Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

Sound

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UK - Marquee Audio has designed and supplied a new stage monitor system to be piloted by the McKenzie Group in their Carling Academy in Bristol. According to MKG's managing director, John Northcote, the move is not only in line with the company's policy of maintaining a solid audio infrastructure for visiting bands, but also reflects the expanding secondary usage of Academy venues for smaller up-and-coming groups.

If successful, the move could lead to a standardization throughout the McKenzie Group's live venue portfolio. Explaining the rationale, John Northcote told us: "We look at Academy venues from three viewpoints: for full-on shows, for club nights and now for small 400-500 capacity gigs where up-and-coming bands can plug into an existing set-up."

In addition to the new stage set-up in Bristol Marquee Audio has provided FOH augmentation with the first of Soundc

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France - Since 2000, the French theme park Puy du Fou has used L-Acoustics sound systems. In 2001, the park enlarged its equipment inventory for the Gallo-Roman Stadium show, delivering a high quality and invisible sound experience for the audience.

Won over by the quality of the dV-Dosc system used on the Gallo-Roman Stadium show, the Puy du Fou decided in 2002 to bring the same audio signature to the Cinescenie, one of the biggest permanent stages in the world (3 acres, 14,000 capacity audience per show) and asked its technical team to chose an L-Acoustics system that could be adapted to the geography (an outdoor show arena with a lake in the middle, several different stage locations, night shows, totally exposed to the elements, etc) and to the audio requirements (high intelligibility and predictable directivity, off-site noise pollution, etc). The sound engineers eventually

Renkus-Heinz - Banner - May 2025

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UK - Le Mark has developed a new fire retardant gaffer tape. Manufactured from high quality, waterproof, vinyl-coated cloth tape, with a natural rubber based adhesive, it has a special flame retardant coating. Offering high tensile strength, it conforms to Ford specifications - ESB-M3G71-B and S95GG14K024CA.

On a separate note, Le Mark's custom printing division had an incredibly busy start to 2003. January saw the production, for the first time, of a uniquely complicated multi-text identification label system for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Le Mark adapted its heavy-duty PAL Label identification system to meet the Philharmonic's requirement that every single piece of flight-cased equipment be uniquely named and identified with a reusable label. This required a total of 73 individual stencils to be produced and then screen printed.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Sennheiser UK's guidePORT Health & Fitness Partner, TrackTones Ltd, has won the Barclays Bank Award for Commercial Innovation 2003. The award was presented at the recent seventh annual London Innovation Awards ceremony at the British Library, to TrackTones inventor and managing director, Steve Parkin, by Minister of State for E-Commerce and Competitiveness, Stephen Timms MP, and Huw Evans, Barclays Bank Corporate Director of Technology, Media & Telecomms.

The invention, which earned Steve Parkin's company accreditation as Sennheiser's first guidePORT Health & Fitness Partner, incorporates the new Sennheiser guidePORT intelligent, wireless personal audio guide system in a product designed to enhance music delivery and improve performance benefits in health and fitness facilities.

TrackTones can provide up to 16 simultaneous high quality audio channels via the digital RF gu

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UK - Stephen Hall has been appointed as managing director of UK rental and installations company RG Jones as part of a major management restructure of its operations in Wimbledon. Hire department manager John Carroll and financial adviser Max Cohen have also joined the board of directors.

Owner and chairman Robin Jones says: "In this industry it's important that companies continually evolve. This restructure passes the running of the company over to the hands of a young, dynamic and very experienced team. Stephen is the ideal person to lead the team and take the company forward. I wish him and the team every success."

Stephen Hall commented: "It's very exciting to be given the opportunity to further develop one of the longest established sound companies in the industry. Having been in the industry for over 25 years and having an association with RG Jones for nea

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UK - Ignoring Arctic temperatures and driving blizzards, to say nothing of London Underground grinding to a halt, crowds packed out Leicester Square recently to catch a glimpse of the perfect couple of the moment, Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock at the premiere of their slick romantic comedy, Two Weeks Notice. The couple, along with co-stars David Haig, and Alicia Witt, attended the glittering after-premiere party for 450 guests held at the Asia de Cuba restaurant in St Martins Lane hotel. The Sound Division Group's hire department provided the sound system and DJ services for the event.

The main system comprised two JBL SRX 4702 mid/top loudspeakers, two JBL SRX 4718 subs and a C-Audio Pulse amplifier rack, with a further four EV Sx300 loudspeakers as room fills. DJ Control was courtesy of two SL1210 turntables MkIII, an Allen & Heath mixer, a Denon 1800 CD player and a JB

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Finland - Genelec has launched a giant active subwoofer - ideal for large surround sound or stereo installations. Known as the 7073A, it features four 305mm (12") drivers, fast-acting, low distortion amplifiers, an incredible 124dB sound pressure output, 19Hz lower cut-off frequency, plus a full 6.1-capable bass management system - so it can easily handle the most demanding high SPL applications. Essentially the 7073A has twice the sound pressure output of Genelec's previous largest sub-woofer, the 7071A.

All the new subwoofer's electronics are fully integrated into the cabinet, including the active crossover filters, driver overload protection circuits and power amplifiers. The integrated bass management system with its six inputs and outputs (L/C/R front and L/C/R rear), plus LFE input and summed signal output connectors is very flexible. The dedicated LFE input (which ca

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UK - Entec Sound & Light supplied production co-ordination services and lighting and sound equipment for the UK and Irish leg of John Squire's hugely successful 'Time Changes Everything' tour. The tour has received much critical acclaim, and is the first time since Stone Roses' demise, that a former band member has performed much of the group's music publicly.

Despite the fact that many venues offered house sound and lighting systems, Steve Adj, John Squire's co-manager, and tour manager Martin Herbert, persuaded fellow manager Simon Moran to increase the budget, so that a consistent level of production could be ensured by means of a touring package. Entec won the contract and supplied Herbert with equipment and crew. The latter even included some Stone Roses stalwarts like Grub and Mouse from caterers Cat'n'Mouse, Stardes trucking and the unflappable Trapper as stage manager an

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UK - Glasgow is the latest location for the development of McKenzie Group's Academy venue roll-out. Having taken over the 1920's art deco New Bedford Cinema just outside the city centre, they immediately committed £3 million to a conversion, which will see it fully operational by 26 March 2003 for the opening night with Deacon Blue.

To supply and implement the audio infrastructure, MKG's managing director, John Northcote, has again enlisted Shepperton Studios-based Marquee Audio, who first worked with the company on the conversion of Birmingham's Hummingbird to the Academy in Britain's second city two and a half years ago. The 2,500-capacity venue in Glasgow - purchased from Edinburgh-based development company EDI - will operate in three formats: as a full concert venue, a short hall arrangement and a full-on night club.

Marquee project managers, Spencer Brooks and Scott

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Australia - Sydney Opera House recently celebrated the opening of its sixth venue, the Forecourt - one of the city's most spectacular outdoor venues, situated on and around the Opera House steps. Throughout the summer, the Forecourt will host a diverse range of free and ticketed events - from the Sydney Symphony, jazz and rock concerts, folk and country music to unique large-scale participatory performances, all set against Sydney's impressive harbourside backdrop.

As the Forecourt will stage a diversity of productions, each with differing requirements, it was decided to initially hire the staging, starting with a domed stage supplied by Edwin Shirley Staging.

When it came to the lighting and audio equipment, the choice of equipment was driven by the fact that a versatile and modular production package could easily be utilized in other venues within the Opera House. "It's

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UK - SSE Audio Group has taken delivery of the first production Nexi GEO T Tangent Array Systems - a total of 96 full-range Tangent Array cabinets and 24 CD-18 Controlled Directivity sub-bass units.

The order is a reflection of SSE's close involvement with the Nexo GEO Technology project, from the conceptualisation of the first tangent array devices, the GEO S Series launched in 2001, to the realisation of the GEO T Series and, in particular, its remarkable flying system, designed by Chris Beale, SSE's Group hire director. SSE has been field-testing GEO T full-range and sub-bass units since the summer of 2002, with the complete system fulfilling its potential most recently at the larger venues on Tori Amos' European tour. At Le Zenith in Paris, before a 7000-strong crowd, the SSE/Melpomen team flew single arrays of 17 T4805s on each side of the stage, with four CD18 sub-bass uni

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UK - Capital Radio's Capital Christmas Live event returned to Earls Court at the close of last year. All of the artists perform a live 20-minute set, rather than relying on playback, which requires some pretty nifty footwork from the production team.

John Probyn headed up the ClearChannel Entertainments team, working alongside Emma Hodgetts, who managed the event on behalf of Capital Radio. The two assembled a team of trusted suppliers with production manager Mark Ward and Kahren Williams at its vanguard.

Mark Ward explained: "There was a major transformation to this year's show, because for the first time it was televised on Christmas Eve. This brought changes to several aspects of the production, and meant that lighting became a major priority. We also added a second satellite stage to allow the presenters to be filmed whilst the stage was being set for the next act, re

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UK - Reading-based rental company Skan PA Hire has reported the recent theft of two Avalon VT-737SP units. The serial numbers of the units are 22755 and 22756, Skan #07 and #08. If you have any information about the whereabouts of these products, or are offered them for sale, please contact Chris Fitch at Skan PA Hire, Tel: +44 (0)118 975 5088, or at the e-mail address below:

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Arbiter Pro Audio, the exclusive distributor of JBL, dbx and Powersoft in the UK, hosted a successful two-day seminar at Birmingham Hippodrome theatre, allowing people to get hands-on with the latest products from the three companies.

Audio hardware for the event (and lighting) was supplied by top UK rental company Adlib Audio from Liverpool, a major JBL Vertec, Powersoft and dbx user. Over 85 people - representing all areas of the pro audio rental, installation and sales markets, and also including Arbiter dealers and agents - attended on both days, jumping at the chance to experience the latest sound technology in situ. Presenters included David Scheirman and Andrew Rutkin from JBL Professional in Northridge, California, and Geoff Lissaman from dbx Pro in Salt Lake City. Max Lindsay-Johnson, David Budge, David Karlsen and Dan Eades formed the Arbiter side of the presentat

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Denmark - David Jackson has joined MTi Audio of Denmark as sales manager. The new position is in line with key changes at MTi, who, over the coming year, will introduce new pro audio products to the world market. Jackson has spent the last three years successfully reorganizing worldwide distribution channels for Celestion. MTi Audio will exhibit at ProLight+Sound - Hall 9.1 G39.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Cadac has just supplied a 52-input R-Type Lightweight Touring Console to theatrical sound design specialist Autograph Sound Recording for the brand new UK tour of Cats, which opened on 15 February at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. This is the first R-Type to be purchased by Autograph, complementing its extensive stock of Cadac J-Types, E-Types and A-Types deployed on high profile productions around Europe.

Sound design for the UK national tour of Cats is by Terry Jardine and Simon Baker, with Greg Pink as production sound engineer. The tour is scheduled to run for the next few years visiting Manchester, Wolverhampton, Sunderland, Edinburgh and Belfast. Jardine, Autograph's managing director, commented on the choice of the R-Type for this project: "We are pleased to add the R-Type to our expansive Cadac inventory, we needed a desk with a smaller footprint, bu

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UK - With effect from 1 March, one of the UK's largest independent hire companies, Hawthorn Theatrical, is re-naming and re-organizing its business to better meet the needs of its customers. Hawthorn, as it will now be known, is creating three divisions to offer specialist support and service to clients. The divisions will be Hire & Sales, Production Solutions and Permanent Installations.

General manager Simon Wood comments: "The difficulty has been that our services and hire stock have expanded so massively and we have struggled to keep all our customers up-to-date with the changes. The new structure, with direct access phone numbers and named team members, whose contact details will be posted on the website, should ensure that customers get the support and advice they need from the right person for them." The new website will be updated monthly with news and photogra

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UK - A pioneering music festival along Chelsea's Kings Road to coincide with London Fashion Week saw Soundcraft Spirit E6s mixing live performance in five boutiques along the strip. The man responsible for the initiative was Kashmir Klub founder Tony Moore. Under the banner 'City Showcase', Tony literally provided a shop window for a series of acoustic singer/songwriters who have performed at his Marylebone venue, by expertly converting window display areas into ad hoc stages.

With space at a premium, the E6 provided the perfect solution - in terms of both aesthetic and operability. The Kashmir Klub has a long relationship with Soundcraft products and Moore is delighted with the company's continuing involvement via their new showpiece Spirit products: "This event produced two logistical challenges. We needed to be able to specify the right, high quality equipment to fulfil

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UK - BPI and multi-platinum award winning producer, Martin Rushent, recently opened the new recording and production facilities at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College's Faculty of Leisure and Tourism in High Wycombe. The purpose-built facilities - which include a Digidesign Pro Tools HD system and Genelec 5. 1 monitoring in studio 1, along with a Mackie HDR24/96 in studio 2 (both linked to two live performance spaces) - have been designed and built to support the new BA (Hons) in Music Industry Management and Studio Production. Students will have the unique opportunity to develop their music recording and production skills at the same time as working towards a solid music management qualification at degree level. In opening the new facility, Rushent commented: "These are amongst the best facilities for music production in the country, and the students who complete th

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UK - Bradford-based Pro Audio Systems recently supplied HMS Ark Royal with an extensive package of PA equipment. The package included two HK Elias systems from John Hornby Skewes, a range of microphones from both beyerdynamic and Audio Technica, Samson Expedition EX20s and an American DJ DCD pro450 CD, sourced from Sound Technology, a pair of Smart Wireless Twin 15 systems, with handheld and bodypack transmitters, Tascam cassettes and minidisks and a Spirit FX8 mixer and E8 input channel. Also included in the package was a Yamaha MX20/6 mixer, a Fostex VF160 multitracker, six flight cases, three multicores and assorted stands, cables and accessories.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - FX Technical Services, part of the FX Group, has recently completed an exclusive install of a Linn Knekt Multiroom system at Butlers Wharf - a private penthouse complex overlooking London's River Thames. One of its properties has recently undergone an extensive rebuild and FX Technical Services was called upon by the project's architect to install a sound system that would complement the flat's exclusivity.

The system comprises a Linn Kivor multi-output hard disc audio player, a Linn FM/AM tuner, a Sky plasma screen and Linn and BW speakers, both free-standing and ceiling-mounted. The system allows the hi-fi to be controlled from any room in the house with the minimum amount of equipment in each room. The team were also able to lay down the necessary cables before the flat was decorated and thus the install was completely unobtrusive to the overall design of the property.

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USA - Mackie Designs has announced the promotion of Frank Loyko to senior vice-president sales, worldwide. At the same time, Paul Rice has stepped down as Mackie's senior vice-president of international sales and business development. Loyko will assume global responsibility for sales initiative across all Mackie Designs Inc brands, while Mackie's marketing group takes over business development initiatives.

"This is the next step in the restructuring plans that Mackie put into motion last November," commented Rice. "We have set the stage for success and I'm confident in the new senior management team's ability to build upon the strong foundation that I have helped to establish over the last year."

Mackie CEO Jamie Engen said of Rice: "Paul has made considerable contributions to Mackie over the last year and we wish him well as he moves on to new challen

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Australia - MC2 Audio has announced the first major theatre installation via its Australian distributor, Funktion One Australia. Her Majesty's Theatre, Ballarat, located very close to Melbourne, is a beautiful old theatre, built in the mid-1800s at the height of the gold rush. Today it's an historically important and heavily over-worked regional theatre. The auditorium is constructed in traditional style with stalls at ground level and the circle and dress circle above.

T Series amplifiers have been selected to drive the Funktion One speaker system, which is located throughout the auditorium. John O'Donnell of Funktion One Australia says: "MC2 amplifiers were chosen to drive the entire system based on their high quality, transparent sound, high reliability and their compatibility with the Funktion One range of products."

The system has been configured to use one chan

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UK - Bosch Security Systems has strengthened its position as one of the leading global and UK suppliers of security and communications systems with the recent acquisition of Philips CSI.

Bosch is integrating the former Philips CSI operation with the well-established Bosch Detection Systems business into a single new company called Bosch Security Systems, which now offers the complete product range covering fire and intrusion detection, CCTV, public address, paging and congress systems. The combined operation is being re-located to a new home in the existing Bosch facility in Denham. Bosch will continue to sell and support all the former Philips CSI products under the globally known Bosch brand name, alongside its well-known Detection Systems branded products.

The combined Bosch Security Systems business is headed up by UK MD Joe McCann, previously general manager of Bosch De

  1. black light opens operation in Glasgow
  2. Nexo GEO scores hat-trick in Finland
  3. New additions to Neutrik UK range
  4. Film classifiers use Martin’s Screen 2s to assist with ratings
  5. CP Sound and Arbiter arrange new finance deal for installation
  6. Autograph offers Fischer a UK platform
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Astera - June 2025
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