Italy - Dating back to 1980, when legendary names like BB King, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino and John Lee Hooker were among headliners at the inaugural Pistoia Blues festival in Tuscany, this remains one of the most durable annual events in Europe.

Supported by a Martin Audio PA, the 2015 edition again took place in the beautiful city's Piazza Duomo over the course of nine evenings (between July 1-24) - organised by the Associazione Blues in conjunction with the Comune di Pistoia, (City of Pistoia).

Today, the event has diversified far from its authentic blues roots, and headliners this year included Mumford & Sons, Counting Crows, Hozier, Passenger, The Darkness, The Dream Theater, Santana, Sting and an Italian Blues Night.

Technical infrastructure was provided by the long-standing Electra Service, headed by Roberto Buttarelli, with the main PA system - Martin Audio's flagship

USA - The 5,000-seat Coussoulis Arena is home to California State University, San Bernardino's Coyotes basketball, volleyball, and other indoor sports teams. The arena also hosts spoken word events, such as lectures and panel discussions, as well as music acts and performing artists of both regional and national status.

Although the Community Sound-based system that went into the arena when it was built in 1995 served it reasonably well, a supposed upgrade of the electronics a decade ago crippled it, rendering speech unintelligible and music boxy and lifeless. Without replacing the original Community loudspeakers, live sound and A/V integration firm Simon Productions (Winnetka, California) revitalized Coussoulis Arena with Ashly Audio processing, amplification, and user control.

"The original loudspeakers went in with a custom-made, proprietary controller that included al

Switzerland - Russian vocalist Alina Engibaryan was announced as the winner of the Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition 2015 by jazz and soul singer Al Jarreau, who was leading the 2015 competition jury during its final stages on 15-16 July, held at the Petit Théâtre in the Montreux Palace Hotel.

Engibaryan, 22, is currently studying on the Master Programme at the Prince Claus Conservatoire in the Netherlands, having entered jazz music school in her native Russia at the age of five. She swayed the jury with her renditions of My Gentleman Friend, Chick Corea's You're Everything and James Moody's Mood For Love.

The competition's second prize and audience choice was won by South Africa's Vuyo Sotashe, while the third prize went to Yumi Ito from Switzerland.

Established to nurture and promote talented young singers from all around the world through

India - When Professor CS Deshpande founded the Vidyalankar Dyanapeeth Trust and started coaching students in 1960, using just a single classroom in Dadar to do so, little did he know that it would grow into one of the finest engineering teaching establishments in India.

Now situated in Wadala (East), a central suburb of Mumbai, the campus of the Vidyalankar Institute of Technology stretches over 11 acres of land, and currently has around 7,000 students enjoying some of the best teaching and recreational facilities the country has to offer.

"At Vidyalankar, we understand the needs of the students, and we go that extra mile to make sure that we fulfil them," says Vishwas Deshpande, managing trustee of the Vidyalankar Dyanapeeth Trust. "God has been kind to us, so we must always do our best and provide the very best for them that we can," he adds.

With that

Germany - Located in the centre of Hamburg, Planten un Blomen is the city's 45 hectare park, renowned for its lake with summer fountains. Each evening the fountains are illuminated in changing colours and perform a choreographed display set to music in a spectacular Wasserlichtkonzerte (water light concert).

With the sound system for their famous attraction seriously showing its age, the city authorities wanted a state-of-the-art system, with high quality audio reproduction in keeping with the status of the attraction. Rüdiger Peter of Ingenieurbüro Peter GmbH was awarded the contract for the implementation of a new system and Mediasystem GmbH was commissioned to handle the installation.

The challenge in designing the new sound system was that the loudspeakers are mounted in the lake, so they have to withstand wind, water, and all year round Hamburg weather. Additionally, be

UK - A central feature of Focusrite's RedNet audio-over-IP interface system is the high-quality remote-controlled microphone preamplifiers included in the RedNet 4 and MP8R models. New firmware releases from Yamaha and Focusrite now make it possible for RedNet mic preamplifiers to be remote-controlled from Yamaha CL and QL mixing consoles, allowing significant additional interoperability between the two systems.

Yamaha's CL/QL version 3.1 firmware update, released this week, adds specific support for RedNet 4 and RedNet MP8R preamps. A firmware update to the RedNet units, also available immediately, is also required to enable the facility.

"RedNet units integrate into any Dante-based audio-over-IP network and have been steadily making a name for themselves with major broadcasting and live sound companies around the world," says RedNet product manager Will Hoult. &quo

UK - Set deep in the rolling hills of Leicestershire, in the heart of rural England, Noisily Festival of Electronic Music and Arts is veiled by one of the most beautiful wooded valleys in the country. The festival is totally contained among the trees, creating a safe haven where hedonism and escapism can flourish and thrive, which is exactly what happened over the second week of July 2015. The fourth Noisily Festival spanned a range of musical genres through a Funktion-One set-up from Bassline Productions and Audio Feed.

Noisily Festival 2015 saw 3,000 revellers descend on Coney Woods in Leicestershire. Across four stages and a smattering of smaller venues, performances from artists like Stefan Bodzin, Grouch, Loud, Outsiders, James Monro, Whyt Noyz and Victor Ruiz laid down the soundtrack to a weekend of underground electronic music. The line-up was complemented by immersive so

UK - 31st August is the last day that visitors can pre-register for free entry to PLASA Show 2015, the UK's premier business event for the live entertainment technology industry. International pre-registrations are at their highest level since the show moved to ExCel in 2013, with registrations coming from over 90 countries so far. Visitors who haven't already registered are urged to take advantage of the last few days of the free registration period.

PLASA Show 2015 takes place at London's ExCel from 4th - 6th October. From 1st September to 3rd October visitors can pre-register for £10, meaning doing so before the end of the free period can make a significant saving. On site entry will cost £25.

"The show will feature over 300 brands, covering all production di

UK - Seven years after its inaugural event at Henley-on-Thames, the Rewind Festival has mushroomed into three events - with Rewind North (in Cheshire) and Rewind Scotland in Perth further celebrating the sounds of the Eighties (and the glamorous attire that accompanies it).

Providing the PA system from the very beginning has been Capital Sound. But while the sites to the north have been problem free in terms of sound propagation, the Henley location at Temple Island Meadows, Remenham Farm, has always been noise sensitive, and until 2013 elicited complaints from the local gentry.

2013 proved to be the watershed year, when acoustics consultants Vanguardia were brought in by the promoter, Impresario Festivals' David Heartfield, and suggested a guaranteed means of curing the problem was to deploy Martin Audio's award winning MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array solution.

Capital

UK - For the NHS Confederation event in June, The ACC Liverpool team provided full production services for the second year running, and this year also provided AV for the conference dinner which took place off site at St George's Hall, Liverpool city centre.

The production needed to be delivered to a set budget, be innovative, colourful, reflect the branding identity and develop from the previous year.

Requirements included live streaming, interactive voting and the recording of all plenary sessions which were then to be made available for post conference viewing.

The annual conference and exhibition is one of the most high profile healthcare gatherings in the UK, bringing together senior leaders from across the whole of the health and social care system.

The team devised its Bring Your Own Device system for interactive voting. Innovative interactive online platforms were

USA - Originally built in 1960 and now owned by the Tenaglia family, the Jolly Roger Motel is a New Jersey beach icon that has maintained its nostalgic character while upgrading its facilities, opening a pool-side restaurant and adding a modern audio system with Community loudspeakers.

The motel's previous audio system had poor coverage and music quality and had deteriorated from years of exposure to the New Jersey shore's winter weather. Its new audio system improves both music quality and coverage and uses Community loudspeakers designed to perform in extreme weather conditions.

Moyer Electronics of Pottsville, PA, designed and installed the new system beginning with four Community R.15 COAX loudspeakers to cover the pool. Paul Moyer of Moyer Electronics explains, "By placing all four of the R.15 loudspeakers on one side of the pool, we were able to get very good covera

Denmark - UK artist and Quincy Jones protégé Jacob Collier is only 20 years old yet his undoubted talent as a musician and singer has already earned him the epithets of 'jazz's new prodigy' and 'jazz music's new messiah' from some heavy-weight music reviewers.

Currently studying at the Royal Academy of Music, Collier recently embarked on a project with Ben Bloomberg, a PhD graduate student at the MIT Media Lab, to find new ways to multitrack live music. As a fan of the brand, Bloomberg chose to use DPA microphones. These included the versatile d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphone, which was used to capture drums, percussion, melodica and piano; a d:dicate 4011 Cardioid Microphone for drum overheads and a d:fine 4088 Headset Microphone, which Collier wore throughout his performance.

Bloomberg and Collier's collaboration dates from the beginning of 2015 when Bloomberg

UK - Founded in 1989, Killik & Co is a private client stockbroker and wealth manager based in London. Its head office is housed on Grosvenor Street, Mayfair in a Grade II listed building that was formerly the Japanese Embassy.

The main meeting room at Killik & Co's Mayfair office, known as The Music Room, is a sumptuous, wood-paneled space which hosts a variety of events from seminars and presentations to regular lunchtime briefings and meetings

Over recent times the company's technical support department had been upgrading certain software elements of its IT infrastructure such as going from Microsoft Lync 2010 to 2013 and concluded that in a world of unified communications, its existing AV provision was not adequate. Killik & Co's senior support analyst, Henry Selzer, followed up an earlier speculative contact with Audiologic with a firm interest in upgrading the audio provi

USA - Set to open fall 2015, Vault 634 will be a premier location for first-class private events in the revitalized heart of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Its building was erected in 1911 for Lehigh Valley Trust, Allentown's biggest bank at the time. It has a Greco-Roman façade complete with ornate lion heads and an interior that bespeaks the bank's prestige at the time of its construction. Gold-leafed crown molding, a Victorian stained glass ceiling, marble flooring, Tiffany glass lamps, four massive stainless steel vaults, and six stunning murals all serve as highlights in an altogether distinguished interior.

Vault 634's owner has invested $3m in renovations that will ready the space for weddings, parties, fundraisers, and the like for up to 250 people while preserving the building's rich history. As part of that renovation, integration firm Sage Technologies (Mount Joy, Pennsylv

Portugal - This month, NEXT-proaudio is introducing a new paint shop at its factory, making it possible to customise the colour of each speaker according the RAL library.

It will be possible for the customer to choose the colour of the wood as well as the colour of the grill and metal parts. Clients can choose from more than 45.000 possible colour combinations.

According to NEXT-proaudio's assistant manager André Correia, "The strategy of the company is to provide to the customers a unique product for a unique solution, having 45369 possible combinations. This makes the speaker an exclusive product for each person.

"This colour customization service will be able for all series (Touring, Portable and Installation) making the sound system more discreet or flashy depending on the desired application."

(Jim Evans)

Columbia - D.A.S. Audio recently held a series of training seminars in Colombia as part of its ongoing commitment to provide sound professionals with training in D.A.S. technology. Led by D.A.S. technicians for South America and the Caribbean Roberto Almodovar and Ramón Franco, the seminars held in Medellín, Bogotá and Cali were attended by a record number of Colombian sound professionals eager to learn more about D.A.S Audio's sound solutions.

The first seminar, held in Medellín, was organized in collaboration with local distributor Coaxial & Digital Music and attended by roughly 150 professional audio technicians and operators.

Local company Cyan Eventos Medellín handled the technical production for the seminar, which featured a training course on the DASnet remote monitoring and management system as well as the EASE Focus acoustic simulation and modelling software.

T

South Africa - Live performances, dj sessions, break dancing, art, film, fashion - the Back to the City Festival in the Johannesburg neighbourhood of Newtown is a celebration of local and South African artistic expression. Live performances - boasting a star-studded line-up of local artists and headlined by internationally acclaimed hip hop rappers ONYX - entertained throughout the day on the main stage, where D.A.S. Audio systems ensured that flawless sound was delivered for the 19,000 fans who poured into the inner city venue for the day-long event.

Event organizers called in Johannesburg-based sound reinforcement company Complete Event Solutions (CES) to design and install the sound solution for the main stage. The team was faced with the challenge of designing a system that could ensure powerful yet precise sound for the range of performances that took to the stage over the

UK - At their joint booth at BPM 2015 (booth G109), Electro-Voice and Dynacord will be presenting the latest additions to their portfolios of loudspeakers, amplifiers, digital sound processing and mixing consoles.

Electro-Voice will celebrate the BPM premiere of its EKX loudspeaker family, which be displayed alongside the Electro-Voice ETX Powered Loudspeaker family as well as ZxA1, ZLX and ELX loudspeakers. Dynacord will present the Xa2-PRO system in Birmingham for the first time. Also showcased will be the brand's Vertical Array system, AXM 12A monitor as well as the PM502, PowerMate and CMS mixers.

The EKX series is the newest member of the Electro-Voice portable loudspeaker family, and combines legendary EV sound quality and reliability with the latest technology - all in a lightweight, compact package suitable for a wide range of sound reinforcement scenarios, including m

Canada - Lawo, the German manufacturer of broadcast audio, video and IP networking equipment, has provided all audio integration and distribution systems for support of the international feed of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

The main mix was provided with a 48 fader Lawo mc²66 console and a secondary console, a Lawo mc²56 with 32 faders, handled sub mix duties for over 40 ambient microphones used to bring the action from the field to the broadcast centre.

In addition to the main and secondary mix consoles, Lawo provided five DALLIS Stageboxes and a Nova73 router to manage over 1900 redundant crosspoints utilized to gather and distribute audio feeds including over 496 record tracks, 256 channels of RAVENNA (AoIP) and over 880 channels of MADI audio. Fiber tie-lines were used to connect 256 audio channels between the Nova73 and each console, as

UK - Sennheiser CEOs Daniel and Dr. Andreas Sennheiser presented the world with its first glimpse of the audio specialist's next milestone product at an exclusive event at London's Central Hall Westminster. Themed Reshaping Excellence, the celebration of sound and innovation marked Sennheiser's 70th anniversary year and featured a concert performed to an audience of 1,200 guests by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie orchestra and Grammy Award-winning artist Imogen Heap.

At London's Central Hall Westminster, Sennheiser's selected guests had the opportunity to experience the company's products, which have shaped the industry and received a private viewing of solutions and technologies never before shown to the public. "Sennheiser has had seven decades at the cutting edge of audio by defining the gold standard of what is possible. With Reshaping Excellence we are an

The Netherlands - Ampco Flashlight Group has merged the recently acquired Audiopro Netherlands with its sales companies TM Audio Holland and Lightco Netherlands in a move to streamline the department. The three companies will now operate under the name Ampco Flashlight Sales.

Audiopro Netherlands is one of the principal suppliers and installers of d & b audiotechnik and Clearcom systems. It brings a strong brand package that is supported by a number of experienced product specialists. TM Audio and Lightco are system integrators and suppliers of brands such as Allen & Heath, Philips Vari-Lite and DiGiCo.

Led by general manager Peter de Fouw of Ampco Flashlight Group and commercial director Rolf Dijkstra of Audiopro, Ampco Flashlight Sales' brand portfolio, technical know-how and experience will make it one of the leading sales operations in the Benelux.

"By bringing toge

China With responsibilities that include the live transmission/recording of court proceedings and the management of case-related documents, it stands to reason that no chances can be taken when it comes to the AV infrastructure of the Beijing Higher People's Court. In this spirit, the Court - which is the most senior level of judiciary in the municipality of Beijing - recently pressed ahead with an audio system installation in which Symetrix DSPs play an integral role.

In delivering the best possible solution, the project entailed cooperation between two of China's leading specialists in professional technology. Whilst distribution heavyweight and long-running Symetrix distributor EZPro was primarily responsible for supply and system tuning, Beijing Jinqiao Times Culture Development Co served as systems integrator in charge of product purchase and system specification.

"E

USA - The Summerland Tour, previously hailed by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the "10 Hottest Summer Package Tours", returned this year with Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing systems managing FOH and monitor positions.

Now in its fourth year, the annual Summerland tour is devised by Art Alexakis, front man of popular 90s alternative rock band, Everclear. This year's tour comprises Everclear, Toadies, Fuel, and American Hi-Fi, travelling across North America to over 30 different venues.

Alexakis gives credit to the iLive systems - comprising iLive-T112 Control Surfaces and iDR-32 MixRacks - for playing a key role in the success.

"We have used Allen & Heath for the last couple of years and the sound has just been phenomenal. I am so glad to be able to use them on every tour," says Alexakis.

"We carry two Allen & Heath iLive T-112 surfaces

Money, Money, Money - The piano that featured in nearly all ABBA's recording between 1973 and 1977 is going to auction. Sotheby's expert Philip Errington said, "The opening piano glissando from Dancing Queen is one of the most distinctive sounds of the 1970s and we are delighted to offer the actual instrument used by the legendary ABBA in their major recordings. The piano itself is an instrument of real importance and with the added ABBA provenance we expect it will have worldwide appeal."

The piano was made by Swedish musical instrument designer Georg Bolin for the US jazz pianist Bill Evans. It was bought by Stockholm's Metronome Studios in 1967 and appeared on nearly all of ABBA's recordings between 1973 and 1977.The group's pianist Benny Andersson said, "The Bolin Grand is one of a kind and was a great source of inspiration while working in the recordin

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