Japan - Martin Audio Japan recently launched the British manufacturer’s latest range of products at the Nakano Zero Theatre in Tokyo. This was the first territorial exposé of the new suite which received its global premier earlier this year at Frankfurt’s Prolight+Sound Show. Supporting the Tokyo event was Martin Audio R&D director, Jason Baird. He first introduced the LE and XE floor monitors before turning to the Wavefront Precision WPM and WPC line arrays after the intermission. Developed in consultation with leading monitor engineers and combining sleek, low-profile enclosures with unique Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology, the XE300 (1 x 12” LF) and XE500 (1 x 15” LF) are designed to deliver perfect monitor sound with a defined coverage pattern that allows the artist freedom of movement, while reducing overlap with adjacent monitors. The LE100
South Korea - Sungeun Church in Uijeongbu has selected a Qu-32 compact digital mixer, two AB168 remote IO racks, and a ME personal monitoring system from Allen & Heath as part of a new digitally-based AV system upgrade to its main chapel. The new system needed to manage live sound reinforcement for services and events, multi-track recording for web streaming content, and personal monitoring for the musicians. “The Qu-32 is intuitive, with plenty of outputs, great handling and quality faders and rotaries. The touchscreen is a good size and sensitivity, and gives a great overview as well as enabling fine control with a screen-dedicated rotary. And thanks to the custom layer function, you can assign fader strips as you want. I also really like the GEQ. Unlike other consoles, I can apply GEQ on every output channel, and there are 4 different EQ models in the library
The Netherlands - The latest AV and display tech were deployed at the Canon of The Netherlands exhibition which opened at the Netherlands Open Air Museum in Arnhem in September. The exhibition, which covers the highlights and low lights of Dutch history since the Stone Age, combines historical objects on loan from collections throughout the Netherlands with deployments of the latest audio-visual and display technologies. Working in intimate collaboration with exhibition architects Kossmann.dejong and a multi-disciplinary team of film, animation and interactive designers, Rapenburg Plaza of Amsterdam were engaged to implement the lighting, show control and audiovisual technologies for the exhibition. “We work in parallel with Rapenburg Plaza in most of our projects and they help bring our ideas to life. They have an expert, specialist team who work t
UK - While the overarching memory of BBC Radio 2’s big weekend in Hyde Park was of James Blunt crowd-surfing in a dinghy at the end of his set, for Capital Sound it was just another monumental production, successfully deploying their Martin Audio MLA PA to bring the summer season to a close. Radio 2 Festival in a Day followed BBC Proms in the Park. Sir Ray Davies headlined the first day, designed to coincide with the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, joined by Steps and Sir Bryn Terfel, while Take That and Shania Twain were the headline acts on the Sunday, bringing the curtain down on another wonderful Weekend in the Park for the BBC, despite the weather. With PA control and set up in the capable hands of system tech Toby Donovan production standards again met and exceeded the requirements of promoters, Festival Republic, and thei
Sweden - Adamson Systems Engineering and Benum Sweden have announced a strategic new distribution agreement for the Swedish market, which finds the two companies working in tandem with previous distributor Stonehouse Show Technologies AB to build the premium loudspeaker brand’s sales and profile in Scandinavia’s largest economy. In the new arrangement, Benum will oversee Swedish distribution while Stonehouse will maintain its strong focus on AV installations as an Adamson integration partner. Stonehouse’s sister production rental company Soundforce Scandinavian AB will remain a key Adamson rental account and provide senior consultancy and demo support across the country, especially for larger and higher-profile projects. “Our partnership with Adamson is built on a shared set of values and has been very successful in Norway,” begins Peter Engström, CEO of Ben
UK - UK-based international entertainment industry engineering design and safety specialists and consultants BLUMANO Ltd has launched Stage DB - a unique new multi-lingual software tool for co-ordinating and collating all the necessary machinery / equipment documentation to meet production health and safety requirements. Stage DB has been developed for BLUMANO by Lluis Diaz-Guerra, also one of three directors of the company which launched in 2014. Since then, BLUMANO has led the way in establishing important health and safety related working practices for the world of concert touring, special events and large spectaculars. Any tour or event needs to produce a fully organised bundle of documentation, including all the mandatory certificates and reports mandated by the H&S work regulations. This is often required in different languages, all of which also have to be
USA - Audio industry veteran Chris Caiazzo has joined Orlando-based Professional Wireless Systems as technical sales manager. In his new position, Caiazzo will be responsible for sales, technical support and project management. The announcement was made by Jim Van Winkle, general manager for Professional Wireless Systems. “I am very happy to be working with Chris again,” said Van Winkle. “His vast experience in the industry, and knowledge of wireless systems integration will be invaluable to our customers. I am very confident that he will be a key part of our growth for years to come.” Caiazzo began his career working for Van Winkle at Masque Sound, parent company of Professional Wireless Systems, in 1994. He began his own audio company, Technically Sound LLC, in 2006. Since then he has provided a variety of sound reinforcement services in the broadcast, corpo
USA - A/V integration firm Essential Communications recently added an Ashly Audio digiMIX24 digital mixing console to the Meyer sound reinforcement system at the Django, a jazz club located under New York’s Roxy Hotel. “The Roxy is our client, and they were in the market for a new live mixer for The Django,” explained David Schwartz, president of Essential Communications. “They wanted all of the functionality and processing power of a large console, but they didn’t have a lot of physical room to put it. “The Ashly digiMIX24 is compact and packs a ton of features into a small footprint. However, Ashly was very clever in the design so that all of the functionality appears seamlessly. It’s uniquely powerful, but also uniquely easy to use. They will use its full power for jazz shows, but they’ll also use its ‘EZ Mode’ for meetings and other events.”
USA - Grace Church’s new campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle benefits from AVL system installed by the CSD Group. With its sweeping inwardly curved stage, gently arched ceiling, fanned seating arrangements, the inside of the church resembles a contemporary theatre or conference centre yet makes worshippers feel at home by projecting a sense of warmth and intimacy via the Chauvet Professional Ovation and COLORdash LED luminaires that CSD used to anchor the lighting system. “This church is fully contemporary in style, but its leaders also wanted an immersive environment with a sense of transcendence,” says Doug Hood, president of the CSD Group. “The even warm white front and stage lighting we got from the Ovation fixtures makes it easy for worshippers to see the stage and connect to the people on it. When you look at a well-lit stage, you are more like
UK - Flare Audio has received recognition by the Government as a leading UK innovator, following the publication of The Parliamentary Review this autumn. The annual review, published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, showcases businesses that demonstrate best practice at every level of industry, and features a foreword by the Prime Minister, Theresa May. Flare Audio founder Davies Roberts described how, since launching in 2010, the company developed a revolutionary new type of loudspeaker and earphone technology for professional and consumer use, providing a previously unheard level of audio clarity. Sir Eric Pickles, chairman of the Review, said: “It has never been more important for government to hear the views of business and the public sector in a constructive forum. It is also a vital time to share best practice and progre
Australia - Ariana Grande brought her Dangerous Woman Tour to Australia this September and JPJ Audio joined her on the road. FOH engineer Simon ‘Si’ Thomas specified a Clair Cohesion PA to be utilised for her entire tour – unless when unavailable in certain country when an L-Acoustics K1 or d&b J series were use. “It’s very compact and lightweight compared to other line arrays in its class and it’s got lots of headroom,” commented Thomas. “It has a really good high/mid which is very smooth. With this kind of music there’s a lot of odd sub content that goes down really low with which the CP-218’s do a really good job. The CP-218 sub is particularly good, it’s very powerful.” In Sydney, Ariana played the ICC Sydney Theatre with 16 CO-12 per side in the main hang, 12 CO-12 per side in the side-hang and three CP-218 flown per side i
Russia - The Spy Moscow Club in the city’s Triumphal Square has specified a matched system of Nexo Geo S12 and PS Series loudspeakers. The installation was completed by DJSOUND Company, which had to design a system that fitted with the club interior and met the most stringent audio performance requirements. “The system had to provide uniform coverage with awesome sound quality,” explained Gulya Zaripova of Nexo’s Russian distributor SIM. “The Spy Moscow club has a varied itinerary of entertainments and events; live music, DJs and karaoke, as well as background music, so the system had to work across all those applications. And the club wanted it installed within very tight deadlines.” For the live music stage, a main PA of Geo S12 Series was selected, together with RS18 subbass. In the VIP zones, a combination of Nexo PS8 and PS10-R2 speakers were fit
Europe - German fibre network company BroaMan has reported an “overwhelmingly successful launch” of its new Repeat8-NANO and Mux22-Intercom devices, which were introduced to distributors, broadcasters and the media at this year’s IBC 2017 in Amsterdam. According to technical sales manager Maciek Janiszewski the response from customers in this sector could not have been more positive. He said: “Despite other similar products populating the market there remains a constant need for smaller interfaces, which we have identified - and one with the ability to handle 12G-SDI and 4K transmission for which this is perfect. We have reduced the channel count and size from the original Repeat48, but have maintained the same highest quality.” BroaMan MD Tine Helmle, added: “At the same time the price/performance ratio is amazing, and at the same time we have managed to
UK - Scotland’s foremost celebration of cultural diversity, The Edinburgh Mela, brought the curtain down on Edinburgh’s festival season last month. The sound for this multi-cultural extravaganza was designed by Live Systems, who used an Adamson S10 line array loudspeaker system. The company supplied all of the technical equipment for the Edinburgh Mela 2017. Founded in 1995 to showcase the talents of Edinburgh’s ethnic minorities, Edinburgh Mela has now grown to regularly attract thousands of people to its extraordinary range of theatre, dance, music and art. Taking its name from the Sanskrit word for 'gathering' or 'to meet', Mela has come to represent the widest reaches of the Edinburgh festivals, attracting the most exciting and colourful acts from southern Asia, as modern Scotland's diverse mix of heritage and culture is celebrated in style.
UK - Held at “a secret location in Market Harborough' on August Bank Holiday Weekend, the eclectic Shambala Festival featured 200 acts across a dozen or so stages of music programming, plus a roller disco, karaoke, contemporary circus performances and lots more. Promoters, Bristol based Kembe Events, now have the formula down to a fine art, as do their technical service providers (and Martin Audio partners), Stage Audio Services (SAS), who have been involved with the event for the past dozen or so years. Their MD Kevin Mobberley says the fact that they have just enjoyed their biggest summer ever is due in no small part to their investment in Martin Audio’s premium MLA Compact PA. “In fact, having now added MLA to our hire fleet we were able to give [the promoters] a choice between this and our other front line system; fortunately, they picked MLA which was great
Australia - Jands has been appointed as the Australian distributor of Gibson Pro Audio brands KRK, Stanton, Cerwin-Vega, Cakewalk and Neat. Jands’ managing director Paul Mulholland, said: “It is great to be back representing Stanton, having first represented Stanton in the early 2000's. Jands are excited to have the opportunity to work with Gibson Pro Audio under whose guidance and management Stanton, along with KRK and Cerwin Vega, have become market leaders in their category. Gibson Pro Audio's general manager Ingrid Calvo added: “We are extremely excited and very much looking forward to working with Jands as our new partner for Gibson Pro Audio in Australia. Jands is a long standing, highly professional distributor and we believe they are a great fit for our brands and products.” With its headquarters and a service department in Sydney, a factory in
UAE - Sonic Wave has become the exclusive Apart Audio distributor in the UAE from October.
Andy Williams, general manager at Sonic Wave said: “In an industry that has an ever-increasing demand for both the highest quality and the best value, Apart delivers a range of products with an outstanding audio performance while being incredibly cost-effective. Adding Apart to the Sonic Wave portfolio will make us your one-stop shop for all AV requirements.”
Kris Vermuyten, sales and marketing director at Apart Audio, added: “We are delighted to start the cooperation with Sonic Wave and further expand the Apart presence in the UAE market. We are looking forward to working with the qualified Sonic Wave staff and together support their dealers and system integrators as the Apart product range is an excellent addition to the Sonic Wave brand portfolio.”
UK - Focusrite has announced the RedNet X2P 2x2 Dante audio interface. With two Red Evolution mic pre’s, stereo line outs and a stereo headphone amplifier, the RedNet X2P allows quick I/O and monitoring expansion of Focusrite RedNet or other Dante audio-over-IP systems. Power, audio and remote control are supplied using an ethernet cable; a local input mixer allows “more me” monitoring control, while a control lockout ensures settings remain unchanged when used remotely. The two digitally-controlled Red Evolution mic pre’s provide plenty of ultra-clean gain along with stereo linking, individually selectable phantom power, a high-pass filter and phase reverse. Additionally, they include Air mode, emulating the sound of Focusrite’s classic transformer-based mic preamps. The RedNet X2P provides high-performance audio conversion with over 118dB dynamic range. T
UK - CUK Audio, long-standing UK and Eire distributors for dB Technologies, is launching an initiative to promote the extended five-year warranty offered for free on all dB Technologies products purchased from an authorised dealer. CUK is running three prize draws that will take place at the end of October, November and December and the winners will be reimbursed in full for the cost of their dB Technologies purchase. CUK Audio MD Stuart Thomson explained: “We’ve actually been offering the free extended warranty for around three years now. Our aim was both to support the brand itself and to support UK retailers on the ground who offer a real added value compared to the online giants. It’s a clear demonstration of the confidence that we have in the quality and reliability of dB Technologies products, and we’d really like to underline this for our customers –
UK - The need to address historic intelligibility problems and improve the overall audio quality were the key factors behind a recent installation at Church House Westminster in Central London. The project focused on the site’s two-level Assembly Hall, a Grade II listed space that is primarily used for conferences and meetings. The reputation and range of d&b audiotechnik meant that the brand was Church House AV manager Ian Locke’s first choice for the upgrade, but he engaged the services of freelance sound designer and engineer Phil Wright to ensure the most appropriate units were selected throughout the cylindrical, dome-roofed venue. “We undertook some tests with the existing system in the downstairs area, and found that for any given impulse we put into the PA we could measure 10 to 15 distinct arrivals at the measurement microphone. From an intelligibili
South Africa - Investing in dedicated and committed people and the best equipment available has been a successful formula for Multi-Media Event Trading, which has 25 years’ experience in the South African market as a technical production supplier. In March this year, sound engineer, Adriaan van der Walt joined the company, increasing the high standard of audio knowledge. More recently, the firm purchased two DiGiCo SD10 consoles from DWR Distribution, accompanied by two SD Racks on HMA Optics, Wave Servers, Orange Box and option cards, all of which are featured at The Voice, Nigeria. Owning two SD10s definitely changes Multi-Media’s position in the market. “Traditionally there was only one house that stocked DiGiCo and the brand is now slowly starting to spread,” said Adriaan. “Having the SD10s puts us in a different league compared to a month ago, an
UK - Absolute Motion Control is providing the automation for Young Marx, the first production at the new Bridge Theatre, which opens this October. The new Bridge Theatre opens on 18 October 2017 and is home to the London Theatre Company, founded by Nicholas Hytner and Nick Starr after their departure from the National Theatre. It is fitting that Absolute, also at the start of their own exciting new venture, has been asked to supply the automation for the theatre’s inaugural production. Absolute will be providing the control system to power the show’s effects, including a six-ton revolving truck. Jamie West, one of Absolute’s directors said: “It’s a really exciting time for new companies working in the theatre industry, with several new theatre building projects underway in the capital. The Bridge Theatre is the first of those to be complet
UK - HD Pro Audio reports that Midas is now offering a 10-year warranty on all its products, including M32. Effective immediately, Midas is extending its existing manufacturer’s warranty duration to 10 years and products purchased since 1 September 2014 will be covered by this warranty timing extension. No other changes have been made to the terms and conditions. HD Pro sales director, Andy Huffer, commented, “This is a major industry move that will be a substantial consideration for anyone looking to purchase a console of this calibre, particularly as the warranty includes faders. It provides users with a notable element of financial surety for a significant period of time.” Huffer added, “As a long-standing MIDAS dealer we are very excited with this announcement and look forward to supporting the move with the benefit that our in-depth knowledge and ex
Malaysia - Australia-based Norwest Productions provided the audio for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Southeast Asian Games (SEA) Games held in Kuala Lumpur in August. DiGiCo SD5s positioned at Front of House, SD9s deployed for audio patch control, and SD8s at the closing ceremony’s monitor position. Norwest was introduced to the project by Nick Eltis, technical director for entertainment production company Technick, who was consulting on the ceremonies for Memories Entertainment (Malaysia). Norwest was asked to provide a turnkey audio service, from audio design and supply, through to crew and operation of all audio requirements, which included six DiGiCo consoles and an L-Acoustics loudspeaker system, which included 100 Kudo and 48 KS28 cabinets. “The two SD5s for FOH were position in the Level 1 seating bowl, with Ian Shapcott expertly mixing,”
