USA - While some churches have ignored the shelter-in-place orders - to the disdain of many - Orlando’s Experience Christian Centre took a decidedly different approach. By taking their Good Friday worship service outdoors to a parking lot, church officials were able to satisfy their congregation’s desire for spiritual guidance while maintaining social distancing. It proved to be both an uplifting and responsible approach for everyone. To ensure the congregation could hear the message clearly, sound was delivered by a healthy assortment of loudspeaker enclosures from DAS Audio. Orlando, FL-based MTI Sound, Lighting, and Staging, an event production services company that addresses a wide range of projects, was contracted to provide sound, staging, and lighting for Experience Christian Centre’s outdoor worship service. Utilising loudspeakers drawn from DAS Audio’s
Thailand - To provide good quality sound for speakers and performers, Mahajak Development Co recently equipped the Young Buddhists Association of Thailand headquarters with a Harman Professional Solutions audio system featuring solutions from JBL, Crown, Soundcraft and BSS. Young Buddhists Association of Thailand (YBAT) is a youth organisation dedicated to educating youths who are interested in Theravadan Tripitaka. Opened in 2006, the YBAT Vipassana Meditation Headquarters in Bangkok is home to the Mind and Wisdom Development Institute and hosts multiple meditation and Dhamma courses. To ensure clear, intelligible sound during classes and special events, YBAT hired distributor Mahajak Development Co to upgrade their existing audio solution. “The YBAT management wanted to upgrade their existing sound system with a robust audio solution that would enable them to sprea
USA - As students and teachers continue with their transition to online learning, ensuring the right tools to learn from home can be a challenge. Shure has stepped up to help its neighbours by donating $79,000 worth of earphones to Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The earphones are compatible with mobile phones and laptops to enable more focused learning for students and teachers who may encounter distracting noise or difficulties in hearing online lessons at home. Shure’s SE215 Sound IsolatingTM Earphones help eliminate noise and are designed to be comfortable for extended wear. An inline mic provides clear audio for two-way communication between students and teachers. Select Chicago Public Schools on the South, West, and North sides of Chicago have received the earphones to distribute to those who need them. "Once schools were closed, teachers, staff, and admini
New Zealand - One of New Zealand’s most storied performance venues has reopened after a five-year dormancy with a new name, a new look and, thanks in large part to an expansive IS-Series audio solution from Adamson Systems Engineering, a newly-augmented guest experience. The Hawke’s Bay Arts & Events Centre, known as Toitoi, is home to a historic 979-seat opera house – one of the most revered lyric houses across all of Australasia. First opened in 1915, the opera house and its adjacent municipal building were both closed in 2014 having been deemed “earthquake-prone”; however, with the full support of the local community, work began on a $17.8m NZD (approx. $10.76m USD) venue-wide overhaul midway through 2017. A key component of that investment was an all-new sound reinforcement system for the opera house, ultimately built around Adamson’s install-focuse
Europe - On 27 April, L-Acoustics sales manager Tim McCall set out on a journey to ride 2000km from L-Acoustics headquarters in Marcoussis, France, to each of the companies in the group. He will return to Marcoussis on 11 May, in time for when the French Government is due to lift some of the current lockdown restrictions. “The live production business has been hit hard by COVID-19, and individuals in this industry even harder. So to help our global crew family, I will be riding my bike on a trainer (so as not to break strict French lockdown laws),” says McCall. “My virtual route will start at L-Acoustics HQ in Marcoussis before going on to Keskatel and then Wenden, Germany and on to the L-ISA HQ in Highgate, London before heading south and back to Amboise, France before heading home to Marcoussis - a trip of around 2,000km and around 8,000m of climbing.” McCal
USA - Atlona will launch AtlonaComm 20, a month-long virtual tradeshow experience beginning 1 June on Atlona’s website. The online event will offer a schedule of product offerings, training and education experiences, and personalised meeting opportunities for customers, partners and other visitors. AtlonaComm 20 represents Atlona’s proactive response to COVID-19-related event disruption, including the cancellation of InfoComm 2020, as well as general business travel and in-person sales visits. Atlona hatched its plans for an online event back in early March as the magnitude of the rapidly-evolving health crisis unfurled. “We wanted to provide guests with a tradeshow experience that closely resembles the experience of being there,” says Ilya Khayn, CEO of Atlona. “We took a proactive approach in creating a virtual, interactive event to share our latest innovat
USA - During an extensive career mixing audio for live sports, Fred Aldous has earned over 20 Emmy awards and a spot in the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame. He currently works as a lead mixer and audio consultant for FOX Sports, managing live audio for a variety of broadcasts, including professional football and racing. Improving viewers’ sound experience over time has necessitated a shift to a Dante-enabled digital workflow powered by products from Studio Technologies. “I need to balance all the nuances of the broadcast and create a sound image that captures the narrative of the game, all in a way that’s pleasant to the viewer,” says Aldous. “I use several Studio Technologies products, all of which have been extremely reliable and instrumental to our broadcasts.” Aldous said moving from an analogue to digital workflow has been “tremendous”, especially
UK - As an experienced production video engineer, Steven Jackson of InFocusAV creates video management and playback solutions for clients in touring theatre, musicals, conferences and installations, both at home in the UK and internationally. He is as well-versed in the nuts and bolts of creative video as anyone in the business - and for much of his career, the Hippotizer platform has been an essential part of his professional toolkit. “At secondary school I was always involved in music performance. We had a fantastic teacher who brought in a PC and recording equipment to class. I started to use it and that put me on the path I’m on now,” says Steven, recalling his first tastes of entertainment technology. At university, Steven studied Music Technology while working for a local sound and lighting company servicing a wide range of events. He encountered Max/MSP so
USA - Shortly following his Beerbongs & Bentleys tour, which wrapped up in August of last year after more than 100 shows around the globe, Post Malone took only a brief three-week hiatus from the road before heading back out on the 38-date autumn Runaway Tour in support of Hollywood’s Bleeding, his third full-length album, released on 6 September. The second leg of that North American trek picked back up in early February and carried Malone through most of his 22 additional dates before 2020’s global pandemic put live touring on hold in March. However, although much of the material performed on the Runaway Tour was new since Beerbongs & Bentleys, one element that remained constant throughout was the use of an L-Acoustics K1/K2 loudspeaker system supplied and deployed by Detroit-based provider Thunder Audio. The standard PA
Finland - Genelec is to donate a percentage of every sale of its new RAW loudspeaker range to the Audio Engineering Society (AES), for the remainder of this year. Additionally, Genelec will be funding 10 one-year AES memberships for those individuals whose lives have been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. Genelec managing director Siamak Naghian comments: “To us, the AES represents the only serious forum for the development of audio, and the work it does for our industry is invaluable. In its pursuit of excellence and dedication to raising the bar in the industry, it is without equal, and our approaches have much in common. We will do everything we can to help the Society through the ongoing crisis, and this donation is just one way of showing our support and appreciation for this much-loved institution.” Genelec will donate a percentage of each global RAW sale to
USA - St. Petersburg-based CP Communications has completed the systems integration of a custom-designed streaming media studio and control room that enables The Ironman Group - a Tampa-based sports event management company - to deliver live coverage of its branded multi-sport and marathon events over-the-top (OTT) via its website and Facebook Watch. Owned by the Chinese Wanda Sports Group, The Ironman Group produces more than 235 race events across 55 countries worldwide. These include the Ironman Triathlon, which combines swimming, biking, and running into a single long-distance contest; the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series and more. “With this new multipurpose facility, Ironman can now produce live video coverage of events remotely over IP, saving travel and crew costs for a faster ROI,” said Kurt Heitmann, CEO, CP Communications. “Bonded cellular - one
USA - Sound designer Bill Chesley just got himself an EVO 4 audio interface for his new home studio space, where he continues to work on commercials for Walmart, Fedex, Nike and Guinness. He decided to organise things ahead of the stay-at-home order announcement in New York State. “I’m in pretty close proximity to my actual studio, but thought I’d get a home set-up going in these unpredictable times,” he explains. He co-runs the award-winning sound design collective, Henryboy with his wife, Kate Gibson where he uses an Audient iD22 audio interface. When considering a studio in their Brooklyn apartment, he was mindful of how much space he had to play with. “I gravitated towards EVO 4 because of its small footprint - it packs a lot of punch in a small space.” Which is exactly what he has to do now, with their multi-million dollar clients relying on them to co
Latvia - With a warehouse full of touring gear grounded by Covid 19, Latvian rental company, 3S SIA quickly transformed its Riga headquarters into a fully equipped livestream performance space, including Allen & Heath dLive and Avantis systems. Created in partnership with local broadcaster, TVNET, the resulting 3S Lockdown Sessions have reached tens of thousands of isolating music fans each week since they debuted in March, with livestreamed performances by popular artists including Latvian Blues Band, Aminata, Samanta Tina, Lauris Valters, Ozols, Indygo and Riga Reggae. When devising a mixing system for the sessions, the 3S team did not have to look any further than its own extensive Allen & Heath inventory, which includes four dLive systems. A dLive S7000 Surface was paired up with a DM64 MixRack to mix the broadcast, with a gigaACE split enabling conn
UK - After 28 years of consistent touring, the Stereophonics’ relentless quest to improve their stage sound and gain closer engagement with their audience continues. At the request of the band, and specifically Kelly Jones, their sound techs were sent into overdrive, working on a radical approach for the latest arena tour. Long-term FOH sound engineer Dave Roden, using his preferred Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array, sent his mix to a distributed PA system, running the length of a 60ft thrust from main stage, into the belly of the audience, with a small ‘B’ stage at the end of it. By opting to play a third of their set right in the middle of the arena (including a solo Kelly Jones set), it would have left the band at risk of absorbing unwanted sounds off the main PA picked up by the vocal mics, had it been set in a conventional L/R configuration. At the same tim
World - An app designed to serve as a pocketable all-in-one toolbox for the events industry has been released. Toolbox, developed by UK lighting, rigging and previsualisation services company ETS, combines over 20 virtual tools, converters and guides in a single app. Designed to make it easier for lighting, audio, and video technicians to get on with their daily tasks, Toolbox includes DMX, power, weight/length and currency converters; vehicle, wiring and knot guides; information for over 2,600 pieces of equipment; filter and gobo libraries; beam and patch calculators; a decibel meter, and more. The app is currently only available for iOS devices through the App Store (£9.99 for a lifetime licence) but ETS is working on an Android version, to be released by September.
USA - ESTA reports that two standards have been revised, and are being offered for public review. BSR E1.6 - 1 - 202x, Powered Rigging Systems has been revised to correct errata in section 6.6, which addresses design factors for certain system elements. The public review only covers the revisions made in that section, and no comments regarding other sections are being solicited at this time. BSR E1.39 - 202x, Entertainment Technology - Selection and Use of Personal Fall Arrest Systems on Portable Structures Used in the Entertainment Industry, is a revision of ANSI E1.39-2015, which is being updated for consistency with current industry practice and technologies. This standard establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) on portable structures in the entertainment industry. In addition, the standard esta
USA - Professional camera and lighting rental companies have come together to collaborate in creating guidance documents for safely resuming rentals to the film/television/commercial production community in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The task group was assembled by the Production Equipment Rental Group (part of entertainment trade association ESTA). The objective is to provide a unified set of industry-wide guidelines that address health and safety challenges related to the rental of production equipment and ensure that any risks to production companies, studios, and customers are minimised. The task group is working with other industry groups to ensure that PERG’s recommendations address client needs and concerns and harmonize with safety protocols developed by the studios and others, while also adhering to the recommendations of the CDC, OSHA, and state and
The Audio Engineering Society has begun to announce programme details for the upcoming Virtual Vienna Convention, including three keynote lectures and the Heyser Presentation. As a result of circumstances dictating the move of the convention to an online format, the Audio Engineering Society is bringing the AES Europe Convention directly to virtual attendees around the globe, with keynotes from AES Fellow Jamie Angus (University of Salford), Marisa Hoeschele (Acoustics Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences) and Franz Zotter (Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, University of Arts and Music, Graz), as well as this year’s Heyser Presentation by AES Fellow Francis Rumsey (technical consultant, author). Additional details on the AES Virtual Vienna Convention Technical Programme, including topics and events, paper presentations, workshops, tutorials, posters,
Europe - Nexo’s Engineering Support Division continues its popular series of online webinars with a menu of topics which will appeal to sound engineers working with all brands of professional equipment. Nexo is using Facebook Live on its popular channel to present these e-learning sessions, part of Yamaha’s extensive Audioversity tuition resource. “We’ve carefully considered these sessions so that they will also interest engineers and venue owners/operators who may not yet be familiar with Nexo systems,” explains lead trainer Nicolas Poitrenaud. “We are confident that these Facebook Live sessions will provide skills and knowledge to enhance the business activities of many professionals, especially in these difficult times.” The latest additions include: Tuesday 5 May @ 10.00hrs: Fundamentals of Acoustics in English with Nicolas Poitrenaud <
UK - More than 25 years after they catapulted into the UK charts, and 10 since disbanding to produce solo material, British rockers Supergrass returned to touring with audio rental house Britannia Row in February and March. Describing his sound crew as being “amazing at their jobs”, production manager Adam King has, by his own admission, “loved” working with Brit Row and the Supergrass team for the band’s recent return to live music. Supergrass were ‘lucky’ in the sense that they finished their seven date UK run - which culminated in two sold out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace - prior to lockdown. FOH engineer Max Bisgrove notes: “We had two fantastic gigs in London, and as these were my last two shows for what will no doubt be quite some time, it was good to go out on such a high note.” King agrees, “The Ally Pally sound check sounded i
Poland - The Culture and Reading Centre in the southern Polish town of Radlów is a local government institution that stages a range of activities and performances promoting the participation of the local community in cultural and educational pursuits. The centre organises regular activities such as workshops, theatre and fitness classes, as well as one-off events encompassing everything from festivals and exhibitions to concerts and competitions. These feature not only visiting artists but also involve local groups, some of whom are resident at the centre. Music is a very important central theme for this vibrant and busy hub. As a new establishment, the building required a high quality sound system in order to deliver the best experience for performers and audiences alike. The principal area to be covered was the centre’s ground floor Main Hall, a multi-purpose spa
Europe - Spanish AV equipment manufacturer Equipson has appointed Netherlands-based Tau Audio Solutions as its audio distributor in Benelux, with responsibility for its entire range of Work Pro products. For more than 20 years, TAU Audio Solutions has been a wholesaler and distributor of audio and communications systems. The company handles a variety of commercial and professional audio products including induction/hearing loops, microphone systems, voice alarm systems, rack and accessories. As well as selling products, Tau also provides advice and training to customers from its extensive showroom facilities in Groningen. As Equipson's Benelux distributor, Tau will be responsible for handling the company's entire range of Work Pro audio products which include loudspeakers, amplifiers, mixers, microphones and control systems, as well as an extensive range of audio acce
UK - L-Acoustics Creations has recently appointed Nick Fichte to the role of business manager. The appointment completes the existing new business team and “positions the division to make headway in key installation markets, leveraging the relationships and knowledge that Nick has forged in his 15-year career in the AV industry”. Fichte first stepped into the AV industry when he was still a student, applying to work for custom installer, Audio Vision. He was offered the position and boarded a flight to Turkey the following day to assist on technology integration for one of the world’s largest superyachts. This experience cemented a vocation and led to his career progressing at Audio Vision where he became store manager of one of their Bang & Olufsen dealerships. Nick later held sales roles at London-based custom installers Olive Audio Visual and Inspired Dwe
USA - ClearOne has been awarded a strategic new patent relating to power transmission for Power over Ethernet (PoE) systems by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Awarded on 14 April, 2020, the patent describes a simple method for providing power to multiple devices in a ‘daisy-chain’ series connection using PoE. Use of the new method can eliminate the 100m Ethernet distance constraint for power and data transmission. ClearOne’s technology disclosed in this patent brings powerful benefits for at least two important applications. First, it is useful for devices such as audio products including microphones and speakers, security and conferencing cameras, remote sensors, smart home technologies like thermostats and alarm systems, as well as computers and displays, all of which can be freely deployed anywhere within the reach of an Ethernet cable. As an exam
