner and president of AVE. "They have a progressive, contemporary worship style, but their old sanctuary had a distributed system that didn't have a lot of impact. They were looking forward to g

UK - Influential British electronic dance act Underworld has chosen a Solid State Logic L500 as performance tool for its live tours. The console joins founder-member Rick Smith on stage as a fast, versatile, creative instrument, allowing him to combine old-school dub mixing techniques with the best in performance technology.

It has been 20 years since the original release of Underworld's ground-breaking album dubnobasswithmyheadman, and the anniversary was marked with a remastered release, accompanied by a tour that showcased the band's legendary live work. For this and the subsequent global festival tour founder member Rick Smith's new instrument of choice was an SSL L500 console, allowing him to combine old-school dub mixing techniques with the best in performance technology.

To Smith, live performance is about "being in the moment and having absolutely no choi

Germany - The Bavarian city of Regensburg is renowned for its medieval centre, nowadays a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But just a few minutes away is one of Germany's most modern sporting stadiums, the new Continental Arena, where a Yamaha audio system has achieved the goal of great sound without the penalty of going over budget.

Opened in July this year, the Continental Arena has replaced the city's 89-year old Jahnstadion as the home of football club SSV Jahn Regensburg, which plays in the Regionalliga Bayern (Germany's 'fourth division').

A modern stadium in every sense of the word, as well as being a football ground the 15,200-capacity stadium can host other sporting events and concerts. It features two 'Business Clubs' and four 'Lodges', which host a wide range of business and leisure events, all with a panoramic view of the stadium's pitch.

A major feature of the sta

India - Allen & Heath's dLive has been installed in Mumbai's renowned Hard Rock Café, marking the first installation of the new digital mixing system in India. Installer, Sun Infonet, the distributor of Allen & Heath products in India, selected the flagship DM64 MixRack with an S7000 Control Surface.

The first artist to use the new mixer was national singing icon, Garry Lawyer, who along with his seven-piece band, performed a tribute to Elvis Presley.

Both FOH and monitors were mixed on the same system by sound engineer, Afaque Azad. "I am extremely happy and impressed with the board," comments Azad. "I am amazed at the accuracy of dLive's dynamic processing, EQ, and FX Rack, and the user friendly interface. The ultra low latency of the mixer made it a very positive mixing experience, and the surface's illumination and the dust resistant faders are a bo

USA - At the 139th Audio Engineering Society Convention in New York City, the recently formed Media Networking Alliance (MNA) held its first public display of audio networking based on the new AES67 interoperability standard. The demonstration showed interconnectivity between 22 currently available products from 18 different companies, all streaming live audio over the same network via AES67.

AES67 specific extensions to the different network platforms utilized by each manufacturer provided for the common interchange of digital audio between an array of products. Lawo provided its RAVENNA-based equipment including its sapphire compact broadcast mixing console, JADE Studio software application, and the new A-mic8 analogue-to-IP interface.

AES67 supports both unicast (one-to-one) and multicast (one-to-many) audio transmission. The technology on display was primarily a multicas

USA - Mills College in Oakland, California, is known for its collaborative and experimental approach to music education - and now API will be part of that legacy. Professor Les Stuck oversaw the installation of the school's new 1608 console just in time for the fall semester to begin.

Technical director at the school's CCM (Centre for Contemporary Music), Professor Stuck comments: "The 1608 purchase was a no-brainer, and the best possible option. In choosing an analogue mixer today, there aren't many choices if you want something really good. The 1608 sounds great and has a good reputation; it's a solid, professional console." Jeff Briss, of API dealer Cutting Edge Audio in San Francisco, helped Stuck make the choice for Mills' music department.

Stuck describes the CCM as "small with a large diversity of musicians", explaining that some students are stric

Hungary - Roland is 'the word' in Hungary right now as the Roland M-5000 and M-480 live digital mixing consoles alongside Roland Digital Snakes head out on tour with Grease - the Musical. This 11-date arena tour is produced by long term Roland customers Szatyi Stage Team who, earlier this year, supplied an all Roland setup to produce the live stage sound for local TV2 channel shows Rising Star and The Voice.

The M-5000 was chosen as the FOH console for the tour primarily because of its O.H.R.C.A configurable architecture. O.H.R.C.A stands for three key concepts: Open; High Resolution; and Configurable Architecture. This internal architecture is not fixed to any configuration and can be freely defined within a range of up to 128 input or output channels or busses, allowing the operator essentially to 'build' a console to suit the application.

Mr. Laszlo S

India - Planned by noted French architect Le Corbusier and capital of two of India's state governments (Punjab and Haryana), Chandigarh (The Beautiful City) hosts the headquarters of key rental company A One Global Entertainment, which recently purchased a GTO C-12 line array by Italian manufacturer Outline.

Since it was established in 1980 by Rakesh Thakur, as well as working on television, special, sports and corporate events, A One has provided sound reinforcement, lighting and video for a wide variety of touring artists and its expert audio engineers can cater for events of any size or type.

Working to maintain the founder's motto of "There is no substitute for quality", the company's technicians are led by Nitin Thakur, a certified audio engineer from Singapore's School of Audio Engineering, who also has specialist certification from several top audio manufact

UK - After five decades as a leading live sound engineer Colin Norfield's roster of acts reads like a who's who of touring giants. In 1994 he piloted the sound mix for Pink Floyd's Divisional Bell tour, and his relationship with band front-man, David Gilmour has endured right up to the five recent performances at the Royal Albert Hall to promote his new album, Rattle That Lock.

Over the years, Colin has become increasingly discerning with his equipment selection, and for the first time on these shows, he introduced the artist to AKG's D7 dynamic mic. This had originally been brought to his attention by the Austrian company's artist & key customer relations manager, Walter Rührig, with whom he has enjoyed a long relationship.

The D7 was designed to blend the subtle and open sound of a condenser capsule with the powerful resonance of a dynamic microphone. The patented

China - Located in the prominent business district of Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, EVER Club is fast becoming the city's ultimate party destination. In order to set itself apart from the diverse throng of crowded lounge bars and night clubs around it, EVER Club prides itself as a unique fusion of both - serving a broader demographic than just the affluent urban crowd.

Embodying the unique Ningbo culture that values "art, quality and relaxation", EVER Club aims to become "a club with vitality". To make this happen, a robust sound system is essential. The team at EZPro International Ltd opted for six Powersoft K3 amplifiers to drive four EAW Avalon CLUB.two loudspeakers.

"The system must be able to express EVER Club's mysterious flavour and individuality, and to create an atmosphere where clubbers can resonate with the music," shared Mr. Zhu, techni

UK - PLASA Focus Glasgow 2016 returns to the SECC with another distinguished seminar programme that will deliver two days of free pro audio and lighting presentations discussing the latest technologies for the live entertainment technology industry.

Thought provoking speakers include Grant Anderson, the Scottish Lighting Designer, in collaboration with lighting, AV and sound specialists Black Light who designed the popular Botanic Nights - 2015, a unique night-time experience. Grant Anderson explains how the light installation evoked an emotive reaction from the audience.

Anderson comments: "In Scotland, it's often said that you can experience four seasons in one day. Visitors to Botanics Lights have been able to experience four seasons in just one night. It made perfect sense to me to combine nature and light with seasonal changes as the three are inextri

USA - At the 49th Annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards, held at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on 4 November, Sennheiser's wireless systems and microphones were well represented among performers and presenters with 83 microphones in play during the evening. Miranda Lambert, who sang through her Sennheiser SKM 2000/MMD 935-1 wireless transmitter and capsule combination, scooped her sixth consecutive Female Vocalist of the Year award.

Audio production services provider ATK Audiotek, which specializes in live television event programming, provided the live sound system and monitoring for the show and requested Sennheiser's complete live audio microphone package. "Sennheiser was well represented with the artists," commented Jeff Petersen, sound engineer at ATK Audiotek. "When you are doing a live nationwide broadcast, reliability is crucial. Sennheiser always

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