UK - Held in Home Park Private each May to raise support for Britain's servicemen and women, the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo has become bigger and more spectacular each year. For the second year running, Delta Sound provided the event's audio requirements, a task that, due to the layout of the arena and the vagaries of the British climate, provides some interesting challenges.

Produced by Simon Brooks-Ward, managing director of Horse Power International alongside Brigadier Mel Jameson, who also produces the Edinburgh Tattoo, the tri-service event was held over four days and nights and featured international and British military acts, massed bands, pipes and drums and military re-enactments.

Delta's Paul Keating reports: "We've been involved with the Royal Windsor Horse Show for the past five years and that has led to us providing audio for the Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo.

USA - A few months ago Outline inaugurated its American branch, Outline North America LLC. Led by Thomas Bensen, the new operation reports steady business.

In the short period since it opened, it is able to boast high profile installations and live events (Clear Channel Theater, New York, the Healing Place Church cathedral in Louisiana, Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, and the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Giorgio Biffi, Outline's international sales and marketing director, comments: "I've known Tom Bensen for quite a long time and have been impressed by his career and the way he has always been very successful in introducing high class brands on to the US market. Before we set up our relationship with Tom, I had individually met a number of people in the US pro audio market who have a great and deep respect for him. His successful venture with Powersoft was fu

World - Education group SAE has recently made a substantial investment in Avid solutions for its international campuses, including 400 Pro Tools 8 upgrades (including more than 80 Pro Tools | HD licenses) and a new Digidesign ICON D-Control ES worksurface for its San Francisco, Istanbul and Oxford campuses. Each college has installed a 32-channel console, which offers unparalleled Pro Tools integration. The D-Control installed at SAE's Oxford HQ is the 20th that SAE has purchased since the console's debut in 2004.

SAE's managing director Rudi Grieme says: "Our students have access to multiple production systems so that they are able to deal with many situations within the industries that they choose to work in. However, Pro Tools is the industry standard in music production so it is vital that our students have access to the latest and greatest versions. ICON too is state o

USA - At this years InfoComm in Orlando, Stefan Feistel of the Ahnert Feistel Media Group (AFMG) will deliver two seminars on the company's latest software updates. The new release of SysTune (Version 1.1) will be discussed on Thursday 18 June and a seminar on speech intelligibility prediction using the new version of EASE, Version 4.3, will be presented on Friday 19 June.

The SysTune seminar is free and open for all to attend; for the EASE seminar visit www.InfoCommShow.org in the Education section and register under the Manufacturers' Seminars.

The new features in EASE 4.3, aimed at sound system designers, room acousticians and architects, will be discussed in the Friday seminar, along with aspects of speech intelligibility theory, measurement and modeling. It will focus on the various methods EASE 4.3 uses to predict STI in accordance with IEC 60268-16 - and their advantage

UK - Rental company SSE has supplied a Midas PRO6 live audio system for Maximo Park's sell out UK academy tour. A Klark Teknik DN9696 was used to record all shows, including support bands, which were also mixed on the PRO6. FOH engineer Huw Richards had used an XL8 for orchestral concerts in the past, but this was his first time on a PRO6.

"What I love about this board more than anything is the feel of it: it's like Midas has always felt, which is reassuring," says Richards. "So many digital boards are so flimsy and light, there's no foundation, but I don't think of this as a digital desk, to me it's a Midas.

"I like the 'fast zone' controls which take you to any instrument or control parameters wherever you are on the desk. You don't have to search through layers or change pages, everything you need is on the surface, which again is reassuring."

The

UK - Orbital Sound is providing specialist guidance to attendees at this week's ABTT Theatre Show on the issues surrounding Noise at Work compliance, as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show signs of getting tough on non-compliance. With West End productions, tours and even pantomimes all falling under the legislation, Orbital Sound's emphasis is on providing accurate information on the issues and the steps required to ensure compliance - via its specialist Noise at Work risk assessment service.

Orbital Sound has been working closely with industry bodies, such as PLASA, to raise awareness of The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 Act, following the expiry of the two-year period of grace extended to the entertainment industry by the HSE.

PLASA's technical resources manager, Ron Bonner comments, "The entertainment industry has to start taking the requirements of

UK - Rental company SSE has supplied an L-Acoustics Kudo line source system for Maximo Park's sellout UK academy tour.

The system needed to have a small footprint yet provide enough power and headroom for the band, while being flexible enough to handle venues of differing sizes. This ranged from six groundstacked Kudos per side for the smaller venues, through to 13 cabinets flown per side at the two Brixton Academy shows. This system - powered by nine LA8 amplified controllers in three LA-RAKs - also incorporated eight SP28 subwoofers, three dV-DOSC cabinets across the stage for front fill and four ARCS for infill around the venue.

"Kudo is an incredibly powerful system for its size," says Maximo Park's FOH engineer Huw Richards. "It's a punky show so we need a system which can throw out and provide plenty of headroom. For the smaller venues it's been really ea

France - L-Acoustics has appointed two new sales managers: Tim McCall and Peter Owen.

Owen will handle Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, the Russian Federation, India and the Middle East, a territory he was keen to represent having grown up in Doha. He previously worked for Harman's UK distributor Arbiter, Martin Audio and Biamp. "I've always admired L-Acoustics for their belief in finding the right partnerships, and not just closing the next sale," he says.

McCall, who has spent the last decade working for BSS and Turbosound respectively, will handle southern Europe, Africa and Australasia/Oceania. "I'm very excited by the opportunity to work for such a principled and technologically-driven company," says McCall. "I am looking forward to working with our partners - be they distributors, installers, rental companies or consultants - across a divers

New Zealand - College Hill Productions, a sound rental company based in Auckland has recently selected a Soundcraft Vi6 digital console for use on a diverse line-up of summer concerts and music festivals throughout New Zealand. The most recent tour, Big Day Out 2009 took place in Auckland and hosted a number of international artists including, Neil Young, My Morning Jacket and The Prodigy. Director of College Hill Productions Chris Tate founded the company in 1996 and is responsible for introducing the first Soundcraft Vi6 to New Zealand.

"The console has been out on tour non-stop all summer and the engineers required a board that had a very fast turnaround time in between shows." Says Tate. "The Soundcraft Vi6's capabilities also helped us in a couple of other ways including a few instances where the console was almost a kilometer away in a broadcast com

UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians has named freelancer John Tapster as the ABTT Technician of the Year 2009.

Originally planning to teach primary school mathematics, 'Tappy' (as he is affectionately known) was enticed to switch direction to the theatre, after a visit in 1996 to see Phantom of the Opera at Manchester's Opera House, and being bowled over by the technical wizardry.

He cut his teeth at the Middlesbrough Little Theatre, before joining Basildon Towngate Theatre as a general technician. Work quickly followed, including a Belgium ice show, Open Hand Theatre Company, Liverpool Everyman (chief technician) and a stint on Eclipse at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach.

A move to Stoke-on-Trent's Victoria Hall proved fruitful, when he was also offered the chief electrician's job at the city's newly opened Regent Theatre, where he remained for four years b

UK - Within a year of purchasing a stock of EV Phoenix loudspeakers and CP Series amplifiers, the Berkshire-based PA rental company Event Sound is stepping up its commitment to, and investment in, Electro-Voice loudspeakers with an order for an XLC line-array system, to be delivered at the end of the summer.

One of the first companies in the UK to embrace the high-SPL compact Phoenix enclosure design, Event Sound has found the scale of its projects steadily increasing, recently completing its biggest show to date, an outdoor charity concert, headlined by Nick Heyward, for 2000 people. "We have evolved a long way from our origins as a dry-hire operation," says Nick Billinghurst. "The success we've had with the Phoenix system, winning a lot of open-air events particularly festivals, has given us the confidence and the custom to upgrade our inventory to full line-arr

Spain - A large outdoor festival organised by Acció Cultural del Pais Valencià recently took place in the city of Valencia and D.A.S. Aero line array systems were key to the success of the event. Responsible for the technical production was Simes Audio, led by David Ferri, who put together a comprehensive lighting and sound system to ensure the best performance and consistent coverage over the considerable audience area.

Several thousand students gathered at the large open area on the sprawling campus of Valencia's Polytechnic University. Live performances were offered by bands including Berri Txarrak, Aramateix, and Rapsodes, the winners of Valencian music competition Amplifica't. Over four hours of music with amazingly different styles provided a truly enjoyable evening.

The PA system comprised 20 D.A.S. Aero 38A powered modules, arranged in two 10-unit line format

UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK) announced the launch of the Shure Professional Headphone range at LIMS 09. The new range arrives in the UK with three models, the SRH240, SRH440 and SRH840. They represent Shure's first foray into the headphone market and range from entry level and home recording offerings to premium quality professional headphones.

The SRH240 headphones are the entry level headphones in the new series. They are designed for general listening and monitoring applications and offer powerful bass response and clear highs.

The SRH440 headphones are for professional home recording and studio monitoring applications. They offer an enhanced frequency response that delivers accurate audio across an extended range. The detachable single-side cable and collapsible construction promises a high level of comfort and portability.

The flagship headphone model is the SRH840

USA - EAW has introduced the MicroSub stage subwoofer, the latest offering in the company's MicroWedge Series of stage monitor products. The single-15" enclosure is a versatile stage and small venue subwoofer, designed to address the environment of onstage low frequency demands - sonic territory that often goes ignored by stage monitor setups.

The MicroSub can be configured and interlocked in a wide range of different combinations - by itself, with other MicroSubs or with other MicroWedge units. Small pads and recesses are located on its sides, top and bottom. The loudspeaker is mounted at a 45-degree angle and the cabinet height is exactly half of the cabinet width when the MicroSub is laid flat (features which facilitate a variety of arrangement options).

Due to its small profile, it can serve as a side-fill monitor, particularly in a club setting: the 13" height a

UK - West London based audio specialist Encore has designed and installed a new d&b J-Series sound system into the newly revamped Fridge in Brixton. This is the result of the venue's original creators Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington forging an innovative new partnership with the Alchemea College of Audio Engineering. Alchemea, has developed a four-month Live Sound Diploma Course, with the aim of giving students real practical experience. All 'live' training and study will take place at The Fridge.

Encore's John Tinline explains that sound engineer AIan Hopkinson has been working with Neil Pickles, a director of Alchemea for some time in an advisory role as their head of live sound. He was given the challenging task of specifying a system that would both attract promoters and bands back to the newly kitted out Fridge, and simultaneously be suitable for realising the Alcheme

Ireland - In March 2009, the holder at the time of the WBA Super Bantamweight Boxing title, Ricardo Cordoba of Panama, was facing the challenge of Dublin's own Bernard Dunne. The venue, Dublin's new O2 Arena, formerly the Point and as it happens a worthy challenge too for Dublin based audio hire company Acoustik.

"The first World Championship boxing match to be held in Dublin for 13 years," said Paul Ashe-Browne of Acoustik. "The show design stipulation was that no loudspeakers be in TV camera shot." Thankfully, within earshot was permitted.

"My system was primarily for speech reinforcement; let me tell you, 9,000 Dubliners in full cry is quite some level to overcome. Based around three hangs of d&b audiotechnik's Q1s and Q-SUBs, with numerous Q7s and Q10s providing in-fill around the ring, I was determined not to run out of headroom."

Acoustik

UK - SSE Audio Group has announced two new developments which add further scope to the company's operations. The first is the purchase of the corporate events hire stock of North London audio specialists Green-i Ltd, as part of the formation of SSE Events as a new Group division. The move also sees Green-i director Andrew Frengley join SSE on 1 July.

SSE Events will be based at SSE's base in Hayes, where the Group's Contract Rental and Audio Installations business, SSE London is based. Canegreen, the North London audio rental company that joined SSE last year is also currently moving its operations from Tottenham to Hayes.

SSE Audio Group managing director John Penn says: "This purchase represents a great opportunity for SSE to secure its position in the London Events marketplace by taking over a resource already geared to that market. At the same time equipment is only a

USA - The deadline for nominations for the second annual ESTA Rock Our World Awards is 1 July 1. The awards recognise groundbreaking achievement by ESTA members in new products, product applications, or projects, and were created to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designer or integrator who applies the technology in a real world environment.

Contestants for the 2008 awards showcased a wide variety of new products and product applications from the simplest problem solver to complex uses of technology that extended the boundaries of the entertainment technology field. Project nominations showcased everything from theatrical productions to special events to permanent installations and highlighted the collaborative nature of our industry.

Nominations may be made by anyone in the industry, but an ESTA Member must be involved as the designer,

France - Le Confort Moderne in Poitiers is a surprising place. The venue is unprepossessing from the outside, yet once inside, the visitor is exposed to 5000sq.m of modern and contemporary theatre and exhibition space. Billed as a "conceptual laboratory" Le Confort Moderne has been engaged since 1985 in the creation, production and diffusion of original works of contemporary art, music and trans-disciplinary experimentation. As part of a significant monitor system upgrade from a completely analogue solution to a largely digital one complete with EtherSound network, Le Confort Moderne recently invested in an Sy48 digital console from Innovason.

The new system was designed and installed by Z Professionnel, a Bordeaux-based rental company with offices in Poitiers. According to Z Professionnel's Bruno Gondrecourt, the brief was to optimise the existing Nexo system. "T

Germany - The eve of 1 May found 25,000 ravers once again streaming to Dortmund's Westfalenhalle for the techno event of the year: Mayday. The slogan for this year's 15-hour marathon was Massive Moments. Werne-based service provider Satis&fy made sure that the sound system and the results it yielded lived up to the hype. The Satis&fy team led by technical director Jörn Busch opted for a substantial Electro-Voice system.

The system specifications for the marathon are impressive: 64 Electro-Voice TG7 amplifiers delivering 350,000 Watts, and 32 X-Line tops and 56 X-Line subs were distributed through seven sound stations.

Rüdiger Nürnberg of Satis&fy comments: "Not only in terms of overall loudness but also in point of homogeneity and even level distribution, the X-Line with the new presets is fully convincing. Normal bass loudspeakers in particular reach their ther

Sweden - LumenRadio can officially claim the title Hottest New Swedish Company of 2009. The company won first prize in the Venture Cup Business Plan Competition beating close to 1,000 other competitors with its innovative technology and strong business idea.

LumenRadio develops wireless technology for the lighting industry. CRMX - LumenRadio's first product line for wireless light controls was released at Prolight+Sound in April of 2009 and has since continued to enjoy tremendous interest from within the entertainment community, as well as from major players in the architectural lighting market.

"The response from customers and distributors in entertainment lighting has been above our wildest expectations. We've been flying around the globe for the last two months meeting with excited customers who have been frustrated with the problems of the present wireless cont

Germany - Harmonie in Bonn-Endenich is far from just another German music venue with a beer garden. With a history that dates back to 1899, this hall boasts 150 concerts, cabaret, themed parties, and lectures a year and enjoys r sound reinforcement, through a high-fidelity, low-maintenance audio system from Meyer Sound.

Three entrepreneurs from Bonn took over Harmonie in 1994, and in 2000, at the request of several musicians and sound technicians, Josef Schnorbus, co-owner and technical director of the venue, decided to replace its aged sound system, and compared several manufacturers' systems before settling on Meyer Sound's UltraSeries loudspeakers.

The Meyer Sound system initially acquired for the L-shaped live club in 2001 comprised two UPA-1P and three UPM-1P loudspeakers, a UMS-1P and two USW-1P subwoofers. The new system made a significant improvement on the sound quali

Australia - ARX Systems has announced the appointment of Moto Audio Sales as its new distributor for Denmark. ARX Managing director Colin Park commented, "Moto's Erik Bjerre and I have been discussing the possibilities of working together in Denmark for some time, Erik thought with the release of new additions to our USB DI product range and our MSX range of signal splitters the time was right to expand ARX's presence in the Danish market.

"Erik and his sales team also felt our range of signal processing products was a complementary fit with the other lines they currently represent, they were especially excited by the new products we released at the recent Frankfurt Pro Light and Sound Exhibition."

Companies represented by Moto Audio Sales include L-Acoustics, RCF, CAMCO, Aviom, Pinanson, Sennheiser and Yamaha.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Stage Electrics is holding its second round of Pie and Pint product demonstration events in London and Manchester, following the successful launch of the Pie and Pint concept last year. These free informal lunchtime events will feature a product demonstration on the ETC ION and Eos lighting control desks by ETC's Jeremy Roberts. During the demonstrations there will be an opportunity for guests to enjoy a pie and pint courtesy of Stage Electrics, network and ask some vital product questions.

The first event will be held on Tuesday 23 June from 11:30-2:30pm at the Sawyers Arms pub in Manchester. Following on from Manchester, Pie and a Pint heads to London's West End on Thursday 25 June from 11:30-2:30pm at the Theodore Bullfrog pub. Visitors can drop into these locations at any point during these times.

Chris Patton, divisional sales manager at Stage El

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