Germany - As part of a plan to increase its presence in Europe, Valencia-based DAS Audio is set to open a new subsidiary office in Germany on 1 June 2021. Currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, the manufacturer has branches in the USA, South America and Asia. DAS Audio GmbH will be in charge of sales, marketing and customer service of DAS Audio Germany under the direction of managing director and partner Arne Deterts. Deterts was the head of the German branch of dBTechnologies for more than 20 years, including as the managing director for the last eight and until he left the company. “I came across DAS Audio relatively early on, not really knowing a lot about them,” comments Deterts. “But the more I dealt with DAS Audio, the more enthusiastic I became and the more I realised how well all this fitted together. Great company, great products, great people
USA - After more than 30 years with console manufacturer API, Dan Zimbelman has moved to loudspeaker manufacturer PMC where he is now senior export business development manager. Based in the US, Dan will be working closely with PMC partners and resellers around the world to ensure that they have all the training and support they need to grow sales in their local markets and understand new formats such as Dolby Atmos for music mixing. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, Dan has held many key positions within the professional sound industry, including recording engineer and recording studio owner. During the mid-1980s, he spent three years helping Rupert Neve launch the Focusrite brand of signal processing equipment in the USA, before moving to console manufacturer API where, as director of sales for nearly 30 years, he consistently exceeded sales targets and helped AP
UK - Shure Incorporated has announced the appointment of Duncan Bell, founder of Wideband Consulting, as a consultant on spectrum and advocacy affairs. Bell is a founding member of the BEIRG (British Entertainment Industry Radio Group) organisation and the former financial director of the Autograph group in the UK. He is also a senior member and political team leader of the #WeMakeEvents campaign, formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Shure has been the leader in spectrum advocacy on behalf of the audio industry and continues to devote significant investments to secure its future,” comments Ahren Hartman, VP of quality at Shure. “We look forward to joining forces with Duncan to secure and protect spectrum for the wireless microphone user community.” “Duncan’s 36-year career in live sound production and industry relations makes him uniquely suited t
USA - Audinate and Analog Devices have collaborated to introduce the availability of Dante Embedded Platform (DEP) for ADI’s SHARC audio digital signal processors (DSPs). The collaboration is made possible by Audinate’s introduction of DEP - which offers Dante audio-over-IP as on-chip software. By adding DEP to a powerful, compact, audio feature-rich, and multi-core application processor - such as the SHARC ADSP-SC5xx - manufacturers ensure they deliver Dante connectivity with high performance, low latency, and deterministic audio processing. The result is a single-chip solution with ‘impressive system design versatility’. “Audinate sees a shared opportunity as the AV industry migrates to products running on standard computing architectures,” comments Bob Ehlers, vice president of product management at Audinate. “The Analog Devices ADSP-SC5xx processors e
World - Green Hippo has released a major upgrade to its Hippotizer software which introduces a new design, pre-programming and content delivery workflow. Version 4.6 builds on the familiar flexibility of Hippotizer’s realtime media manipulation system with planning, visualization and timeline control architecture. “Version 4.6 is the result of some incredible work by our R&D team who have worked their trademark Hippo magic to implement a host of powerful, simple-to-use, project-enhancing features designed with the end user firmly in mind,” says Green Hippo’s product and development director Ryan Brown. “Hippotizer has always been the ‘pocket knife’ of media servers, delivering multiple solutions from a single box. Now, version 4.6 adds so much more. “Version 4.6 combines Hippotizer’s familiar content and design practices with a redesigned, realtim
USA - Now in its ninth season, the Hallmark Channel’s Home & Family showcases crafting, cooking, home improvement, car repair, and all things DIY. Multiple cast members interact with celebrity guests throughout the many rooms of a full-sized house set. This makes the need for many wireless channels and glitch-free reception a top priority, which is why the show recently upgraded to Lectrosonics all-digital D Squared wireless mic system. It comprises four DSQD four-channel receivers, 16 DBu belt-pack transmitters, a DHu handheld mic, and six ALP690 high-performance antennas. “We had been using three Lectrosonics Venue racks and SM-series transmitters since the show started in 2012,” says audio supervisor Mike Dooley, whose CV includes The Biggest Loser and The Price Is Right. “I loved how well supported they were. But when we changed re
Germany - L'Osteria is a branded gastronomy company founded in 1999 with over 130 locations in eight European countries. The operation is based on a three-pillar principle: company-owned restaurants managed by FR L'Osteria SE; joint ventures; and franchise restaurants. According to their own statement, it is “a bit loud [and] lively” in the restaurants, which places high demands on the individual sound systems. Audio installation company i:TECS from Dessau-Rosslau specialises in the gastronomy sector and undertakes all planning and design, based around high quality sound. At L’Osteria they looked to the Martin Audio portfolio, distributed in Germany by Audio-Technica. “We were given the impression right from the start that special focus needed to be placed on premium quality sound,” says Thomas Neumann of i:TECS. "Great value is placed on the standard o
Australia - Written by Australian playwright, screenwriter, and composer Yve Blake, Fangirls is a co-production with Belvoir, Queensland Theatre and Brisbane Festival, in association with Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). It is the chronicle of 14-year-old Edna, a diehard fan of the world’s biggest boy band, True Direction. Currently touring Australia, the multi award-winning musical recently played to full capacity audiences at Adelaide Events and Exhibition Centre’s Ridley Pavilion, as part of the Adelaide Festival. To deliver all the punch and clarity, music producer and sound designer David Muratore and sound designer Michael Waters had envisioned, Novatech supplied an L-Acoustics system for the festival dates. While Fangirls creators Blake and Muratore, had spent five years developing the production with musical director and vocal arran
UK - After events for the London Climate Change Festival were postponed in 2020, the festival returned for 2021 with a televised broadcast. The specially created concert, titled Song For Nature, debuted on Sky Arts on Earth Day, 22 April. Paul Smith of Apex Acoustics provided audio equipment for the performance and mixed sound using a DiGiCo SD10 console. “The concert grew organically into a much larger event with performances by Brian May, Rob Brydon, Nathan Evans, Kerry Ellis, Janie Dee and Wayne Sleep, and many more along with the ENO Orchestra and choir,” says Smith. “Brian May and Kerry Ellis were only confirmed a few days before the show.” The concert was filmed over three days at an audience-absent London Coliseum, both on stage and in other areas of this storied London venue. The atmospheric theatre hosts the English National Opera as well as bei
Sri Lanka - Dynamic AV Technologies recently outfitted Ceylon Theatres Regal Cinema Dematagoda with a complete Harman Professional cinema audio solution to provide immersive sound quality for moviegoers. Ceylon Theatres is a Sri Lankan theatre chain with an 85-year history that currently operates six locations throughout the country. The latest location is a three-screen facility in Dematagoda which also houses a KFC restaurant and Food City supermarket. In order to ensure an immersive cinematic experience with clear and balanced audio quality for moviegoers, Ceylon Theatres Regal Cinema Dematagoda required modern sound systems for all three screens. Ceylon Theatres hired Dynamic AV Technologies to equip each theatre with a complete Harman Professional cinema audio solution including JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers “Working on a cinema project with Harman is ea
UK - Surrey-based systems integrator proAV has completed an impressive 333 courses at the Shure Audio Institute (SAI) in Waltham Abbey, earning over 150 certifications across 60 members of staff. Staff from across the company including sales, design, technical management, commissioning and service departments, have all taken part in the courses, establishing strength and knowledge across the business. Discussing the achievement, Richard Brookes, managing director, said; “proAV takes certification extremely seriously, as it is fundamental to our business as a leading workplace technology integrator to ensure we are always at the forefront of current and emerging technological solutions. “Our clients expect the highest quality standards and in-depth product knowledge from proAV and SAI certification delivers this assurance.” Regarding the continued deve
UK - Martin Audio has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its Wavefront Precision optimised line arrays. Announced yesterday (29 April), Martin Audio has been recognised for its excellence in Innovation. Martin Audio is one of 205 organisations in the UK to be recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. Employing over 60 people, Martin Audio is celebrating its 50th year in designing and manufacturing professional loudspeaker systems. “It’s an honour to win such a prestigious award and very fitting to do so in our 50th anniversary year,” said Martin Audio managing director, Dom Harter. “Wavefront Precision arrays have become our fastest ever selling line array format suitable for both install and live sound applications and the Queen’s Award for Enterprise underlines both its innovation and commercial success.”
UK - Dream is a multi-layered mix of movement, music, visuals, cool technology and narrative magic, an immersive digital performance fusing the drama of Shakespeare with the dynamic worlds of gaming and theatre in a production by the UK’s Royal Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Manchester International Festival, Marshmallow Laser Feast, and the Philharmonia Orchestra (read a full production report in the upcoming issue of Lsi, out early May). Staged physically in the Studio at Portsmouth Guildhall and inspired by the classic A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the characters were played by six real actors utilising Vicon motion capture cameras, their avatars and effects appearing onscreen - centring around the antics of cocky and capricious mischief-maker Puck. They run amok in the virtual Midsummer forest, hellraising and spoofing four other sprites during
France - L-Acoustics has revealed a revamped approach to the workflow of spatial audio content creation with the new L-ISA Studio software suite and upgraded L-ISA engine. Built with sound designers and mixing engineers in mind, L-ISA Studio is designed for countless creative, immersive audio experiences. Immediately available for download, it takes the power and versatility of the concert-proven L‑ISA technology and puts it into the hands of sound creators, allowing them to formulate multidimensional audio wherever and whenever they are ready to create. “L-ISA Studio grants all sound creators the ability to conceive, create, iterate and experience their work in 3D audio,” explains Guillaume Le Nost, executive director, creative technologies at L-Acoustics. “It is the perfect tool to work on the pre-production of an L-ISA live show or the sound design of a newl
USA - Audio quality is a difficult challenge to solve in any video conferencing application and meeting that challenge was a top concern for Charlie Fiddler, technical events specialist at Asbury Theological Seminary when he undertook the task of upgrading the seminary’s conferencing system. To meet this challenge, he turned to ClearOne. Asbury Theological Seminary is an evangelical Christian seminary located in Wilmore, Kentucky. It is the largest seminary in the Wesleyan tradition and advocates for egalitarianism, giving equal status for men and women in ministerial roles and for ordination. “We wanted to be able to capture the voices of instructors, with or without lapel microphones, based on individual preferences and the questions from students, regardless of whether or not they are located on campus or calling in from other locations,” Fiddler explains. “
Sweden - Blackmagic Design reports that its technology has been instrumental in allowing the creators behind ReaktLive.com to stream performances direct to audiences from its own platform. Based out of the former EMI/Abbey Road Stockholm studio, the live content experience has built its live video capabilities around the Blackmagic URSA Min Pro 12K, URSA Mini Pro 4.6K G2 and Micro Studio Camera 4K with the support of Scandinavian Photo. The full-service streaming studio and broadcast company features a studio design with six small, discreet cameras on robotic rails and jibs, reveals co-founder Nicolas Notini. “The purpose of automation for us was to ensure artists and creators have far fewer distractions and can just ‘do what they do’ more easily. “With our background as professional musicians, this is how we feel it works, and looks, best. After a few mi
China - The BoomBoomRoom is a new fixture of the thriving nightlife scene in Liuzhou City, China, and the latest addition to the growing club empire of Singapore’s Disen Kaine Group. Looking to make a powerful statement with the extravagant 1,000-capacity nightspot, Disen Kaine invested in a production technologies package featuring a venue-wide PK Sound audio system sold and installed by Polar Audio, the Canadian manufacturer’s exclusive Chinese distributor. “We pride ourselves on delivering an elite and luxurious nightlife experience across our growing network of clubs, and high-impact audio powered by PK Sound plays a big part in that at the BoomBoomRoom,” comments Disen Kaine Group’s Mr. Kane Lin. “Thanks to PK Sound’s technology, we’re able to very precisely direct sound to maximize clarity and impact throughout the venue, and the company’s reputation
UK - Loudspeaker manufacturer PMC has strengthened its corporate structure so that it is better placed to deal with ongoing expansion. For the first time in its 30-year history PMC now has a formal board structure, with owner and founder Peter Thomas acting as chairman and former group finance director Jeff Willcocks confirmed as CEO. Also on the board – and reflecting the fact that PMC remains a family owned business – are Thomas’s son Oliver Thomas, who is now commercial director, and Tom Loader, son of PMC’s co-founder Adrian Loader, who is operations director. “PMC is expanding fast and it is not feasible to expect one person to have intimate knowledge of every aspect of the business,” Peter Thomas says. “Having a formal board of directors allows us to tap into the huge pool of expertise that already exists within the company, and across many differen
USA - The new Lavalier Switch Kit from Point Source Audio offers one lavalier mic that transforms into two wearing styles and into three different colour options to help audio technicians meet the ever-changing conditions of mic'ing. At the heart of the kit is the company’s IP57-rated Waterproof Omnidirectional Lavalier. The mic choice includes a low sensitivity option for live stage applications or a high sensitivity option for studio broadcast. This waterproof mic has a low profile at 4mm in diameter, but it embodies all the high-performance characteristics you might expect from a larger format microphone, says the company. “We created the Lavalier Switch Kit to be a ‘grab and go’ solution for audio professionals,” said Point Source Audio’s vice president of sales and marketing, Yvonne Ho. “Having the right accessories can very quickly transform a basic
Spain - Pixotope has enabled VideoReport Canarias, a regional news and entertainment broadcasting services provider, to expand its virtual production offering in six months. VideoReport Canarias is the broadcasting services provider of a number of well-known media broadcasters in Spain, including RadioTelevision Canaria. VideoReport Canarias partnered with Pixotope to find a more resource-friendly and visually stimulating way of producing live TV. Working through Pixotope’s distributor Tangram and VideoReport Canarias’ supplier and system integrator Bienvenido Gil (BGL), an entirely new show format was created for RadioTelevision Canaria’s daily primetime weather show, Una Hora Menos. “Innovation has always been at the core of VideoReport Canarias. This is why we were excited to introduce virtual reality in our sets, specifically in our prime-time show.
Cambodia - To deliver sound reinforcement with optimal clarity and coverage at the Smile Charity Concert at Aeon Mall Sen Sok City, Smart Axiata hired Nano Sound Cambodia to deploy a Harman sound reinforcement system comprised of JBL, Crown and Soundcraft solutions. Organised by telecommunications provider Smart Axiata, the Smile Charity Concert was created to raise money for Kantha Bopha Hospital and Angkor Hospital for Children. The concert took place at Aeon Mall Sen Sok City, a shopping centre featuring a 1,500-seat performance hall that hosts concerts, weddings, trade shows, conferences and gaming competitions. Nano Sound reported that the client requested a high-quality audio system that could be adjusted for a variety of performance types. The client also required complete coverage for two different stages, as well as the venue’s lobby. To deliver premium soun
UK - Innovate Audio has announced panLab 2, a spatial sound design and mixing tool, designed to integrate seamlessly with QLab. Available from early May as a macOS app, panLab 2 adds ‘powerful, intuitive and user-friendly spatial audio capabilities to the QLab workflow’. Using panLab 2, users can intuitively mix QLab audio and mic cues by positioning them on a virtual map of their sound system. Using a bespoke algorithm designed exclusively for the software, panLab 2 takes care of much of the setup process required when configuring a spatial audio environment. As a result of this technological development, users should be up and running with panLab 2 in under five minutes. Designed from the ground up to integrate seamlessly with QLab, panLab 2 can discover and communicate with any available QLab workspace on the local network. All level-based data is store
UAE - More than 200 Martin Audio speakers, spanning many of their front-line ranges, have been installed throughout a massive new beach club leisure complex in Dubai. Bla Bla features 20 bars, a beach club and three restaurants (as well as sound stages) all under one roof and is the first independent property in the area licensed for alcohol. Set on 100,000sq.ft of beach-front, in the fashionable Jumeirah Beach Resort (JBR), overlooking Bluewaters and the Big Wheel, Bla Bla is the brainchild of CEO Mohammad Islam. He worked alongside co-founder Steve Taylor from Autus Partners Management Consultancy, who masterminded the design and managed the project. The Martin Audio solution was specified by design consultant, Bengan Hovgard, from Loud and Clear Audio Visual, and installed by Pulse Middle East. Pulse operations director, Greg Brown, said, “We have worked a lot wit
UK - Recording and mix engineer Heff Moraes has been appointed to the position of business development manager for UK loudspeaker brand PMC, with responsibility for the company’s UK pro audio division. Based at PMC Studio London, PMC’s recently opened demo facility dedicated to Dolby Atmos music mixing, Moraes will act as a brand ambassador for PMC products and will use his extensive industry knowledge and experience to support dealers and help customers identify the right monitoring products for their needs. “This is a key appointment that comes at a crucial time in PMC’s history,” says PMC CEO Jeff Willcocks. “Heff’s credentials are second to none. He thoroughly understands modern recording techniques, he has excellent contacts with artists, producers and record labels, and he has hands-on experience of PMC’s products. We are really thrilled that he
