Europe - Kylie Minogue has been touring Europe this autumn before heading back to her native Australia, and Sennheiser microphones and in-ear monitor systems have played a vital role in Eighth Day Sound's audio production. The tour's microphone package features Sennheiser SKM 5200 series mics with MD 5235 capsules and EM 3732-II receivers, with monitoring via Sennheiser SR2050 IEM transmitters and EK2000 IEM belt packs.

"The SKM 5200/MD 5235 combination really suits this show, as Kylie spends a lot of time out in front of the PA system on the B stage," says Kevin Pruce, Kylie's front-of-house engineer. "Other combinations gave me less headroom, while the size and weight of the microphone are also very important."

Pruce adds: "We have a great relationship with Sennheiser, in particular Mark Saunders. He is always available for advice and the backup is s

UK - A trio of Soundcraft Vi consoles created a special workflow recently when one of the legends of the 'Disco' era, Nile Rodgers, performed with his nine piece band in a special one-off concert at London's IndigO2, performing under the name 'Chic featuring Nile Rodgers'.

Production manager/FOH sound engineer John Ryan and monitor engineer Marco Dellatorre, who have worked together with the artist for 10 years, were pleased to be onboard the house's two installed Vi6 digital consoles, while Eduardo Puhl, a house engineer at another premier London venue where Vi's are installed (Koko in Camden Town) brought his Vi1 (and Vi Compact stage rack) to handle the broadcast and recording feed. The show was streamed live via Living Indie, enabling thousands of fans to watch it online.

All three sound engineers bring considerable digital mixing experience and favoured the idea of using

Malta - Capture Argo was the previsualisation tool of choice at the recent 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Malta. Over 400 fixtures and a massive backdrop of LED surrounded the stage, bringing light and life to the young performers. Lighting designer Nick Malbon used Capture Argo to previsualise the setup with stunning results.

Capture is a native Windows and Mac OS X application that lets you work with lighting, video, moving scenery, lasers and water jets. Capture supports a wide range of ethernet DMX protocols like Art-Net and sACN but also connects directly to High End and MA Lighting consoles as well as consoles that support CITP from brands such as ADB, Avolites, ChamSys and Strand Lighting. Capture also plays back local video files, streams video directly from CITP/MSEX compatible and Green Hippo media servers, receives laser projector content from LaserAnimation S

UK - Students at Buckinghamshire New University have filmed a series of videos for emerging singer, songwriter and producer, Nellie Bell, with the University's partner, Sennheiser UK. The students filmed three acoustic tracks for the singer, who is sponsored by Sennheiser UK, at its recording studios at the University's Campus in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe.

The project was developed to help support emerging artists and give students at the University valuable industry experience, and was one of many planned to help develop employable professionals with the skills demanded for planning, managing, shooting and editing professional films. It involved audio and music production and film and television production students. Third-year audio and music production students Alexander Hamilton, Mark Hanlon, Luke Maffre, Josh Reid, and Alex Robins were also invited to help mix the t

Germany - MobileConnect from audio specialist Sennheiser provides live audio streaming to mobile devices for the very first time. The universal system uses a wi-fi connection to stream lip-sync audio content to the user's smartphone, which has an app that instantly converts it into a mobile receiver.

Applications are unlimited: whether it is in a theatre, a museum, a sports stadium or a company - MobileConnect can be quickly and easily installed and is also cost-efficient in use.

MobileConnect consists of a streaming server and a specific wireless LAN router. The system provides a closed network that users can connect to from their smartphone. The selected audio data are transferred to the device via the MobileConnect multi-channel app, thus enabling users to play the content conveniently through headphones. And the user-friendliness of the system is not limited only to the fr

Malaysia / Singapore - As part of its ongoing process of preparing for the next step of growth in the Far East, Outline has appointed Pan Asia Integrated System as its exclusive distributor for the territories of Singapore and Malaysia.

With combined 25 years' experience, Pan Asia is a professional audio/video lighting and control equipment distribution and technical service company founded by Chip Chong and TatNam Yee.

Chip Chong has already had a long and successful experience with the Outline products and technologies while working for another Outline distributor. In addition to this, he had previously worked with a Harman Professional distribution company and was later involved in turnkey project design, including audio/video system, stage lighting and control system design throughout Singapore and Malaysia.

TatNam Yee had been with Asia Pacific manufacturer support for

UK - The techno extravaganza Drumcode Halloween this November saw co-promoters LWE and Awakenings appoint Flare Audio as sound provider for the event, which featured DJs including Adam Beyer, Joseph Capriarti, Len Faki, and Happa.

Hosted at the 5,000 capacity Tobacco Dock in London's Wapping district, the five-year-old event was an opportunity for clubbers to dress up and party to leading edge techno by both established and up-and-coming artists.

Located in a residential area, a stone's throw from Shadwell Railway Station, the Grade 1 listed venue, with a problematic glass roof apex, is subject to strict sound containment conditions. Consequently, Flare had to provide an immaculate quality, all-embracing sound experience for the audience, without audio spillage into the neighbourhood beyond.

"The greatest challenge was to deliver the music at a level that the dance audi

UK - Leisuretec Distribution has announced their new trade partnership with Mackie, effective 1 December 2014. Leighton Buzzard-based Leisuretec is a distributor of professional and commercial audio, lighting, video and special effects to the trade.

Lesisuretec MD Cliff Dounting comments: "We have been long-time partners with PolarAudio distributing their brands very successfully over the years. Mackie is an extremely good fit to Leisuretec's portfolio, enhancing even further our offering to the trade in the MI retail sector. Indeed our roots are from retail and we are strong supporters of this very important sector of the industry and passionately believe in providing all the retail shops up and down the country with a great service and excellent products from stock. The addition of Mackie strengthens Leisuretec's offering to the whole of the trade including hire and event

UK - In a "best quality whatever the cost" demand for a new submixer for his keyboard rig, UK singer-songwriter Paul Carrack has purchased a Cadac Live1 1642 compact console. Carrack, currently in the midst a 55-date touring stint around the UK with his band, recently upgraded his keyboards, including sonic modifications to his beloved Hammond C3, and needed to trade up his mixer to match. His monitor engineer Anton Dunbar was the man charged with finding the new console.

"It was all about the sound quality," he says. "Paul asked me to find a desk that sounded amazing but was not overly cluttered on the control surface. The Cadac was the only desk that had both the sound quality and required functionality, and was ergonomically suited to the task at hand and rack-mountable."

While cost was not a concern, the Cadac displayed markedly superior signa

The Netherlands - Dutch sound and lighting rental company, DSL Geluids & Lichtverhuur has extended a long tradition of running premium Martin Audio PA systems in its fleet by becoming the first operation in the country to invest in the manufacturer's new MLA Mini.

This is the latest, scaled down version of Martin Audio's award-winning Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array technology, and is in line with the small footprint required for a large proportion of their work.

Set up by brothers Ad and Gert-Jan Gomes in 1983 (originally as Disco'83 Sound & Light) by early in the new millennium they were ready to upgrade from their own 'home-brew' PA stacks to branded products. "And we recognised a lot of riders were mentioning Martin Audio."

Starting with Blackline they moved onto W8C/CS Wavefront Compact subs, WSX subs, and then W8LC Compact line arrays and WS218X subs. "

Indonesia - It was back in 2013 that the Ismaya Group, owners of Jakarta's legendary Blowfish Nightclub, first decided to carry out a complete technology upgrade, integrated with a new AV system, in order to refresh the club's image.

PT Citra Intirama, Martin Audio's long term distributors, have also enjoyed a relationship with the operators, and first introduced them to the British loudspeaker brand at one of their other elite clubs, the Dragonfly, back in 2006.

Martin Audio was then installed in the Blowfish Bar & Nightclub - but with the recent overhaul came not only replacement drivers for the existing system but a complete new complement of AQ and Blackline series full range systems and subwoofers.

"It was a natural progression to continue with the same brand," said PT Citra Intirama's Eric Haslim. "Martin Audio has a well-established reputation as one of

Belgium - Initially aimed at the post-production market, Yamaha's Nuage system is also being adopted by music recording studios and composers, thanks to its fast, intuitive workflow and powerful features. Leading dance music producer Sammy Merayah is one of the latest to invest.

Sammy's Yamaha legacy goes back well over a decade. Starting with an 02R digital mixer, he later upgraded to a DM2000, but has recently made a major investment in a Nuage system for his studio near the Belgian city of Aalst, near Brussels.

Sammy works as a composer, producer, remixer and arranger and has enjoyed major collaborations and remix work with high profile DJs and artists like Wolfpack, Flo Rida, Katy B, Akon, Coolio, Jason Derulo, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Jetlag, T-Pain, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Ginuwine, Chris Brown, Hooverphonic and others.

Having worked with Steinberg's Cubase DAW f

UK - Cliff Electronics has introduced a new latching female XLR socket. This industry standard connector is widely used for audio inputs and is the latest addition to Cliff's range of professional audio connectors. Designed and manufactured by Cliff Electronics in the UK, this latest version of their Airtight XLR connector range is fitted with an integral latch to prevent accidental disconnection by vibration or tension on the cable.

The customary method used by loudspeaker manufactures to make an input socket airtight is use a sealant solution to make both the body airtight in the cabinet and seal the connection pins. This time consuming and messy process is not required when fitting a Cliff Airtight XLR socket, says the company. Cliff Airtight XLR sockets are fitted to the loudspeaker enclosure with a supplied sealing gasket and uniquely have completely sealed connection pins.

France - Nexo enters the new year of 2015 with a new CEO, as Jean Mullor takes over the reins at the French loudspeaker manufacturer.

Yoshi Tsugawa, who has guided the company for the past three-and-a-half years, is returning to Japan, where he takes up new responsibilities as the general manager for band & orchestra products in the MI & Audio Sales and Marketing Group of Yamaha Corporation.

New CEO Jean Mullor comes to Nexo from Yamaha Music Europe, where he has spent nearly four years as managing director of the French subsidiary, in charge of the domestic distribution of musical instruments, commercial audio products, audio video products and music schools network development.

Trained as a lawyer, Mullor brings with him a wealth of management experience. A lifelong passion for music has taken him from US petrochemical giant Mobil to Yamaha Corporation, joining the French

UK - Liverpool based technical solutions provider Adlib has supplied audio and lighting design, equipment and installation to three venues run by the Liverpool Guild of Students (LGoS) as part of a major £14m refurbishment and upgrade project spearheaded by the University of Liverpool.

This ambitious investment plan was executed over two years to improve the utilization of space, functionality and to enhance the overall student experience at the Guild & Reilly Building which is central to the university campus.

For Adlib, this has included design and installation of a comprehensive power & cabling infrastructure, provision of L-Acoustics and Coda audio systems, together with production lighting rigs featuring more premium brands like Robe, Martin by Harman and ETC and the development of a custom IGUS cable management solution with Lift-Turn-Move (LTM), also based locally

Russia - Part of Russia for just 155 years, the Muravyov-Amursky peninsula is governed by Vladivostok. Home to the navy's mighty Pacific Fleet, it is Russia's most strategically important city on its far eastern shores. Remote in every sense, after years of isolation, Vladivostok has stepped robustly into the twenty-first century since its hosting of the 24th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in 2012. The summit stimulated massive inward investment, two new bridges were built (Zolotoy Rog in the city centre, and Russky Island Bridge) and a distinct emphasis was placed on the development of resort entertainment facilities.

The Fetisov Arena is a crowning part of that entertainment emphasis. Opened in 2013, and built to accommodate 7,500 people (Vladivostok has a population of almost 600,000), it is home to the Admiral ice hockey team and also regularly hosts exhibit

UK - RAF High Wycombe, a key Royal Air Force base and Headquarters for Air Command and European Air Group provides one of the UK's main strategic and administrative support units for the UK's air defence services. When the requirement for a replacement site-wide public address system was handed to leading infrastructure providers - NG Bailey - they called upon the services of AV and PA specialists CIE-Group to specify a replacement PA solution using the very latest audio-over-IP network technology.

Working in close partnership with NG Bailey and their client, CIE-Group were engaged to provide full on-site consultation service, consisting of site survey, technical output specification and system design to deliver a number of solutions to suit a variety of budgets and address the problems of a large scale legacy site.

CIE's solution was to specify a system based around their bra

London - 2014 marks the 75th anniversary of the launch of the distinctive Shure 55 Unidyne dynamic microphone, an iconic design and favourite of celebrated figures through the decades, including Billie Holliday, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, and John F. Kennedy, to name just a few.

Introduced in 1939, the 55 Unidyne was internationally adopted as a workhorse microphone for broadcast, public address, recording, and two-way radio applications. By the 1950s it was so well known that it was marketed as "the microphone that needs no name". And even in the 21st century, its design symbolises what many think of when they hear the word "microphone".

To this day, the 55 Unidyne - the first directional microphone to use a single dynamic element - continues to influence dynamic microphone designs across the globe. This fact was recognised by the international Institute of Ele

Europe - Yamaha has released a free update to its Nuage post-production and studio recording system which allows seamless compatibility with Steinberg's just-released Cubase Pro 8 DAW software - making Nuage a powerful and flexible control solution for music production studios.

Nuage is already highly regarded by the post-production industry, but Yamaha's experience with live and studio mixing consoles meant that its potential to be an industry-leading solution for music production has long been recognised. This potential has now been realised, thanks to the Nuage v1.6 software update, which delivers high-level integration with Cubase Pro 8, including full access from Nuage Fader and Nuage Master units.

Cubase has been a benchmark of music production software for the past 25 years and Cubase Pro 8 is its most advanced version yet. One of the flagship features is its VCA faders

USA - Brooklyn Information and Culture (BRIC) is the cultural heart of New York's most populous borough. Over the past two years, the City of New York has invested millions of dollars in transforming the former Strand Theatre into the multi-purpose BRIC House, with an Alcons Audio system chosen to feature in its central performance space.

BRIC was founded in 1976, its links to the Strand Theatre going back to the 1990s. The former vaudeville, movie and opera venue was gutted in the 1950s, after which it was put to various leisure and industrial uses, notably as a glass factory. BRIC began using part of the venue in 1993 and, after nearly two decades of planning, a $40m refurbishment of the Fulton Street building has delivered a contemporary, flexible, multi-disciplinary arts and media centre, designed to support artists and engage the public.

As well as BRIC, the venue is home

USA - Oliveto Restaurant and Cafe, the innovative, Italian-inspired dining destination in the heart of Rockridge in Oakland, unveils a new look-and sound-this week. Addressing the industry-wide issue of noise pollution in restaurants, Oliveto has found the perfect balance in its new partnership with Berkeley's Meyer Sound, installing a state-of-the-art acoustic solution in addition to making enticing aesthetic changes as part of the restaurant's first major renovation in 18 years.

At the same time, the Meyer Sound system allows the restaurant to advance on its soon-to-launch Oliveto Commons, an ongoing series of classes, panel discussions and workshops focused on food policy issues, producers, cooking techniques, and wine and spirits.

Led by owners and founders Bob and Maggie Klein, Oliveto's renovation speaks to the 28-year-old restaurant's deeply ingrained curiosity and driv

Portugal - The recent concerts of the British band James in Portugal were promoted by PEV Entertainment and it was part of the tour to promote the new album La Petite Mort.

Split into three distinct concerts, two of them on the north of Portugal with the Next-proaudio's sound reinforcement. According to the band, the first concert was a surprise for the fans, "on the magnificent and historic Sao Bento railway station in Porto and free to attend" where they "played a couple of tunes and answered some questions of the public".

The systems for these two different concerts were supplied by rental company Technosound, which provided full technical production services for the two events with the use of two Next PX Systems (Stackable System) for the small venue and the LA12 (Line Array System) for the big venue.

The first one, on 27 November was a mini-co

Spain - Neo 5 A ES and NEO 5 IP, the two last additions to the Neo Series of loudspeakers designed and developed by Work Pro, are now available. These two new products are innovative and smart solutions developed to complement Neo Series in order to provide AV professionals with powerful solutions that fit the requirements of every type of installations besides to offer additional advantages such as the optimization in energy consumption.

The Neo 5 A ES, the updated version of Neo 5 A, has been developed by Work Pro after setting itself the objective of maximizing the savings in energy consumption and, therefore, making it more efficient. Under this "green" or "ecological" company philosophy, the brand has come up with a smart solution capable of shutting down when it is not receiving audio signal. This auto-off feature means a reduction in its consumption be

The Netherlands - Frontline Audio & Vision of Lichtenvoorde in Holland has chosen STM M28, Nexo's new compact modular line array, as the tool for its future expansion, building on a substantial existing commitment to Nexo PA technology.

In just three years, Frontline has acquired a considerable inventory of Nexo loudspeaker cabinets, including PS15 full-range compacts, RS15 subbass, and 45°N-12 line monitors. Taking the next step forward, Martijn Klein Gibbink's company has made its first investment into Nexo's STM Series of modular line array, buying 18x STM M28 main cabinets together with 4x RS18 subbass and a NUAR (Nexo Universal Amp Rack) containing two NXAMP4x4s. All equipment has been supplied by Nexo distributor Iemke Roos.

"The M28 is the ideal line array for us," says Klein Gibbink, "it is very small with high output, and the consistency of its cove

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