Italy - American sound artist Bill Fontana has partnered with Meyer Sound in the creation of Sonic Mappings, a permanent sound art installation for Rome's MAXXI Museum. Fontana's musical landscape pays tribute to Rome's Acqua Vergine, the ancient waterway that is at the heart and soul of Roman civilization. Sonic Mappings is the centrepiece of Open Museum Open City, the museum's latest exhibition dedicated to sound, which MAXXI artistic director Hou Hanru describes as "the most radical and experimental aspect of contemporary art."

Undertaking an ambitious artistic journey, Fontana travelled the path of the Acqua Vergine from the source springs at Salone to the ancient tunnels still in existence under the streets of Rome. By using microphones, hydrophones, and accelerometers - some placed in the water flow and some imbedded into walls - Fontana captured th

France - Rising Star is the latest reality TV singing competition to take France by storm. Currently aired live every Thursday night on M6, France's most profitable private national TV channel, the show is derived from an Israeli concept where it was a massive success. In contrast to other TV singing competitions which feature a panel of celebrity judges, Rising Star features a panel of celebrity experts who offer opinions and commentary, but candidates rely almost exclusively on viewer votes in real time via a free smartphone app to determine whether or not they achieve the next stage.

From a technical point of view, the show breaks new ground. The same is true backstage where Euro Media, the European leader in the provision of broadcast services who are responsible for bringing Rising Star to French TV screens, decided to call on Paris-based company Yasta

Germany - With headquarters in Kassel and branches in Hamburg, Berlin and Frankfurt, Ambion GmbH is one of Germany's leading technical event providers. The company has been using Coda Audio systems for several years and recently made another major investment in its products, via German distributor Audiovation GmbH.

The previous experience that Ambion's Jesko Purmann and Michael 'Miwe' Wengerter had with Coda systems meant they were already convinced of the sound and manufacturing quality, rigging flexibility and simple operation of even the largest Coda systems. So when the company introduced its new Linus amplification and control platform at this year's ProLight+Sound, Ambion approached Audiovation about making a further major investment in Coda technology, to utilize the benefits of the new Linus platform.

"Ambion wanted to significantly expand its inventory of Coda lo

UK - David Ferreira has joined Pioneer Pro Audio as technical sales specialist, adding to the growing team responsible for sales and installation of the brand's sound systems for clubs, bars and restaurants. David brings with him seven years of pro audio experience, most recently as UK sales executive for Martin Audio. Prior to that he worked at Loud Technologies as European service supervisor and technical support specialist.

"It's an exciting time to be joining Pioneer Pro Audio," says David. "With Pioneer DJ's legacy of innovation and Pioneer/TAD's heritage in speakers, I'm looking forward to helping to develop and expand the Pioneer Pro Audio brand."

Alex Barrand, Pioneer Pro Audio manager comments, "We're delighted to have David on board. His experience and understanding of the pro audio market will be invaluable in taking our versatile sound syst

UK - Midas has announced the G2.5 firmware release for the PRO Series digital live performance consoles and select DL15x and DL25x fixed-format I/O devices. The new firmware adds an array of new features, and provides more than 100 significant performance enhancements.

New features included in the comprehensive upgrade include: Solo Follow Select on the PRO1; the ability to disable automation buttons on the control surface; user can now turn bulkhead fans off and restart automatically; the ability to flatten the GEQ from the surface; 48k capability for DL15x and DL25x Series I/O devices plus compatibility with ver. 2.09, or higher M32 console firmware. Support has also been added for the DL155 and DL231, and the user can now update all I/O via AES50 on all consoles. A recovery system is now available for all PRO Series consoles and the "patching" page can be locked to

USA - When playwright Sarah Ruhl's latest play, The Oldest Boy, made its debut at Lincoln Centre Theater's Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, sound designer Darron L West once again turned to Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, to supply a custom audio equipment package for the much-anticipated production.

Designing the sound system for The Oldest Boy posed its own set of challenges; the first of which was the design of the stage itself. "The stage is a really beautiful, wooden formal circle in the middle of the theatre, and in designing the sound I wanted to be able to create layers from the centre out," says West. "We placed an enormous amount of speakers in the theatre to accomplish this, which gave us the added ability of being able to move the majority of the sounds around the room with ease. It was a

Ukraine - 1+1 Media Group is one of the largest media conglomerates in Ukraine. It is comprised of eight Ukrainian TV channels and also includes a fully-fledged production company. 1+1 Media recently installed an ANDIAMO.XT AES/MADI converter and two powerful M.1k2 MADI routing systems from DirectOut as the audio core in their new eight-floor TV Centre, plus a number of ANDIAMO.XT AES/MADI converters in two of their OB vans which have been converted to full HD facilities.

"This is the first time we have worked with DirectOut, and they couldn't have been more helpful," affirmed Aleksey Marko, head of procurement for 1+1 Media. "It's rather a long story and of course our political situation has not helped matters, but the short version is, that having purchased an Evertz video router for the new TV centre, we needed a solution to be able to combine all of our audio

USA - MGM Resorts International and Live Nation teamed up this fall to produce the inaugural Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip over October's first weekend. Staged on a huge lot across the famed boulevard from MGM's Luxor, the three-day event featured some of the biggest names in country music, including nightly headliners Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean, plus more than two dozen other classic artists and fast-rising newcomers.

Route 91 Harvest was a big show, but true to Las Vegas' larger-than-life philosophy, it was only one of four huge music fests held there within a single month's time. The iHeart Radio festival (21 September) saw pop stars Iggy Azalea, Neon Trees, 5 Seconds of Summer and Fences take the stage; on 27 September the first iteration of the Boulevard Brew Fest brought rockers Kings of Leon, Young the Giant and Kongos

UK - With new exhibitors and new speakers being announced every week, there will be plenty for visitors to see at the Glasgow SECC for the inaugural PLASA Focus Glasgow event, which takes place on 2-3 December 2014.

New exhibitors announced this week include Adlib Audio and HDPro Audio, Orbital Sound and FBT Audio UK, who will join the all-star list of exhibitors already at the show - including Robe, Ambersphere, White Light, Avolites, Chauvet, AED, Sennheiser, Bosch, NL Productions, JHS ProAudio, Warehouse Sound, LMC Audio, Polar Audio, Black Light, Trusslite, Total Solutions Group, UK Rigging, TMB and many more.

PLASA's Professional Development Programme will deliver two days of presentations, technical demonstrations and panel discussions, all designed to help visitors build their industry knowledge and improve their skill set. This year's programme focusses on the hot topi

World - Monitor engineer Travis Walat recently completed the European and North American legs of the Joss Stone Total World tour with an Allen & Heath iLive T-112 Surface and a 48 input / 24 output iDR-48 MixRack.

The ultimate aim of the tour is for the 26 year old soul singer-songwriter to play a show in every country on the planet, so with performances widely spread across the globe the audio crew was travelling light. To ensure that the band's monitors were consistent wherever in the world they were, Walat looked for a mixing solution that offered full functionality in a compact footprint, finally settling on the iLive system after trying it out in rehearsals.

Twenty-one shows and 18 countries later, Walat enthused: "The iLive is an excellent sounding desk. Several band members commented on how nice things sounded, and it is also lightweight, compact and powerful, with

UK - The Shure Academy European Audio Network has announced the fourth Wireless Mastered workshop of 2014, to be held at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in Central London on 24 November. Presented by Tuomo Tolonen, Shure Distribution UK's Pro Audio Group manager and RF specialist, the session will take place in the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre at RADA between 9.30am and 3pm, with a break for light refreshments.

As with the previous highly successful Wireless Mastered sessions, this masterclass is aimed at all event production staff, and anyone that regularly uses wireless technology. The session covers all aspects of RF technology and wireless microphone operation, including discussions of the changing availability of RF spectrum use for live events.

Shure wireless technology will be used as a practical reference, including PSM900/PSM1000 in-ear monitoring, UHF-R, ULX-D a

USA - California State University Bakersfield recently purchased a Harman Soundcraft Si Performer 3 to support its growing music and theatre programs. The console is used for live mixing during shows in the 485-seat Doré Theatre, which include jazz and other music productions, theatrical productions, musicals, and opera. The board was purchased through Full Compass Systems.

To accommodate the 14 to 20 wireless microphones for the Music and Theatre Department productions, performing arts technician Frank Robinson chose the Soundcraft Si Performer 3 with 32 channels for sufficient capacity and room for future expansion. The sound booth that houses the console also allows for a simplified wiring network, and will permit elimination of much of the internal house wiring at a later date.

"We chose Soundcraft because we wanted a brand-new system within our budget that wor

USA - Modern sports venues have to do it all - host major sports contests one night and top-selling music artists the next. That's an economic imperative at a time when teams and promoters are competing for the consumer entertainment spend. The venue with great sound that can do it all wins, and that's why Toyota Centre, the arena home of the NBA Houston Rockets, comes out on top.

In October, the arena, which opened in September 2003 and seats 18,000 for basketball and over 19,000 for concerts, installed a new L-Acoustics K2 sound system - the first K2 system permanently installed in a major professional sports arena.

The cap to a two-year AV makeover that included new HD video scoreboards, the sound system, designed in Soundvision by project consultant Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams and AV systems integrator LD Systems with support from the L-Acoustics US applications

UK - The last two weekends of October saw London's Westfield shopping centres stage Music Cube, a showcase of new and established musical talent. As Westfield's preferred audio partner, Sennheiser UK played a key role in both events.

Music Cube is a giant soundproof glass box, in which a range of artists performed over the weekend of 24-26 October at the Westfield London shopping centre, and 31 October - 2 November at Westfield Stratford City.

Kicking off at midday, performances by between three and six up-and-coming artists were followed by a set from a Kiss FM DJ and then two headline slots by more recognised performers.

Each session was witnessed by an audience of up to 300, all using Sennheiser's Urbanite headphones to enjoy the music.

Sennheiser UK provided equipment including evolution 2000 series wireless microphones for the artists, plus 300 sets of Urbanite headph

UK - HHB Communications has supplied the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) with a 16-fader Avid S6 M10 control surface.

UWE is the first UK educational facility that HHB has supplied with Avid's new modular S6 control surface. The S6 was specified with two banks of eight faders, and complementary Process and Knob modules. Used in conjunction with Pro Tools HD software, S6 provides UWE's students with powerful hands-on control of all DAW functions.

UWE senior lecturer Martyn Harries has been a long-term customer of HHB since his days as an audio post production engineer for the BBC. Martyn explains that the S6 will equip students in UWE's new Broadcast Audio and Music Technology course with knowledge of the equipment used in the UK's leading studios. "The S6 will give our students an edge by exposing them to an incredibly powerful console. We place a strong

UK - London's Imperial War Museum opened its new First World War Gallery in July. The vision was to give the visitor a more realistic representation of what life in a trench was like. A soundscape was clearly going to be vital and the noises should come from many different parts of the display. The mission was on to find a proven playback system that would respond to cues from a Medialon Show Controller and interface with video servers from 7th Sense and Dataton. The clear choice was the Merging Technologies Ovation.

Idee und Klang have an enviable track record of significant projects from the BMW Museum in Munich to the Stategrid Pavilion at the Expo Shanghai 2010 so sound designer, Ramon De Marco was able to understand the requirements very easily. The museum had organised an international competition to select the sound design company and the Idee und Klang proposal was the o

Thailand - TC Group's Install and Tour brands - Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake - recently held a two-day conference seminar in Bangkok, Thailand, for its distributor network across the Asia Pacific region.

With distributors from across the region gathering at the Okura Hotel - itself a Tannoy installation - the event gave TC Group the opportunity to communicate information on new and future products, as well as ongoing market strategy in wake of the announcement that the entire group was looking for investment opportunities under any potential new ownership.

Over the course of two informative and enlightening days, senior staff showcased some of the latest and best technologies from Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake, giving distributors and partners the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the brands and how to maximise opportunities in future install and touring application

UK - Behind the Scenes UK, the newly launched charity that aims to provide financial support to entertainment technology professionals when they are ill or injured, is calling on companies and individuals to send their annual Christmas cards via Card Aid this year.

Card Aid has been helping charities increase their funds from the sale of their Christmas cards for over 30 years and John Simpson, Chair of Behind the Scenes UK, believes proceeds from the sale of Christmas Cards via the Card Aid Website will really make a difference to Behind the Scenes which only launched in the UK in October.

"Sending Christmas cards is a long held tradition and Card Aid allows us to keep the spirit of Christmas alive - as cards can be purchased online, either in the form of a pack of cards or as e-cards which can be sent on a pay per click basis. Whilst we are happy to accept donations in

Portugal - NEXT-proaudio's website (www.next-proaudio.com) now offers an easy-to-navigate technical support, complete product information, and the most recent company news.

The company information, factory tour, support and distributor's information are some benefits of the new site. The goal is to be "the perfect guide to help the customers get all the information about products as easy as possible".

The user can sort the products by type, series, or application making the new product menu much more intuitive to find what the user wants. Inside the application list, the user can find which are the recommended series for touring, installation and portable.

The NEXT-proaudio users can also easily download the all the available software (Soundware, DP240 Software, LMS242 Software and Ease Focus) as well as all the support files. Additionally, links to the manufacture

Japan - A potent RCF TT+ system was recently installed in Tokyo's Meijiza Theatre by the Italian manufacturer's Japanese partner Electori Co in order to bring the best out of well known 'enka' traditional ballad singer, Yoshimi Tendo.

Originally opened in 1873 to present kabuki and Western stage plays, the 1368-capacity venue has been equipped with four TTL33-A active loudspeakers ground stacked on either side of the stage above floor-mounted TTS36-A subs, positioned on their sides.

This design was in order to raise the height and use the stage width effectively. The decision to stack the TTL33-A on top of the subs resulted from the limited stage depth - and the fact that even pattern control was required for the each tier, right up to the third floor balcony seats.

One of the flagships of the Theatre & Touring series, the TTL33-A is a compact, wide dispersion, three way act

USA - Founded in 1934 by a small collection of the faithful who opened up their living rooms every Sunday in the bustling Michigan town of Grand Rapids, New Hope Baptist Church has grown to a congregation of over 800 active members. To better accommodate its members, the church recently underwent a comprehensive renovation of its 750-seat sanctuary and associated overflow and ancillary use rooms.

A new sound system centred on Ashly Audio processing, amplification, and user control is a centrepiece of the project and gives New Hope congregants exceptional intelligibility for spoken word, along with musical transcendence for the New Hope band and praise choir. Critically, the Ashly gear came in at a price point that allowed the church to meet its needs reliably, without breaking the project's budget. Pro Audio Inc., of nearby Grandville, Michigan designed and installed the system

UK - Resolution magazine is to hold a one-day audio networking conference to "communicate the state of play of audio networking in live sound, broadcast and music recording applications".

The Audio Networking Forum will be held at RIBA in Portland Place London W1 on 12 December 2014. The top level conference will bring together leading industry players to analyse, debate and discuss audio networking in production workflows. It will also be an invaluable social networking opportunity.

"No area of professional audio has remained untouched by the potential of audio networking," said conference organiser Zenon Schoepe. "Anyone who thinks that audio networking won't impact on their work doesn't understand it. This is core technological change that will alter attitudes and working methods forever. The Forum will explain the technology and give example

Poland - Bia?ystok City Stadium is located in the largest city in Northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The stadium has undergone major redevelopment and substantial new construction and now meets the highest world standards for modern sports facilities. The new 360 degree grandstand boasts a capacity of 22,400 and the venue also incorporates conference rooms, a VIP room, a restaurant area and a shop for fans of the local football team.

The sound system was designed by Tommex ?ebrowscy Sp. J. and installed by Zeto S.A.. The system is based on Community loudspeakers and Dynacord electronics. Bia?ystok-based integrator Zeto S.A. completed the installation in time for the opening of the modernized venue which took place in July 2014. Zeto's Zbigniew Kaczmarczyk was project manager for the installation.

The main system is housed in the commentary room a

Poland - Allen & Heath GLD-80 and Qu-16 mixers have been installed in the Kraków Arena. The new Arena is the biggest in Poland, with a capacity of 20,000 and is one of the most modern entertainment halls and sports venues in the world. The building grabs attention with a gigantic 500m wide LED screen on its exterior and hosts a wide variety of sports events, exhibitions, conferences and trade fairs.

The contract to design and supply the audio system for the Kraków Arena was awarded to Konsbud Audio. Konsbud chose three Allen & Heath digital mixers to meet the client's needs. The main console is a GLD-80, located in the control room of the main hall and used for mixing and signal distribution between all audio systems. There are also two Qu-16 mixers: one in a mobile rack that can be used on the floor of the main hall, and another in the control room in the smaller, secondary h

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