The Netherlands - August 2nd 2003 brought over 40,000 dance fans to Spaarnwoude, just outside Amsterdam, to enjoy a line-up of the world's finest DJs featuring Sasha & Digweed, Tiesto, Deep Dish, Sister Bliss and Yoji Biomehanika.

Allen & Heath played an important role as Xone mixers were installed in a number of stages. Those DJs who were particularly conscious about sound quality specifically asked for a Xone console. Amongst them was Carl Cox, who hosted his own stage and formed a line-up featuring other big names, including the techno pioneers Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May. Cox specifically asked for the Xone:62, not only for the sound quality, but for its "wicked'' filter section as well.

However, the biggest surprise was shown backstage in the 'DJ headquarters', a hospitality area showing new DJ techniques and equipment, as the brand new Xone:V6 EQ Isolator was o

UK - Christian band '100 hours' have put their faith in professional audio developer Mackie Designs with a recent investment in brand new equipment to help bring their blend of music and praise to live audiences across the UK. "When we decided to do the live record, we knew we needed a few things from the gear we chose for the project," says band front man, Tré Sheppard. "Quality was paramount because the recordings are for commercial release and it had to be easy to use in a festival situation, there is so little time to set up gear, and the various FOH guys we work with don't need another complicated piece of gear to figure out in the midst of sound check madness! It also had to be reliable because we don't have time to check everything twice, we just want to hit record and capture the live magic without having to think too much about it. If any of those factors

UK - Mipro is leading its competitors by creating a variety of new designs, satisfying user requirements with professional quality at sensible prices. The company have adopted international EIA standard 19" rack half-rack metal frame. LED panels ensure that receiving channels are clearer, featuring RF/AF signal metering. This is unlike the more common mono LCD panel and enables the user to identify information and thus operate more easily.

Adopting UHF PLL-synthesized diversity reception, with Pilotone and NoiseLock dual-squelch control, guarantees a longer operating range and also eliminates signal dropout and unstable reception, whilst avoiding noise interference from karaoke machines, PC and DVD players. Noise indicators on the control panel clearly displays if a receiver is in a state of interference.

There is a [SCAN] button on the front panel, enabling the device t

Mexico - d&b audiotechnik has announced the opening of d&b audiotechnik Mexico, headed up by Antonio Martinez Benita, who brings his wealth of experience of the Mexican audio market to the company. The new office is located in the south business and residential district of Mexico City, within close proximity to the city's nightclub scene.

Benita founded Audio Dynamics S.A. in 1991, which supplied high quality audio equipment and was renowned for it excellent service and after-sales support. In the late 1990s, the company specialized in the install market, mainly specifying, selling and installing projects for Hard Rock Café and Planet Hollywood in Mexico, South America and Spain. "The rental market, which is strong in Mexico, has been dominated by US brands since the late 80s," says Benita. "Reliability and the plug-and-play design of some of these brands, along

UK - The first official international use of HK Audio's Cohedra system will take place in England on 4 September, just a few days before the opening of London's annual PLASA trade show. In Hull at Kingston Communications Stadium, the group Westlife and Friends will hit the stage at 'Foxy & Tom's Big Bash Festival,' sponsored by British radio station 96.9 Viking FM.

With over 12 million CDs sold and several number-one hits in several countries, Westlife is one of the most successful boy bands in Europe. Opening for them at the Big Bash Festival will be successful newcomer Triple 8 and the 5-piece girl band Girls Aloud from the UK TV show 'Popstars - The Rivals.'

For this concert JSS PA Hire in York will be implementing a Cohedra system comprising 48 Cohedra CDR 208 mid/high units and an equal number of CDR 210 subwoofers. Powered by four PR 16 and four PR 8 Power Racks with DFC

UK - The Wavefront AL3101 DSP-1K is a powerful audio processor optimized for signal filtering, equalization and dynamics processing. With its 49 MIPS throughput (at 48kHz), 28-bit internal data path, and on-board data and program memory (1K each), the AL3101 offers higher performance than many of the more expensive DSP chips on the market, according to Profusion. The AL3101 is capable of processing a 1024 tap FIR (Finite Impulse Response) filter; acting as a compressor/limiter, gate, or de-esser; serving as a speaker crossover or equalizer; or creating a wide variety of audio effects such as chorusing and flanging.

The DSP-1K offers large word size, providing easy, accurate algorithm creation for audio and other high dynamic range applications. The chip also operates stand-alone with a serial PROM (DSP-1KM) or in conjunction with a host microprocessor or microcontroller. Additio

Denmark - Martin Professional has introduced 'Fingers', a handy hardware interface for its popular software-based LightJockey controller. Fingers is a robust playback and programming wing that makes LightJockey even more intuitive and accessible, say Martin.

LightJockey is a Windows-based lighting controller capable of controlling up to 100 DMX fixtures that can interface either 512 - 2048 channels. It is used extensively for club and DJ lighting control, special events, retail environments and more. Highly customizable, Fingers permits a large number of the LightJockey functions to be mapped directly to physical faders, buttons and jog wheels, providing the user with easy, hands-on, live show and playback control.

Fingers allows easy button control for launching programs, triggering of individual or multiple sequences and latching of specific cues/sequences. Next, previous a

Malta - XTA DP226 digital loudspeaker controllers were at the heart of a Martin Audio line array system deployed by London's Capital Sound Hire at a one-off concert by Sir Elton John for 15,000 fans in Valetta, Malta recently. The show, part of the Elton John Solo European tour, saw Capital Sound fly in its W8L/W8LC system as a stand-in for the Clair Brothers i4 line array system being used on the remainder of the tour.

The very wide site - measuring some 160m wide by just 70m deep, with the stage on one of the long sides - created an acoustical challenge for production manager Henry Crallan and Capital Sound's techs Ian Colville and Finbar Neenan. With housing next to the arena, achieving coverage across the breadth of the arena without excess noise spill was tricky. The solution was to use two ground stacks of Clair Bros i4 almost at right angles to the stage as outfills to co

UK / Korea - Chameleon Audio has appointed Daikyung Vascom as sole distributor for its full complement of products in South Korea. Daikyung Vascom is considered to be the best partner for Chameleon amplifiers, as they will be distributed with compatible quality pro audio products such as Allen & Heath, Sennheiser, Neumann, Genelec and Apogee-Sound.

Director Han commented: "Daikyung Vascom is delighted to be appointed distributor for Chameleon products, as the amps are powerful, well-built units that have unique transformers, giving them a weight, size and performance advantage. The design also offers an extremely impressive damping factor - so vital when dealing with quality speaker enclosures."

Chameleon's sales director, Martin Capp, added: "Having worked with Daikyung Vascom for many years, I know the company to be true distribution professionals in their mar

UK - KV2 Audio is launching its premium EX10 high-output active full-range speaker at this year's PLASA Show. "We designed the EX10 for customers who want the very best sound quality possible in a compact cabinet," says KV2 president, Marcelo Vercelli: "The EX10 is aimed at serious sound contractors, rental houses, small churches and in-house AV departments who need maximum fidelity from an extremely small enclosure."

Vercelli says the EX10 was developed at KV2's Milevsko R&D facility in the Czech Republic, and embodies the company's philosophy of increased dynamic range, very high output and consistent sound character - no matter what the output level. The EX10 employs a new LF transducer with KV2's TransCoil technology and neodymium motor structure that is said to dramatically increase force, lower distortion and provide increased frequency linearity. A new

UK - The sleepy, south coast backwater of Bosham, seems a strange place to want to set up a new mastering house, but delve a little deeper and it is easy to see why it all makes sound business sense. Cut & Groove is ideally located to mine a rich seam of work, the South Coast Club Scene, the phenomenon that has spawned such mega artists as Artful Dodger, Craig David and Fat Boy Slim.

The duo behind this £200,000 venture is Duncan Davis and Adam Twine who have been immersed in the club scene since their teens. Duncan broke into it at 16 when armed with a couple of cases of albums, he bluffed his way into a DJ residency in Ibiza for the summer with no experience apart from in front of his bedroom mirror, while Adam ran a club on the Isle of Wight.

Though Cut & Groove only opened its doors seven months ago, it is already pretty busy. The facility's offer of a competitively price

UK - The three climactic Knebworth shows at the tail-end of Robbie Williams' Weekends of Mass Distraction tour added up to be the largest musical event in UK history with a total audience of 375,000 fans. And with five bands on the bill each day (The Darkness, Kelly Osbourne, Ash, Moby and Robbie) they were also the first festival-type UK dates for the DiGiCo D5 FM (Front of House and Monitor) package, in use for all five bands.

The D5 system, supplied by Britannia Row Productions along with an L-Acoustics V-Dosc PA, involved a pair of D5 Live work surfaces at front of house, with Robbie being mixed by Dave Bracey, and another pair on monitors with Martin Waring at the controls, each pair was linked together by a single lightweight digital cable. One desk at FOH and one monitors was dedicated to Robbie while the support bands used the others.

Running the newly introduce

UK / Austria - MC2 Audio has announced the appointment of dBLuX Distribution as the company's new distributor in Austria. dBLuX is located in Dornbirn in the west of Austria and was founded in September 2001 to deal exclusively in the business to business sector. In this short time this highly motivated young company has established its name country wide as an important distributor for sound, light and multi-media products.

dBLuX carries a wide selection of products to suit all budgets and customers are supported by a high standard of after sales service.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - TC Electronic announced the EQ Station-8, EQ Station-4, EQ Station-2 and the MotoFader-64. Together with a PC/Mac Editor, they form a high-end equalizer system designed for use in demanding touring Monitor and FOH applications, as well as fixed installations in Theatres and Concert Halls. The EQ Station range sets a new standard for live sound equalization.

Coming in 2-, 4- and 8-channel configurations, the EQ Stations are all 2U units featuring the best TC quality AD/DA conversion and the most powerful DSP processing. Each channel includes simultaneously: 6-band Parametric EQ, 29-band Graphic EQ, 3-band Dynamic EQ, Brickwall Limiter and Delay. Internally, EQ Station uses 48-bit processing for wide headroom, analog EQ modelling and no compromise processing. Building upon the heritage of the award winning TC6032/TC1128 Graphical EQ system, the EQ Station is the new EQ standa

UK - RG Jones' sales and installations department reports a very busy first half of the year. In order to strengthen its client support, the company has added two new full-time positions. Adam Villiers, who, the company tells us, has been "super-glued to his desk" will fulfill the role of initial point of contact, on hand to take care of clients' immediate needs and provide any information they require.

At the same time, Scott Fraser has joined the company in the role of technical field sales rep. Fraser has had many years of experience in pro audio and he will be mobile, available to visit clients, discuss any requirements, and provide relevant advice.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - The Lighthouse is the newest waterside bar/restaurant to open in Edinburgh's lively, regenerated Leith docklands area, now a buzzing social hub in the north of the City. Local audio installer SI Sound & Light was asked by the venue's owner, local entrepreneur Robert Orr, to design, specify and install sound throughout. SI's Neil Silver turned to both Arbiter Pro Audio for JBL speakers, and Adlib Audio for their AA enclosures to supply specific equipment to the different areas.

The venue is divided into two totally separate spaces: downstairs is a mezzanine restaurant and different bar areas, and upstairs there's a function room suite available for private hires. Downstairs at the Lighthouse is an open plan design with large windowed frontage onto the street, overlooking the water, with two more secluded rooms with seats and tables at the rear and the restaurant on the mezza

Ireland - Irelands national broadcaster, Radio Telefis Eireann (RTE) has extended its long relationship with Soundcraft broadcast desks.

Standardizing on the RM105 fully-modular on-air console, it recently purchased its tenth, with the upgrade of the mixing facilities in its North Donegal regional studio. Audio Warehouse, Soundcraft's Southern Ireland distributors, supplied the board as a 20-module frame, with three mic and two Telco input modules - and the remainder stereo. In some of the larger regional studios these desks are interfaced with B400 production desks to allow operation in either compere operated or 'support' mode.

"The decision on desk acquisition is made by a user group, consisting of console users and support engineers," explained Cyril Ryan, head of regional facilities, RTE. "The main reason for selection is functionality and reliability, as t

USA - Two Renkus-Heinz Reference Point Array (RPA) loudspeaker systems have been chosen by Stony Brook University, NY, located 50 miles from Manhattan and part of the State University system of New York. A new building houses the two main university ballrooms, multi-purpose rooms that will be used for student orientations, performances of both music and spoken plays, concerts, faculty presentations and presentations to university applicants.

Adwar Video, of Plainview, NY, has designed the system and installation has now been completed. Adwar Video founder Mike Adwar comments: "The university needed to be able to provide each with room with its own sound system, both operable independently of each other, but which could also be linked to feed both rooms with the same signal sources."

The two separate rooms seat a total of some 600 people, and the loudspeaker system wa

UK - Since moving into new premises earlier this summer, ARB has continued to expand. Three new members of staff have joined the team this August. The two new sales executives, taken on to develop ARB's diverse client base, are Stephen Brady, joining from De Boer, with his extensive experience in corporate events, hospitality and production areas; and Barry Clayson, who has two decades of production experience working in the outdoor events industry - including commentating at a range of country fairs and shows.

Cathy Lynn from NSR has also joined ARB as the new hire office manager. She will be responsible for enquiries and quotes and ensuring that hire operations out of ARB's Buckingham headquarters are managed efficiently.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - Mach Speakers will be giving away a pair of M-Flex speakers each day of the PLASA exhibition (except Wednesday). All visitors have to do is fill out a short questionnaire and they will automatically be entered in the draw, to be held at the Mach Speakers/Martin Professional booth daily at 5:00 pm. Designed to fit into a broad array of applications requiring high quality audio reproduction, M-Flex is a flexible line of compact, lightweight moulded loudspeakers.

Mach can be found on stand G89/G80 at PLASA.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

UK - The expansion plans of Chameleon Audio have recently included the appointment of Gearline Marketing, the newly-styled repping company. An agreement has been reached with Gearline to add the Chameleon product range to the company's portfolio, which already includes Clockaudio, JL Cooper, Connectronics and Leema Acoustics.

Chameleon audio sales director, Martin Capp, commented: "Rod Geary and Chris Collings bring a wealth of knowledge to the newly-formed repping company, as well as a portfolio of quality pro audio products that will benefit existing Chameleon customers. This initiative is to increase the Chameleon UK dealer base, while offering dealers the benefit of their collective sales activity."

Geary, director of Gearline Marketing, added: "We are delighted to have concluded a deal with Chameleon Audio, one of the few independent professional amplifier

UK - Italian pro audio manufacturer Outline will be at the PLASA Show with its Butterfly, also known as Outlinearray. The C.D.H. 483 Hi-Pack element (which has two patents pending, both applied for in mid-2002), is a bi-amp three-way cabinet, which uses mechanical interaction rather than DSP to achieve its goal.

It uses two forward facing 8" cone transducers and two further 8" cone drivers. These are acoustically coupled and do not require DSP. The HF section uses a compression driver with a 3" diaphragm, as a line source can only be achieved by using one high frequency driver. Connected to this is a patent-pending Double Parabola developed by Guido Noselli (DPRWG). This radical new HF configuration works as a ribbon driver but with a very high efficiency (110 dB 1w/1m). The C.D.H. 483 Hi-Pack weighs in at just 35kg, including its integral flying system. Outline c

UK - UK distributor Fuzion plc will be showing production GEO T2815 cabinets for the first time at the PLASA Show in London, starting this Sunday, 7 September. The T2815 gives the NEXO GEO T Series Tangent Array System a fully integrated and coherent downfill capacity, rarely available from high output line array systems.

It uses passive radiators to achieve the same cardioid pattern as the GEO T4805, the other full-range high-output loudspeaker at the heart of the GEO T Series. As a consequence, the horizontal dispersion is consistent throughout the operating band (although in keeping with its nearfield application, the T2815 produces 120° H compared with the T4805's 90° H). The T2815 downfill box has been used in demanding festival and concert situations in France and the UK.

Featuring a 2" exit compression driver (HF) and two 8" long excursion neodymium cone dri

Denmark - In order to take increased advantage of the recent agreement of co-operation between Seelite and Procon MultiMedia AG, Seelite A/S has hired Mikkel Behrend as AV project manager.

Behrend, who was formerly key account manager at ComTech Holding A/S, will begin at the company in October, and will be responsible for AV solutions for fairs and shows, presentations, events and festivals, areas where the company can now offer single source technical solutions including lighting, sound, AV and stage setting.

(Sarah Rushton-Read)

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