Spain - A three day festival divided into distinct Day and Night programmes, Sónar features much electronic and experimental music, alongside more contemporary offerings from the likes of Duran Duran and the Chemical Brothers, or the current vogue for EDM artists such as Skrillex and DJ Fresh.

The fact that Sónar Day's main stage plays within the confines of what appears to be a fortress, surrounded as it is by high walls, presents a distinct challenge for Barcelona based sound provider Tour Serveis.

"This was why the moment we realized the potential of d&b's new ArrayProcessing tool we wanted to use it here," said system technician Josan Bravo. The technical director of the festival Pedri González supported Bravo's enthusiasm, "The location for our festival is ideal for a city venue in terms of infrastructure, transport, and public comfort and safety, but th

UK - Capital Sound's big weekend at Hyde Park, which traditionally brings the curtain down on the festival season, saw Proms In the Park link up live with the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, while similar events took place in Belfast, Swansea and Glasgow.

The sound company has now become accustomed to rigging its flagship Martin Audio MLA at the London site, mitigating its historic problems with offsite noise escape; working for promoters Festival Republic for the second year they were probably anticipating an easy ride following the successful system induction in 2014.

But 48 hours before the event the BBC decided to install two 'interview' tepees in the Guest Hospitality enclosure - a stone's throw from the right PA hangs and out-fills - and requested the sound to be steered away from this area in order that artist interviews between acts could go live to a

UK - Sound for art, entertainment and emergency purposes will be the focus of this year's Reproduced Sound conference. Entitled Playing with Fire: sound for art, entertainment and emergency purposes, it will be held at the Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire from 10-12 November.

Keith Holland, RS chairman, said, "The programme includes a wide variety of interesting papers, from practitioners, consultants and academics, along with a number of workshops and demos.

"We are particularly delighted to welcome Siegfried Linkwitz to the conference to receive the Peter Barnett Award, and look forward to the return of John Watkinson who is speaking after the conference dinner. The papers cover many aspects of sound reinforcement, PAVA systems, sound quality, measurement, modelling and cinema sound and there will be an 'Anti-Workshop' on cautionary ta

UK - PLASA has announced the first of its nominees for the 2015 Awards for Innovation, which recognise and reward new product ideas. Nominated products should meet at least one of the Awards' criteria for 'Innovation' - to offer a new style of thinking, an improvement in existing technical practice, a new or improved aid to safety, a new commercial advantage, use new patents or unique intellectual property, or introduce new technology, materials or manufacturing techniques.

The final assessment of those claims will take place at the PLASA Show, where an independent panel of industry experts will judge the entries, based on the strength of their innovation alone. Respected for their impartiality, the panel will hear a five-minute presentation from each of the nominees, and have the opportunity for questions and answers, before making their final selections.

There are no product

UK - Orbital Sound reports that it has supplied Stevenage's 500-seat Gordon Craig Theatre with a new d&b audiotechnik auditorium system, comprising principally T-Series loudspeakers, with B4 Subs and E6 front fills.

The new system also features Yamaha CL5 and QL5 consoles, with Rio stage racks, together with an essential element of show control hardware in the form of a Nemesis Audio UMT-2D USB MIDI Trigger. The Gordon Craig's new system is configured with a hang of six d&b audiotechnik T-10s per side, a further four T-10s in a centre cluster, six E-6 speakers as front fills, plus four B4 Subs, with the system powered by d&b audiotechnik's new 10D and 30D install amps.

The theatre and Orbital Sound has had a close working relationship for more than a decade, as Dave Nott, chief technician at the Gordon Craig Theatre, explained, "We needed to upgrade, as much of our previo

UK - After 2014's successful return to the PLASA Show, this year Yamaha will be exhibiting on a bigger stand and, for the first time at the event, sharing it with Nexo and Line 6.

The companies are exhibiting on Stand K40, in a prime position opposite the PLASA Show Bar. The stand is at the heart of the Audio zone in PLASA Show's new layout, a zoned arrangement designed to make it easier for visitors to navigate the show floor.

With the first units due to arrive at dealers very soon, the Yamaha Rivage PM10 large format console will be the centrepiece of the stand. Product specialists Andy Cooper and Wayne Powell will be on hand to give hands-on demonstrations to engineers keen to familiarise themselves with it, as well as on Yamaha's CL, QL and TF consoles, which will also be on display.

Other Yamaha products on show will be the company's CIS range of installation products,

USA - With appearances at the summer's biggest music festivals and sold out concerts around North America, Southern rock group Alabama Shakes is currently on tour promoting its latest album, Sound & Color.

FOH and production engineer Shane Haase searched for the most "natural-sounding" equipment, including a Solid State Logic Live L500 console.

Inspired by the blues and soul of their Southern roots and the rock sounds of their generation, the band opts for a raw sound on stage, selecting a variety of both modern and classic audio equipment. "We start with the microphones, which have been chosen to compliment the band's overall dynamic and to express their voices in the most natural way," says Haase, who has been touring professionally for the past decade.

"From the microphones, it's simple signal processing just like anything else: microphone

UK - Entec continues its lively working relationship as a lighting supplier to one of the UK's most innovative, interesting - and successful - contemporary artists, Paloma Faith, working closely with LD Tony Austin and lighting director / programmer Phil White

Known for her eccentric retro style, Faith's music career goes from strength to strength with another chart topping album and a 2015 Brit Award for best Female Solo Artist. She has been touring for around the last six months including a spring outing for which Entec supplied the full lighting rig. The shows have continued into the summer with the floor elements of the rig modified as a specials package for festivals and headliner gigs.

The full rig comprised four overhead trusses with two side trusses, for which Entec invested in a new Doughty Engineering H-Frame system which is highly versatile. It proved the ideal solu

USA - The Bay Area-based band Primus recently toured North America with a Meyer Sound Lyon linear sound reinforcement system to deliver its quirky, bass-driven brand of alternative rock. Described by FOH engineer Jason Mills as a "really fast" system with plenty of punch, the Lyon configuration was provided by Pro Media/UltraSound of Martinez, Calif.

"Lyon is a very snappy box," says Mills, who worked triple duty as FOH engineer, production manager, and system tech. "It's responsive, punchy and clear. The fans have noticed, too-I'm getting more compliments after shows than ever before."

The full system for the tour included 24 Lyon-M main and 4 Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers, 12 700-HP subwoofers, and four UPJ-1P loudspeakers as front fills. Two CQ-2 and four MSL-4 loudspeakers were deployed as needed for corner front and out-fill, w

USA - Scandinavian FOH engineer Mads Staerke, who has mixed Denmark's hip-hop artist L.O.C. for seven years, will be a guest speaker on the Meyer Sound Mixing Workshop webinar series. Staerke will be joining programme host and veteran mixer Buford Jones.

In the webinar, Staerke will discuss the danger of excessive audio compression, his experimentation with large-scale concert system configurations, and his approach to mixing with linear systems like Meyer Sound LEO. An open Q&A will be available for attendees' questions.

The Mixing Workshop schedule: Wednesday, September 30 7AM PDT/2PM UTC; 9AM PDT/4PM UTC. To attend these sessions, sign up for free here. http://www.meyersound.com/events/seminars/webinars.php

In addition to L.O.C., Staerke has mixed jazz (Caroline Henderson), electronic dance music (KATO), rock (Kashmir), pop (Kim Larsen), and more. When not on the road he

UK - Warehouse Sound Services helped this month's BBC Proms in the Park at Glasgow achieve a sensational sound experience after designing, installing and engineering the sound for event and the diverse range of acts involved.

BBC Proms in the Park returned to Glasgow Green this month. The live event took place as part of the BBC's wider Last Night of the Proms celebrations. The event featured X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, Young Traditional Musician of the Year Claire Hastings and world-renowned saxophonist Amy Dickson

The Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under Stephen Bell, performed a versatile show, with music ranging from Bernstein's overture Candide and Sibelius' Karelia Suite to a specially adapted Poldark Suite by composer Anne Dudley from her music for the popular television series, and a host of imaginatively crafted accompaniments to main acts that also included the lo

UK - What can just £5 do? It can win you an Amazon Gift Card for £100, £250 or even £500 - but more importantly it can help a colleague in need who has fallen on hard times because they, or an immediate family member, is seriously ill or injured.

Stop by the Behind the Scenes UK stand (C10) at the PLASA Show 5-7 October to do your part to bring help and hope to your colleagues in need. Raffle tickets are just £5 each and will be available throughout the show. The drawing will be held on Tuesday afternoon, 7 October but you do not need to be present to win.

The raffle is to help raise funds for the new UK charity Behind the Scenes which provides grants to entertainment technology professionals that may be used for basic living costs, some medical related expenses, transportation, retraining, or funerals. One grant recipient said, "I just want

UK - Liverpool based Adlib is full of festival spirit following a highly successful summer of shows and events covering a rich and diverse cross section of concerts and music performances - from Latitude to Leeds/Reading - with lighting, sound, their infectious enthusiasm and characteristic humour.

Creamfields is always a special event for Adlib. The company has been involved with various Cream live activities since the superclub exploded onto the dance scene in the early 90s and has continued to be a major influence right at the epicentre of rave culture.

This year Adlib supplied sound and lighting to three arenas, CF03 the 15,000 capacity Cream Mega Arena; CF05 The Curve Arena - complete with wrap-round production design and CF12 Hospitality, with production overseen by Ian Greenway production manager from LarMac LIVE.

Cornbury 2015 was staged in the attractive leafy envir

Italy - Audiosales in Italy has reached the end of a busy summer, supporting customers through a succession of festivals and high profile events involving premier Martin Audio PA systems; these have ranged from the flagship MLA system to conventional line arrays.

The first ever Today's Festival welcomed more than 23,000 people across five different locations over three days in Turin's Barriera di Milano - incorporating major concerts, dance events and creative workshops. Some 50 national and international artists performed including American headliners Interpol and TV on the Radio.

In the main stage sPAZIO211, Davide Scalzo, the owner of Microfase, provided a Martin Audio system comprising 12 x W8LC Compact line array per side, with 18 WSX subs, and W8C/W8S as side-fills.

Over in Tuscany, the first edition of Beat 2015 saw a total attendance of over 70,000 people arrive at t

Mexico - 15 September is one of the most important dates in the Mexican calendar; this year, it marked the 205th Independence Day for the country, with celebrations in the Zócalo public square in Mexico City. Multiple Nexo line array systems were deployed around a special four-sided concert stage, with the full sound reinforcement specification running to 436 Nexo cabinets in total.

Zócalo is one of the largest public plazas in the world. With live music, mass singing and fireworks, the event is attended by 40,000 spectators.

The demanding job of providing sound reinforcement for the event was shared between five audio rental companies with a strong tradition of cooperation. Sound designer Sergio Zenteno coordinated the pooling of equipment inventories from Tecnoson Espectaculos, ROA, Star, Backline and Concepto 3, to create a system that used 12x Nexo line arrays around the

UK - ASP800, the new, eight-channel mic pre & ADC from Audient is now shipping worldwide and is available at all Audient dealers.

Following the release of the bus-powered audio interface iD14, the highly anticipated ASP800 offers eight Audient console mic pres, Burr-Brown A-D converters, two discrete JFET instrument inputs and two brand new 'Retro Channels' featuring tone controls HMX and IRON.

HMX is a custom harmonic distortion designed to emulate the sweet, thick tones often associated with 1960s tube designs, whilst Audient's brand new variable British transformer saturator, IRON instantly adds sparkle, replicating the coveted transformer 'zing' of British audio in the 1970s - both giving new dimensions to a recording.

"Not only does ASP800 boast an incredible feature set, Audient is one of the only companies to offer custom transformer saturation at this price poin

UK - As part of a busy summer, Illuminate Design has recently completed a number of technical upgrades at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley.

Working with the Hawth's technical manager (Quentin Whitaker), Illuminate Design's technical sales manager Ken Berreen and operations director Andrew Wales designed & installed new sound, lighting and rigging solutions for the venue.

Both the studio and the main theatre benefited from new sound equipment. In the Studio Illuminate Design supplied, Yamaha QL1 mixing console with a digital Yamaha RIO3224D I/O rack, RCF C5212-94 2way speaker system, RCF S 8015 II Subwoofer 15" 1000W - Reflex RCF IPS 2700 Class H power amplifiers and RCF IPS 3700 Class H power amplifiers.

The main theatre system was designed in conjunction with Al Brown from Martin Audio. The new system included Martin Audio W8VDQ speakers, MA 3.0 amplifiers, MA 2.0 Amplifiers

UK - Long-time advocate of Martin Audio's signature sound, venue installation specialist Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL) has wasted no time in introducing the manufacturer's new CDD range to the leisure hospitality industry.

The company has completed several high profile projects including its first installation for the burgeoning Burger & Lobster bar/restaurant brand. For their sixth venue opening in Bath the operators took over the Grade II*-listed Octagon Chapel - originally built in 1767 but recently restored within the courtyards of the city's new Milsom Place retail and restaurant development.

The new CDD - the successor to Martin Audio's popular AQ architectural range -combines distinctive curved enclosures with Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology to deliver high performance, projecting more output to the rear of the audience to distribute sound evenly front-to-bac

The Netherlands - German manufacturer and MADI specialist, DirectOut Technologies launched new remote software for their MADI analyzer and signal generator, ANNA-LISA, at the recent IBC show in Amsterdam.

ANNA-LISA is a handheld device with a simple traffic light style LED Go/No Go indication. It is equipped with two MADI I/Os; a coaxial BNC port and an SFP cage for single mode or multimode transceivers. It is compatible with all MADI formats and checks for AES10 conformity, sample rate, format, signal amplitude and jitter. The onboard generator has three presets for different test signals.

The newly-launched remote software, which is available as an app for ANDROID™ devices and connected via Bluetooth, offers a significantly enhanced feature set for ANNA-LISA users. Functions include advanced analysis of signal parameters including amplitude and jitter measurement; monit

UK - Buckinghamshire New University Audio and Music Production graduate Alexander Robins has won an award from leading manufacturer Sennheiser for the quality of his work.

Alexander, 21, won the Sennheiser Prize for Best Music Production Recording 2015 from David Brinsden, director operations UK at Sennheiser UK, after graduating from the University, in High Wycombe.

Sennheiser recognises what it considers to be the best sound design work produced by Bucks New University graduates this year.

Alexander won £1,500 worth of Sennheiser equipment. He said, "It feels great to know that the productions that I've worked on over the last year have been reviewed by industry professionals. I have learnt how to produce better sounding audio and asses my skills in sound design and recording, To be told that my work is of an outstanding and professional standard is a huge boost

Spain - The stunning Terraza Kopa in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria recently installed a D.A.S. professional sound system. This modern venue, located on the ground floor of El Muelle shopping centre just steps from the Muelle de Santa Catalina cruise dock, boasts unbeatable views and a one-of-a-kind atmosphere. Décor, delicious cocktails and excellent music combine to make Terraza Kopa one of the top spots for a night out in the capital of Gran Canaria.

Outfitting the venue with clear yet robust sound was no small undertaking, requiring a system that could handle spaces designed for sipping on a cocktail and chatting with friends and others created for electrifying live performances. The owners called in local sound company Canarias Hipermusic to provide a comprehensive solution to the different needs of the Terraza Kopa, and after analyzing the venue the technicians recommen

Finland - EM Acoustics reports that their Danish distribution partner, Alfa Audio, has expanded distribution into Finland. Juha Tamminen has been appointed to represent the brand exclusively throughout both territories.

Alfa Audio has been distributing EM Acoustics in Denmark since 2009. According to EM Acoustics' Mike Wheeler, the relationship has been a successful one. "Alfa Audio is probably the most successful pro audio distributor in Denmark with an impressive roster of brands. They have a pro-active approach to the market which matches our own philosophy perfectly, and they have done a good job for us in Denmark. I'm delighted that they are now going to be able to expand their activities into Finland now that Juha Tamminen is back in the saddle.

"Juha has in fact played a key role in the EM Acoustics/Alfa Audio relationship as it was he who introduced us to Alf

South Korea - "The cost always has to be one of the decisive factors when one is contemplating a sound system installation," opens Jung Hawon, one of the elders in the Apgujung Kwanglim Church in Gangnam, Seoul, South Korea and chairman of the broadcasting department. "The opportunity to use the brand new specialized installation amplifiers, the 10D and the 30D, from d&b audiotechnik meant that the savings, when compared to other quotations, were more than persuasive."

That said, Hawon was very thorough when determining which system demonstration met with his congregation's approval. A group from the eighty thousand strong global worshippers were provided with a form of grading sheets so they could rate the three systems vying for the contract. The d&b V-Series system, augmented by some E8 loudspeakers and driven by the newly developed 30D and 10D amplifiers

UK / USA - To allow PLASA to refocus and concentrate on the needs of their respective membership bases, the PLASA Governing Body announces that PLASA's North American and European Union Regional Boards will end their cooperation agreement and return to functioning as separate associations.

A statement from PLASA reads: "This move will allow the associations to set strategic direction to meet their individual demands. It affords more focus of resources in each market toward the activities that are most relevant and pertinent to members and it will allow for more agility and decisiveness.

This in turn will foster the health of both organisations and protect their futures. As we did prior to the start of the cooperation agreement, the two associations will continue to work cooperatively on issues of common interest for the benefit of their members and the industry."

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