Canada - Solotech has announced its expansion in Toronto with the acquisition of the assets of P.A. Plus Productions. François Ménard, CEO of Solotech, says the transaction will allow Solotech to add P.A. Plus Productions' sound system expertise to services already offered by Solotech in the greater Toronto area. The move will complement Solotech's offer in audio, lighting, video, rigging and scenery and will be an addition to the activities of Midnite Hour Productions, acquired by Solotech last November.

"This is our second acquisition in Toronto in the last three months. Toronto is an important market and we want our clients to have access to a diversified list of equipment as well as a team of experts with technical capabilities and creativity to answer their needs," explained Ménard.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - Vaughan Sound has been awarded a place on a £100m university framework for the supply and installation of audio-visual equipment.

Following an extensive tender competition, the South Wales-based specialist integrator, founded in 1964, has become a preferred supplier for universities and colleges across Wales and South West England.

The agreement is in place from 2 February 2015 until 31 January 2017. It will see Vaughan Sound given the opportunity to provide a range of AV products and installation services to over 30 HEPCW and SUPC registered institutions across the two regions.

Managing director Paul Adams comments: "Winning a place on this university framework is very exciting for Vaughan Sound and the PAI Group as it provides the perfect pathway for us to develop long-term meaningful relationships with higher education establishments.

"At Vaughan So

Australia - Gearhouse Broadcast provided a complete broadcast system for the 2015 Australian Open, with its newly purchased Bel Digital MADI Monitor playing an integral part in the smooth running of a vast MADI network.

Held in Melbourne Park from 19 January to 1 February, the Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year. It sees all the major players, with Serbia's Novak Djokovic playing against the UK's Andy Murray in the final to win this key title in the tennis calendar.

Gearhouse Broadcast purchased the Bel Digital BM-A2-64MADI MADI Monitor to provide assistance with the installation and smooth running of nine networked audio consoles and associated stage boxes, which were connected via a central MADI router.

Crucially, the MADI Monitor was used extensively during configuration and setup of the system prior to the event, allowing the Gearhouse t

India - Two days in mid-November saw a festival dedicated to stringed instruments take place in New Delhi, India. Featuring acclaimed string musicians from around the world, a DiGiCo SD8 was on hand to tame the dynamics of a wide array of instruments.

The festival was founded and is organised by leading Indian violinist Sharat Chandra Shrivastava of world fusion band Mrigya. Its purpose is not only to perform different forms of string music from around the world, but also to showcase stringed instruments which are either rare or whose use has faded into obscurity.

"Originally inspired by Indian classical music and the fusion greats like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Shakti, Mrigya evolved a unique style of music signature that incorporates jazz, blues, rock, folk and other styles overlaid on Hindustani Classical. It was this fusion that led to the idea of Strings of the World,&

UAE - The Nexo Soundcheck event is taking place in Dubai in February. In conjunction with V.V.& Sons, the Nexo distributor for the region, the French manufacturer will stage a special one-day ETC training seminar, followed by "a spectacular live demonstration" of its latest compact line-array products the Geo M6 and the STM Series.

Headquartered at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai Festival City, the Nexo Soundcheck will take place on 24-25 February, and everybody is welcome, subject to a free registration with V.V. & Sons.

On Tuesday 24, Nexo's training manager and concert sound specialist Val Gilbert will conduct a one-day ETC1 training seminar. ETC is Nexo's Education, Training and Certification programme, and the ETC1 module covers the fundamentals of Nexo philosophy and technology, from the classic point-source Alpha Series systems to the present-day flagship

Germany - Ranked amongst the top five symphonic concert venues, Konzerthaus Berlin has recently installed the steerable Meyer Sound CAL column array loudspeakers in its Great Hall (Großer Saal). Blending inconspicuously into the hall's neoclassical architecture, the slender arrays are used for music reproduction as well as voice applications from concert narration and conductor commentary to emergency alarm systems.

"After modelling and measuring CAL's extended frequency performance, we were impressed by the system's ability to handle both speech and high-fidelity music reinforcement," says system designer and acoustical consultant Ralf Bauer-Diefenbach of Berlin-based MMT Network. "That has surprised many musicians who have heard it; they are amazed that such a small, unobtrusive system can sound so natural."

Several factors steered the venue toward

UK - Professional audio sales company LMC Audio has announced its first Wireless Mastered Seminar, held in conjunction with the Shure Academy European Audio Network and taking place at the Shure Academy Centre in Waltham Abbey, Essex on 3 March.

Presented by Tuomo Tolonen, Shure Distribution UK's Pro Audio Group manager and RF specialist, the event will take place in the LiveRoom at the Shure Academy Centre between 10.00am and 3.30pm, with a break for light refreshments.

This masterclass is aimed at all LMC customers and live sound users including FOH and monitor engineers, production staff, venue technicians, installers and anyone that regularly uses wireless technology. Across large, medium and small-scale event spaces, from stadium-sized concert venues through to compact corporate conference rooms, wireless systems make possible a vast array of sound reinforcement applicati

The Netherlands - Fernando Lameirinhas is one of the most revered writers and performers of world music in the Netherlands, combining many different styles and influences into a unique palette of songs. Currently on tour with his latest project, Noir, a Yamaha QL1 is ensuring audiences enjoy every nuance, despite a very limited touring budget.

Although Portuguese by birth, Lameirinhas has lived in Belgium, later Holland, all his adult life. Working with bass guitarist brother Antonio and many other musicians, he has been a high profile part of the Dutch music scene for 40 years.

The current tour sees Fernando and Antonio performing with guitarist Daniel de Moraes and a pair of African musicians, drummer Udo Demandt and Mola Sylla on vocals, mbira and kalimba.

In recent years Lameirinhas has taken musical inspiration from people and concepts that particularly interest

UK - Stage Electrics has been delivering audio and lighting solutions for over three decades. But the company continually aims to improve and expand its service; to this end it has appointed Rob Collett to the position of audio hire manager. Rob's all round knowledge of audio and his attention to detail adds a further dimension to the hire division's offering.

Rob's background spans concert touring and corporate events, having started as a system tech with bands such as Boyzone, Westlife, Busted, McFly, and Coldplay. His career progressed into the role of monitor engineer for a number of artists including The Australian Pink Floyd Show, Emilie Sande, Matt Redman and The White Lies. He has worked with companies such as MCM Productions and First Network in corporate events and was a regular face on the Top Gear Live and Gadget Show Live Shows.

"Like most people that visit t

UK - Well-known for its work in the concert touring and corporate events markets, sound rental company BCS Audio is a long-term advocate of L-Acoustics sound systems. The company's recent investment in a K2 variable curvature WST line source system underlines its commitment to high quality audio solutions and adds an extra dimension to its offering.

"Our inventory already included V-DOSC, DV-DOSC, Kara, and Kiva systems, in fact, pretty much the whole range of L-Acoustics products, so investing in K2 seemed like the next logical step," says BCS managing director David Shepherd. "We went out to L-Acoustics' Paris facility with its UK sales manager Stuart Down to hear the K2 system and pretty much said that we wanted it there and then.

"Having K2 gives us an extra competitive edge, enabling us to work easily in venues where there are limited weight loadings t

UK - Pro audio provider The Warehouse Sound Services has reported a surge in interest in d&b audiotechnik's Y Series point source and line array loudspeakers following a presentation at their Glasgow premises this week.

The presentation follows positive feedback about the Y-Series at this year's inaugural PLASA Focus at the SECC.

The Warehouse Sound Services has 25 years of experience as a leading d&b audiotechnik UK Sales Partner and is one of only two UK sales partners in d&b's newly restructured sales network.

The event was the first time customers in the North were given the opportunity to see and hear the new d&b Y series of loudspeakers up close and personal. Over 40 industry representatives from across the UK attended and the event generated unprecedented demand.

Janet Murray, sales manager of The Warehouse commented, "The response to the d&b Y Series range has

USA / Europe - Throughout his career, Lenny Kravitz has always insisted on accuracy in his guitar tone. "He works hard on getting everything just right, especially his guitar," says Alex Alvarez, Lenny's guitar tech of 23 years. "He's just insistent on his sound, which is why he never went wireless. Every time we would demo something, it would never meet his expectations."

But all that changed during production rehearsals for Kravitz's European tour in support of his latest album, Strut. After a demo of multiple high-end wireless systems arranged by Tour Supply, Lenny, Alex, and guitarist Craig Ross agreed that Shure Axient Wireless Management Network was the one system that could deliver his sonic requirements on stage.

"It started as a conversation with Lenny," Alex relates. "The subject of wireless guitar came up, and I told him there was

Croatia - The Arcus Cafè and Night Bar have a long and enviable reputation as one of Čakovec's premier hot spots for entertainment. Situated in northern Croatia, the town and its surrounding area serve a population of nearly 45,000. The club itself has been open since 1998 and has recently undergone a thorough refit. The owner, Mr Ivan Steficar, knew he wanted a top quality sound system to maintain and grow the level of customer satisfaction; so he turned to Davor Files from ELTEL, the sales partner for d&b audiotechnik's Croatian distributor, Sunflower.

Files explains the rationale behind the choice of loudspeaker, "The Arcus Cafè is quite an intimate space; in total no more than 90sq.m. The performance space for the DJ is in the centre of the room so we opted to incorporate the subs into the plinth itself. The choice there was for 18S-SUBs from the d&b xS-Series. T

The Netherlands - The recently-launched System 10 PRO wireless system from Audio-Technica has been confirmed as the centrepiece of the company's showing at ISE 2015, with the new system receiving its European debut at the show. Also of key importance will be Audio-Technica's Dante-equipped network audio line-up - the ATND971 condenser boundary microphone and ATND8677 microphone desk stand.

Suitable for fixed-installations, House-of-Worship and education applications, the new rackmount-able System 10 PRO's half rack chassis can house one or two receiver units. These can be operated either within the chassis or removed, mounted remotely and connected via Ethernet cable - the design offers real flexibility in terms of installation and use, without the expense of adding an antenna distributor and corresponding cables.

Receivers can be placed up to 300ft away - even in separate roo

France - Founded in 1368, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library of France, or BnF) is one of the country's highest profile institutions, holding copies of virtually everything published in France. Nowadays one of largest and most modern libraries in the world, a Yamaha QL5 digital mixing console has been entrusted with supporting the BnF's programme of cultural events.

The library currently holds around 14m books and printed documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps, plans, scores and many other artefacts. As well as acting as a hub for researchers, it also hosts exhibitions and cultural events in various spaces. A compact, easy to move mixing console was needed for these events, but the Yamaha QL5 also delivered much more.

Installed by Coulommiers-based MDS Audio, besides its size and portability, another key factor in choosing the QL5 was its combin

The Netherlands - TC Group's install, tour and residential brands - Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake - will once again be bringing their extensive range of install and performance audio products to ISE 2015 this month, with Tannoy leading the charge with a host of new product offerings.

Making their debut will be two additions to Tannoy's award-winning digital beam steering column array system. Tannoy has developed the new QFlex Life Safety (LS) models as a cost effective solution for critical, life safety applications, a solution that balances complex power consumption needs with the high performance and intelligibility that is the core of the proven QFlex range.

The new models have an optimised driver placement and improved current draw, making them suitable for applications where emergency voice alarms or communications may be required. The QFlex LS will also herald an integrat

UK - London-based audio consulting firm, RH Consulting, has completed its second annual count of networked audio products and released the full data as an iOS app called Networked Audio Data. Building on the research completed last year there are now over 700 networked audio products available. This does not include the 100 or so interface cards that simply enable products to be networked.

"We think that part of the increase in devices we have recorded is due us being more diligent with the research, but we have also noted a significant increase in product availability with very many product launches over the past year," remarked consultant Roland Hemming. "We included products that use custom protocols as well as looking at those that are AES67 compliant. For AVB we counted all AVnu members' products separately from those who use the underlying AVB technology for

The Netherlands - The Royal Concertgebouw is expanding its Meyer Sound inventory by adding two Meyer Sound CAL 96 column array loudspeakers in the Main Hall (Grote Zaal). Amsterdam's architecturally resplendent and acoustically magnificent concert venue, The Concertgebouw now joins two other world-renowned orchestral venues, Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus Berlin, both of which have installed Meyer Sound CAL systems within the last year.

"Here at The Concertgebouw we have been planning for some time to install a state-of-the-art permanent system for speech reinforcement," states Wouter van Poppel, head of technical services at the venue. "After listening to CAL demonstrations here on site and at the Musikverein in Vienna, we were extremely impressed with the system's clarity, speech intelligibility, and configuration flexibility."

The new Meyer Sound s

USA - Furniture building isn't the only demanding aspect of Ellen's Design Challenge, a four-week-long HGTV reality show produced by Ellen DeGeneres, which began airing in the USA in January. In addition to the six competitors who are trying to make it to the end - using saws, drills and welders, among other noisy tools, to complete the weekly tasks - the audio team faced the daunting task of providing clear, crisp audio that is not interrupted by the hum of the machines. The solution was found with DPA d:screet 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Microphones.

Selected by the show's sound supervisor, Daniel McCoy, CAS, a long-time DPA supporter, the d:screet 4061s are used by the entire 16-member cast, which includes a host and three judges as well as six designers and the carpenters with whom they are partnered. "I've had a lot of experience doing build shows," he e

The Netherlands - Shure will be exhibiting a new version of the Camera Control System for conferencing audio applications at ISE 2015, the DIS CP 7890. Designed to integrate with the DIS DCS 6000 conference or DDS 5900 discussion systems, the package allows remote set up and control of a camera system for conferences, discussions or meeting spaces.

The CP 7890 controls up to four cameras, allowing a visual feed to automatically 'follow' the active microphone in the system. In this way the camera system is always displaying the person currently talking in the discussion or conference. The CP 7890 camera control system provides a steady, consistent camera feed, making it perfect for live broadcast or archival recording.

The CP 7890 is controlled via a setup app, originally only available for use on Apple iPads, and now also available for Android tablets. Downloads are available

USA - To strengthen its support for system integrators, Meyer Sound has joined the Crestron Integrated Partner Programme. The result is a suite of Crestron modules in development to allow customers to seamlessly implement Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker systems in environments controlled by Crestron products.

The Crestron Integrated Partner modules will provide integrators with direct access to the Meyer Sound Galileo and Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management systems, including functions such as snapshot recall, level control, muting, and more. Developed and tested by Crestron, the modules will fully support Crestron 3-Series control systems via an Ethernet connection.

"As applications of Meyer Sound products continue to broaden across connected AV environments from corporate boardrooms to arenas, this new partnership will allow us to further simplify workflow for

USA - Artcoustic Loudspeakers have been chosen by Roc Nation, the American entertainment company founded and owned by Jay-Z, for their New York offices. Spitfire 24-12 are installed in the vice president's office and the main boardroom.

"Everyone wants to book the main boardroom as they're all so impressed with the system installed in there," says the office receptionist.

Founded by Jay-Z in 2008, Roc Nation is a full-service entertainment company, inclusive of artist management, music publishing, touring, merchandising, film, television and an independent record label. It has an impressive roster of musicians and sports stars signed to either the record label or management services, including Rhianna, Kanye West, Kylie Minogue, Rita Ora, Matthew Dear, HAIM, Santigold, Shakira, Timbaland, Calvin Harris, Deadmau5 and Frank Ocean, as well as Jay-Z himself.

(Jim Evans

Europe - Californian band, Of Mice & Men, recently supported Linkin Park on the European leg of the Hunting Party arena tour, with Allen & Heath GLD-80 mixers performing both FOH and Monitor duties.

This was the first experience of using GLD for both FOH engineer, Dave Nutbrown, and monitor engineer Ian 'Squid' Walsh, who needed a system that could handle large arena shows whilst keeping to a compact footprint.

A GLD-80 connected over Cat 5 to AR2412 and AR84 AudioRacks provided 32 XLR inputs for stage sources and delivered five in-ear mixes, side-fills and a pair of centre wedges. Both GLD-80s were fitted with Dante cards and mic preamp signals were split digitally via Dante over Cat 5 to FOH. The analogue gain was set at the start of the tour, with the engineers using the consoles' digital trim (+/- 24dB) to independently make adjustments during the shows.

Ian 'Squid' Wals

Germany - For decades, the name Sennheiser has been synonymous with high-quality products, "true" sound and numerous innovations that have set new standards in audio technology. This year, the audio specialist is celebrating its 70th anniversary. It remains a family-owned and -operated enterprise, now headed by a third generation of the Sennheiser family: Today's CEOs, Daniel Sennheiser and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, are the grandchildren of the company's founder, Prof. Dr. Fritz Sennheiser.

The list of product innovations from Sennheiser is as extensive as it is impressive. Sennheiser has made a significant impact on the evolution of audio technology over the past seven decades, from the world's very first open earphone, the HD 414, and the wireless stage technology pioneered by the Digital 9000 system to present-day innovations such as MobileConnect, an inclusive audio-

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