Poland - The recently-constructed Cavatina Hall has been designed with a focus on vision over budget and the ambition of becoming a landmark centre on Europe’s cultural map. The six-storey, multi-functional venue provides commercial and entertainment facilities with over 9000 sq. m of office space, a chamber music hall, recording studio, and the highlight of the construction, a 1000-capacity concert hall. The hall is complete with an AV network, streamlined and managed by Quantum 338 digital consoles from DiGiCo. The project began in 2018, conceptualised by one of Poland's largest property development companies, Cavatina Holding. Located in the city of Bielsko-Biała in Southern Poland, the shell-shaped building with glass façade, became an instant architectural beauty, and now houses the offices of the holding company and related firms, alongside the ultra-modern entert
South Korea - Now in its 28th year, South Korea’s Dream Concert is the country’s longest established and largest K-Pop festival. Featuring performances from more than 20 K-Pop idols, 60,000 tickets were sold in just 20 minutes for this year’s event which took place on 18/19 June at the Jamsil Olympic Main Stadium in Seoul, with a Nexo STM sound system supplied by local rental partners Way Audio. Originally built for the Summer Olympics in 1988, the stadium has a field size of 110m x 75m with a seating capacity of almost 70,000 in two tiers and has previously been the venue for concerts by Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga and Metallica. To achieve even SPL and frequency coverage in the stadium, Way Audio designed and deployed a system using side by side hangs of 21 each STM M46 Main and B112 Bass Extension modules on either side of the stage, throwing a distanc
UK - #WeMakeEvents invites keen cyclists from across the events and entertainment industry to sign up for BikeFest 2022, which will take place on Saturday 3 September. Together, the BikeFest team will raise funds for Backup – the technical entertainment charity, which helps industry peers during times of ill health and financial hardship, and other #WeMakeEvents-supported charities. Starting at SFL’s headquarters in Reading to a destination in London, BikeFest will also kick off the PLASA Show as it returns to Olympia London from 4-6 September. Now in its sixth year, BikeFest began as a 100-mile cycle to PLASA Show to raise awareness and funds for mental health in the industry. With the pandemic, this need became ever more relevant. Since 2020, #WeMakeEvents campaign has been instrumental in expanding the BikeFest event in the UK, and for the first time this year,
UK - Martin Audio’s MLA system was deployed for the first time on the main stage of Radio 1’s Big Weekend that took place at Memorial Park, Coventry, with the popular music festival finally returning after the hiatus caused by Covid-19. An audience of 40,000, and an array of acts that included Harry Styles, George Ezra, Ed Sheeran and Calvin Harris, played across two nights in the city of Coventry’s historic park. The show was new to RG Jones, who tendered successfully for the event. The production company were delighted to get the chance to flex their sonic muscles on such a high-profile project while re-connecting with long-standing clients Dick and Frankie Tee from EnTEEtainment. Being an urban site, noise management was of the highest priority, but Coventry’s status as 2022 City of Culture has also meant that throughout the year events of all shapes and siz
China - Spatial audio specialist, Out Board, has appointed Phoenix Audio Distribution as the new TiMax distributor for mainland China and Hong Kong including Macau and Taiwan. The company has strong links with the team at Out Board and the TiMax product range, already holding stock at its Guangzhou and Hong Kong offices, with plans to invest immediately into inventory for demonstration and support purposes at its offices in Beijing and Shanghai. The team at Phoenix Audio, headed up by Chris Zhang and Mac Lo, is well versed in the needs of the pro audio market in its territory, servicing a wide range of premium specifiers, integrators and operator contacts plus considerable experience in the professional live performance and AV installation marketplaces. Chris Zhang, commented, “It is a great honour to take on the distribution of the TiMax range of products. At Phoeni
UK - PLASA and LSi are calling for nominations for this year’s Gottelier Award. The award recognises the invaluable contributions of the people behind the products, from pioneering product developers to creative R&D teams. Named after the late lighting designer and industry commentator Tony Gottelier, the Gottelier Award aims to recognise product developers who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of entertainment, presentation, or installation technology.
Launched in 2007, previous recipients include: Christian Heil (L-Acoustics); Alan Jacobi (Unusual Rigging); Wayne Howell (Artistic Licence); Anne Valentino (ETC); David Cunningham (Entertec); Pasquale Quadri (Claypaky); Jim Bornhorst (Vari-Lite); John Meyer (Meyer Sound); Terry Clarke (Klark Teknik, MC2 Audio); Fred Foster (ETC); Alex Cooper (Midas & Klark Teknik); John Stadius (Di
UK - Consecrated in 1619 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Christ's Chapel of God's Gift is part of the Dulwich Estate in south-east London. It provides a place of worship for the schools supported by the Estate, the residents of The Dulwich Almshouse and the local area in addition to offering a range of community and volunteering activities. It has recently been equipped with a new audio system, designed by About Sound and installed by NoiseBoys Technologies, utilising products from Outline’s Architectural Series. In common with many ancient sites of Christian worship all over the UK, the Chapel provides a number of challenges when installing a speech reinforcement system. Its naturally reverberant internal layout requires careful placement of loudspeakers with suitable dispersion characteristics to achieve the required intelligibility, the fabric of the Stuart-era
USA - When Grammy Award-winning musician Billy Strings stepped onto Roadrunner’s stage for his sold-out show this past March, the new Boston facility officially became New England’s largest general admission venue. Although the 50,000sq.ft space at Allston-Brighton’s Boston Landing development was initially conceived as a Celtics training facility before the team decided to move across the street, The Bowery Presents (TBP) and AEG saw the available space as a suitable location for a 3,500-capacity live music venue. The concert promoters once again tapped NYC-based integrator See Factor to supply the room with an L-Acoustics K2 loudspeaker system. Roadrunner is the third Boston-area venue owned and managed by TBP, which also operates Harvard Square’s 525-capacity Sinclair and books the 1,200-capacity Royale in the city’s Theatre District. The $20m Roadru
UK - Rock duo Royal Blood have called on Britannia Row Productions to provide audio support for their 2022 tour cycle, which started in Swansea, UK, in March, carried on through Europe, across the US, and straight into a packed festival season this summer. The band, consisting of bass player / vocalist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher, needed an appropriate audio setup to transmit their unapologetically bombastic sound – a requirement that was now well-known by their regular supplier, Brit Row. “We moved to Brit Row at the beginning of 2015 when we needed to move into full production,” says the band’s FOH engineer, Phil Jones. “We needed the support of a firm that could deliver on a global scale, particularly in the States. It’s always reassuring that we can receive gear from Brit Row while we’re out there, as well as sourcing other essentials from Liti
Europe - DiGiCo has announced that it has appointed RMS Proaudio as its new distributor for Portugal. Specialists in providing pro audio solutions to Southern Europe, RMS Proaudio has been working with DiGiCo as its Spanish distributor for almost two decades and has established DiGiCo in the Spanish market. “RMS Proaudio has been consistently successful with the DiGiCo brand across Spain, so when the time came to appoint a new distributor for Portugal, they were an obvious choice,” says DiGiCo sales application specialist, Fernando Delgardo. “We have been distributing DiGiCo to the Spanish market for more than 18 years and now we are excited to bring the same level of experience, support and technical service to Portugal,” says Miguel Angel Jiménez, general manager of RMS Proaudio. “We are delighted to have this great opportunity and aim to take adv
Greece - Over the past couple of years, Austrian Audio microphones and headphones have become a staple in the toolkit of many FOH engineers. So much so that Austrian Audio mics “are going on tour” this summer accompanying leading musicians and artists. Starting out the series, Austrian Audio mics could be seen and heard in Athens, last month during the Desmond Child Rocks The Parthenon concert. Thousands of people enjoyed an evening in the 2,000 year-old Odeon of Herodes Atticus theatre to see Desmond Child, the Grammy winning and Emmy nominated songwriter-producer. Desmond was joined on stage by Alice Cooper, Bonnie Tyler, Rita Wilson, The Rasmus and many others to voice their support for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece from the British Museum in London. Desmond used the Austrian Audio OD505WL for his own vocal performance, enjoying
USA - To ensure maximum impact and immersive stereo sound across the many dancefloors at Detroit’s Movement Festival, event producer Paxahau and Thunder Audio selected and deployed JBL VTX Series line array sound reinforcement systems. Held in the city considered to be the birthplace of techno, Movement Festival is an annual three-day electronic music festival that brings thousands of fervent audiences to Detroit every Memorial Day weekend. After being postponed in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 marked Movement’s highly anticipated return to form and a chance for the close-knit electronic music community to finally gather in person once again. “Detroit techno was always a dark room and a huge PA - it didn't matter what kind of lights you had or whatever; if you wanted the visceral experience in regards to clarity and a loud sound system, you ca
UK - Swansea-based Total Sound Solutions, founded in 2003, covers a busy calendar of events with a comprehensive inventory of Nexo sound systems, in which Geo M6, M10 and M12 line arrays are available alongside P+, PS and ID Series point source speakers, equipping the company to handle jobs of any scale from community fairs through to multi-stage festivals. In the quieter months, the team at Total Sound turns its expertise to designing and installing fixed sound systems including, most recently, at the 1000-seat Swansea Grand Theatre. Total Sound director Chris Hooke takes up the story. “We’ve been working with the theatre as a client for many years, providing rental systems for one off events. We know the venue well, so when the subject arose of a new permanent system, we were happy to contribute our ideas for a generic configuration which became the basis of the
USA - King Jesus Church in Miami, Florida is taking their production to the next level with a recent upgrade to their Clear-Com intercom system. The upgrade incorporated their existing Clear-Com Encore analogue partyline intercom system and now additionally includes an Eclipse HX digital matrix system fitted with an E-IPA card, FreeSpeak II digital wireless transceivers and beltpacks, HelixNet digital partyline, LQ Series of IP interfaces and finally the Agent-IC mobile app. For over 20 years, King Jesus Church of Miami (KJM) has been highly successful with their ministry in Southern Florida, seeing attendance of 15,000 to 20,000 each week at both their main and remote campuses across the globe, spanning five continents. As the ministry has continued to grow, so has their production - broadcasting online to hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide, many of whom res
USA - The Peach Music Festival at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pennsylvania is known for presenting a diverse, multi-genre array of artists most known for their free-flowing improvisation and danceable rhythms. Headliners for 2022 included Billy Strings, Joe Russo’s Almost Dead, Trey Anastasio Band, and The Black Crowes, with more than 70 bands total on the bill. From an audio standpoint, the 2022 Peach Music Festival was notable as the North American major festival debut of Meyer Sound’s new Panther large-format linear line array loudspeaker. This year’s Peach Music Festival was also the first for Coatesville, Pennsylvania-based DBS Audio Systems as the principal audio provider. Company president Dave Brotman who served as system engineer at the main stage comments, “Amphitheatres with tent roofs can generate a vast amount of reflections. FOH engineers come i
USA/UK - The new Baz Luhrmann film, Elvis brings the story of Elvis Presley to the big screen. Warner Brothers was committed to ensuring as much historical accuracy as possible, and asked Shure to consult on the microphone models Elvis used. The company was provided photos of Elvis performing, then identified the vintage mics, and offered suggestions on alternative models when appropriate. For decades, Shure has assisted film production companies in identifying and locating historically accurate microphones. While there are a variety of Shure microphones used in the movie, there are three (or four) different types of Shure microphones Elvis used throughout his career: The Shure Unidyne I Model 556 – This variation of the Unidyne I is one of the more recognisable microphones that Elvis used in the prime of his career. According to the 1947 Shure Product Data S
Italy - Wisycom has announced the availability of its new Wisycom App for the Symphony Series wireless microphone system, available for iOS and Android. Accompanying the release of the app are firmware enhancements to the line, which includes the MCR54 four-channel and MCR54-Dual two-channel true-diversity portable receivers, and the MTP60 bodypack transmitter. “We’re excited to release the app for our Symphony Series users,” said Massimo Polo, vice president of sales at Wisycom. “This app brings every critical function of our Symphony devices right into the hands of system operators, improving on the most advanced wireless system available.” Similar to the Wisycom Manager PC software, the new app allows users to monitor, control and manage Wisycom devices through a Bluetooth 5 long-range connection. Users can remotely change device frequencies, monitor and
USA - Overtime Elite (OTE) is a new basketball sports league that offers talented young basketball players a better pathway to becoming professional athletes. Their new 103,000sq.ft facility is where OTE’s players train, study and compete. The facility is outfitted with the Aero, Artec, HQ, UX, and CL series by DAS Audio. AG Production Services of Las Vegas was contracted to build and outfit the new OTE facility. Andrew Gumper, president and chief project manager, oversaw the operation of the project. “It was important to OTE management that in addition to being a cutting-edge sports facility, the venue be outfitted with the best audio reproduction equipment. This is because the announcements and other information must not only be suitable in terms of volume but also be clear and articulate. This led us to deploying DAS Audio”, Gumper explains. “The baske
Korea - Klang Studios, launched by mix engineer Jong-Pil Gu, produces mainly K-Pop music but occasionally joins forces with both hip-hop and R&B artists. It has also collaborated on songs for a TV series. His philosophy focuses on the process of “creative-collaboration” between the musicians, producers, and engineers working on a particular song and also having the ‘right gear’ and infrastructure – including Van Damme cables. Blue Series Studio Grade Multicore Cable was used for the equipment connected through the patch bay. For direct connection between equipment, XKE Microphone Cable and XKE Starquad Microphone Cable was selected. Digitour Series AES/EBU & DMX 110ohm Cable was utilised for AES/EBU or S/PDIF equipment. The project took three months to complete and was finished just before the global pandemic took hold. Working with Gearlounge,
UK - With artistes ranging from the Rolling Stones to Elton John and the Eagles gracing the new d stage and fascia at this year’s American Express presents BST Hyde Park the quality of sound needed to raise the bar at AEG Live’s flagship event. Martin Audio rental partners Capital Sound (part of the Solotech group) have been the exclusive suppliers of the manufacturer’s MLA since the event’s inception in 2013, and were able to respond by providing enhanced site coverage. This year, with its expansion across three weekends, the event broke all records, selling 530,000 tickets across the nine shows. Taking note of the additional 5m height gain of Star Group’s new Titan stage (which now reaches 19m off the ground), Solotech extended the two main PA and side-fill hangs and streamlined the 11 delay towers, introducing their recently acquired WPL scalable line arra
Argentina - Studio owner Jonatan Montes Polack has installed an Audient ASP8024-HE console in his Hard Record Studio based in Arrecifes, a small town near Buenos Aires. The British desk joins an array of equipment including keyboards, sequencers, instruments, amps and a host of analogue gear. “I was always a big fan of analogue sound, that’s why the studio has quite a bit of it,” says Jonatan. Originally coming across the Audient brand when his previous desk broke down, he bought himself an iD4 so he could continue working whilst his old desk was fixed. “It was the first time that I had held an Audient product in my hands. As soon as I looked at the package, the construction, the weight and design, I realised that it was really good. I was really impressed with the quality of the components and how substantial and sturdy it was.” Further investigation
Denmark - The 50th presentation of Northern Europe’s largest and longest-running music festival, Roskilde Festival ran over eight days from 25 June through 2 July and featured more than 290 artists. Performers took to eight stages spaced throughout the sprawling festival grounds with headliners including Post Malone, Dua Lipa, Tyler, the Creator, The Strokes, Megan Thee Stallion, St. Vincent, and Haim, plus more than 130 diverse supporting acts including Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, H.E.R., Black Pumas, Kacey Musgraves, and CHVRCHES. Meyer Sound was the official sound partner for the event. “The sound at Roskilde Festival is essential for us to be able to create the communities and the perfect audience experience that we strive for at every festival,” explains Lars Liliengren, Roskilde Festival’s senior production manager. Nearly 1,000 Meyer Sound loudspea
USA - QSC has announced senor appointments in its newly-created pro audio division. Perry Celia becomes VP global sales and service, David Fuller is VP product development, Ray van Straten is VP brand, marketing & training, and Linda Lee, sr. director, operations. Celia takes the reins of the division’s global sales and service functions after having served at QSC for over 14 years – most recently as sr. director sales, Americas. Van Straten joins the team as a 20-year veteran of QSC, having led the company’s retail sales, marketing, training, and brand functions, as well as previously serving as VP of its live sound business unit. Linda Lee rejoins QSC with 23 years of progressive growth in key operations and supply chain roles, most recently as sr. director of global supply chain and operations at Identiv. “We are ecstatic about the new lea
USA -When the Hawaii theatre opened its curtains in the heart of Hollywood in 1940, it offered a different experience. The theatre had seating for over 1,100, a large lobby and lounge, retail shops, a children’s nursery, and much more. The Hawaii theatre was famous for its "erupting" volcanos of light on each side of the screen signalling the start of a movie. For more than 20 years, the theatre personified the Golden Age of Hollywood. Today, Salvation Army Hollywood - with the help of fellow Southern-California company Renkus-Heinz - is bringing a new vision for the theatre to life. The Hollywood Corps of the Salvation Army Hollywood purchased the theatre in 1963 and converted it into a multi-use community centre. Faced today with an alarming growth of homelessness in Hollywood, the organisation was looking for new ways to generate more resources and provide hope wi
