UK - Byblos, in the rejuvenated area of Merchant City, Glasgow, hosts the debut of the Flashlite Dance Array, shocking-pink groundstacks of Electro-Voice cabinets that, according to installer Andy O'Neill, "exploit the EV range far beyond the manufacturer's recommendation!"

The newly-built, newly-opened club is located beneath Merchant Square in the heart of Glasgow. Owned by private entrepreneur company Springbrisk, Byblos has the capacity for 900 people, spread out through three lavishly designed rooms, and aims to be the biggest thing on Glasgow's busy club scene.

O'Neill's company, Flashlite, was contracted to Byblos on the basis of his reputation. O'Neill likes to work with Electro-Voice, and with its UK distributor Shuttlesound, so much so that the equipment list at Byblos reads like an EV catalogue, and features some notable 'firsts' in terms of installation.

UK - Show Of Hands, the folk duo comprising Steve Knightley and Phil Beer, performed before a sell-out crowd at London's Royal Albert Hall on Easter Sunday, using DI boxes and guitar pre-ampsdesigned and manufactured by Devon-based Orchid Electronics.

John Godsland, director of Orchid Electronics, created the equipment for the band using Van Damme cables and Neutrik connectors supplied by UK cabling specialist VDC Trading.

"Thanks to my background in telecoms and audio engineering, I have come to understand the importance of reliability when choosing cables and connectors. I'm a big fan of Van Damme microphone, speaker and instrument cables because they have always proved to be extremely tough and reliable," John Godsland says.

As well as Orchid Electronic's cable requirements, VDC also supplied the Neutrik connectors, which Godsland stated are "the best on th

UK - Hearing specialists Sensorcom has expanded its fleet of in ear monitors and custom fit earplugs with the addition of the new Alpine Musicsafe Pro.

Designed to reduce the damaging and irreversible effects of high-level sound exposure to the ear, the Alpine Musicsafe Pro is a sophisticated earplug system, which attenuates surrounding sounds to a safe and sustainable level without distortion or impacting the user's sonic experience of being in a bar, club or at a live gig, says the company.

The Alpine Musicsafe Pro has three different exchangeable filter sets to compensate for the music level the user is exposed to: white is low sound level; silver is medium and gold very loud. And they still allow the user to be aware of conversation and the surrounding ambience without the closed unnatural sensation that can occur with earplugs that occlude (block) the ear.

The concept b

UK - Brighton-based out post sound has opened for business in what many have described as the south coast's most vibrant and culturally diverse city. The company, based in the quiet area of Five Ways, is owned by Rob Speight, and ably assisted by a host of well-known engineers and designers. "What we are trying to do here is create a new way of running a studio by combining it with the ever increasing desire of bands, promoters, managers and labels to digitally multi-track live events," he explained.

Based around a Digidesign Pro Tools HD | 2 Accel system, the company aims to work in two main areas. At its base, out post will concentrate on utilising its vocal booth and 5.1 Genelec surround monitoring to record and mix voice overs, audio for film, television and gaming as well as supporting podcast creation and hosting in-house. Additionally, out post's extensive sound

Dubai - CEDIA, the global trade association representing designers, manufacturers, installers and distributors of home electronics, is lending its support to Install Middle East, which forms a developing sector in this year's PALME Middle East show in Dubai.

CEDIA will be staging a full educational programme which commences on the opening day (May 20) with a three-hour presentation on Home Cinema Designby Peter Aylett.

The schedule also includes: Introduction To Systems Integration (presented by Simon Buddle), Residential Audio and Video Multi-Room Systems (Steve Martin), IP In Residential Custom Installation (Peter Aylett), and Project Management Workshop (Simon Buddle and Steve Martin).

(Jim Evans)

UK - Based in the North East, sound, light and staging company Nitelites has made a substantial investment in its inventory in preparation for the coming festival season.

Although the company was started 20 years ago by Jim Moore - largely to service the requirements of local favourites Lindisfarne - the latest initiative is very much the brainchild of Jim's son (and co-director) Jamie, who is determined to raise the profile of the company and get them onto the touring circuit.

High on his list of priorities was a stock of floor monitors that would take over from the old generation; but he set the company's long-term suppliers, the Birmingham branch of LMC Audio, with an exacting task, as sales director Sean Hames remembers. A shoot-out had to be arranged featuring four proprietary brands - but the new Martin Audio LE1500 was the winner - moving Martin Audio's classical LE700A

UK - Musician and TV presenter Jools Holland unveiled his latest composition - a new Mass commissioned by the Bishop of Bath and Wells - at two concerts held during March at Wells and Rochester Cathedrals. On both occasions, production company One Fifteen commissioned Fleetwood Mobiles to capture the performances, which are expected to be released on CD later this year.

Both concerts were mainly acoustic, with Holland backed by his touring rhythm section, the Cathedrals' choirs and singers including Beverley Knight, Ruby Turner and Louise Marshall. The second performance at Rochester Cathedral attracted nearly 700 people, including HRH Prince Charles. Money raised from the performances is being used to help with the upkeep of these historic buildings and to create an endowment to encourage Cathedral music.

From Fleetwood's point of view, the venues provided some interesting ac

USA - PanAVid, a regional sound company in Pompton Lakes, NJ, has just taken delivery of a further two InnovaSON Sy48 digital mixing consoles from Erik Wayne of Consolidated Audio. The purchase boosts PanAVid's InnovaSON inventory to a total of four control surfaces and a Stage Box.

Serving a premium clientele from the federal government, international corporations, local and regional festivals and general live music reinforcement, PanAVid's Walter Loehr says, "Naturally, we evaluated the market very carefully before we took our decision, but in the end, the InnovaSON route was our best choice from every point of view.

"Firstly, InnovaSON is already a console we know and love," explained Loehr. "We already have two of a much earlier vintage, and they have made some difficult shows go very smoothly indeed. Secondly, they are future-proof. We are in the proce

UK - Allen & Heath has launched the XD-53 professional monitoring headphones, designed to complement the company's brand of Xone DJ mixers. The XD-53's incorporate a circumaural isolation design, providing high level isolation from ambient noise, making them the ideal product for DJ's requiring immersive listening in loud environments, says the company.

Comprising 53mm diameter drivers - the largest drivers currently available - with high power neodymium magnet design, 1500 mW of power handling, and high SPL capacity, the XD-53 headphones deliver clear sound reproduction. They also have rotating earpieces for easy one-ear monitoring, a coiled cable with convenient one-side exit, and a folding design for compact portability.

"The Xone range of DJ mixers has a staunchly loyal following and many customers were asking if we could design headphones to complement their audiophi

UK - The final of Unsigned Heroes 2007, the bands competition sponsored by AKG microphones has been postponed owingto the permanent split of The Cooper Temple Clause, who were due to headline at the final in support of unsigned talent.

"The Cooper Temple Clause's split was only announced on Tuesday, leaving us insufficient time to find a replacement headline act for the final on Thursday (April 26)," said Harman Pro UK's Marketing Manager Amanda Chester. "In the circumstances, we're very sad to say that we will have to postpone the event untilanother band can be found. We'll make an announcement about the rescheduled date as soon as we can."

(Jim Evans)

Germany - The 8th annual Musikmesse International Press Awards (mipa) ceremony once again lauded Meyer Sound's Milo family of loudspeakers when it bestowed a mipa Award for Large Format PA System on the M'elodie ultracompact high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker. M'elodie's Milo family siblings, the Milo high-power and MICA compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers, received the same award in 2004 and 2006, respectively.

The mipa Awards are the result of ballots submitted by 107 music and audio magazines from around the world, and are given out each year at a ceremony held during the Musikmesse/Prolight + Sound exposition in Frankfurt.

"M'elodie has been enormously successful from the very first time we showed it," says Meyer Sound director of marketing Rachel Archibald, "and we are honoured that the worldwide music and audio press have recognised M'e

India - Sound reinforcement company Sound.com recently provided a Vertec line array system for the annual Femina Miss India pageant. The event was held 8 April at the Bandra Kura Complex in Mumbai.

"We began our audio careers in search of milestones like these," said Warren D'Souza, Sound.com's founder and owner. "Sound.com was proud to be providing sound solutions for Femina Miss India, undoubtedly one of the biggest and most-watched international beauty pageants. We decided to provide superlative audio to make it a surreal aural experience."

To create this experience, Sound.com provided a combination of JBL Vertec products, including VT4889 full-size line array elements, VT4887 compact line array elements, and VT4880 arrayable subwoofers. Additionally, JBL VRX915M loudspeakers served as stage monitors, while JBLVRX932LA loudspeakers provided

Spain - As part of a major refurbishment, the Catalan Parliament in Barcelona recently replaced the conference system in its main conference hall with a Bosch DCN Next Generation system. Bosch also developed custom made units with respect to colours and shapes complementing the classical architecture of the historic parliament building.

Installed in November 2006, the new system provides every delegate's position with a microphone, voting panel and connection for a laptop PC. Extra facilities such as loudspeakers, LCD screens for viewing voting results and presentations are provided for senior government positions, while the president's position is also equipped with a touch-screen LCD for controlling voting sessions. The system also features extra-large plasma displays for screening voting results and videos to the general assembly.

The time frame for installing the new syste

USA - With offices in Orlando, Las Vegas and Phoenix, LMG is a sound rental company that supplies equipment to live productions throughout the North American continent. This year, for the first time, the company is providing audio for Canadian pop rocker Avril Lavigne and they have geared up for the live dates by purchasing two DiGiCo D5 consoles.

The tour is to promote Lavigne's new album, The Best Damn Thing, and sees promotional dates intermingled with summer festival appearances. The latter confirmed so far include festivals in Ireland, Switzerland, Turkey and Japan.

This will be Jim Yakabuski's third tour mixing FoH for Lavigne. For the first two he was working freelance, but he is now employed by LMG and reports, "We used D5s on FoH and monitors for the last tour and we had great results. They had an impeccable performance record, but monitor engineer Matt Pe

USA - Meyer Sound is providing support to enable San Jose's Gyuto Vajrayana Center to host major teachings of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama this month at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco. Venerable Thupten Donyo, director of the traditional Tibetan Buddhist centre, has been instrumental in making these two days of public teachings on In Praise of Dependent Origination possible.

"When I first met the monks, I felt a connection to and admiration for them. There are few things more important than spreading the message of universal peace and compassion," says Helen Meyer, executive vice president of Meyer Sound. "It is a true honour and pleasure to be involved in making this important event possible."

Meyer Sound's support of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit continues the audio company's decade-long relationship with the Gyuto Vajrayan

USA - In October 2006, St. Louis' new Busch Stadium, home of the Cardinals, went on record as one of very few ballparks whose baseball team won the World Series in the facility's inaugural season. Construction for the $365 million, 44,000-seat Busch Stadium began back in January 2004. Dallas-based design and consulting firm Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams (WJHW) was charged with the audio system design portion of the project.

WJHW specified Crown, opting for CTs Series amplifiers equipped with PIP-Lite network control modules. "On this go-round, the nature of the system was certainly far more robust," says WJHW Principal Ron Baker. "One of the things that we do as a matter of course on any of these major sports projects is to use amps that are capable of being networked, operated and monitored from a central control point because there are so many channels i

USA - GearSource and PRG announced today the first 'Gear-Up' sales event powered by GearSource.com, beginning on 1 May. This event will offer equipment from PRG's audio, lighting, video and rigging inventory at "unheard of 'auction-like' pricing, but without the hassle or buyer premiums associated with auctions".

All items will be sold on a first come, first served basis. "This isn't an auction, but the buying frenzy will be the same, based on the pricing we're already seeing coming in," says GearSource president Michael Fairbairn. "Obviously, PRG has a massive inventory of equipment in audio and lighting. This event is created to help them liquidate that inventory without the trouble of staging an auction," says Fairbairn. While the Gear-Up sale may eventually open up to other GearSource.com vendors, this event is exclusive to PRG's US-based invent

Bulgaria - Now having aired in over 35 territories worldwide, FremantleMedia and 19TV's Idols entertainment format has become one of the most successful 'reality' television templates in modern television history and XTA Electronics has an important part to play in its latest incarnation.

Best known in the UK and the USA as Pop Idol and American Idol respectively, the format has also been a huge hit in many other countries, including Australia, Canada, Croatia, France, Greece, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia and Turkey amongst others.

One of the latest versions of the format is in Bulgaria, where it is titled Music Idol. Aired on the country's first privately owned national television station, bTV (owned by News Corporation), the series currently enjoys the station's highest viewing ratings, its live performances broadcast from bTV's studios in the Nati

Canada - FOH engineer Brad Madix is working with Metric Halo's SpectraFoo analysis software as he prepares for an extensive international tour with Canadian rock legends Rush in mid-June.

Madix, who is returning to front-of-house for Rush after first mixing the band for part of the Roll the Bones Tour, puts SpectraFoo to good use, not only during system setup but, also throughout the show. "I use it mainly for tuning the PA - that's the big job that it does - but also for stuff in the mix. Even though I'm mixing live, I do use it for 'mastering,' metering and looking at phase."

Madix adds, "You can save the window sets so that you can switch very quickly from looking at the left and right output of the console, looking at a phase scope and mastering metering, then switching over to see an RTA view on top of an FFT analysis between the output of the desk a

UK - Formula Sound has taken the modular construction concept that has been used on many of its previous mixers and used it as the basis for its new ZMR-80 modular zoner/mixer. Designed to provide precise and reliable control of audio sources being fed to different zones, the ZMR-80 is designed for use in such applications as hotels, theme parks, public buildings and entertainment venues.

The modular construction of the ZMR-80 allows it to be configured in many different ways to suit each individual application. The 19" 4RU chassis can house a total of up to 11 modules, which can include up to four input modules, up to six output modules, a power supply module and an optional paging module.

This enables the ZMR-80 to handle between two and eight input sources and feed these to between two and 12 output zones. Paging to any or all zones is possible via the paging module. T

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