New Zealand - Allen & Heath’s new QU-SB ultra-compact intelligent mixer has been installed in the multi-purpose Returned Service Association (RSA) venue in Napier, New Zealand. The venue, founded to provide a variety of sporting and social activities for army veterans and their families, was in need of an audio refurbishment and a more sophisticated zone controller to manage five zones. The venue offers activities from keep fit and bowls to gaming and live music entertainment. “There are five designated zones in the venue: Main Lounge, TAB restaurant, Library, Smokers Deck, and Casino. There are a wealth of events going on, often simultaneously. For example, on a Wednesday they have a trivia night and want a laptop and microphone in the main lounge, radio on the deck and casino, and muted zones in the TAB and library,” explains Kieran McKinlay from installer,
USA - Audinate, creator of the Dante audio networking technology, has announced the immediate availability of Level 2 Dante Certification online. This follows the success of the Level 1 online Dante Certification that was launched last year, with more than 5,000 people now certified. The Dante Certification programme was created in response to overwhelming interest in Dante networking and audio networking best practices. Level 1 certification covered basic principles of audio networking and Dante. Following the release of Level 1, requests for further education led to the development of the Level 2 Certification. Audinate has made the entire Level 2 course available online for those who are unable to attend live events, but inspired to extend their Dante education. The Level 2 course also includes an interactive simulator for the hands-on skills test. The Level 2
Europe - 4EVAC rerports its best ISE yet, showcasing its Compact 500 Voice Alarm System which offers a lean design footprint and makes for cost effective installation and operation. Designed and manufactured in Europe the C500 is EN54 compliant, and in line with 4EVAC’s rigorous standards, also third party approved and certified beyond the minimum relevant European standards, including EN54-16:2008, EN54-4:2006, EN54-17:2005 and EN50130-4:2011. 4EVAC’s sales director, Albert Van der Hout, commented, “This year’s ISE was unprecedented for us. We’re delighted with so much interest now that the C500 is fully certified, in stock, and ready to purchase as a complete system including paging microphones and networking. We’ve taken orders from integrators as well as receiving distribution enquiries, making a very positive start for business in 2017.” Compr
Portugal - An array of Audio-Technica microphones was recently used for the fourth series of TV show The Voice in Portugal, broadcast by RTP1, the main television channel of the country’s public broadcasting corporation. The microphone line-up was supplied via Audio-Technica’s Portuguese distributor NAN Audiovisuais to AV company Auditiv, which has been involved in the show since its launch in 2011. The show’s house band was miked entirely with Audio-Technica models, from dynamic instrument mics to large-diaphragm condensers, with shotgun types picking up the studio audience. Auditiv (who operate across TV, live event and studio recording sectors with clients including Universal Music, Endemol, Vodafone and MTV) came to the decision to use the microphones on The Voice partly as a result of the company’s experience with Audio-Technica microphones a
Belgium - After experimenting with a number of different microphones, Belgian folk group Skratt has opted for DPA’s d:vote Instrument Microphones to capture the sound of a variety of unusual instruments, including accordion, bagpipes and nyckelharpa. All seven members of the band have very different musical backgrounds covering a diverse range of styles, from heavy metal and pop to folk and classical. This allows their music to branch out from traditional folk and incorporate influences from all over the world and many different genres. Skratt founder Mathias Van de Vliet says it was the search for a microphone that could truly capture the sound of an accordion that led the band to DPA. “To begin with we tried other microphones but they sounded thin and were terrible on monitoring. We just could not hear the accordion,” he explains. “We also tried a con
Sweden - The contrast between the volume demands of clubbers and the desire of near neighbours for peace and quiet always makes for a difficult balancing act. At Stockholm’s Underbara, a Yamaha system is providing high quality audio all the way from the front door to the DJ booth, but the neighbours can still enjoy a good night’s sleep. SoFo is one of the more bohemian areas of the Swedish capital, where cafes and restaurants rub shoulders with a range of shops dealing in clothes, jewellery, design, furniture, vintage gear and other fashionable items. Located in a former cinema in the basement of a block of apartments, Underbara combines the ambience of an exclusive night club and urban lounge. In the past, it was subject to regular complaints about noise levels, but a comprehensive renovation has seen Swedish AV specialists Watt & Volt undertake a high quality
Sweden - An orchestral arrangement of David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy has completed a series of sold-out concerts in Gothenburg Concert Hall and Stockholm’s Berwald Hall, with Allen & Heath’s dLive S Class and ME mixing systems managing FOH and monitors. Arranged by renowned Swedish conductor and composer, Hans Ek, and performed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and choir Zero 8, the technical production was managed by FOH engineer Hans ‘Surte’ Norin from Musikalisk Ljudteknink with Peter Fredriksson from PF Ljuddesign on monitors. Mixing a total of 126 channels, the dLive system comprised two MADI-enabled S5000 Surfaces and DM64 MixRacks connected by GigaAce, with an additional DX32 Expander for monitors, an IP8 Controller for FOH remote control, and ME-1 personal monitoring mixers for the orchestra. A Waves V3 network card was also fitted at F
UK - National League football club Dover Athletic has substantially invested in the facilities at its 6,500-capacity Crabble ground in Kent, both to meet the Football League criteria, and also provide a better match-day experience for its supporters. The centrepiece is the new £1.3m cantilevered Family Stand, which aside from providing a further 500-seats and improved facilities for players, officials and disabled supporters alike, required a state-of-the-art public address system. Old Barn Audio (OBA) were awarded the contract, and as they have on so many occasions recommended a Martin Audio CDD (Coaxial Differential Dispersion) solution - in this case dipping into the ‘WR’ series. “The weatherised CDD-WR was the perfect choice,” stated director Phil Clark. “And with 32 enclosures installed it is the largest CDD-WR install yet in the UK.” The compa
UK - Reading-based SFL Group has announced three new training sessions for Yamaha CL and QL series digital mixing consoles, aimed at sound engineers and potential console purchasers. Taking place on 29 March, 28 June and 11 October 2017, the sessions include comprehensive, hands-on tuition on designing, configuring and mixing with CL and QL-based audio systems. “Yamaha has arguably contributed more to our appreciation and expectations of the workflow of a modern digital mixing console than any other manufacturer, with the Centralogic interface forming one of the most established and widely recognised benchmarks of the industry,” says SFL project manager Pat Smith. “During these seminars we will simulate an event environment with live multi-track recordings. Once the basic console functionality has been explained, participants will be mixing live shows in
Poland - Cadac’s Polish distributor, Tommex Żebrowscy has been working hard to keep pace with demand to supply Cadac’s CDC six compact live production console, as it was being spec’d on events across the country. Throughout November and December, and moving into the new year, Tommex has supplied CDC six consoles, with CDC I/O 6448 or CDC I/O 3216 stage boxes, to local sound companies for a diversity of events, including gala performances, cabarets, church carol concerts and numerous concert performances. Notable applications throughout the closing months of 2016, saw the CDC six / CDC I/O 6448 deployed FOH at the Final Gala of the Screen and Sound Festival on 29 October at the Kino Kijów.Centrum (Kijów.Centrum Cinema) in Krakow. Screen & Sound Festival - Let’s See The Music! is a project produced by the Bielecki Art Foundation as “a platform integrating arti
UK - For a band named after Bastille Day (so named because lead vocalist Dan Smith’s birthday falls on 14 July), it seems somewhat appropriate that their Front of House engineer, Paul ‘Coop’ Cooper, has chosen to use a French loudspeaker brand for their Wild World tour. But his choice of L-Acoustics has nothing to do with a nod to any Gallic connection. It is simply because whenever he encounters L-Acoustics, he knows exactly what to expect and he knows it will be good. The K1 and K2 system Coop is currently using is supplied by SSE Audio, who have been working with Bastille since 2013. “As Coop is a local lad to SSE one of the guys that works in our fabrications department knew him from the club scene in Birmingham. They said he was working with a band that just might have something about them,” explains SSE’s Dan Bennett. “At SSE we have a policy of supportin
Germany - Since the introduction of Allen & Heath’s dLive mixing systems, many of Germany’s top artists, including Nena, Xavier Naidoo, Joris, Brings and Van Canto have taken S Class systems on national and international tours. "The launch of dLive S Class has been a complete success and we are supporting a lot of satisfied customers and users,” comments Markus Sinsel, Allen & Heath’s German brand manager. “The unique design of the user interface, the FX processing, and the easy integration with Waves and Dante are especially appealing to users.” Singer songwriter, Joris, has toured with a dLive S5000 Surface and DM48 MixRack with Waves V2, and plans to use dLive on his 2017 tour. FOH engineer, Daniel Lauer, says, "I use the integrated audio matrix switcher. This feature, and the possibility to integrate Dante, Waves and MADI, is perfect for Joris
USA - In a world where churches are popping up in spaces that once served as anything from a bank to a department store, First Baptist Church of Los Angeles is a throwback to an earlier time when houses of worship were built to be just that. Until recently, the audio system there was a throwback as well, until the congregation turned to CCI Solutions to design and install a new system centred on Kiva and X Series enclosures from L-Acoustics. Built in 1927 and modelled on the Palace of Ducal in Italy, the historical landmark is reminiscent of a European cathedral - deep and narrow with soaring 60ft ceilings. And, in addition to services for a number of congregations, it regularly serves as a shooting location for films and TV shows. All of this created a unique audio challenge. “It’s a cavernous space and really multi-use for a church,” says CCI Solutions’ Duke
Europe - The SD9 is one of DiGiCo’s most compact, lightweight consoles, but with 96 channels and a full range of features, it is the perfect choice for Scott Humphries, Front of House engineer and production manager, and Rory Mulligan, monitor engineer, for British folk rock band Bear’s Den. Supplied by SSE Audio, the two SD9s have spent five weeks touring with the band around Europe, starting in Scandinavia and taking in Germany, France, the UK, The Netherlands and finishing in Belgium. The choice of console was Scott’s, and both he and Rory couldn’t be more pleased with them. “Scott suggested a complete DiGiCo system from the outset,” Rory explains. “I was all for that. I hadn’t worked with DiGiCo consoles for any meaningful length of time before, so I saw it as a good opportunity to learn. I knew they sounded great, which would be a big plus for our
Canada - The Hershey Centre is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment complex located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Home to the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga Steelheads and the NBA Development League's Raptors 905, the facility also hosts a wide variety of events, ranging from live music and internationally-televised figure skating championships to boxing and indoor rodeos. In response to guest feedback on its nearly two-decade old distributed sound system and concerns that it might fail during an event, an extensive upgrade brought "major-league" sound to the Hershey Centre. Design specialist Dave Clark crafted a sound system based on Fulcrum Acoustic CX1265 12 inch coaxial speaker clusters. Sixteen double CX1265 clusters hang above the playing surface perimeter to cover the arena's upper and lower bowl, with additional clusters deployed into each of the l
USA - Sensaphonics has presented Toni Sheree of Los Angeles with a new 3D-U AARO in-ear monitor system valued at $1500. As a purchaser of Musicians Earplugs during the NAMM show, she was entered in the end-of-show drawing, and her entry came up as the winner. Sheree is vocalist for the LA-based electro-funk duo, Toni & Ash, and can’t wait to get her hands on the new 3D-U AARO. “I was so excited to hear from Sensaphonics that I won,” she exclaimed. “We just released a record, OK Cool, and I can't wait to use my new in-ears in our show. Ambient sound in an in-ear is going to be amazing! Thank you, Sensaphonics.” The 3D-U AARO is billed as the world’s first universal-fit Active Ambient IEM system. Sensaphonics performed a constant stream of live demos during the NAMM show, showing how 3D AARO provides full access to ambient sound on stage through it embedd
UK - Britannia Row Productions Training is running its core 12-week Live Sound Technology Course (LSTC) from early April. The 2017 course will be primarily delivered from South Thames College in Wandsworth, with some sessions being held at Britannia Row’s main headquarters in Twickenham and others on-site at Britannia Row shows. The tutors delivering the course will, as usual, be Britannia Row staff and freelance engineers and technicians. Britannia Row Productions Training’s managing director Mike Lowe said: ‘We have missed running the popular LSTC. Last year we ran six 16-week part-time courses, held on Saturdays and Sundays at Twickenham, as well as bespoke courses tailored to the specific needs of companies in the industry who send their employees to us for training but just did not have the physical space to run the LSTC. Unfortunately, we were unable to run the
The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Europe is over for another year, and 2017’s record number of visitors return home with the best of the industry in mind. At the d&b stand the company’s latest amplifier monitor and control plug-ins for Peavey MediaMatrix, Beckhoff, AMX, Crestron and the update for QSC Q-SYS attracted plenty of interest, as the German loudspeaker systems manufacturer continues its drive towards ever easier third party integration. For d&b, whose System Reality principle is found on the convenience of integrated system components, complete interoperability now comes as standard. The show was also a first for the d&b Soundscape which was given a special preview in the d&b demo room. Here d&b introduced the thinking behind the next evolution in loudspeaker system design in which the concepts of sources and spaces are fully explor
Russia - Opened in September 2016, Vegas City Hall is a multi-level, multi-function concert hall in the North West of the Russian capital of Moscow. Owned by the Crocus Group, the venue has been designed to be highly flexible, with different configurations accommodating a variety of events. This flexibility needed to be reflected in the design of the audio system, with L-Acoustics loudspeakers providing a solution that delivers high quality sound system that can be reconfigured in under a half hour. The audio system was designed and installed by Theatre Techniques and Technologies (TTT Group, Moscow), together with Sonoruss, certified provider of L-Acoustics products in Russia. Vegas City Hall’s auditorium spans three levels in the form of an amphitheatre. In its standard configuration, used mainly for rock, pop and jazz concerts and children’s events, the ha
Nepal - When Lucy Peckham, co-partner of Anchorage-based Both Ears Live Sound, was contacted by Greg Mitchell, a design professor at UC Santa Barbara, she knew she would be a part of something special. Mitchell was looking for a sound engineer to go to Nepal to work on the first opera ever performed in that country. Peckham recognized early that she would also need equipment capable of performing under Kathmandu’s less than forgiving environment. Peckham found the solution she needed in DPA Microphones’ d:screet 4061 Necklace Microphone. Peckham first heard of DPA after attending a Live Design conference in Las Vegas. “I started receiving Live Design’s online newsletter and DPA kept popping up in the articles I found most interesting,” she says. “One article in particular caught my attention: DPA microphones were used to mic the entire cast and orchestra of a San
Europe - The new Acoustical Simulation Tool (AST) software from NEXT-proaudio is an acoustic simulation software for 2D modelling of either single subwoofer sources or sub-arrays. IT will be unveiled at ProLight & Sound in Frankfurt. With an intuitive and easy to use interface, AST, acoustic simulation software, has been designed to help NEXT-proaudio users when setting up the subwoofers enclosures into a venue. Based in a very fast and accurate algorithm, this tool is capable of predicting the acoustical performance of the subwoofers, helping the user to find the best solution for a given venue with a multiple sound sources. The simulator allows the user to simulate in 11 different ISO 266 spacing frequencies (20Hz~200Hz) with a single click. AST includes a NEXT-proaudio’s subwoofer models database, containing sensitivity, Max. Power and subwoofer dimensions. Af
Italy - Staged since 2006, Nextech is one of Italy’s longest lasting electronic and visual arts festivals, drawing top international EDM artists to Florence and enabling fans to discover suggestive locations in the Tuscan ‘capital’, creating a sprcial atmosphere with its mainstream and trendsetting sounds. For the last four years, Nextech has been held in the Cavaniglia hall, in the conference hub hosted by Florence’s spectacular Renaissance Fortezza da Basso, and headliner at the December 2016 edition, Nextech Legend, was Germany’s Chris Liebing. Liebing has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to the performance, production, distribution and broadcasting of Techno at global level. He has run a club and held residencies in many of the most prestigious venues worldwide, playing for established nights like Cocoon, Carl Cox and Music On in Ibiza, he now has
UK - A substantial EM Acoustics HALO-C system has recently been supplied and commissioned into the main performance space at Dorking Halls in Surrey by Autograph Sales & Installations. Opened in 1931, the handsome inter-war facade of the Halls conceals a vibrant, contemporary entertainment and conference complex in which three separate spaces variously host live music, cinema, corporate events, comedy and theatrical productions throughout the year. The new system resides in the main hall which has a capacity of 791 seated, rising to over 1000 when part-standing. Comprising 22 HALO-C compact line-array elements plus a single MSE-218 subwoofer per side and four EMS-61 modules, the entire system is powered and processed by just two EM Acoustics DQ20s and one DQ6 advanced system amplifiers. According to Autograph’s sales engineer, Peppe Mallozzi, one of the first con
Keeping Music Live - London mayor Sadiq Khan has welcomed government proposals to safeguard live music venues by strengthening the ‘agent of change’ principle. It comes weeks after the mayor’s office announced the rate of small music venue closures has slowed, with numbers in the capital staying the same for the first time in a decade. In its Housing White Paper, released this week, the government outlined plans to amend the National Planning Policy Framework and strengthen the agent of change principle. This means that developers must take into account existing venues when building nearby and be responsible for ensuring their properties are adequately soundproofed. Implementing the principle was one of a number of recommendations made in a report published last year on how to tackle the decline of grassroots music venues. Welcoming the step, Khan describe