UK - As of 1 April 2013 Soundking Group Europe is reinstating its UK distribution of its Studiomaster and Carlsbro brands from its Luton HQ.

In a joint statement, Soundking Group Europe and current distributor John Hornby Skewes & Co Ltd. announce that distribution for both ranges will move back to being handled directly, with operations managed from Soundking Group's UK headquarters. There will be a brief hiatus between Friday 15 March 2013, when JHS ceases to ship product, and Monday 1 April, when stock will be available directly from Soundking Group's warehousing.

Dennis Drumm, JHS' managing director said, "It's been an enjoyable challenge to be involved in re-establishing an iconic brand of amps like Carlsbro in its home market and of course Studiomaster is a wonderful product. We will be sorry to see them both go, but understand that the brand owners wish to pursue t

Sharjah - Melody House, distributors of HK Audio speaker systems have recently supplied Sharjah based rental firm Evolution Rentals with 20 sets of CTA208, 6 sets of CT A118 Sub, 16 x Linear 112XA and 8 sets of Linear Sub 2000A. Evolution Rentals provides a complete turnkey solution to clients that include staging, screens, lighting and sound.

"Evolution Rentals acquired the first ConTour Array system in the Middle East in the beginning of 2011, since then there has been nothing but positive feedback hence the additional investment in the same line from HK Audio," commented Grayson Soares, operations manager at Melody House. "They have also made a substantial investment in the Linear 5 range which affirms their confidence in the HK Audio brand as being a solution that is not only cost effective but a great return on investment."

(Jim Evans)

In The Money - Madonna has beaten Bruce Springsteen and Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters to be named the highest-paid musician in 2012 by trade publication Billboard. The 54-year-old singer has topped the annual rundown of the top money-makers for the second time in five years. Her 88-date MDNA world tour, 2012's most successful, helped her take home $34.6m (£26.1m), Billboard said.

Concerts account for 68.9% of the total revenues for the 40 artists on the list, which estimates annual earnings. According to the figures, compiled using Boxscore concert data and Nielsen SoundScan sales information, Bruce Springsteen came a close second. He earned $33.4m (£25.3m) after touring to sold-out stadiums and arenas on the back of his number one album Wrecking Ball.

Strong merchandise sales helped with his earnings, with Springsteen's live shows making up 92% of

USA - The first Cadac LIVE1 sold in the US has been installed in a recording facility. Newly appointed US distributor LIFT Distribution has sold Cadac's new LIVE1 compact analogue console to Chet Delcampo as an upgrade for his private recording studio.

A songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and self-recording artist of renown, Delcampo chose the desk as a replacement for a classic but aging Siemans console. Recording, producing and releasing records as both Chet Delcampo and Hong Kong Stingray, his career has taken him from coast to coast and across the pond and back, collaborating along the way with the likes of Kid Congo (ex Cramps, The Gun Club and Nick Cave), Parthenon Huxley (The Eels) and David Lovering (the Pixies).

Finally settling in Philadelphia, he has produced two critically lauded albums, The Fountain and Apartment Songs as Chet Delcampo, and two further LP's

China - Hong Kong-based Max Production Ltd, one of the first adopters of Martin Audio's MLA and MLA Compact systems in the Far East, recently underwent full technical training.

Following the recent purchase of an MLA Compact 24, both Martin Audio regional application support engineer, Chris Pyne, and technical training manager, Martyn (Ferrit) Rowe arrived at Max Production's HQ in Sha Tin district, to carry out the intensive three day training course afforded all Martin Audio MLA network partners.

The course was conducted by Ferrit and attended by 10 of Max Production's senior and junior staff as well as technicians and an interpreter from Budee, the MLA territorial distributor (in the form of Mr Jin Lei).

Chris Pyne, who conducted the introduction and initiation course, explained the content of the workshop. "The formal class room audio theory and system functions plu

UK - Described as "an oasis of Latin colour in east London", entrepreneur Ferdie Ahmed has lit up Shoreditch with the opening of Barrio East on the site of the former Avalon club.

The third in the Barrio series (following Barrio North in Islington and Barrio Central in Soho), Ahmed's team has invested heavily, bringing in Dtwo Design to ignite the interior with a series of stand-alone themes from across Latin America, and Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL) to complement this by installing a premium Martin Audio system in the 300 capacity venue.

This was at the request of the owner himself - a seasoned DJ - who also has Martin Audio sound reinforcement in his other venues.

MSL's project manager Darrel Olivier, confirmed, "From my initial meeting with Ferdie we decided Martin Audio was the right solution for the venue. We will always promote the brand and specified a

UK - The Who, will soon be embarking on the European leg of their tour Quadrophenia and More after completing their 37-date North American stretch. The band's first tour in four years will see them playing at the O2 arena 15 and 16 June armed with two Trace Acoustic TA-300 amplifiers.

Founder members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are once again joined by long-time supporting musicians Zak Starkey, Pino Palladino, and Simon Townshend, though this tour sees the group perform the entirety of their 1973 album-cum-rock opera, Quadrophenia, for the first time since 1997.

Simon Townshend, who has been the band's second guitarist since 1996, has been a fan of the TA-300 for some time, and refers to it quite simply as "the best amp ever". For this tour, Daltrey is also using one.

"Everything about the TA-300 is spectacular, from the compression going i

Italy - Spanish manufacturer Equipson and Italian distributor Kenell Audio have announced a new agreement for the distribution of WORK audio products in Italy.

"Kenell Audio is a dynamic company with a great experience in the industry of entertainment and audio installation. They have perfectly understood our strategy for the development of integral solutions and they strongly trust in WORK audio products for the italian market." says José Luis Vila, CEO of Equipson.

(Jim Evans)

Patchwork London, an audio hire and production company, have invested in a Midas PRO1 console, supplied by LMC Audio.

Steve White, co-director of Patchwork explains, "We wanted a state of the art digital mixing desk, which was compact enough to use in small venues and powerful enough to use on big shows."

So far, the desk has been out with artists such as Paloma Faith, Paolo Nutini, Beverley Knight, Katherine Jenkins and, most recently, ran monitors for the European leg of the Joan Armatrading tour. White explains that even in cases where the desk has not been specified on the rider, he's had no problem convincing engineers to embrace the PRO1 and they have all come away singing its praises, having had great shows with the console.

White continues, "We love the console. It has performed very well mixing at both FOH and monitors on all of the live music events, awards

China -The first phase of China's 20 billion yuan ($3.16 billion) Changbai Mountain International Tourism Resort opened in 2012, featuring five-star hotels and Asia's largest ski resort. A centrepiece of the development is a performing arts theatre, where Apex audio processors and DiGiCo mixing consoles help to ensure that audiences enjoy the evenings as much as their time on the piste.

Changbai Mountain is located on the border with North Korea, with the Chinese side a 494,000 acre nature reserve that is already a popular international tourist destination. The new resort's 26 miles of ski runs will draw many more visitors and the Changbaishan Grand Theatre has been built as part of the comprehensive accommodation and entertainment facilities.

Built by the Beijing Aotewei Development Company, the theatre features a cutting edge audio specification, supplied and installed by Ri

Columbia - With a career spanning more than three decades, Carlos Vives, is a Latin American entertainment icon. The five time Grammy award winner recently took to the stage in Sincelejo, Colombia for Fiestas del 20 de Enero. The outdoor event was held at Estadio Mochila, and put on by the City Of Sincelejo. 12,000 wildly excited fans filled the grounds to catch a thrilling Vallenato style performance by Vives and other Latin American hit makers - KVRASS, Maluma and Alfredo Gutierrez. C. Vilar Amplificacion Professional provided the complete sound, staging and lighting for the event.

Mauricio Vilar, FOH Engineer for Carlos Vives for the past four years, wanted to use the Adamson E15's for the performance. "Initially we had a production company proposing another brand of P.A. I had requested the E15's on the rider and insisted that they were used for the event."

UK - DiGiCo has added another member to its team, with the appointment of Fernando Delgado to the role of sales application specialist.

Delgado joins from Rental Multimedia Systems S.L. in Spain, where he spent eight years, and will be working alongside Dan Page to provide technical support to the DiGiCo sales team, as well as offering new ideas. With Spanish as his native language, Delgado will also focus on DiGiCo's Latin America market, where the ability to work with customers in their own language will prove extremely valuable.

"This is a dream come true for me," says Delgado. "Working with such an amazing team is just great. The creativity and innovation you can feel in the company really is from another world. I have always had huge respect for the philosophy of the brand. This is not only a team of geniuses, but a very tight family and I feel like I am pa

UK - Nestled at the foot of the Cairngorms national park, Pitlochry Festival Theatre is a delightfully spacious, airy venue that is responsible for a veritable list of productions as well as a range of workshops, tours, concerts and even a wine club.

Each winter it opens its doors for the Federation of Scottish Theatre's (FST) winter school, a sizeable programme of technical training and professional development courses aimed at those working in dance, music and theatre north of the border. The FST has over 120 members and strives to secure the creative future of Scottish Theatre at a national level while also helping its members share resources and expertise; one of the key aims of the winter school program. As in previous years, the Winter School has been heavily supported by Edinburgh based Black Light.

Courses included working and rigging at height, ETC product training, m

UK - Broadcast and pro audio technology specialists HHB Communications is releasing the HHB 2013 Catalogue at the BVE London show on Stand D62A.

With technical and sales information on over 2,000 professional audio products from the world's leading professional audio equipment manufacturers, the HHB Catalogue one of the industry's leading resource for professional audio technology.

Produced for over three decades, the HHB Catalogue is a comprehensive guide to the latest pro audio technology for the broadcast, education, music recording, OB, post, radio, television and video games markets. As such, the latest state-of-the-art technologies for topics such as Loudness, File-based workflows, MADI, Audio over IP, 5.1 and HD, in addition to a comprehensive selection of microphones, loudspeakers, headphones and much more are listed throughout the 216-page catalogue. Some of the lates

UK - The Black Box system was once referred in the press as "the world's most widely used PA rig". After 40 years, Court Acoustics has introduced Black Box II - offering substantially improved performance over the original Black Box, as well as being half the size and weight.

The 2 x 15" W- bin has been replaced by their new 3000w 4 x 15" V- bin which covers both bass and sub bass, and is built in two half-sized enclosures for portability. The High bin has also been cut in half, and carbon fibre conical flares have replaced the wooden horns.

Featuring new twin spider 750w 15" bass drivers, 10" low-mid drivers for improved vocals, a new 185 mm dia compression driver with Polyester Composite diaphragm and a metal 1.4" to 120mm slot throat with phase and directivity correction elements. This gives more accurate dispersion over 90 x 60º and an e

UK - When Capital was approached by regular clients Universal and Soho House to put together a system for the Universal Music BRIT Awards party hosted by Bacardi and Soho House, they knew it was going to be a night to remember.

"The event took place at the Old Midland Bank, immediately opposite the Bank of England in the City of London," says crew chief Charles Ellery. "We'd visited the palatial marble clad surroundings a couple of weeks before, and decided to put together an 'in the round' system of 28 Meyer Mina cabinets and eight 600-HP subs to relay material from two full DJ rigs, which were set up on what used to be the Bank's reception desk."

Capital's Robin Conway was on system tech and mixing duties, whilst Louisa Gladwin, Charlie Bryson and Jasmin Cummings handled the PA and stage tech roles.

Control was via a DiGiCo SD11 digital console, with a

Germany - The well-known Hamburg Ohnsorg theatre has installed an Alcons pro-ribbon sound system.

In July 2011, the theatre left the old venue in the Großen Bleichen and now plays in the Bieberhaus at the Heidi-Kabel-Platz. With the move into the new house, also a new sound system was installed.

The theatre values the combination of natural acoustics and neat sound reinforcement; However, the planned musical productions also require a more powerful sound while maintaining high speech intelligibility. Therefore, the sound crew headed by Florian Buhr (Protones Audiotechnik) decided on the almost invisible LR7 micro line array of Alcons as well as the VR and SR pro-ribbon series from the Dutch manufacturer.

Since the new house with a seating capacity of 414 is acoustically designed, a very natural sound and coherent coverage is highly valued. "The perfect coverage and stu

Germany - A year on from the launch of Yamaha's hugely successful CL series of digital mixing consoles, the flexibility of the system's Dante networking will be a key focus of the company's presence at ProLight+Sound 2013.

Exhibiting on Stand F50, Hall 8.0, the advantages of Yamaha digital solutions will be amply shown by the majority of products being integrated in a live Dante network.

The CL5, CL3, CL1 consoles will be on display with the expanding range of i/o options, including the Rio3224-D, Rio1608-D, Ri8-D and Ro8-D. Yamaha M7CLs and LS9s will be included on the network, showing the seamless integration provided by the DANTE-MY16-AUD interface card, as well as Yamaha's industry-leading power amplifiers and the DSR, DXR and DXS series loudspeakers.

Yamaha and Steinberg's flagship Nuage audio post-production system will be on demonstration, again networked via Dante, w

Austria - The best ski athletes in the world gathered in Kitzbühel to celebrate the highlight of the World Cup calendar - the Hahnenkamm Race Week from 22 - 27 January 2013 including the renowned Streif downhill.

The "Streif" is considered the most spectacular and dangerous downhill in the world 80m jumps, 85-percent base slope and top speeds up to 140 km / h. The race does not allow any margin of error.

To celebrate the conclusion of the races a VIP party, KitzRacePartywas held, with the top act for this year Gloria Gaynor playing to the crowds.

Austrian L-Acoustics rental network agent, Light and Sound, set up a Kara and ARCS wide and ARCS Focus system for the party. As main PA, Light and Sound specified vertically hanging three ARCS (one focus and two wide) for left and right to cover the dance floor area. Five Kara were flown for outfill and three Kiva

Singapore - Allen & Heath's Indonesian distributor, Sindo Exports Pte Ltd, recently supplied Allen & Heath GLD digital systems to Singapore's Wala Wala live music club and Cleopatra karaoke nightclub.

Founded 20 years ago, Wala Wala started hosting live music acts 10 years later following the refurbishment of its first floor storage area. A relatively small live room, the original sound reinforcement system suffered from poor sound quality when the levels were increased so Wala Wala's management appointed an audio technician to mix the 11 weekly acts.

"Having decided to recruit an engineer in Mark Jason, we then realised that the club needed a sound system," commented operations manager Maniam Krishnan. "Bands previously mixed themselves, which was a little inconsistent as some would be too loud and others were inexperienced."

"Wala Wala previously h

UK - German-based optical fibre network specialist, Optocore GmbH, has appointed Sound Network as its new distributor in the UK.

Based in Central London, and suitably placed to serve the broadcast, theatre, install and touring segments of the market, Sound Network see the move as a logical fit. "The Optocore product line dovetails perfectly with our existing product mix and we look forward to introducing customers to the benefits of this impressive solution," stated director Ralph Dunlop.

Optocore sales & marketing director, Tine Helmle, agreed. "With our growing penetration of both large scale events and the permanent installation market we are delighted to be partnering with such an experienced and well qualified company."

Dunlop added that his company had held an interest in the Optocore product line for several years. "In 2012 we felt we had the

Germany - For the first time in many years, Nexo will host an acoustic demo booth on its real estate, combining technical presentations in the Nexo Academy with live demonstrations of its new LS18 sub with classic PS Series cabinets. Overhead, the flown line arrays will include three different configurations of Nexo's flagship modular line array STM, and, for the first time, the new LS18 sub flown inline with an array of Geo S12.

Nexo will present three new products at the PL+S show this year, as well as ongoing refinements to the STM Series and its accessories.

With the launch of the LS18 subbass cabinet, Nexo brings new versatility to two of its best-selling product ranges. The LS18 is compatible with both the Geo S12 line array and the PS Series cabinets, and will please Nexo customers with its agreeable price:dB ratio, says the company.

As the order book for the STM Seri

UK - Since breaking into the UK music scene in 2009 with three top 20 singles, Paloma Faith has had two platinum-selling albums. Currently in the midst of an extensive UK tour, her FOH engineer, Huw Richards, is working on a DiGiCo SD10 with SD Rack.

"I instantly liked DiGiCo the minute I used one of their consoles," Richards admits, during soundcheck at London's Hammersmith Apollo. "Whatever the model, you're getting real value. Be it the great EQ, the excellent pre-amps - the list goes on - everything you're working with is always the same quality as the flagship SD7, which you really can't argue with."

Richards likes the SD10 for its functionality, user interface, and overall sound quality. "DiGiCo is always great for channel count; I'm running 54 channels here on my SD10, and what's also really handy is having 12 faders in each fader bank rather th

Ukraine - The Victoria Hotel & Conference Centre is the leading venue in Donetsk, capital of the Donets Basin region of the Ukraine. It is also situated very close to the Donbass Arena, home of local soccer heroes (and 2009 UEFA Cup winners) FC Shakhtar Donetsk (FCSD), and one of the venues for last year's Euro 2012 tournament.

In preparation for Euro 2012, which saw a sizeable portion of the UEFA delegation staying at the Victoria, the hotel was thoroughly refurbished and all of its audio systems were renewed throughout. Odessa-based installer Real Music, who are also the QSC distributor for Ukraine, were responsible for installing all of the PA/VA speakers and systems.

A QSC ILA line array comprising 16 WL2082-i elements (eight left, eight right) and four WL118-sw subwoofers was used in the main conference hall at the Victoria, where all of the pre- and post-match press conf

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