UK - The renowned PLASA Professional Development Programme will once again bring global experts together to share their insight and experience at the 2015 PLASA Show, which takes place at London's ExCel from 4-6 October. The first tranche of seminar sessions has just been announced, featuring a wide range of fascinating and thought-provoking subjects.

One of the PLASA Show's new initiatives for 2015 is a sector-specific zoned layout, which will make navigation around the show easier than in previous years. The show's seminars feature a similarly zoned theme, with sector-specific stages hosting over 150 speakers throughout the three days, highlighting case studies and advice on Lighting, AV, Audio, Broadcast and Staging.

The first 16 sessions have subjects ranging from high profile productions and technical best practice

UK - Martin Audio has announced the availability of CDD Loudspeaker Management System and EASE Data. Offered to partner the new CDD range, DX0.5 adds affordable loudspeaker system management to the existing range of DX loudspeaker controllers.

Delivering EQ, crossover, processing and system protection, the DX0.5 2x6 speaker processor provides complete optimisation for both passive and powered loudspeaker systems.

Each input and output is loaded with a range of digital processing including flexible EQ, crossover, delay and limiting solutions. It delivers everything needed to professionally optimise loudspeaker systems of nearly any size. The DX0.5 utilises high-end 24-bit AKM AD/DA converters with 120dB dynamic range for class-leading sound quality. With 24 memory locations users can recall CDD pre-set files via the front panel, or using the free software application and front

Australia - Approximately 75km north of Sydney, in the city district of Gosford, is the rather un-prepossessing building that houses the vibrant Laycock Street Community Theatre. The theatre is the only professional proscenium arch venue in the locality, with its tiered seating comfortably accommodating audiences up to 390. The Gosford Musical Society sits at the heart of many of the theatre's productions.

Chris King is arts and culture coordinator for Gosford City Council. "Laycock Street Community Theatre is very much the hub of the area's performance culture. As such, it hosts a very wide variety of performance genres from musicals, rock concerts, pure drama performances, comedy acts, corporate events, film presentations and various community groups, like dance schools. The goal of any new loudspeaker system was to ensure all styles of performance were suitably covered,

Hungary - Rental company Silent Session has supplied a complete Roland solution for broadcast, monitoring and recording of the hit show, The Voice and now more recently for 'Rising Star to Hungarian commercial television channel TV2.

The REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) based system which includes the Roland M-480 digital mixing console, Roland M-48 personal monitoring systems, Roland R-1000, R-44 and R-88 recorders and Roland Digital Snakes was initially specified to handle the PA and the stage monitoring for the recording stage on The Voice. For the television series Rising Star, the Roland system is also used to produce the broadcast sound for all of the music during the shows.

TV2 broadcasts around five music shows each year and the entire Roland system is used for FOH, stage monitoring and broadcast mix for all of them. As the second-

Europe - Moloko front-woman Roisin Murphy is performing tracks from her third solo album, Hairless Toys across the festivals this summer, where an Audient ASP880 mic pre is featured - on stage. Album co-writer and producer Eddie Stevens - whose credits include Freak Power, Zero7 and Moloko - has continued to work with to Roisin since her Moloko days to create this eight-track album, and is pretty pleased with how the Audient eight channel mic pre is managing to capture the music live.

"It isn't being used by either FOH engineer or monitor engineer," begins Stevens, mysteriously. "It's being used on stage - and, in fact, on full display to those with particularly fine eyesight in the audience. It helps, in this regard, to have all those lovely multi-coloured lights!"

He explains further, "Our set-up takes a split from Roisin's vocal mic, a split

The Glastonbury Effect - Lionel Richie says he has Glastonbury to thank for bagging his first number one album in the charts in more than two decades. The veteran saw The Definitive Collection By Lionel Richie & The Commodores hit the top spot. The album only reached number 10 when it was released back in 2003, but jumped up 103 places following his widely praised performance at Worthy Farm. It is the 66-year-old's first UK number one album since Back To Front 23 years ago. "I was overwhelmed performing at Glastonbury in front of all those people and for the fans to make the album number one is unbelievable," he said.

Live and Licking - The Grateful Dead have given what they say will be their last group performance in front of 70,000 fans, some in tears, in Chicago.The four surviving members of the band ended their 50-year run this weekend with thr

Italy - Rome's Palalottomatica indoor sports arena hosted this year's Italian Summit by global nutrition and weight management company Herbalife.

The event's AV, lighting and ground support contractor was Planet Service of San Marino, whose audio team consisted in Alessandro Saudelli (audio chief, responsible for the system's design and fine-tuning), Emanuele Vischi (sound engineer and PA man), Francesco Passeri (mic tech and PA man) and Edoardo Michelori (PA man).

Saudelli explains how the team faced the venue's infamous acoustics (the domed ceiling and extremely reverberant environment are many a sound engineer's nightmare), ensuring excellent sonic quality for the 8,000 attendees.

"Our brief was for a central stage, to exploit the venue's entire capacity. This, plus the fact that the rig couldn't be flown, meant we had to opt for a ground support format, with consequ

USA - Fifty years after forming their band at a Palo Alto music store, the surviving founders of the Grateful Dead kicked off their end-of-an-era Fare Thee Well mini-tour at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. with a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system driving a quadraphonic surround setup.

The two Silicon Valley shows were a landmark occasion with more than the 60,000 devoted Deadheads in attendance each evening. It was also a milestone in the band's decades-long association with Meyer Sound CEO John Meyer, a relationship spawned from a shared passion for audio experimentation and audience experience. The Grateful Dead's original sound engineer, Owsley "Bear" Stanley, first tapped Meyer to create acoustic solutions for the legendary 'Wall of Sound' system in the 1970s.

The Meyer Sound Leo system with its accompanying 1100-LFC low-f

UK - An array of PreSonus StudioLive AI loudspeakers have recently been installed in London's premier 'boutique fitness destination', Core Collective. Part of a highly integrated project at the new Kensington gym, the StudioLive AI speakers are responsible for delivering the pumping soundtrack of the facility's fixed-bike spinning classes.

Designed to perform with the clarity of a studio monitor in live and installed sound situations, each StudioLive AI enclosure delivers a remarkable 2000W of power. All units are based around PreSonus' 8" Co-Actual driver - which delivers accurate high and mid-frequency reproduction - with woofer configuration and frequency response being among the distinguishing features between models.

A total of five 328AI speakers - with their 3x8" driver design - and a single 18sAI subwoofer were specified for the project by Belgravia-based

UK - Following the recent announcement of Pro Audio Systems as a main dealer, EM Acoustics has confirmed the appointment of Manchester-based pro audio specialists, Audio Alliance. This latest move brings the number of EM Acoustics UK main dealers up to 10.

Audio Alliance specialises in providing innovative solutions to their clients in a number of market areas, from conferences to international launch events, theatre and broadcast. The company already has a thriving rental department and is currently developing a sales side to the business with selected products and clients.

Audio Alliance's MD, Oliver Driver explains. "We've had a long-standing relationship with Ed [Kinsella] and Mike [Wheeler] that goes back over 10 years. We have always liked their products and specified them where appropriate. Indeed, the sight of Ed's Landrover piled high with new speakers for us to

USA - Located in Delaware County near Philadelphia, Ridley High School serves 2200 students in its new facility completed in 2001. The school is well-known for its athletic programmes and its wide variety of elective classes including music and drama.

Ridley's attractive auditorium is well designed for dramatic performances and musicals with a large stage and modern technical and lighting systems. Unfortunately, the original audio system was poorly designed and installed. Its loudspeakers were suspended above the acoustic clouds resulting in numerous dead spots, poor vocal clarity and muffled music quality.

In early 2015, after several unsuccessful repair attempts, the school asked Clear Sound, Inc. of Yeadon, Pennsylvania to propose a system upgrade.

Clear Sound's Chris Hughes designed a new loudspeaker system using three Community I Series model IP8-1152/96 loudspeakers su

USA - In response to tremendous growth, New Beginnings DFW Church in Bedford, Texas purchased a former ten-screen Cineplex and converted it to a stunning sanctuary for contemporary worship. Its high-energy services, complete with a full band and plenty of vocalists, benefit from the simple, but tremendously powerful Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers, subwoofers, and amplifiers that Jeff McLeod at Church Audio Video designed and installed.

"It's a big space, and we needed to fill it with musical, intelligible sound," said McLeod. "Clarity is everything, and Danley has a proven record of delivering products that are well-articulated and powerful. We gave them a left-centre-right system that would convey all of the excitement and invite all of the immersion that their energetic services deserved."

At the front end, two Yamaha CL5 consoles paired with two Yamaha R

UK - One of the many highlights of a very busy exhibition (at its new home of Alexandra Palace in north London) was Autograph's acceptance of the prestigious ABTT 'Sound Product Of The Year' award on behalf of DiGiCo for the new S21 console, shown exclusively on their stand.

Held on the evening of the first day in the Londesborough Room, the evening included both the ABTT Theatre Awards and the SMA National Stage Management Awards, presented by the ABTT's chairman Louise Jeffreys, the Barbican's director of arts.

In making the award, the ABTT jury commented, "The S21 sound desk has the sound quality DiGiCo are renowned for, but at a price that makes it achievable for small and medium scale theatres and tours. The intuitive user interface makes the desk easy to use, and the built in MADI USB interface makes connection to recording and complex show playback systems exceptio

UK - DiGiGrid is expanding its line of advanced audio interfaces with DiGiGrid IOC, a control room I/O for SoundGrid systems. Ideal for the control room, the DiGiGrid IOC audio interface offers a range of connectivity options, including two mic/line inputs with broadcast/studio-grade preamps; eight line inputs/outputs; 16 AES and ADAT inputs/outputs; and two headphone outputs.

With DiGiGrid IOC and a dedicated SoundGrid DSP server on their network, users will be able to run hundreds of SoundGrid-compatible Waves and third-party plugins, all fully integrated within their DAW of choice. By plugging DiGiGrid IOC into a SoundGrid network with a single Ethernet cable, users will enter a new world of real-time tracking, mixing and monitoring, with extremely low latency of only 0.8 milliseconds.

USA - Philips Strand Lighting has announced that the NEO lighting control system is now expanding with the introduction of the Submaster and Playback Wings along with the rack-mount Playback Controller. Designed for use in theatrical, house of worship, and themed entertainment productions, the expanded NEO lighting control system can help you realize the full potential of your lighting designs quickly and intelligently.

"The NEO lighting control console has been proven to be a powerful and easy-to-use lighting control system and we are excited to now be expanding its power and control even more," said Bobby Harrell, Philips Strand Lighting product specialist. "With the addition of the Submaster and Playback Wings plus the Playback Controller, the NEO family now offers more control options and innovative control technologies for whatever type of production or light

Canada - The AES 59th International Conference, with an emphasis on Sound Reinforcement Engineering and Technology, will take place July 15-17, 2015, at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. This is the first AES International Conference in over 25 years dedicated to large scale sound reinforcement, public address and live sound, and the conference is being supported by an impressive list of sponsors, including some of the preeminent forces in live-sound technology. At the conference, sponsors will be displaying cutting-edge technologies with experts available to discuss and demonstrate their products.

Confirmed sponsors include Meyer Sound, Solid State Logic, Yamaha Commercial Audio, Audio-Technica, Professional Sound Magazine, KV2 Audio, Erikson Audio, McGill University's Schulich School of Music, Gerr Audio, SMAART, Solotech, Flex Acoustics, DiGiCo, Ashly Audio, Shure, Tanno

Italy - RCF has introduced two new members to its V-Max family - V6 and V10 high-power two-way bass reflex full range systems. The V-MAX Series represents "a no-compromise compact design and construction, offering a very natural sound in recorded music and live situations," says RCF.

All V-MAX Series cabinets are in birch, heavy duty coated with weather resistant polyurea paint. Free from spurious vibrations, they offer a reinforced construction at the highest levels in the professional market.

"The V10 mid bass transducer is designed to provide an excellent frequency response linearity with very low distortion. A very strong magnetic structure guarantees dynamics and precision, whereas a new and unique 2.5" voice coil design provides a very high power handling."

The V6 is the smallest member of the V-MAX family and is a flexible and powerful tool

UK - In the Great Hall of St. Paul's Girls' School in London, two new Meyer Sound CAL 64 column array loudspeakers provide vibrant and life-like reproduction for speech, live music performances, and video soundtracks. Custom-coloured to match the surrounding oak woodwork in the historic 1904 auditorium, the two slender columns employ precision beam-steering and -splitting technology to deliver uniform coverage across the seating areas.

CAL was selected for the venue after Ian Hawes, the school's theatre manager, and Jonny Burns, head AV technician attended a convincing demonstration. "We listened to the sound quality, saw the slender profile, turned to each other and said, 'This is exactly what we need for the Great Hall,'" recalls Hawes. "The system is in constant use, mostly for speech but also for pre-recorded playback, and occasionally for singing voices or fo

Europe - When the world's best cyclists set off on the Tour de France, the fans that line up along the roadsides will be joined by many more via the race's extensive live radio and TV coverage. Produced by Euromedia, this year's event will make use of a new Lawo-equipped OB truck.

The 102nd edition of the world's biggest cycling contest will take 22 teams of nine riders - a field of up to 198 starters - over 3,360km of road, through 21 stages in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. After starting in the Dutch city of Utrecht on 4 July 2015, the tour will close in its traditional manner on 26 July, on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.

The new Euromedia OB hybrid production vehicle C42 supports 10 to 12 cameras, and is designed specifically to meet the demands of sports, variety, games and entertainment production. On the Tour de France, it will co-ordinate all the RF a

USA - Rat Sound, a leading sound reinforcement specialist for the concert touring industry, integrated a Dante audio network from Audinate at this spring's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and consequent Stagecoach festival.

Faced with the challenge of covering enormous areas of roughly 750 x 1200 feet, Rat Sound simplified the installation by installing a Dante network to ensure robust and reliable carriage of high-quality audio across 21 delay positions. In addition to reducing the labour installation costs, the Dante audio over IP solution provided exceptional performance at the renowned music festival. The annual festival featured over 200 artists and attracts several hundred thousand fans to the desert climate of Indio, California over two subsequent weekends every April.

For Coachella, the 21 delay positions were divided between the main Coachella festival stage

USA - The trusses above the CMA Music Festival's main and satellite stages at Nashville's LP Field sported a fleet of ten RF Venue collapsible CP Beam helical antennas. The four-day festival shattered attendance records and featured country music's biggest stars.

The show's RF designer and technician, Jason Glass, principle at Clean Wireless Audio, retained by veteran touring audio provider Sound Image, used CP Beams for both transmit and receive antennas which were available to all guest engineers.

"This is my third year doing the LP field show," says Glass. "The lighting rig that encompasses the stage is a veritable faraday cage. We deploy a number of antennas up in the trussing. This configuration is designed to give the best possible line-of-sight link between the performers on stage and the antennas."

Jason and Sound Image wanted to give guest artist

Germany - German loudspeaker manufacturer Kling & Freitag has announced the death of its co-founder Martin Kling following long-term health problems. The company statement says:

"We are mourning the passing of Martin Kling. Last weekend, the former partner, namesake and chief developer of Kling & Freitag GmbH passed away unexpectedly at the age of 54.

"Already in the early 1980s, Martin and Jürgen [Freitag] were developing speaker systems which have also had worldwide recognition since 2000 and enjoy an excellent reputation. The two founders had the greatest successes with the CA 106 compact speaker, which became a type of industry standard in sound technology. Many other speaker systems which were developed by Martin, such as the ACCESS, CA and Line 212 series and the SEQUENZA 10, are still setting standards in industry today. Over the years, we were thus also able

France / China - Nexo is reinforcing its sales team with the addition of industry sales heavyweight Michel Brouard.

To be based in Hong Kong in the newly-created position of Greater China business development manager, Michel will play a critical role in increasing the presence and success of Nexo in the Asia Pacific area.

A well-known name in sound reinforcement circles, Michel is an industry veteran. Beginning his career in project management in his native France, he has been most prominent in the role of international sales manager for L'Acoustics, where he worked for 16 years. Most recently, he has been part of the sales team for Italian company K-Array.

Michel says: "I am really pleased to join Nexo, one of the most innovative and respected French pro-audio companies. Although I'll be working in a territory I know very well, this will be an interesting new challenge

Germany - d&b audiotechnik is enhancing its senior management team by appointing Hans-Peter Nüdling as chief sales officer. From 20 July 2015, Nüdling will be responsible for global sales and services, bringing over 25 years of sales, business development, electronics and technology experience to the team.

As a member of the managing board, Nüdling will be responsible for global sales and global services including education, application support and services. He has direct and channel sales, and business development expertise, and will help to establish solid, best-practice processes to further expand the business. In addition, Nüdling has worked in Europe, the Americas and Asia, which means he has an in-depth understanding of the international markets in which d&b does business.

"Based on Hans-Peter Nüdling's international experience, excellent sales capabilities and

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