USA - On Tuesday, 14 November, the Atlona On Tour road show rolled into Boston for a special two-day Visual Systems Show in Marlborough, MA, where more than 75 dealers, distributors and systems integrators took in live presentations focused on Atlona’s Velocity networked control solution, OmniStream R-Type AV over IP platform, and a variety of HDR products. Seth Powell, Atlona’s resident AV over IP training expert, led most of the presentations. Sponsored by the D.L. Henderson Company, a regional manufacturer’s representative, the event also included a three-hour Atlona Certification Course on how to configure, deploy and maintain OmniStream and Velocity systems. More than 20 attendees were certified. Atlona offers these trainings free of charge, and has been granted CTS certification for them due to providing a thorough and complete curriculum. The road show con
France - Aeroscopia is a museum which celebrates the contribution that the Midi-Pyrénées region has made to French civil and military aviation. As well as aircraft and themed exhibition areas, the museum features spaces for hospitality events, meetings and presentations. In all of them, Yamaha audio systems deliver smooth, turbulence-free sound. Toulouse is known globally for Airbus, but the area around the city has witnessed over a century of aviation - from France’s first powered flight by Clément Ader, via the Caravelle (the first French jet airliner) and Concorde, to the mighty Airbus A380. Appropriately, Aeroscopia is connected to Toulouse-Blagnac airport - where many French aircraft made their maiden flights - and is within easy reach of the city. At the heart of the museum, the 506m² l’espace évènementiel (event space) can host up to 400 guests in a co
UK - The multi-cellular controllability of Martin Audio’s MLA was put to the test recently at the notoriously difficult Alexandra Palace, when The War on Drugs played to a 10,000 sell-out crowd. The American indie six-piece rock band, fronted by Adam Granduciel, were promoting their fourth album A Deeper Understanding - and fortunately their FOH engineer Bob Strakele had prior experience, not only of the venue but also of MLA. “I have mixed at Ally Pally before,” he confirmed. “So when I heard that we would be doing a show there, I immediately asked our production manager [David Scheid] to get in touch with Capital Sound about getting an MLA system.” Capital’s operations & development director, Paul Timmins takes up the story. “We have worked with Bob on a number of shows over the past 10 years, including Billy Talent, Erasure and James.
UK - Audio specialist tube UK returned to the familiar urban territory of Manchester’s Albert Square to help deliver the city’s 2017 Christmas Switch On ceremony, which officially fired up the city’s Christmas lights for the run up to a fun-packed festive season. tube has been involved with the Switch-On since 2001 and has seen it grow massively in that time, so the audience now fills the entire square and the event involves multiple road closures and the traditional hoisting of Manchester’s own huge LED clad Santa onto the front of the Town Hall to oversee the proceedings! The d&b sound system spec’d for the show was designed by tube’s John Redfern and based on the required crowd coverage and the needs of the multiple acts appearing onstage in the hour-long entertainment extravaganza headlined for the first time by a DJ – Sigala. He was joine
Switzerland - Thunerseespiele is well-known for its beautiful scenic location, providing the most stunning backdrop to the high-energy performances gracing the stage every summer. The energy is fully matched by the immersive spatial audio delivered by award-winning sound designer Tom Strebel, using TiMax Tracker stage tracking and object-based TiMax SoundHub spatial reinforcement to deliver transparent vocal clarity and intelligibility. As usual, Strebel’s seasoned audiopool engineers also crewed the production and Out Board’s Robin Whittaker provided TiMax spatial tuning and programming support on-site. In previous years, lavish performances have included Jesus Christ Superstar, Titanic and Aida – and unforgettably, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet performed in a massive half-pipe with a cast of BMX stunt bikers and skateboarders. Th
Europe - L-Acoustics sound systems have been specified for the recent European tour of Grammy Award-winning artist John Legend, with BCS Audio supplying the equipment. BCS owner David Shepherd explains: “As is so often the case, the client specified an L-Acoustics system. This is one of the reasons we’ve been an L-Acoustics supplier for several years now. Their systems are rider-friendly simply because they make great sounding products and consistently deliver the high quality of sound the artists want. And we want to provide our clients with that high quality - you always know what you’re going to get with L-Acoustics. “We’ve been working with John Legend since 2014,” recalls BCS project manager, Nick Boulton. “His FOH engineer, Troy Milner, had been really impressed with a K1 system they’d used during the first run of shows he worked on with John and
Denmark - The Rhythmic Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen aims at supporting the creative forces of its students, musicians as well as producers, as they have more than 30 rehearsal rooms that are equipped with recording set-ups, including USB recording interfaces, external preamps, a MIDI keyboard and controller and studio monitors so the students can hook up their own laptop and capture and work on their musical ideas. In 16 of those rehearsal spaces, a pair of Dynaudio LYD 7 studio monitors has now been installed. “All of the new rooms are prepared with a basic set-up that allows our students to bring their own laptop and simply plug in,” says sound technician, Tim Harris, who took the lead on designing the new rooms. “They have access to record up to 16 simultaneous tracks and since most of our students have a DAW and their favorite sound and instrument libraries on
New Zealand - New Zealand singer-songwriter Bic Runga marked the 20th anniversary of her debut album with a tour across the country. The album, Drive, was released in August 1997 and won the New Zealand Music Award for Album of the Year in 1998. It went platinum seven times in New Zealand. The Auckland leg of the anniversary tour was held at The Civic Performance Art Theatre, with the main sound system supplied especially for the event was JBL’s new line array system, the VTX A12. “When we were given the opportunity to mix with the VTX A12, it was a no-brainer really,” says leading sound engineer Kevin Bennett, who mixed FOH for the show. “I have never received as many compliments from an audience as I did after this performance. Sonically the A12 is exceptionally smooth on and off axis. Very little tweaking was necessary to get the system to work
USA - Clair Brothers has appointed two new distibutors - Rocketerias in Mexico and VTècnics in Spain - to its growing international distribution network. Rocketerias and VTècnics will sell and distribute all Clair Brothers products across the two markets. Rocketerias owner Alejandro Barbosa Calderon comments: “Clair Brothers is a great brand, everybody knows it, and the sky’s the limit. So, joining with them is a powerful complement to our mission to deliver on the promise of offering the kinds of products our customers can be proud to own.” “Clair Brothers has been a good friend to VTècnics, referring us many times to new customers,” states VTècnics production manager Josep Maria Serra. “When the timing and opportunity for real professional growth in the industry presented itself, we recognised the immediate need to be more competitive in the mar
Europe - Community Professional Loudspeakers has appointed DV2 as its distributor in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Effective immediately, DV2 Belux has become Community’s exclusive distributor in Belgium and Luxembourg, while DV2 France will be the American brand’s French distributor from 2 January 2018. DV2 France was founded in 1997 by Didier Dal Fitto and Guy Vignet and is distributing a range of pro audio brands in France, including Adamson, Lab.Gruppen, Lake, MDC, XTA, Tannoy, WaveCapture and DiGiCo. In 2014 DV2 opened its office in Belgium to serve the Belgium and Luxembourg markets. Community’s EMEA sales manager, Jamie Ward, comments: “DV2 is a major player in France and Belux and this partnership will substantially strengthen our distribution in these key European markets. Although it brings two markets under one company, DV2’s separate offi
UK - A SSL console is being used on Imagine Dragon’s latest world tour in support of their Evolve album. Tour sound company Sound Image recommended the SSL Live L500 to FOH engineer Scott Eisenberg. "It was great to be able to bring up channels that sounded good right out of the box," he notes. "We were able to bring everything together really quickly, which is a tribute to both the band and the console." The Evolve show features two stages. The main stage is for the primary song list with full line-up, while a 'B' stage allows the band to switch to pared-down, unplugged interludes that include viola, cello, acoustic bass, and keyboards. This was one of the main challenges for Eisenberg - two stages, lots of instruments, and lots of inputs: "It's about 80 inputs between the two stages," he says. "Around 50 from the main stage, a dozen from the B S
UK - West End fringe venue The Space and its in-house company Space Productions, are building a solid reputation around great acting and direction as well as new and challenging drama. The company’s sound designer, Keri Chesser, is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of sound design within the intimate site, confidently manipulating the audio framework of productions using a TiMax SoundHub spatial audio matrix. Chesser and the Space Productions team have recently staged a minimalistic adaptation of Howard Barker’s The Castle, where TiMax once again topped her tool kit. “I love to use TiMax,” she explains, “It makes me braver with my sound design. Makes me want to discover new ways of manipulating the audio rather than just sticking to the limitations of the speakers I have.” The invisible loudspeaker set up comprised just seven cabinets: two co
Italy - K-array's held its global distributor meeting on 25-27 October at the K-hall in San Piero a Sieve, Italy to discuss the latest strategies for 2018, including soon-to-be-launched new products. There were 62 guests from over 30 countries visiting the small Tuscan town in the Mugello countryside where the event was held. A networking and a loudspeaker assembly teambuilding challenge were the first initiatives of the evening on Wednesday, followed by dinner and a jam session. The plenary session kicked off early the next day with the theme Changing Perspective introduced by astronaut and aviator Maurizio Cheli who participated as mission specialist in the 1996 STS-75 Tethered Satellite mission with NASA. After a recap of sales figures presented by Alessandro Tatini, co-founder and president of R&D, the day’s agenda dived into strategic planning
USA - Cleveland-based Eighth Day Sound has officially joined Adamson Systems Engineering’s sales network on the back of significant installations at the corporate headquarters of a US-based Fortune 500 company and the University of Buffalo. Eighth Day Sound has also provided Adamson loudspeaker systems for tours by major artists like Shawn Mendes, The 1975, and Nick Cave, as well as events including Drake’s OVO Fest and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ sold-out 2017 dates in Dublin, Ireland, while the company’s director (touring services) Owen Orzack was instrumental in introducing Adamson’s compact S-Series loudspeakers to the touring market. Jack Boessneck, executive vice president of Eighth Day Sound, says: “Adamson’s reputation in the live sound industry is second to none. We’ve enjoyed a very rewarding relationship with them on the touring side of our busine
UK - JHS has announced the appointment of Chris Walton to the position of pro audio sales specialist for the UK and Ireland. Chris, who will be familiar to JHS customers from his tenure in the company’s sales office, will be the internal “go to guy” for all things pro audio at JHS. Chris has a long history in pro audio which covers all aspects of touring, live sound and studio engineering, system configuration, installation and said of the appointment: “I look forward to the challenge of the new role supporting and expanding on relations with new and existing customers.” JHS managing director Dennis Drumm commemts: “Chris’ experience of JHS and its pro audio brands and his extensive knowledge, direct personal experience and ongoing engagement in touring and live sound brings a terrific asset to bear to support our pro audio activities.” (Jim
USA - The 51st Annual Country Music Association (CMA) Awards brought together some of the biggest names in country music for an evening of memorable performances which was broadcast on ABC to 14.3m viewers. Sennheiser microphones and wireless systems were present throughout the broadcast, which was reportedly the channel’s most-viewed Wednesday night programme in three years. Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley hosted the evening, both speaking and singing through a Sennheiser SKM 5200 handheld transmitter and MD 5235 capsule combination - all running through a Sennheiser 3732-II receiver. Underwood also received a nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year. After an understated a cappella rendition of Amazing Grace by Eric Church, Lady Antebellum and a bevy of other performers joined Darius Rucker for a rendition of erstwhile Hootie and the Blowfish hit <
Poland - Alcons Audio has recently added a new territory to its global spread of users, with Polish event production company Offstage using its QR, QM and VR series pro-ribbon systems on a wide range of events. Two of the most recent have been corporate orchestral concerts in the Baltic resort of Sopot. Based in Łęgowo near Gdansk, Offstage provides concert sound, lighting and staging services for national and international clients. In September, its Alcons pro-ribbon loudspeakers were used for a corporate event at the Sheraton Hotel in Sopot where the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot and guest performers entertained guests in the hotel’s Baltic Panorama Ballroom. For the orchestral concert, Offstage used L-R arrays of an Alcons QR24 modular line-source array column and QM24 LMF array extension, plus VR8 compact versatile monitors as frontfills. The syst
USA - Austin-based cinema Alamo Drafthouse recently upgraded its Highball location with an Allen & Heath Qu-24 digital mixer and its Barrel O’ Fun location with a Qu-24 mixer and an AR-2412 AudioRack. A/V manager Steve Sanders said: “The Highball was using an older mixer in their remodelled space. So, I did a lot of research. The reviews said that the Allen & Heath Qu Series is the easiest digital board to use, especially if you’re coming from an analogue background. So, I rented one from Rock n Roll Rentals and took it home for a few days. With the Allen & Heath videos, it was easy to understand and, as I got to know the mixer, I really liked it. So, we bought one for the Highball and another for the Barrel O’ Fun.” Sanders saves a Qu-24 scene for bands who play at the Highball regularly. “When they come in, I just recall their scene,” he sai
USA - After producing the US Open Squash Championships in Philadelphia for seven years, IMS Technology Services noticed a distinct improvement in the audio quality after switching to Martin Audio CDD-LIVE speakers for this year’s event. IMS director of audio Chris Leonard comments: “We definitely upgraded the speaker coverage with the Martin Audio CDD-LIVE 12’s and 8’s. They had a major impact on the environment with their low-end extension and consistent wide coverage. There’s no good place to put subs at this event, so having a speaker with the low-end power of the CDD-LIVE series really helped us out with adding excitement to the audio quality and coverage. This was the seventh year we’ve done this event and by far the best sounding one yet.” The Championships take place at Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Centre with a custom ASB glass squas
USA - The Audio Engineering Society (AES) has announced that David Scheirman has taken office as their new president. Scheirman has over 40 years of experience and expertise in professional audio and has been a long-time active member of the AES, having served three terms on the Board of Governors and taken up numerous roles and chair positions at AES conventions and within the AES committee system. “David has played a leading role in the past year as chair of the president’s strategic planning team,” said Alex Case, as he ends his own one-year presidential term. “David was instrumental in our development of new events and collaborations. With his broad and deep industry experience, he is uniquely prepared to lead these AES initiatives in the coming year.” Case will continue to serve on the AES Executive Committee as Past President, while also chairing the M
Poland - Tommex Żebrowscy Sp. J. has recently completed the design and installation of the audio systems for the new water sports facility - Zatoka Sportu - at the Academic Sports and Teaching Centre of the Technical University of Łódz. Tommex designed the main pool area system using EN 54-24 certified loudspeakers. Twenty-three Community R2-94Z-EN are used for the 1,700 capacity spectator grandstand, with a further five R1-66Z-EN covering the pool itself. The system’s control room houses a Dynacord CMS 1000-3 mixer and the Community DSPEC226 digital loudspeaker processor. Marcin Zimny, the commercial director of Tommex, explained the sound system: “With high humidity and difficult acoustics, we chose Community R Series loudspeakers. Their extreme all-weather ability can handle the humidity long-term and their accurate coverage patterns enabled us to design the
Czech Republic - Perhaps one of the most unusual cultural buildings in Europe, the airship at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague appears to float above the surrounding buildings. For those that venture inside it, a Yamaha audio system proves that the sound. Named after fictional traveller Gulliver, the 42m long, 120-capacity steel and wood airship features a zeppelin-shaped structure on top and is a permanent space for lectures, exhibitions, screening and other cultural events. The venue features an AV system specified and installed by Martin Vondrášek of the Prague-based AVT Group. The audio system comprises four Yamaha VXS5W speakers arrayed along each side of the ‘body’, powered by an XMV8140 multi-channel amplifier, with signal distribution and processing by an Yamaha MTX5-D matrix processor. Audio inputs come from wireless microphones, a
USA - Set against the striking backdrop of the Hollywood Hills with its famed Hollywood sign, the Hollywood Bowl is the summer home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The Bowl has also been the winner of 13 consecutive Pollstar Awards for Outstanding Outdoor Venue since 2004, which was coincidentally the same year that L-Acoustics was selected to help maintain the audio excellence at the venue, first with V-DOSC, then with the 2013 installation of the only K1 system currently installed in a North American venue. Just prior to the 2017 season, the Hollywood Bowl furthered its pursuit of sonic excellence with the acquisition of 18 AVB-ready L-Acoustics LA12X and 10 LA4X amplified controllers, all sold and installed by Rat Sound. With this addition of 28 new LA Series amplified controllers, the Hollywood Bowl has completely refreshed and updated its power infrastructure, fu
Sweden - Harman Professional Solutions has announced that Septon Electronic is taking over the distribution of AMX solutions in Sweden. The agreement applies to the full range of AMX product categories, with Septon Electronic set to focus on local sales and support of video control solutions while Harman Professional will concentrate on creating synergies between the audio, video and lighting segments of the business. “We are pleased about this agreement,” said Fredrik Barnö, channel manager, Harman Professional Solutions. “Septon Electronic has been the Swedish distributor of Harman Professional’s audio portfolio for many years, and with their extensive market reach and thorough industry know-how, we have a strong partner on our side.” "AMX is established in the absolute premium segment, whereas Septon Electronic as a distributor is known for our broa
