UK - For the third time in recent years, the Italian manufacturer Outline received the PLASA Award for Innovation, thanks to its Mini-COM.P.A.S.S. iMode vertical line array.

The independent panel of judges noted, "This loudspeaker's combination of generic IT and innovative line array technology represents a step forward for the industry in systems integration. The cabinet's built-in web-browser support makes it possible to control a complete loudspeaker array from a plethora of industry standard devices."

"This is the third award won over a relatively short period, confirming the avant-garde features that have distinguished our brand for almost 40 years, and we're obviously very proud," comments Outline's Michele Noselli.

"As in 2001 and 2005, when Kanguro and COM.P.A.S.S. won the same award, we believe that this recognition not only rewards with sat

UK - The Martin Audio DD6 is the first in a new line of products that will eventually replace the Wavefront range. The DD6 extends the company's loudspeaker portfolio and targets the touring and theatre segments. "The DD6 marks the first step in a new evolution," states Martin Audio R&D director, Jason Baird. "This ultra-versatile system offers a variety of different deployment options in a tour grade enclosure."

However, it is the custom-designed Differential Dispersion horn, developed using Martin Audio's proprietary BEM tools, which is the system's greatest USP, he continues. "This yields a dispersion pattern which covers typical audience planes in a much more consistent manner than a conventional X by Y degree horn - in other words it delivers optimal near- to mid-field coverage."

To achieve this, the DD6 enclosure is loaded with a 90°-120

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies, Audio division has taken stock of the new Sennheiser G3 GB wireless microphone systems for use on Channel 38 (606-614 MHz), enabling customers to start 'future proofing' their investment in new equipment for the impending UK radio frequency move.

As a distributor for all major wireless equipment brands, A.C. Audio have been keenly following the Ofcom designated 2012 digital switchover from Channel 69 (854-862 MHz) with a view to providing impartial customer advice and recommending the best course of action that will ensure minimal disruption.

The new Sennheiser G3 GB frequency range variant covers ALL of Channel 38 and as many 'future proofed' interleaved frequencies above Channel 38 as its 42 MHz (from 606-648 MHz) tuning range will allow. Models include the entry-level 100 series for live performances, the 300 series for installed sound

UK - Shaka Zulu, the African themed restaurant and late night venue in Camden's Stables Market, North London, opened its doors this summer.

The venue, costing an estimated £5.5m, is spread over two floors occupying approximately 27,000sq.ft and features hand carved exotic wood walls, elaborate furniture and dominating statues - both over the main entrance and within the premises itself.

Shaka Zulu is a high profile, large scale project, some three years in the making; proprietor Roger Payne turned to long term supplier Carl Broadhurst and his company CTS Productions to provide the audible heart of the venue.

"For such a high profile venue, Martin Audio is always one of my personal first choices. Our past experience with this leading brand has been highly successful with more than a positive response from clients," commented Broadhurst..

The Martin Audio sou

UK - The flagship Oxford Circus Topshop store has added a Topman trading floor at the top of the building. Former Radio 1 DJ, Bruno Brookes has provided an end-to-end concept for content and sound reinforcement via his broadcast firm Immedia, making this a blueprint for future installations in other stores.

The Harman Pro solution chosen by Immedia will eventually utilise more than 500 JBL Control 47CT and Control 24CT Micro transformer ceiling speakers and Control 28T surface mount enclosures distributed throughout the five trading floors. These are driven by Crown CTs and CDi series amplifiers, with a professing and routing network constructed around Soundweb DSP devices.

The new system gives the primary stations and concession areas the ability to employ local volume control and source select, and the store will be able to broadcast pre-recorded message announcements overla

USA - A big date on Hollywood calendars each year is the Teen Choice Awards which honours the year's biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, as voted by teens.

This year's ceremony was held on 8 August at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles and aired the following day on the Fox Network. Lighting design veteran Tom Kenny created animated looks to match the show's youthful energy using Martin's LC Series LED panels for backdrop graphics, as well as Martin Atomic 3000 strobes and MAC 2000 Wash XB moving heads.

"All in all, the clarity and colour of the LC panels impressed us all and their ease to erect was fabulous," he stated. "I was very happy with the Atomic strobes and 2000 Wash XB's for the look [set designer and art director] Steve Bass and Kristen Merlino and I achieved." Lighting vendor for the event was

Germany - Neumann is well-known in the audio industry for its top-of-the-range microphones. Neumann has also been a pioneer in the audio industry for over 80 years with a long history of world-class products - from mixing consoles and disc cutting lathes, to more recent innovations in digital technology with the Solution-D system. Wolfgang Fraissinet, president of marketing/sales at Neumann Berlin, comments, "Neumann is excited to introduce its latest innovation, the KH 120, representing the first product in the new line of Neumann Studio Monitors."

The KH 120 studio monitor is designed for use as a near-field loudspeaker or as a rear loudspeaker in larger multi-channel systems. The KH 120 represents the latest in acoustic and electronic simulation and measurement technologies to ensure the most accurate sound reproduction possible, says the company.

It has a Mathema

UAE - Roland Systems Group (RSG), a member of the Roland Corporation Group, has appointed Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises (NMK) as the exclusive distributor for supplying its Roland Professional audio and video product line to UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman.

NMK headquarters are located in Dubai and the company has been operating in the market for 26 years already, since they started in 1984 focusing on the audio, video and lighting industries. NMK began in Sharjah (UAE) as a small company and during its years of operation has become a leading distributor of professional audio, video and lighting products in the Middle East

The agreement was taken after the recent visit which the president & CEO of Roland systems Group EMEA, Paulo Caius to NMK in Dubai.

"NMK are looking forward to introducing Roland audio and video products across the region," comm

UK - PLASA 2010 closed on a high, with preliminary visitor figures set to show an increase over 2009 and strong international engagement from across the world. Exhibitors across all the show's sectors enthused about the quality of business leads and relished the show's vibrant atmosphere. The event, which filled London's Earls Court 1 and 2, drew over 12,000 visitors, while the international attendance continued to be strong with nearly 30% of visitors attending from 99 countries worldwide.

Show director Nicola Rowland commented: "The universally positive feedback and the strong visitor figures would be satisfying under any circumstances, but in the current economic climate it's a strong result for our exhibitors and for the show itself - it underlines just how important PLASA remains in the international events calendar.

"Numbers alone were only part of the story,&q

UK - Orbital Sound has supplied Bristol-based PA rental company Amber Audio with two Digidesign SC48 Venue digital consoles, as well as a d&b audiotechnik Q1 line array, complete with J-SUB and B4-SUB cardioid subs - winner of a PLASA 2010 Innovation Award.

Amber Audio wanted to expand its hire stock to cope with an increasing workload, and the company's Alan Burgess selected Orbital after considering a range of suppliers, following advice on suitable line-arrays and digital consoles that would meet its criteria for rider-friendly brands. Since receiving the new systems, Amber has deployed them for a number of projects including Swindon Invincible 2010 - Battle of the Bowl, the South West's annual dance music festival.

Alan Burgess comments: "We have had d&b audiotechnik in our inventory for around 10 years, and have always found them to be a good investment. In fa

UK - Adlib Audio's festival run included supplying the NME/Radio 1 Stages at both sites for the Reading & Leeds Festivals. The brief for these tented venues included the provision of sound for outdoor areas left, right and to the back of the tents as well as the standard system inside. Adlib sent a crew of six to each site, with Marc Peers crew-chiefing Leeds and James Neale in Reading.

The PA systems were near identical for both sites, allowing the line-ups to flip-flop between locations, teamwork between Adlib's two crews - who exchanged show files, notes, patch and settings information, right down to the mic lists - enabled all the artists' second nights to "run like clockwork". It also ensured they enjoyed complete continuity in sound and mixing conditions for both performances.

With a normal set up inside and three large video screens outside the tent (one eithe

Argentina / Italy - Italian audio manufacturer dBTechnologies has appointed Todomusica S.A. as exclusive distributor for its full product range in Argentina. Founded by current owner/CEO Rafael Pedace, Todomusica started life 26 years ago as a small retail store and has since grown into a leading distributor in both the pro audio and musical instruments sectors.

"We are very proud to be working with dBTechnologies," says Pedace, who has headed up the Argentinian company since its inception. "It's not 'just another brand' to us. dBTechnologies is renowned for its quality, it boasts great technological innovation and retails at competitive prices. These - along with its aggressive marketing campaign - are exactly the tools we need to give the brand a very solid positioning in our market."

Todomusica, which means 'all music', serves over 1200 dealers across th

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies has acquired the entertainment business of Primarc as part of an ongoing expansion programme that will merge the two companies' entertainment lighting businesses and enable Primarc to focus predominately on the specialist lamps market.

From 1 October, Primarc will relocate to AC-ET's international sales office and warehouse operation in High Wycombe, allowing the company to benefit from AC-ET's infrastructure and logistics.

Primarc's Bob Peach and Kevin Everett will then join AC-ET's UK sales team. With access to both companies' entertainment lighting stockholdings and product sales teams, this will provide Primarc and AC-ET customers with even greater choice and availability whilst continuing to deliver the same high standard of service and support.

Primarc will focus on its specialist lamps business, with particular emphasis on growing

UK - Following on from a successful run at The Lyric in Hammersmith, the Duke of York's theatre on St Martins' Lane in London is currently playing host to Ghost Stories - a spine-chilling production which has been shocking audiences since June.

The production, written by Jeremy Dyson (of League of Gentlemen fame) and Andy Nyman, co-creator of Derren Brown's television and stage productions, features a series of different ghost stories, brought to life by stage, lighting and sound effects.

Audio plays a major role in the production, with sound designer Nick Manning creating effects for the audience right from the moment they step into the foyer. Distributed systems throughout the venue provide atmospheric effects throughout bars, corridors and in the auditorium itself - with pre-show tension building from a combination of moody lighting, the sound of dripping wate

Germany - dBTechnologies Deutschland celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, coinciding with the completion of a new 500sq.m showroom at its Cologne-based offices, where the team and some 220 visitors were able to toast the company's first decade, at a party concluding its annual distributor convention recently.

Founded in the year 2000 by three people with a vision that the brand should be made available to a wider audience, dBTechnologies Deutschland was set up as a daughter company of Italian AEB Industriale. For over 25 years dBTechnologies has been a force in both wireless and modern audio technology, and the German sales company has grown from its humble beginnings at the turn of the millenium, to employing 35 people and serving many European countries.

"I'm extremly proud of our development over the past 10 years," says managing director Michael Herweg. &qu

Macau - After five years in development and HK$2bn spent to create and produce The House of Dancing Water, the spectacular extravaganza has opened at City of Dreams, Macau. Produced and directed by Franco Dragone, the production - the world's largest water-based show - is housed in a 1,985-seat theatre designed by Theatre Projects Consultants. Theatre Projects has been integrally involved in the design of the project with Pei Partnership Architects and producer Franco Dragone Entertainment Group.

At 160ft in diameter and 26ft deep, the theatre features the world's largest commercial pool, holding 3.7m gallons of water. Eight 10-ton hydraulic elevators allow the conversion of the 65ft diameter centre performance area from water to a solid floor, and high-speed overhead winches move performers and scenery through space in a 3-D visual ballet.

Theatre Projects played a cen

France - French loudspeaker manufacturer APG has announced the appointment of Philippe Pelmelle to the position of business development manager with effect from 1 September. The move is part of a larger restructuring and strengthening exercise within APG that began last year with the hiring of Xavier Pion to handle international sales and marketing, and was continued this year with the promotion of Mathieu Delquignes to the position of product manager.

Pelmelle's role will be to develop APG's business in France; that is, to increase market share and to put in place and nurture the networks of APG technical specialists, rental and sales partners that will make this possible. Sales development will be focused on the new generation products such as Uniline, SMX15, DX12 & DX15, and TB Subs with particular emphasis on the live market.

Xavier Pion comments, "I am in the fortuna

The Netherlands - Ateis Europe has announced that Edwin Haak has been appointed as its new managing director. Based at the company's headquarters in Rotterdam, Haak is looking forward to further strengthening the company's position in the European PA/VA market and building on its recent programme of expansion.

Haak brings 17 years of experience in the telecom and datacom sectors to Ateis. His knowledge of the IT market will be invaluable in combining IP interactivity and control with established integrated audio networking technologies, which are key to Ateis' on-going product development.

Haak plans to get the Ateis message out to the marketplace not just through its network of distribution and technology partners but also by using regular product training sessions combined with dedicated technical systems support.

"I'm really thrilled to be working with such a forward

USA - Utilizing an extensive array of JBL ControlContractor loudspeakers, A/V integration firm CCS Presentation Systems recently completed the audio system installation at Talking Stick Resort, located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

CCS was tasked with ensuring each sound 'zone' of the 240,000sq.ft of gaming, 50,000sq.ft 22-room conference centre and 13,000sq.ft spa, was perfectly equipped and able to overcome multiple surface types, ceiling heights and the noise of more than 800 slot machines and eager customers filling the areas. Concentrating mainly on the casino floor, conference centre and other common areas, CSS concluded JBL offered the solutions for the variety of challenging audio environments.

"When we initially examined the different rooms and surfaces, we thought we would have to go with several vendors to make it all come alive," said Rod Andrewson, manager of

UK / Spain - Clockaudio signed one of its most important international distribution partners at PLASA 2010, agreeing exclusive representation in Spain with Seesound.

Seesound's MD Nacho Alberdi met with Clockaudio MD Jim Hallington and international sales Rod Geary at the PLASA show in London to finalise contracts. Clock's range of high-performance microphones and DSP solutions will now be added to Seesound's portfolio of pro audio brands, alongside DigiDesign, Adamson and Powersoft.

Nacho Alberdi explains that Seesound has been targeting Spain's installation sector, looking for the best manufacturers and brands on the international scene. "We presented Clockaudio with our immediate and future plans, and they understood that we intend to be a very serious player in this market, from conference and AV business to court rooms and other traditional install work. Clockaudio i

UK - Creative & Cultural Skills (CCSkills) is undertaking a major review of the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for technical theatre. Alex Hitchcock, training development manager at Stage Technologies with two decades of training and automation programming under his belt, has written and collated the draft version of the automation NOS for technical theatre, in consultation with other industry stakeholders, and as part of the NOS development working group.

These NOS modules are now available on the CCSKills website and industry professionals are being actively encouraged to provide initial comment and consultations. "It is vitally important," says Hitchcock, 'that the modules are reviewed and commented on by as many individuals, automation professionals and interested parties as possible, to ensure that the NOS become a relevant tool for all employees and employ

USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has been granted a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its work on Carbon Ring Cone Technology.

This technology offers greater efficiency in loudspeaker design, where a ring of extremely rigid carbon fibre is placed around the outer edge of a specially designed cone, resulting in a structure that is both lighter and stiffer than a conventional cone.

"An ideal loudspeaker cone would be infinitely rigid and have no mass," explains Community founder and president Bruce Howze. "Carbon ring cones are a realistic step toward this ideal."

The increased edge strength also enables the use of a deeply pleated narrow surround. A narrow surround permits a larger cone diameter, providing greater piston area in a given frame size.

"In short, a carbon ring cone is lighter, larger, and stron

UK / Europe - European dry hire rental house AED Rent exhibited for the very first time at this year's PLASA Show and felt that they were very well received. The company took the opportunity to announce its forthcoming UK premises which will open towards the end of November.

Hannah Eakins, customer relationships manager for AED Rent UK said: "We weren't really sure what to expect as this is the first time we have exhibited at a UK trade show, but the welcome we have received has been a very warm one and we are looking forward to being open and providing support to UK rental companies from our new building in High Wycombe. We are very happy that we are finally able to announce the news!"

With warehouses and offices in Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands, AED Rent is one of the leading pure dry hire companies in Europe, supplying lighting, audio, video, trussi

UK - UK-based loudspeaker system manufacturer Funktion One used the opportunity provided by exhibiting at the PLASA Show at Earls Court last week to formalise the appointment of no less than six new international distribution companies.

The appointments are: for Canada - Audio Distributors International; for Taiwan - Audio 6 Ltd Co; for Malta - Fusion Sound; for Lebanon - Mamari Freres sarl; anf for South Africa - Metropolis Sound. At the same time, a new UK-based company called Solution 1 Audio and headed by Chris Hawkes, will be handling Funktion One's distribution in France, Portugal, Belgium and Morocco.

Ann Andrews of Funktion One told L&SI: "We have been exhibiting at PLASA for over 10 years and it has always been a successful show for us. It was a particularly vibrant show this year and we are happy to welcome so many new distributors into the Funktion One family.

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