Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Sound

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JBL’s new VerTec system was used on New Year’s Eve at the highly successful SchoolDisco.com event at London Docklands Arena. The sold-out event was attended by 11,000 revellers in school uniforms. JBL audio was specified by SchoolDisco.com founder and guru Bobby Sanchez, who has used the brand for years. He loves the ‘classic’ JBL sound which is perfect for SchoolDisco.com’s musical style and ambience.

Sanchez insists on using JBL at all SchoolDisco.com events. He says it brings out the best of their musical policy which is based on the pop and rock anthems of the 70s, 80s and 90s. The fast forwarding SchoolDisco.com phenomena currently includes a weekly Friday detention slot at the Hanover Grand in central London and regular extra curricular events at Hammersmith Palais (Po Na Na) - utilising their own 4-stack JBL sound system - plus weekly club nights at

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MC2 Audio’s distributor in Latvia, GaCo Skanu Un Gaismu Serviss, has now completed the installation of a conference system for the Latvian Council of Ministers, the contract for which they won last summer. In their bid for the contract, GaCo included only top-end equipment by well known manufacturers. The company had previously purchased MC1250 amplifiers for their rental department, and so felt confident about the performance of MC2 Audio amps for this project.

The sound system in the Council of Ministers installation is driven by the MC450 amplifier and consists of four TCS-20 Turbosound speakers, with the main signal coming from 10 beyerdynamic MCS series digital conference system microphones, mixed by the MIX 10 beyerdynamic mixer.

(Lee Baldock)

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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With two distinct divisions, Liverpool-based Adlib Audio are equally at home in the installation arena as they are on tour with some of the world’s leading bands. Their own-branded equipment keeps company with some of the top commercial names in pro audio, and running kit in their rental fleet enables them to evaluate its suitability for fixed install.

Which is how the company became familiar with the BSS FDS-334 and FDS-336 Minidrives. Adlib have long been devotees of BSS’ famous Omnidrive family and so when they won the contract to fit out a series of Living Room bar/restaurants for fast-expanding Living Ventures Ltd, the proprietary digital loudspeaker management system went straight into the specification.

As the latest Living Room opened on Birmingham’s burgeoning Broad Street leisure strip this month, Adlib managing director, Andy Dockerty, told us that their

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Sennheiser UK is to take on sole distribution of Lab.Gruppen’s market leading range of power amplifiers and loudspeaker processors, with effect from 16 January. The Swedish manufacturer enjoys an enviable reputation for the quality and performance of its range of power amplifiers; and particularly for its revolutionary high efficiency switch mode technology models, first introduced in 1987. These provide exemplary sound quality and long term reliability, as well as exceptional power-to-weight ratios, offering significant cost savings and operational advantage in both touring and fixed installation applications.

Commenting, Sennheiser director of sales Alan Johnson stated. "Sennheiser has grown its sound installation and live sound reinforcement business significantly over the last four or five years, particularly expanding the market for the range of DAS speaker products. Th

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Music Control and Technical Services, the sales, installation and technical support divisions of the FX Group, has recently completed the creation of a recording studio and edit suite at the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology, the only free performing arts school in the UK.

The Brit School were keen to ensure that the entire studio project was taken on by one organisation as opposed to a variety of contractors, which led Declan Cunningham, Music Technology Teacher at the Brit School, to contact Music Control, part of the FX group of companies. The Studio project involved a specialist team made up of members of the two relevant divisions of the FX group of companies, namely Music Control and Technical Services. The studio equipment was supplied and fitted by Music Control with additional re-wiring and cabling of patch bays and outboard undertaken by Technical Services.

Equi

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During an intensely busy year Britannia Row has managed the complete upgrade of its stock of Turbosound Flashlight PA, road tested, proved and embraced the latest X-Line system from EV and joined the V-dosc Network.

"We were the biggest UK user of V-dosc in 2001," commented Brit Row director Mike Lowe."Dave Bracey got stunning results for the Robbie Williams tour, ranging from the Swing While You’re Winning concert at the Royal Albert Hall to the summer stadium shows Oasis and Offspring also toured with large systems. Becoming a Network member was a natural progression. The fact that Brit Row now offers what we consider the two best Line Array systems available should not be seen as a conflict of interest. Their own manufacturers will be the first to say that the two systems are distinctly different, something we saw very early on. Several sound engineers with who

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Trius, the official L- Acoustics Distributor for Germany, has just completed an installation at one of the country’s most popular multi-functional arenas - the Olympia Hall in Munich - together with a local installation company called IES.

The 13,000 capacity Olympia Hall was built in 1972 for the Olympic Games and hosts a range of events such as rock concerts, musicals, sport events and corporate functions. Due to the variety of formats, the main audio installation requirement for the hall was to have uniform and coherent coverage of both the stands and the infield. Furthermore, a modern system was required which would be acceptable to visiting production companies.

The installation includes 76 L- Acoustics dV-Dosc cabinets, divided into eight arrays (two of 12 cabinets for the north stand, two of 10 cabinets for the south stand, two of eight cabinets for both the west and eas

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Interest-free credit on the design, production and hosting of websites is being offered to audio companies under a new initiative. Backed by Leeds-based marketing agency FL42, the scheme is designed to help companies working in the pro-audio and MI sectors reap the benefits of promoting and selling through the Internet, without a large initial outlay.

Ross Brown, managing director of FL42, says: "Everybody recognises the power of the Internet, with everybody from pro and amateur musicians to hire companies using it to promote services and research products, yet many companies have yet to take their first steps online. For some this is because of the techno-babble from so-called experts and for others it is the initial outlay required that is off-putting. This scheme aims to remove these barriers, dealing in plain English, providing clients with exactly what they need and using a v

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The Clapham Grand, which re-opened three years ago under the management of Howard Spooner's Leopard Clubs has changed its Crown-powered Nexo Alpha system for a new Crown-powered Nexo Alpha system . . .

So what prompted the change? Howard Spooner explained: "The original system we put in three years ago was perfect for the requirements at the time, but since then our music policy has changed to include a more house and dance night as well as our traditional 70s and 80s nights. Also, the dispersion of people through the club has changed. As a result we needed more sub-bass to beef up the low-end, as well some infills for the upper levels. Basically I just felt that our customers deserved an upgrade."

Spooner approached Peter Dyer at Tarsin who enlisted the help of Fuzion's technical director, Gary Ashton, to specify a new Nexo system. Dyer pointed out that although it's only

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Inter-M, the Korean based manufacturer of professional and public address audio products, began 2002 with the announcement of their move to new purpose-built premises in Seoul. "While manufacturing resources remain at the newly extended plant in Kyungki, Inter-M’s new offices in Seoul have been designed to develop our marketing department and increase productivity in the company’s extensive research and development division," said Mr Y J Yoo, Inter-M’s senior managing director.

Inter-M, whose products are sold in over 80 countries, have significantly increased output facilities to develop their latest range of pro sound and digital audio products, together with a new CCTV range to be launched later in 2002 at the ISC Show in Las Vegas and IFSec in Birmingham. The new Seoul offices also include a purpose-built 180sq.m three part showroom divided to exhibit In

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Soda in Derby is the latest club to choose a Nexo Alpha E system, installed by Ivor Green Associates. According to Green, Nexo was "the only choice" for his clients who were committed from the very beginning to the highest quality system they could afford. "I was impressed by their enthusiasm and professional approach," he said. "Although it's not the sort of job we would normally undertake, having seen the venue and met the clients and realised that we were of like minds, I agreed to take on the contract."

The club operates on three levels with the Soda bar on the ground floor, a quiet chill-out area with no music at all on the second floor, and the dancefloor itself, home to the new system, on the third floor. Green specified two stacks of Alpha E comprising four Alpha B1-18 bass bins and four Alpha E-M mid-top cabinets each. Crown MA Series amplifiers p

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For the second year running Capital Sound Hire dug deep into their inventory of Martin Audio Wavefront 8C enclosures to provide sound reinforcement for the Ministry of Sound’s massive 14-hour New Year’s Eve Dance Party at the Millennium Dome. Unlike last year, this time the celebrations took place under the Dome itself.

Due to simultaneous W8 commitments in St Georges Square, Glasgow - and the necessity to match each mid/high box with a low-end enclosure at the Dome - Cap Sound were required to sub-hire an additional 14 WSX subwoofers from the new Martin Wavefront inventory of London-based FX Music to fulfil their remit to the Ministry of Sound. Four separate arenas - ‘Smoove’, ‘World Dance’, ‘Rulin’ and ‘Ministry Of Sound’ - were set up, and among the world-class DJs involved were Judge Jules, Dave Pearce, Alex P and Brandon

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Louis Teo has left Singapore-based distributor Del Salado Entertainment Pte Ltd to start his own company, Lighting & Sound Distribution. The new company will also operate from Singapore and will import and export lighting and sound goods including special effects such as fiber optics, foam machines, CO2 Jets, as well as distributing brands such as Logic System Pro Audio, Starway, MBN, DiscoTech, Supervision and Dare Pro Audio in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

(Lee Baldock)

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Three BSS 9088ii Soundwebs have been specified to handle the networking at the important new Media Centre which opened recently in Shanghai. The Centre is based around a single fan-shaped room, measuring 6.4m high and 36m in length. The shortest width is 22m and the longest, 44m. Owned by the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Company, the contract to fit out this new-build site was won by ACE Shanghai.

The company wrote an audio specification to include mixing consoles (Amek/Soundcraft), amplification (Crown), loudspeakers (JBL Vs Series), control components (including dbx equalization), various sound sources, patch facilities and other ancillaries. They recommended to the owners that Soundweb be employed to route the signal sources generated from CD player, cassette recorder, hard disk recorder and microphone - with a local 9010 Jellyfish remote panel. According to ACE Shanghai’s Zhou Ji

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Devon-based rock trio Muse appeared at a wide variety of UK and European venues at the tail end of 2001; Mike Mann saw them in the cavernous London Docklands Arena.

Lighting designer Oli Metcalf has seen his system squeezed into small clubs and stretched to fill a full arena stage - and has managed to keep the CAV-supplied rig intact along the way. Metcalf is using CAV for the first time, a decision, prompted by their stock of up-to-date High End product. "I’m using 16 Studio Color washlights and the same number of Studio Spot CMYs," he revealed. There are also 14 AF1000 strobes in his design and a quartet of modified Cyberlight Turbos - their rear cable entries have been removed to allow them to stand vertically under four fabric cones which form an important part of the set. "CAV seemed to have all the new High End kit I needed, and they had no problem with me wa

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Phil Ward identifies some of the key product launches at the December AES Show in New York

New York at the beginning of December is a sentimental place. Horse-drawn carriages trot fur-coated shoppers along 59th Street at Central Park South. Sesame Street’s Big Bird switches on the Christmas tree lights outside the Lincoln Centre. Tourists flock to Ground Zero. And AES delegates - at least the Americans - exhibit, buy, sell and discuss in detail ‘classic’ audio technology.

One whole section of this show was dedicated to ‘When Vinyl Ruled’, and offered tear-jerking insights into valve and lathe technology. Even away from this grotto, microphone and signal processor designs from the 1950s were on display, re-issued and repackaged with loving attention to detail.

Les Paul himself, who pioneered multitrack recording in the 1950s, figured in Gibson La

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The Royal Festival Hall production team gave blood, sweat and tears to stage the 2001 festive ballet season, featuring the renowned Moscow Stanislavky Ballet.

The team, led by head of production Nigel March, and in collaboration with the venue’s riggers Vertigo Rigging, transformed the concert hall into a proscenium arch theatre, with all the expected rigging and flying facilities, ready to stage The Snow Maiden and Swan Lake.

This was the most ambitious set and lighting design ever staged at the South Bank, as well as one of the tightest timeframes. The initial task of the Vertigo team, headed by Paddy Burnside, was to install an 18 x 12 metre mother grid in the roof of the Hall. Below this was hung a trussing sub-grid to hold all the lighting and scenery bars and tab tracks. Because the changeover between shows was so tight, scenery and cloths for both had to be rigged at the

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This lot definitely break the convention: a dance band with a stage presence - and not before time. Faithless are almost a rock combo, a robust and rhythmical form of Steve Hillage, morphing and vibing, rather than worrying about melody and structure. It sounds great, though personally it’s not my cup of tea.

Sequencing apart, this is a very analogue sounding band, real guitars, keys, drums and percussion, yet on the outside their show embraces some of the very latest technology.

Lighting

These are never easy shows to light, the style demanding that you not so much light the artist, as the room. Juan Morandi has strong things to say about the subject: "The fact is you can’t tour a music production at this level with anything original unless you have a lot of money. This is a front and back truss situation with extremely boring moving lights." Sorry? &q

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The new H.A.R.D. 212 monitors from Italian manufacturere Outline have been used for the very first time at the Christmas Concert in The Vatican, a high profile event held in the Paul VI hall, presented by Cristina Parodi and broadcast across Italy at Christmas by Canale 5. Since the first edition in 1993, this show has brought together hundreds of foreign and Italian artists, who accept the invitation of the Church of Rome. Different cultures, origins, races, ages and colours, but united to perform in the name of a very meaningful cause.

Once again this year some of the world’s top artists participated, including Cranberries’ vocalist Dolores O’Riordan, Terence Trent D'Arby, Sasha, Josè Feliciano, Russell Watson, Massimo Ranieri, Edoardo Bennato, Elisa, Tiziano Ferro, the Schola Cantorum Cantate Domino treble voice choir from Belgium, the New Millennium Voices Gospel

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PLASA members Central Theatre Supplies, in conjunction with Solihull Arts Complex, is holding a Lighting & Sound Workshop on 2 February 2002 at Solihull Arts Complex, Homer Road, Solihull. This training day is open to schools and amateur theatres, providing an insight into stage lighting and sound, including demonstrations and advice on how to achieve certain effects. The cost for the day is £5, and tickets can be ordered from the Box Office at the Arts Complex, telephone 0121 704 6962.

Following the morning session there will be an exhibition where those attending will be encouraged to meet the manufacturers and view the latest products and equipment. People who do not wish to attend the workshops are welcome to attend the exhibition between 12.30 - 2.00pm. Manufacturers attending will include Zero 88, Selecon, HW International (UK distributor for Shure, QSC Audio and Phonic), Dought

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The Music Company has technical installation landmark at The Works on Birmingham’s Broad Street - a new flagship venue for the First Leisure Corporation, which incorporated the 500th Denon DJ unit the Music Company has installed. The audio brief was to provide a higher impact audio system than those found at other recent First Leisure sites. The 2,300 capacity venue contains three rooms, each with its own DJ booth, and each embracing a different music policy.

Music Co specified two Denon DN-2100F twin-CD players for The Works’ main room and the mezzanine level second room, plus a DN-1800F twin-CD deck for the third and VIP room, Top View, which is high in the rafters of the building, overlooking the main room. The main room also features a DN-M2300R twin mini-disc player, and all the Denon devices were supplied to Music Co by Hayden Laboratories. The Works’ Saturday a

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The UK sound equipment market is set to grow at a healthy 3.0% in 2002, according to a just published analysis from Plimsoll. This will only be good news for some though as growth will not be seen across the entire industry. Studying the latest figures from the largest 244 companies in the sound equipment industry, market analysts Plimsoll revealed that over a third of the industry may not see growth at all and could lose 16.6% of sales on average this year.

Adding to their distress, three quarters of these companies saw profits fall in 2001 and almost 62% are currently loss-making. Despite these factors, very few reduced staff and only 52% made attempts to reduce their asset base.

So who is set to keep grabbing market share in 2002? Plimsoll's First Edition names 68 companies that notched up an amazing 19.8% growth last year. Within this group, 17 companies individually increased sa

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Philips CSI has launched the Praesideo public address and emergency sound system. The company believe it to be the world’s first fully digital PA system of its kind: it meets virtually all today’s public address and emergency sound system needs and is fully compliant with the latest Evac standards for emergency sound systems.

By handling all audio processing, communication and control functions entirely digitally, Praesideo achieves hihg levels of flexibility and ease of installation. Initial system configuration is carried out quickly and easily from a PC with user-friendly configuration software, eliminating the need for programming at the equipment end or complex, time-consuming changes in the system cabling when upgrading or expanding. The configuration software uses web-based technology, and allows authorized users to access and monitor the system from any location. A

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The newly-built Chelsea Club - an exclusive leisure facility recently opened behind the Chelsea FC stadium in Chelsea Village - has invested in an array of Turbosound equipment, serving various locations throughout the health complex.

Installed by the official supplier, Atmospheric, the Turbosound system is part of a complete audio-visual installation, which includes plasma screens and a control system that routes numerous audio sources through to six different zones. Four specially prepared Impact 50 speakers - with waterproof coating applied to the cones - have been installed in the impressive pool and Jacuzzi area. A further eight have been mounted in the gym, where 16 channels of ‘personal audio’ are routed to all workout stations. Four further Turbosound TCS-35 enclosures have been fitted in two aerobics studios.

Atmospheric’s broadcast services manager, Dave G

  1. Bob Salt: Memorial Service
  2. FX Expands Into 2002
  3. New Mounts and Guidance from Rycote
  4. Corporate Connections for Kelsey with PMI
  5. Sennheiser Gives Big Push to Unsigned Artists
  6. New Sales Manager for Next Two
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

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