Spain - When one of the world’s largest night clubs puts on a special season-end event, its magnitude is difficult to ignore. Open since 1993 on the Spanish island of Ibiza, this mammoth club can host up to 10,000 guests at one time. On the season’s finale evening, Privilege Ibiza made the decision to employ the Clair Brothers C12 loudspeaker system, along with an assortment of more Clair Brothers gear, to cover the entire venue. The size of the venue allows management to redesign facilities for individual parties and artistic shows. For this event, they didn’t hold back, calling on Clair Brothers’ Spanish distribution and rental partner, VTècnics, to recommend and design a sound system worthy of this special occasion. Josep Maria Serra, production manager at VTècnics reports: “The Clair Brothers team understands the concept and value of global sharing bet
UK - Pointing a microphone directly at a PA speaker is likely to generate feedback, but sometimes when you are trying to achieve a particular vision, you have to tear up the rule book and see what happens. This was the situation FOH engineer Simon Honywill found himself in when he was asked to tackle sound design for a new live music and dance production called The Nature of Why. Using a combination of DPA microphones and EM Acoustics loudspeakers positioned in a circle around the stage, Honywill pulled off the task of creating an ambient acoustic ‘bubble’ for this unusual performance in which the audience is as much a part of the show as the musicians and dancers. “I needed to make sure all the microphones I was using were as predictable as possible,” he explains. “DPA was the obvious choice - not just because they are always my first choice but beca
USA - Martin Audio’s new Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL) system was recently purchased by two US-based live event production companies - Soundworks in Richmond, and Southard Audio in Mount Crawford - the first to acquire the large format line array worldwide. Both companies, who share a cooperative relationship within the Middle Atlantic region, purchased systems that include 24 WPL cabinets, 12 SXH218 hybrid subs and 12 iK42 amps. Officially launched at ISE 2019 in Amsterdam, WPL is designed as a complete system with external iKON multi-channel amplifiers, automated DISPLAY optimisation software and VU-NET control platform that provides financial accessibility to the higher echelons of touring and installed sound. A three-way, bi-amped system, WPL’s very high output is achieved by utilising Martin Audio’s trademark horn-loading technology across all frequency bands
France - The Paris Institute of Political Studies, commonly referred to as Sciences Po, is a French university with seven campuses across the country. The new Grand Auditorium at its Reims site features an Alcons Audio system. Founded in 1872, Sciences Po quickly became a highly influential academic institution for the social sciences. Currently it has 13,000 students based at its seven centres throughout France. The Reims campus opened in 2010, with just 100 students, but a recently-completed €75m expansion has meant it will be ready to accept 1600 students in September 2019. A major part of the project is the new 650-seat, multi-function Grand Auditorium, which hosts conferences, lectures, presentations by guest speakers, live music and movies in 5.1 surround sound. At Reims, a 5.1 Alcons system was supplied by Paris-based systems integrator Audiolead and installed
The Netherlands - Absen has appointed Van Domburg Partners as its official distributor in Benelux. The announcement follows the earlier appointment of Kern & Stelly as Absen’s Germany and Austria distributor and is expected to further strengthen the Chinese LED display manufacturer’s presence on the continent. Based in the Netherlands, Van Domburg Partners is part of the Midwich Group and distributes a range of AV solutions. Emma Liu, regional director for Absen in Benelux, comments: “We are excited to have Van Domburg Partners as our distribution partner and are looking forward to working closely with them on opportunities in the Benelux region. They are a forward-thinking company with an excellent reputation for quality and service, helping to strengthen Ab
UK - Stuart Moots has been promoted to associate director, pro audio at Shure UK. He began his career at Shure in 2013 as the southern regional sales manager during a period of substantial growth at Shure and was responsible for some of the UK's largest accounts, while also playing a pivotal role in developing critical relationships and identifying new business opportunities in his region. Shure's senior director for Western Europe, Tuomo Tolonen, commented: "Stuart has been a valuable member of the UK pro team for many years. His work ethic is superb and he is well respected by our customers." Meanwhile Moots has named Jack Drury as the new market development specialist for pro audio, also based at the Waltham Abbey office. Drury brings with him a wealth of experience, including from his time at Sennheiser and Stage Electrics. "With the addition of Jack to the Shure
UK - Nugen Audio showcased its new update to Halo Downmix at BVE 2019. The updated version of Halo Downmix (available now) features new ranges for downmix coefficients and a Netflix preset. The new version of Halo Downmix also adds a new LFE enable control and LFE filter cutoff control. Halo Downmix is a highly creative solution for precise downmixing of feature film and 5.1 mixes to stereo, delivering accurate downmixes that are no longer limited to typical in-the-box processes. Nugen Audio is also highlighting its new audio management batch processor extension (AMB) and Loudness Toolkit 2.8 throughout the show. The AMB Enterprise extension expands the features required for larger businesses with automated networked systems, and helps customers integrate the solution more deeply into automated production workflows. (Jim Evans)
UK - December saw the ninth year of Huawei Technologies’ sponsorship of the London Winter Concert, held at London’s Royal Festival Hall (RFH) in aid of the Prince’s Trust. This event featured the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Paul Bateman, and had a line-up led by tenor Joseph Calleja, with special guests soprano He Wu and young singing talent Beau Dermott. Although the Winter Concert is long-established in the RFH calendar, this year saw a completely new approach to audio production, with L-ISA Hyperreal Sound delivering an extra frisson to proceedings. Reactor Group has been supplying production management, sound design and its implementation to the Winter Concert for the past three years and, as technical director for the event, Reactor’s Jim Pollard explains they wanted to improve on its previous two, highly successful years. “
UK - London-born singer-songwriter and composer Ben Howard released his debut EP 10 years ago. Since then, he has won two BRIT Awards, been nominated for both the Ivor Novello Award and the Mercury Prize and had a number one album. His third album, Noonday Dream, was released in June 2018 to much critical acclaim. Now, Howard is on the road touring it, with FOH engineer Andy Magee and monitor engineer Niccolo Antonietti both working from DiGiCo SD5 consoles. “It's very much art: Seventy minutes of non-stop music, which is never the same twice,” Magee explains. “We're all on our toes, watching each other do something a bit different every day.” He and Antonietti work hard to recreate Howard's album with as much authenticity as possible, night after night. “We have over 85 guitar pedals on stage, which means so many inputs, as numerous players hav
Nigeria - Seven hundred thousand people attended The Experience, an interdenominational gospel concert. With an audience estimated at close to three quarters of a million people, The Experience is an interdenominational gospel concert held annually in Lagos. Convened and hosted by Pastor Paul Adefarasin, the colossal event debuted in December 2006 and is now the largest concert in Africa. The Experience’s 13th edition - streamed live on the House on The Rock YouTube channel to viewers around the world - featured an impressive line-up of artistes. Renowned national and international gospel artistes, who included Don Moen, Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, Timi Dakolo, Travis Greene, Nathaniel Bassey, Vicki Yohe, Chioma Jesus, Tope Alabi, Eben, Tim Godfrey, Mike Aremu, Glowreeyah, ONOS, Eno Michael, the Lagos Metropolitan Gospel Choir, Chee, JJ Hairston,
Italy - K-array has appointed Pablo Manoukian as area sales manager for the Latin America region, effective from 1 February. No stranger to the K-family, Pablo has been working with the Italian manufacturer as account executive - LATAM and the Caribbean since 2015, where he has accumulated several years of field experience overseeing important K-array projects such as the Kayros Temple in Spain, the Gran Teatro del Habana in Cuba and the Gran Carpa Cathedral in Puerto Rico. Pablo has also expanded K-array’s reach in the region by determining new distribution channels in Uruguay, Bolivia and Ecuador. “Given his previous success with us, his extensive work experience in event productions and profound studies in the technical aspects of pro audio, we were confident that Pablo would excel even more as area sales manager," says Alessandro Tatini, president of K-array. "
South Africa - Vectorworks training, presented by Francois van der Merwe, will be hosted in March at DWR Distribution in Johannesburg. Delegates can choose to attend the basic, intermediate or advanced training session while some individuals may prefer to be at all three. The basic course, priced at R750, is held on 25 March and will cover fundamentals, layouts, palettes, basic tools, classes and layers. The intermediate course, held from 26-27 March, will focus on preferences, basic Spolight, basic Renderworks and Intermediate Tools. The cost is R1 600. The advanced training, held from 28-29 March, will cover working planes, advanced modelling and advanced Renderworks. The cost is R1 600. Delegates are requested to supply their own desktop or laptop with Vectorworks installed and a valid ID. (Jim Evans)
UK - January and early February saw Britannia Row Productions start the year in robust, if slightly inverted fashion. “Within two weeks of the Christmas break we had three arena tours out and one of the UK’s most exciting acts, Jorja Smith playing festivals,” explains sales director Lez Dwight. “The clue is in the word ‘festivals’, no-one is playing festivals in the frosty Northern hemisphere right now, but along with Jorja at the festivals, Mumford & Sons and Phil Collins have all visited arenas in Australia and New Zealand.” While the balmy reaches of the Antipodes are seeing most of the action, Brit Row is not neglecting the UK market. “We are supplying system and support for Cirque du Soleil’s annual visit to the Royal Albert Hall and we are already gearing up for the Brit Awards which has quite a fundamental new look this year.” But it’s
UK - Adamson’s new S7 line array system, which has just been officially launched, was deployed during Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations at McEwan Hall. Underbelly, producers of Edinburgh’s 2018/19 Hogmanay events, curated a three-day spectacular to celebrate Europe, and Scotland’s ties to Europe. The 19th century McEwan Hall became a new venue for Hogmanay and hosted three major concerts - Symphonic Ibiza on 30 December and Capercaillie and Carlos Nunez with special guests on the 1 January, which also marked the start of a new collaboration between Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival. The Warehouse Sound Services worked directly with Underbelly to provide an advanced audio set-up for the McEwan Hall events. The Warehouse used Adamson’s new S7 line array system for the events. The system in McEwan Hall consis
Sweden - Melodic death-metallers, Soilwork have kick-started 2019 with a bang - in the form of a co-headline tour with Finnish metal giants, Amorphis. Performing 31 shows in 35 days across mainland Europe, Soilwork were supported by an Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixer running FOH and monitors. The band’s full set-up includes an SQ-5 at FOH, with two DX168 I/O Expanders positioned on stage. Monitors are controlled from FOH, with an iPad placed on stage for the backline tech to make minor adjustments. Tommy B (FOH & monitor engineer for Soilwork) purchased the SQ system, commenting, “Having mixed on most compact consoles, the Allen & Heath SQ series is by far the best. In the past, other manufacturers had set the standard for price friendly consoles, but the SQ just blows everything out of the water. With the SQ-5 I get great preamps, sharp EQ, super FX
UK - Bacchus Bar & Club in Bishop’s Stortford’s recently brought in XS Audio Visual to design and install an extensive sound system, powered by just two amplifiers from Linea Research. The entire project had to be completed to a tight deadline. “We had only four days to completely rip out the existing sound and lighting systems and commission a whole new nightclub sound, lighting, and video install, including relocating the DJ booth and existing TV video feeds,” recalls XSAV managing director Lee Michael. Michael describes the Bacchus Bar as “a perfectly sized, rectangular-shaped venue that can accommodate 500 people comfortably.” On weekends, the well-established hot spot is often busy enough to reach full capacity, with DJs energizing the crowd. During the week, the club’s entertainment systems are used for karaoke and sports events. XSAV ins
UK - Ministry of Sound The Annual Classical is an orchestral tour that recently received its world premiere at London’s Royal Festival Hall. The event sets out to celebrate the famous club’s legendary dance music compilation The Annual dance compilation. Martin Audio has itself enjoyed a decade-long relationship with the south London club and tasked with faithfully reproducing the newly imagined sound on the road was RG Jones Sound Engineering, and their Martin Audio MLA compact PA. Although the concept was new, reproducing major classical music events for promoters like Raymond Gubbay is familiar territory for RG Jones Sound Engineering, who have been specialising in this genre for many years. The system designer for the RFH show was system tech Mark Edwards, while the production itself was a joint project between Coalition Agency (MoS Tour
Poland/UK - LED display manufacturer Unilumin has announced a new stock centre relationship with Poland’s Visualsupport to service the Eastern Europe AV market. Kraków-based Visualsupport will now hold increased Unilumin stock, supplying equipment and support for corporate events, festivals, exhibitions and concerts. The Eastern Europe stock centre operator Visualsupport boasts an experienced team of producers and multimedia technicians and supplies a range of leading technology solutions. With the agreement, Visualsupport now stocks over 500m² of the Unilumin UpdadIII 2.6 LED panel, which benefits from a modular design and quick assembly. "The Unilumin Upad III P2.6 is well designed and very reliable product that Visualsupport has been using for over three years for a range of projects,” comments Michał Płocienniak, CEO of Visualsupport. “We are delighted
UK - KV2 Audio systems are currently on tour in the UK with a number of major productions, including Kinky Boots and Motown: The Musical, both supplied by Autograph Sound, as well as Tim Firth’s musical, The Band based on the music of Take That and Matthew Bourne’s convention-busting production of Swan Lake. These and many more productions are currently gracing stages throughout the UK using a variety of KV2 Audio point source systems. According to Andy Sharman, head of sound on the current UK tour of Kinky Boots, the real advantage of using a point source rig, especially on tour, is its adaptability. “Every theatre is different,” he says. “Using this design of loudspeaker allows us to adjust the configuration from place to place really easily, while staying within the designer’s original vision. It may be a bit old-school
UK - Yamaha Commercial Audio and London’s SW19 Studios are joining forces in mid-March to host a two-day Welcome to the World of Rivage event. Taking place on 7-8 March at SW19 Studios in Wimbledon, it comprises a free series of technical training seminars which offer professional and aspiring sound engineers an opportunity to get up close and personal with Yamaha’s Rivage PM7 and PM10 digital mixing systems. Day 1 will focus on showcasing Rivage PM7 as the solution for reliable sound for live venue and festival engineers, sculpting audio for today’s touring bands. Yamaha product specialists and SW19 staff will be on hand to deliver an overview of the system, highlighting key features and demonstrating its applications in a rehearsal environment. Day 2 offers opportunities for those with some experience of Rivage and/or those who want to delve deep into t
UK - Midas Consoles has agreed a sponsorship deal to provide mixing desks to Backstage Academy. The equipment, understood to be a pair of M32 consoles and DL32 stage boxes, will be used for training purposes at the Wakefield-based college, which introduced a live engineering pathway to its Live Events Production BA (Hons) degree course last September. Miles Marsden, Backstage Academy’s industry partnerships director, comments: “Everyone knows that Midas produces state-of-the-art mixing desks in the analogue world, setting standards on major tours worldwide throughout the 1990s. They have extended this product format into the digital world, with the M32 console. We are delighted they have loaned us a pair of these desks and DL32 I/O boxes for our students to learn on.” Joel Perry, artist relations for Midas, has known Marsden for 20 years. “We are pleased
The Netherlands - ELC Lighting has appointed ZAP Audio as the exclusive representative for the Green-GO digital intercom system in Switzerland. Headquartered in Geneva, with a second branch at Winterthur, ZAP Audio has a 25-year history as one of Switzerland’s best-known providers of pro audio equipment and solutions. The company also has brands including Nexo, Luminex, Auvitran, Yamaha and Shure in its sales portfolio. ZAP Audio director Frédéric Walder comments: “Green-GO is an innovative intercom system that goes beyond traditional production intercoms. Based on standard Ethernet technology, it can be integrated almost anywhere; it brings great flexibility for production companies, without the limitations of standard partyline intercoms. It is a true Network.” He adds: “We are very happy and proud to act as official distributor for Green-GO in Switz
China - OutBoard has appointed L-Supply Ltd as its new TiMax distributor for Hong Kong and China. Following the appointment, L-Supply has procured a 64-channel version of the new FPGA TiMax SoundHub spatial audio matrix for demo and support purposes. The team is headed up by directors Ching Lui and Omega Lam, both veterans of the pro-audio industry with a wide range of premium specifier, integrator and operator contacts plus considerable experience in the professional live performance and AV installation marketplaces. Ching Lui comments: "We are very pleased to be working with TiMax. As the most advanced and intuitive spatialisation and audio showcontrol automation system it cannot really be compared to anything else. At L-Supply, we understand TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker, and how it will bring the best sound arrangements for our customers across Hong Kong and Chi
USA - Business development specialist Jeff Meyer has joined AV solutions integrator OSA International (OSA). An industry veteran, Meyer has 35 years of experience in live sound and video for corporate events. Based at OSA’s Las Vegas office, he will be responsible for developing new business relationships and expanding sales of LED technology. Meyer joins from Video Equipment Rentals (VER), where he worked business development and account management since 2010. Prior to that, he spent over 23 years at Creative Technology (formerly Media Control). Meyer joined Media Control as a sound engineer and warehouse technician in 1987. He then became a project manager in 1990 and went on to take up the roles of operations manager and subsequently, general manager. (Jim Evans)
