France - Parisian entrepreneur Raymond Visan's Buddha-Bar recently installed new Meyer Sound systems to present its wide-ranging musical atmosphere with consistent, crystal-clear quality.

"At Buddha-Bar, our sonic signature is a subtle combination of world and electro-ethnic music," observes Franck Fortet, vice president for development at George V Eatertainment, the parent firm of Buddha-Bar. "It's an infinity of sounds that requires the perfect sound system, and the effect as distilled through the new Meyer system has made a remarkable difference at Buddha-Bar Paris."

The Buddha-Bar systems were designed and installed by John Pouzet of Paris-based Sonosystem, with design assistance from Cyril Ubersfeld of Meyer Sound's French distributor, Best Audio. Resident DJ is Ravin.

"I specified a Meyer system to realize a particular sound quality with detail

USA - Sensaphonics has announced the hiring of Joe Tessone as the company's new audio engineering consultant. In his role as Sensaphonics sound guy, Tessone will advise customers on the implementation of in-ear monitoring, handling questions ranging from the basic to the highly technical, helping ensure a positive IEM experience.

Joe Tessone, 27, is a 2007 graduate of the Audio Arts and Acoustics programme at Columbia College Chicago, with specialties in Audio Design and Production. In addition to his duties at Sensaphonics, he owns a commercial studio, Mystery Street Recording Company, and is the audio archivist at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. He is also a performing musician, most recently as singer/songwriter for the eclectic punk band Behold!, and as banjo/ukulele player for an Americana music group, the Rust Belt Ramblers.

"I'm a big believer in heal

The Netherlands - At IBC 2012, DPA Microphones will show a range of microphones that are ideally suited to broadcast applications.

Among the products on show will be DPA's expanded d:fine series of headset microphones and the new d:facto vocal mic that made its debut earlier this year at Prolight + Sound.

"With so many television programmes now being delivered in High Definition and 5.1 surround sound, demand for high quality microphones for broadcast use has never been greater," says Christian Poulsen, DPA's CEO. "DPA is internationally acclaimed for delivering the pristine sound quality that programme makers and viewers want. Our range includes microphones for a wide variety of broadcast applications and we are confident that, both in terms of sound quality and design, they are the best broadcast microphones on the market today."

d:facto has already bee

UK - L-Acoustics certified provider SFL Group has supplied a Kara WST line source system to C3 Productions of Brighton. SFL Group also demo'd the system for C3 prior to purchase in several London venues and provided training at its Reading premises.

The south coast-based production and hire company has added 12 Kara cabinets with eight SB18 subwoofers, three LA8 amplified controllers and flying hardware to its inventory.

This is C3's first L-Acoustics purchase, and the company chose Kara because it needed a medium format high quality line array to use across live music, performance arts and corporate live events. "Our mission statement is to provide our customers with the latest and highest performance technology and this system enables us to deliver that," says C3 director Jon Crawley. "We investigated all the systems currently available on the market and felt

UK - Shure Distribution UK has announced several extra measures designed to help customers during the UK's sporting summer, whether they are directly involved or not.

From the end of July until mid-August, Shure UK's offices will be manned from 8am to 8pm daily, with an extended last order deadline for next day delivery and a wider window for collections from the company's headquarters in Waltham Abbey. As an additional measure, Shure Distribution UK's applications team will be on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with technical support and advice, on- and off-site.

"No-one can predict the exact impact of the games on trade," comments Peter James, managing director of Shure Distribution UK. "However, there is little doubt that we will all experience some form of disruption. Our customers expect prompt and predictable delivery of items from UK stock, togeth

Finland - "Each Ilona restaurant has five rooms, a bar, karaoke, a live stage room, a quiet room, and of course the restaurant." Perttu Pesonen is manager of the Ilona restaurant in Tampere. Pesonen is a former production manager in the rock and roll industry. "We get a lot of demand from groups who want to play here because we make the sound good; the fact is music industry people come here to socialise and hear new bands at the same time."

The recipe is the work of Restamax management group; the largest independent restaurant chain in Finland they have over 50 locations nationally. The Ilona chain is a relatively new development, the first two opened in 2011, the Tampere venue being the first, three more are scheduled this year. "Part of that success is the great sound, "said Pesonen. "I f you provide the quality in everything you do, food, d

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) have announced the resignation of Cally Bacchus from AC-ET, with his departure taking effect on 18 December. Bacchus will continue in his role as the company's International sales director until then, allowing for a period of transition to appoint his successor.

AC-ET managing director, Phill Capstick commented: "I would like to thank Cally for the contribution he has made over the past 15 years, and wish him all the best for the future."

Well known in the industry, Bacchus has represented AC-ET at numerous international tradeshows and helped build strong, long-lasting business relationships with its customers and suppliers around the world as part of AC-ET's expansion programme.

Bacchus comments: "I am proud to have been part of AC-ET for the past 15 years, and have thoroughly enjoyed working with such a long estab

USA - When FOH engineer Billy Huelin first began working with Darius Rucker, it was 1992 and Hootie & the Blowfish was a popular bar band on the Carolina college circuit. "It was a band in a van with a trailer, playing a lot of fraternity parties and building a following," he recalls. "I hadn't even mixed on my first Midas console yet."

Fast-forward 20 years and Huelin is still at the helm for Hootie frontman Darius Rucker, working with monitor engineer Joel Stickrod. Both are mixing on the Midas PRO6 digital console. "I was one of the last to go digital," says Huelin. "I was always happy with my MIdas XL4, and never heard a compelling argument to change, because none of the digital consoles sounded as good. But all that changed when I heard the Midas digital."

With sound quality as his primary focus, the PRO6 passed Huelin's ear test. &

Israel - Waves Audio has announced that it has become a new member of the AVnu Alliance, an industry forum dedicated to the advancement and certification of Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) devices. As part of this relationship, Waves will be a presence at AVnu events and will encourage industry adoption of AVnu's standards campaigns. By associating with AVnu, Waves is joining Avid, Cisco, Dolby, Gibson, GM, Harman, Intel, Meyer Sound, Sennheiser, Texas Instruments, Yamaha and many more.

AVnu promotes the adoption of the IEEE 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB), and the related IEEE 1722 and IEEE 1733, standards over various networking link-layers. The organization works to create compliance test procedures and processes that ensure AVB interoperability of networked A/V devices, helping to provide the highest quality streaming A/V experience.

Specifically, Waves is planning to collabor

Malaysia - Resorts World Genting, the Fun City above the Clouds and a popular destination for entertainment, welcomes over 20m visitors annually to the highlands of Malaysia. Its primary entertainment centre, the 45,000sq.ft Arena of Stars amphitheatre, has just commissioned a new Nexo Geo T line array installation, replacing its original Nexo Alpha sound reinforcement system from 2000.

Genting's Arena of Stars, a 5300-seat venue, has staged over 1300 concerts since its conception 12 years ago. The venue has welcomed top international performers such as Sir Elton John, Sir Cliff Richard, Kenny G, Black Eye Peas, Vienna Boys Choir from Austria, Kitaro, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Sam Hui and Sammi Cheng.

When it was first opened in 2000, one of the first venues of its kind in the region, the amphitheatre was equipped with a state-of-the-art audio system from Nexo - the

UK - Allen & Heath has launched the ZED60-14FX, a highly compact analogue mixer that is designed for small bands and venues. ZED60-14FX is a companion to the ZED60-10FX launched earlier this year, employing the same 60mm faders but with the addition of an extra four mono/mic channels.

Two of the eight mono channels have high impedance jack inputs that can take a normal line level or a low level input from a guitar pickup, so guitars can be plugged straight into the mixer without the need for DI boxes. These inputs have been crafted to recreate the sound of a classic tube preamp in a combo or head amp for incredible definition and warmth. Two stereo inputs are provided for MP3/CD players or keyboards.

The ZED60-14FX also comes with configurable USB audio in/out, making it easy to capture a stereo recording at the gig or in the studio. The mixer is equipped with professional XLR

UK - Wannabe rock stars from schools across West Yorkshire got a taste of stardom at the weekend thanks to an initiative from West Yorkshire Police, in association with Backstage Academy and LS-Live.

The second annual Battle of the Bands event saw nine student bands battle it out in a professional live environment in front of their peers and a judging panel that included Jude Abbott from Chumbawamba, on Sunday 15 July.

Horbury High's group Uneven Symmetry were crowned the winners of 'Best Original Song' and St Wilfrids' group Mongoose in the Pumphouse won 'Best Performance'. The bands won a prize trophy, a tour of the LS-Live rehearsal studios and one of the company's stage hire packages for the school.

Both bands were overjoyed to win the competition, which has now become a coveted annual police and partner lead event. Sgt Alan Studd from Pontefract & Knottingley police sai

Turkey - Music fans in Turkey have been treated to a series of online 'unplugged' concerts during the first half of 2012, with performances by five of the country's brightest up-and-coming bands broadcast online by promoter Hafifmuzik. Each watched by 8-10,000 people, the sessions were mixed by engineer Cagan Tunali on a DiGiCo SD8.

The bands - Melis Danismend, Malt, Büyük Ev Ablukada, 123 and Multitap - were chosen as the most suitable for the target audience of young Internet users who were looking for quality music. High profile Turkish engineer Cagan was asked by the project's originator, music critic Mehmet Tez, to look after all the technical sound requirements.

"This was the first serious online unplugged project in Turkey," says Cagan. "My responsibilities included advising on the choice of sound equipment, deciding on how to set the bands up and being

USA - Products from the Bose Professional Systems Division are proving popular with designers, system integrators and contractors. From houses of worship and educational facilities to theatres and other fixed-installation projects, these audio professionals have been responding overwhelmingly positively, and specifying and installing systems using Bose's RoomMatch array module loudspeakers and PowerMatch configurable power amplifiers, and employing Bose's proprietary Modeler sound system design software to aid in the design process, says the company.

Integrator Ron Simonson, president and CEO of Olympia, Washington-based CCI Solutions , stated, "The innovative part of RoomMatch is this ability to select different boxes that have horizontal coverage angles and vertical coverage angles that can be designed in combination with one another to produce a custom solution for each

Germany - HK Audio's has extended its Elements series with the introduction of Elements Plus and Elements Install.

The Elements Plus E 835 is a mid/high unit that "provides even greater flexibility and power than its older brother (the E 435) when you want to set up bigger systems". Loaded with eight speakers, it can handle 300 watts at 8 ohms' impedance. The E 835 and E 435 mid/high units' design and tuning are identical, so combining them is easy.

The new E 210 Sub AS system subwoofer comes with two 1,200-watt amps in its engine room. Power amp number one drives the two internal 10" woofers, with plenty of juice left over to run an external passive type L Sub 1200. The second power amp delivers 900 watts at 2.6 ohms to drive up to three E 835s (or six E 435s).

The E 435 Install Kit: Mid/High Unit is designed to facilitate simple and inconspicuous installatio

UK - Allen & Heath has released a major firmware and driver update for its recording console, the GS-R24. The new firmware includes integrated support of the HUI protocol for direct integration with DAW applications with HUI MIDI control presets, such as ProTools and Reaper, and users also benefit from a range of enhancements to the FireWire interface driver.

HUI, which synchronises DAW software and connected hardware devices, is now emulated by three virtual MIDI ports in the GS-R24's new firmware, tunnelled over the mixer's FireWire connection. This means that for GS-R24M mixers equipped with the FireWire interface, a third party translator is no longer essential.

A new set of DAW Resource Packs is also available online, with step-by-step instructions and template projects to aid the set-up of popular recording software.

To coincide with the release, Allen & Heath will be

UK - South London-based production and audio rental company ARC Sound has recently invested in a package of Coda Audio stage monitors.

Comprising 20 Cue Two and Cue Four monitors, they are the first Coda products that ARC Sound has added to its inventory. Managing director James Dougill was introduced to Coda products by UK technical sales manager Gareth Jones, who says, "I have known James for many years and I know that he is a real stickler for quality and attention to detail. I was sure that he would appreciate both the features and performance of the CUE-Series monitors."

The Cue Two is a three-way, high output, ultra low profile unit, which features a triaxial transducer incorporating a 15" woofer and 1.4" concentrically-mounted coaxial compression driver loaded by a 60° x 90° elliptical waveguide. The Cue Four is a three-way unit, employing tw

UK - West London based Entec Sound & Light's lighting division has supplied an LED stage lighting solution to the Vineyard Church in St Albans, which upgrades their current system and paves the way for future developments.

The Church has around 1000 members and a modern 750 capacity hall in a converted warehouse which more resembles a concert arena. It is in constant use for services and events - involving anything from the spoken word to live music and performance.

Worship Pastor Samuel Lane - also responsible for all the Church's technical elements and presentation of their services and events - approached Entec, among other companies, with a basic brief.

This included making the standard house stage lighting more eco-friendly and versatile and reducing their long term running costs.

Each company was asked to come back with a proposal and a quote for consideration, from

UK - In response to rider requests, rental company SSE Audio Group has recently added a significant quantity of Audix microphones to its hire stock, which will be in use on stages across the UK throughout the summer festival season.

Distributed in the UK by SCV London, Audix microphones are rapidly gaining in popularity. SSE has purchased a number of D6s, OM7s and TM1s, which will be in constant use over the coming months.

"The D6 is becoming a very popular kick drum mic, which many of our clients have been requesting. They are turning up on almost 50% of the channel lists of bands that are appearing at the festivals we are providing equipment for this summer," says SSE assistant warehouse manager Chris Blackburn.

"They are a great alternative to the other kick drum mics that are requested and we're confident that we could use the D6 as a suitable substitute o

UK - Professional audio technology specialists HHB Communications has been appointed by digital console manufacturer DiGiCo as its broadcast dealer in the UK and Ireland.

DiGiCo's introduction of a broadcast specific feature set for its range of digital consoles has put the power and flexibility of their innovative console architecture and advanced software into the hands of broadcast engineers.

DiGiCo MD James Gordon explains that the appointment was a perfect fit - "HHB is a highly-respected company in the professional broadcast audio market and a trusted source of expertise who will properly represent our range of consoles to the UK's biggest broadcasters. We are very much looking forward to showing their clients how flexible and feature packed our consoles are."

HHB director of sales Martin O'Donnell states, "DiGiCo's consoles offer an innovative and intui

Austria - MEB Veranstaltungstechnik is the first Adamson Metrix partner in Austria. They are located in Leondig in Upper Austria near the city of Linz. This small format sound and lighting hire company established by Martin Lang and Markus Six about 10 years ago employs freelancers as needed.

Their main engagements are business and corporate events, design and installation services for permanent installations, and live performances for audiences as small as 100, up to a few thousand people.

MEB first heard the Adamson Metrix PA at a demo which took place in Munich, Germany. Adamson's Austrian representative Günther Huemer was then provided a demo for a live event, which lead to the decision to purchase a Metrix system, the first into Austria. "We heard things in the sound that we had never heard before, the system sounded really clear and specific." explains Lang. T

UK - Shure Distribution UK (SDUK), the distributor for leading pro audio brands including Shure, QSC, DIS, Sound Devices, Radial Engineering, Monster Cable and myMix, has announced the end of its long-standing UK distribution contract with Taiwanese company Phonic, manufacturer of compact audio mixers, amplifiers, processors and other pro audio equipment for the MI, pro audio and installation markets.

"In January we alerted Phonic of our intent to end our 18-year long distribution agreement in the UK and Ireland," explains Shure Distribution UK's managing director Peter James. "This was a huge decision for us, and one that we considered and deliberated over for many months, but in light of developments within the product ranges of our core brands, it was the only decision that made sense. The advanced technology in Shure's Axient and ULX-D products, QSC Audio's Q

Switzerland - Schertler has added to its range of portable preamps with the recent release of Yellow Single, a more compact and cost-effective version of its flagship Yellow Blender.

As the name suggests, Yellow Single offers a single dedicated input channel (including both XLR and Jack connectors) that accommodates a range of different microphones and instruments. The preamp's return socket can also be used as a second input for line sources (without the control functionality of the main channel). Differing only in its input channel count and slightly smaller physical dimensions, Yellow Single features the modern sophisticated design of its larger sibling, as well as the same Class-A electronics for best possible sound performance.

Four balanced/unbalanced output options enable connection to active loudspeakers, mixers, recording devices or effects. A separate headphone outpu

UK An Adlib crew led by Kenny Perrin returned for the sixth consecutive year to provide sound for the King Tut's Wah Wah Hut stage at the 2012 T in The Park Festival, staged at Balado, Kinross-shire

A dynamic line-up veered from dance to rock and pop to hip-hop, appealing to all ages and tastes. It included memorable performances from the likes of Fun, The Wanted, Nero, Skrillex, J-Cole, Miles Kane, Ben Howard and Calvin Harris.

Kenny Perrin was joined by Michael Bernard Flaherty, Sam Proctor & Steve Pattison, and once again, a JBL VerTec system was specified following its "all round" success in the tent in past years.

The main PA hangs comprised nine VT4889 speakers per-side, with four-a-side for the two delay towers, positioned left and right of the FOH mixer to ensure the sound radiated evenly out to cover the back of the enormous tent.

The subs were 16 VerTec

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