Europe - Live shows may be postponed, but sound reinforcement solutions manufacturer Electro-Voice (E-V) wants musicians to keep performing. To facilitate this, the company is aiming to book 15 artists from any genre to play 15 concerts in May on the Electro-Voice Facebook page for the #EVOpenMic series. The concert series will see artists from around the world perform in one of three time slots to a global audience over five days at the end of May. The 15 selected artists will receive a $300 performance fee, as well as one Electro-Voice Evolve 30M column system and two Electro-Voice performance mics. The auditions are now open and will run until 6 May. Virtual auditions will take place from 7-18 May, and the concerts are scheduled to take place between 26-30 May. Performers can apply now at
Italy - Florence-based loudspeaker specialist K-array is set to restart manufacturing operations next week. A statement from co-founders Alessandro and Massimo says: “Regarding the recent health protocols issued by the Italian government, K-array's production and warehouse in San Piero a Sieve (Florence) will resume operating Monday through Thursday at 8:30am to 1:00pm and 2:00pm to 5:00pm starting from Monday, 4 May. With the well-being of our staff at the forefront, K-array has implemented all the safety and health regulations required for all its employees to reopen at this time. “Furthermore, we’d like to inform you that our administrative office and several departments will continue to operate remotely to provide customer care as well as design and technical consulting. We remain committed to keeping you informed on our company activity and we thank you for
India - Harman Professional Solutions has appointed ARK Infosolutions as its nationwide master dealer for the recording and broadcast segment in India. ARK will also be Harman’s partner for the PA and retail segment for the North Indian region. The collaboration is aimed at facilitating channel penetration for Harman products to meet the increasing demand in various segments such as broadcast, production, post-production studios, rental companies, cinematographers, musicians, film fraternity, and more. “Collaboration and partnership are essential parts of any organization when aiming for success. ARK Infosolutions’ approach towards customer preference matches our own,” comments Aditya Todi, senior director of sales and marketing, Harman Professional Solutions, India and SAARC. “Collaborating with them will not only allow our partners and customers in N
UK - University of South Wales (USW) Music & Sound students have been working hard to transform what was originally planned to be a series of live gigs in various local venues around Cardiff, into a realtime event of multiple livestreams taking place over the next few days, until 3 May. In partnership with Keep Cardiff Live and Dazed, the USW students had to quickly adapt when the Covid19 pandemic brought with it a unique set of circumstances where those plans were no longer possible. Overcoming many technical challenges, the students will be hosting the festival online, featuring genres that are popular in live music events in Cardiff. The festival will include indie, hip-hop, house, metal and drum’n’bass nights along with interviews with subjects including USW graduate and Grammy nominee, Romesh Dodangoda, Lacertilla and Tidy Records. USW student Lewis
UK - Music Support has launched weekly online support group meetings to allow the music industry’s 12 Step recovery community to continue to connect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Meetings will take place every Monday 18:00-19:00 GMT from 27 April to 28 September 2020. Available to any music industry peers throughout the summer, Music Support will provide a confidential and non-judgemental space for people to share and encourage one another on the journey of recovery. Music Support Services Officer, Joanne Croxford, states: “It might be that someone is in need of a secure virtual space to share their experiences, while others may want to take part in these meetings simply by listening in and feeling accepted and connected during isolation. Music Support will offer strength and hope as we all na
USA - Symetrix has released Composer 7.3 - the latest version of its Windows programming software for Edge, Radius NX, Prism, and Solus NX DSPs. Symetrix Composer software enables integrators to programme a complete end-to-end DSP signal path using just one application. New features in this update include multitrack audio recording, web-based event scheduler, support for new W Series remotes, new device integrations, and more. Multitrack audio recording allows a Radius NX device to record up to eight tracks of audio simultaneously to an external USB device. Audio tracks may be recorded individually or grouped into multi-channel modules of up to eight channels per module. The designer places one or more recording modules into the Design window of a Radius NX processor in Symetrix ComposerTM. Each recording module has its own start/stop controls, assignable storag
USA - Breaking down barriers between athletes and fans, Ross Stripling and Cooper Surles launched The Big Swing podcast in January 2019 to discuss everything from sports to pop culture to finance, with a focus on all things baseball. When the co-hosts were looking to deploy a high-quality microphone solution to capture crystal-clear audio for their podcast, they found what they were searching for with MXL Microphones’ BCD-1 Live Broadcast Dynamic Microphone. “In our first few months of podcasting, audio was the biggest challenge for us,” says Stripling. “Once we were able to deploy the MXL mics and put them in front of each speaker, our audio went up twofold – the sound quality of MXL’s BCD-1 is incomparable to the previous solution we were using.” In addition to quality audio pickup, Surles finds the noise rejection capabilities of MXL’s BCD-1 t
USA - Bright Star Systems recently equipped Marcus Theatres’ new Movie Tavern location in Milwaukee, the first full cinema complex in the U.S. to feature JBL Sculpted Surround technology, with JBL Professional cinema loudspeakers, JBL Professional DSi 2.0 amplifiers and Crown DCi amplifiers. Movie Tavern by Marcus is a premium theatre concept offering restaurant-style dining and in-seat service for moviegoers. At the new location in the Brookfield Square shopping centre, guests can enjoy dinner and a movie in the premium UltraScreen DLX theatre with Dolby Atmos immersive audio or one of seven additional theatres with 7.1 surround sound. Bright Star Systems equipped the complex with JBL Professional cinema loudspeakers, DSi 2.0 amplifiers and Crown DCi amplifiers, following the JBL Sculpted Surround specification in the 7.1-equipped theatres. Sculpted Surround relies
USA/Europe - A group of industry manufacturers, including Audio Ltd., Ambient, dB Audio, DPA Microphones, Lectrosonics, K-Tek, Sonosax, Sound Devices, Bubblebee Industries, Schoeps, Ursa Straps, and Viviana Straps are offering a new-product based virtual event. Virtual Sound Summit 2020 is a two-day virtual event featuring a number of new product and technology announcements that would have taken place at the 2020 NAB Show. Say the organisers, “Presentations will be of interest to location sound and production professionals, chief engineers, news technicians, ENG crews, camera operators, network executives and other audio professionals in the field. This marks the first virtual Sound Summit, a series of educational presentations aimed at joining audio professionals together to collaborate and discuss audio production tools and techniques.” The summit is sched
USA - Members of the final The Allman Brothers Band line-up, dubbed ‘The Brothers’, came together at Madison Square Garden in New York City to celebrate 50 years of The Allman Brothers Band. The Brothers included founding member Jaimoe and longtime members Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones, and Chuck Leavell along with guests Duane Trucks and Reese Wynans. The powerhouse band transported Madison Square Garden into the past with songs going back to the band’s original 1969 album. The one-night show was powered by Meyer Sound solutions anchored by Leo and Lyon linear line array loudspeakers, provided by rental partners UltraSound and PRG North America. The system configuration consisted of, per side (L/R), a main PA with 16 Leo loudspeakers, six flown 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, main 180-degree arrays and 270-degree arrays of
USA - St. Joseph Catholic Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan features a 250-capacity sanctuary replete with stained glass windows, smooth white walls, and an ornate baptismal font. It was built in the 1910s and continues to serve as a cornerstone of Catholic social life in Kalamazoo An outdated sound reinforcement system made it difficult to understand what was being said during St. Joseph’s services. Local AV integration firm, Sound Connections Group, remedied the problem with the installation of a single Danley SM96 loudspeaker. “St. Joseph Catholic Church had a handful of old loudspeakers in place that were blasting the room and walls with sound and adding chaos to the already poor acoustics,” explained Sound Connections group founder and owner Duane Davi. “To make matters far worse, the church’s priest, Father Antony, is a native of India. His accent made the
Germany - Hippotizer Media Servers were recently chosen to drive the visuals for the Cyber-Gen ShockWave tour. Featuring a line-up of Deutsch-rap and R&B artists signed to the Cyber-Gen music label, including YouTube stars TJ Beastboy, Young Mokuba, Wavvyboi and others, the tour played dates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland - and sold out in under 28 hours. Lighting designer Otto Schildknecht asked Emanuel Jörgner to programme and operate the show’s video and lighting elements. “Because we needed a high performance server, which would ensure all the live notch FX ran smoothly, we chose the Boreal+,” says Jörgner. “The other good reason for choosing the Boreal+ was the fact that we could deform the content with the FX library.” The display setup consisted of a 8m x 2.3m, 16mm pixel pitch LED wall positioned upstage, with alternative configurations fo
USA - For fans of Texas Christian University’s (TCU) Horned Frogs football team, this school year’s Big 12 conference football season was bigger and bolder than ever thanks to the kick-off of a $118m expansion of the Fort Worth campus’ Amon G. Carter Stadium. Among its many improvements, the first phase of this multi-year initiative notably involved a significant upgrade of the nearly 50,000-capacity stadium’s video and audio facilities, including a new L-Acoustics K1/Kara loudspeaker system designed and installed by local integrator Electro Acoustics (EA). According to EA Account Manager Ryan Walker, who has been with the firm for 20 years, the project actually marked the second L-Acoustics system to be installed on TCU’s campus. In 2015, the company installed a Kara loudspeaker system paired with SB18i subs at the school’s Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium,
Thailand - To create an immersive AV solution for a wide range of events, Mahajak Development Co equipped Modena By Fraser Buriram Hotel with a Harman Professional Solutions networked audio system. Located within walking distance of the Chang International Circuit racetrack and Chang Arena football stadium, the Modena By Fraser Buriram hotel features 152 guest rooms, a spacious foyer and a large ballroom and more. To deliver clear, detailed sound in the ballroom and throughout the hotel, Modena By Fraser Buriram hired AV integrators Mahajak Development to design and install a premium networked audio solution. Mahajak Development designed a networked audio system featuring solutions from JBL, Crown, Soundcraft and BSS. “To ensure consistent sound throughout the facilities, we installed a networked audio system using Harman’s industry-leading AV solutions,” s
USA - The luxurious Sir Francis Drake has anchored the San Francisco’s famed Union Square since 1928. And since the landmark hotel’s opening day, Lizzie’s Starlight (originally dubbed the Starlight Room) has drawn hotel patrons and locals alike to the roof of the 21-story hotel for entertainment, food, drinks, and spectacular views. In 2019, Lizzie’s underwent a major renovation - torn down to bricks, bare floor, and bare ceiling and entirely remodelled. Ayre Productions of Chicago, the company behind multiple projects for owners Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, designed and installed a new audio system for the venue, driven by Linea Research 44C and 88C Series power amplifiers. “We worked on this project for two years, and the design has changed three or four times,” notes John Wagner who, along with brother Joe, is co-founder and co-owner of Ayre Productio
UK - Britannia Row Productions has joined ranks of audio providers investing in Outline’s Newton processors. The purchase followed an evaluation period and product demonstrations made by CUK’s James Lawford and Outline’s product specialist, Fernando Rey Méndez, BRP’s technical head Keith Cunningham comments: “Following several demos of the Newton, we were very impressed with the GUI, fast workflow and ease of use. The Newton is the all-in-one solution to many technical problems. “The form factor is the real selling point, it's a constant battle for all manufacturers to try and shrink the footprint while retaining functionality - Outline has managed to find a perfect match between both. Fernando at Outline and James at CUK have been very receptive to our feedback and feature requests, which really inspires confidence in both companies.” BRP’
Europe - Five leading professional audio manufacturers have developed the first multi-manufacturer voice alarm solution fully compliant with EN 54-16. The new initiative, created by Harman, Peavey, Luminex, d&b audiotechnik and Powersoft, introduces EN 54-16 product compliance to a larger pool of manufacturers and removes the need for specifiers to purchase such systems from specialist manufacturers. Instead, specifiers can now build compliant systems using products from different manufacturers. Certification has already been granted to over 30 products, including audio signal processing and control using Peavey MediaMatrix, audio signal processing from BSS Audio, and a wide selection of Crown and Powersoft amplifiers. Luminex network switches are also certified to allow systems to be connected using copper or fibre. In the coming weeks, d&b amplifiers will al
USA - The Springs Church in Colorado Springs, CO recently underwent an audio upgrade with a Martin Audio WPS system spec’d and installed by Sight and Sound Technologies, the first installation of the new system in the United States. Asked about the project, Sight and Sound COO Kris Johnson explains: “It was basically an upgrade of their PA. They had an aging left-centre-right line array system that in some respects was overkill for what they needed plus they were starting to have some problems with the speakers. They had a plan to repurpose them in another room which worked out really well timewise for us because we were able to pull the old ones down, test them out and re-install a handful of them in another room. “In terms of the main room or sanctuary, we had already installed the Martin Audio WPM system on multiple occasions and really liked it. Then we got t
Denmark - The global response to COVID-19 varies from country to country but it seems to be universal that large public gatherings are not permitted. This affects musicians very seriously but it also has implications when it comes to a national celebration. Social media has been awash with inspirational videos of Italians singing from balconies and virtual gigs from musicians and singers who just want to perform. In Denmark there is a popular tradition of ‘Fællessang’ which can be literally translated as “common-singing”, that is as popular now as ever before. The question is how to celebrate your Queen’s important birthday when public gatherings cannot take place and all of the celebrations are cancelled. The challenge of leading the nation in song was picked up by the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra who wanted to capture more than 100 musicians and singers on
Germany - Ravenna recently launched a series of webinars as a way of staying in touch with customers and users. Centred around the topic of audio-over-IP, the first session, Ravenna and its relationship to AES67 and ST2110, was a general overview held on 14 April. Given the enthusiastic response - the first webinar was vastly oversubscribed - Ravenna has rapidly increased its hosting capacity and fine-tuned the programme. All webinars will take place on Tuesday at 15:00 CEST (14:00 BST and 09:00 EDT). Duration is scheduled for around 60 minutes with time for questions/discussion afterwards. The next session, which takes place on Tuesday 28 April at 15:00, is an introduction to AES67 & ST 2110 and continues the theme of the first session with a closer look at both standards and how they relate to each other. The following webinar on Tuesday 12 May offers a de
Europe - As much of the world follows safe-at-home and social distancing guidelines and mandates, the Audio Engineering Society is bringing the AES Europe Convention directly to attendees. Originally scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, the AES Virtual Vienna Convention in now set for 2-5 June 2020, with an online format. The event is billed as “a front-row-seat to the AES event experience, utilising live streaming, on-demand audio/video/multimedia presentations, interactive Q&A and forum dialogues to realise the personal connection and emotional feedback that is at the heart of AES live events”. The AES Virtual Vienna Convention will explore “a gamut of audio engineering science, application and technology with presentations from some of the leading minds in the industry”. Further details on the AES Virtual Vienna Convention, which will
Germany - Adam Audio has announced the T8V studio monitor, the latest addition to its T-Series line of professional studio monitors. The T8V features an 8-inch woofer paired with powerful amplification and its power and lower bass extension make it a suitable choice for project and home studios, clients who work in bass-heavy music genres such as hip hop, dance, ambient, dub and EDM, and those who work in non-electronic genres like funk, metal, blues and pop. The new T8V offers a frequency response that reaches down 33 Hz and the ability to project an impressive SPL of 118 dB per pair. Adam Audio’s T-Series line of studio monitors was launched in 2018 with the T5V 5-inch woofer and T7V 7-inch woofer models, followed in 2019 by the T10S subwoofer. Like the previous two monitors in the T-Series line-up, the T8V makes use of Adam Audio technology developed for the comp
USA - Century Village in Deerfield Beach, Florida is an adult community that revolves around activities taking place within a central clubhouse housing a 1,600-seat theatre. The site of everything from Broadway-style shows to concerts by national touring acts and current movies, the theatre recently upgraded its audio with the addition of a dLive S7000 Surface and DM64 MixRack from Allen & Heath. The new dLive S7000 system was provided by ShowPro of South Florida. “This theatre, along with a number of other smaller venues in The Sunshine State, are some of the biggest entertainment buyers in the Southeastern US,” says Showpro’s Nicolas Stoner. “That fact alone provides more than a clue of the number of live shows that pass through this room, which total over 100 per year.” Stoner, along with the theatre’s technical director Mike Prudente, first became a
South Africa - The SOS Charity Fund was established in December 2016, and from the start was met with generous support from the entertainment industry. The charity is now pleased to donate R50,000 to Feed our Crew, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that is providing temporary support through food vouchers to the technical and casual event crews during the Covid-19 lockdown period. While DWR Distribution established, administer and are a contributor to the SOS Charity Fund, the entertainment industry has fully participated in fundraising events. “Although DWR Distribution is also going through a tough time, the money we’ve raised for the SOS belongs to the people and not to us,” said Duncan Riley of DWR. “The SOS was established to help people in times like these, this is what it’s all about.” When all events were abruptly shut down due to Covid-19, Tam
