USA - The appropriately named Independence Bowl has been played every year since 1976 (the United States Bicentennial) and has become a much-anticipated staple of the end-of-year bowl season. Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana hosts the contest, which currently pits an AAC conference favourite against an ACC conference favourite.

The stadium holds 63,000 fans and is routinely packed to capacity on the big day. The stadium's owners ripped out the sound system in anticipation of the 2015 game, and YESCO Electronics replaced it with two Danley Jericho Horns, a Danley BC-415 subwoofer, and several Danley SH-96 loudspeakers for fill.

"We replaced their old scoreboard with new state-of-the-art scoreboard technology, and the 20-year-old sound system had to go with it," explained Marty Masewicz, a YESCO A/V systems engineer who operates out of the company's Logan, Utah

USA - With its festive ceiling canopy of 1,300 'twinkle lamps', Phillippe Auditorium - the centrepiece of Indiana Wesleyan University's Phillippe Performing Arts Centre (PPAC) - is a visually striking venue. But what audiences have been most dazzled with recently is the 1,150-seat proscenium theatre's sound, thanks to SineWave Audio, Inc.'s recent installation of an L-Acoustics Kara(i) and Kiva loudspeaker system supplied by certified provider Mid-America Sound.

First dedicated in 1996, the $9m PPAC is home to IWU's music and theatre departments and serves as the cultural centre of the university, hosting concerts, recitals, theatre, lectures, youth conferences and more. And although the facility boasts one of Indiana's most prestigious architectural design awards, it was widely felt that Phillippe Auditorium's original sound system - designed as a distributed speech reinforce

UK - Adele scooping four awards and Lorde's David Bowie tribute may have grabbed the popular headlines at this year's Mastercard BRIT Awards, but Sennheiser was making news of its own, supporting the event for the 14th consecutive year and helping to make the first nominee announcement from space a reality.

Held on 24 February at London's O2 Arena and broadcast nationwide live to an audience of over two million, the BRITs saw Sennheiser's Phil Cummings (Artist Relations) and Andy Lillywhite (Customer Development and Application Engineer) working together to support the event's artists and technical production company Britannia Row Productions.

In technical terms the undoubtable 'stars of the show' were Sennheiser's wireless microphones and wireless monitoring systems. Sennheiser equipment was used by all eight performing acts, presenters Ant and Dec, for all the acceptance

Lebanon - Rental firm QDB, recently purchased Allen & Heath's dLive digital mixing system to add to its hire stock, making it the first PA company in the country to invest in the new system.

Supplied by Seebeck Audio through Allen & Heath's distributor, PAXT, the system comprised the flagship S7000 Control Surface and DM64 MixRack fitted with a Waves networking card.

"We were in need of a large format digital console, and after a long and extensive search we were introduced to the dLive system by Seebeck Audio. Like any sound company, our main concern is sound quality and Allen & Heath deliver that quality effortlessly," says Mr Samer Atallah, general manager/sound engineer at QDB.

"The first thing I noticed about the system is that the build quality is amazing - it's rock solid. The surface design is great, giving a feeling of control when you stand in front of it. Ma

Switzerland - One Training Centres is an expanding chain of Swiss fitness facilities which offers a wide range of group and solo activities. Yamaha audio systems help to keep the class participants working hard.

There are currently nine centres in operation, with three more in development. Activities range from yoga, Pilates and gymnastics to aerobics, spinning, running and weights. Keeping participants pumped up and enthused during activities are a pair of Yamaha audio systems.

The audio systems for the Baar centre, near Lucerne, were supplied by Soundhouse Musicservice AG. In the Group Fitness room a Yamaha MTX3 matrix mixer, handles inputs from iPod, CD player and wireless headsets for the instructors. Audio is output to four IF2108 full range loudspeakers and two IS1118 subs, via P7000S amplifiers. In the Spinning room an MTX3 with DCP1V4S control panel feeds audio fro

Europe - The Wider Spectrum Group (WSG) met with Andrus Ansip, the European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, yesterday to urge support for creative producers and distributors of European cultural content in upcoming EU legislation on the UHF frequencies.

Commenting on the outcome of the meeting WSG's Alan March said, "Europe's creators of content are a global success story that rely heavily on ultra-high frequencies (UHF spectrum). Some of these frequencies have been promised to the mobile sector [the 700 MHz Band], but European content creation and distribution, along with associated jobs are at risk without a fair and sustainable transition plan, coherent with the introduction of technologies for an improved TV experience.

"Some Member States will need until the end of 2022 to achieve the transition out of 700MHz - and long term guarantees for the

UK - Calibre's first ever-combined video & audio 4K scaler-switchers are in the form of four new models: HQView620A, HQView625A, HQView630A and HQView670A.

Enabling access to a greater range of applications which can benefit from Calibre HQUltra 4K technology, the new models are designed to reduce the level of equipment in installations, the multi-function units being suitable for lecture theatres, boardrooms, meeting rooms, house of worship and more.

HQUltra uses Calibre's in house developed video processing algorithms to deliver best in class solutions providing a seamless interface between the worlds of HD and 4K. Calibre HQUltraFast is the world's fastest input switching technology that changes inputs in typically 0.25 seconds, or a quarter of a second.

"This new product type brings Calibre technology to the mainstream audio visual market. It includes analogue and

USA - As is customary each January, the annual winter NAMM show at the Anaheim Convention Centre recently concluded. For anyone who has ever walked the aisles of this show, the first and foremost impression is just how unbelievably loud it is. For this very reason, loudspeaker manufacturer D.A.S. Audio elected to take matters 'off-site' and host an after show party so that interested parties could hear the D.A.S. difference in a more controlled environment.

Available for free to all NAMM show badge holders, the after show party took place on Saturday, 23 January at the Sutra nightclub. In addition to hosting a wide range of business associates, the event was specifically geared as an opportunity for critical listening of D.A.S. Audio's recently introduced Sound Force series loudspeakers, which are designed for today's high-level dance venues where exceptional sound, imposing p

UK - Traction Sound has provided a bespoke 40" sub woofer for Audint as part of a recent project from Toby Heys and Steve Goodman (Kode9) that explores the boundary between art and weaponry. The pair behind Audint have a strong pedigree in sonic manipulation - Toby Heys covered the "utilisation of waveforms as weapons" in his PhD and is also a research fellow at the Manchester Institute for Research & Innovation at the Manchester School of Art. Steve Goodman is most famous as dubstep artist Kode9 and for running Hyperdub records, and also has a PhD and has published a book on Sonic Warfare.

Audint utilises infrasound and ultrasound to investigate how we perceive soundscapes. Infrasound are frequencies below human hearing and ultrasound are those above it. Audint do this in the context of both military and civil applications. Their hardware already included ultrasonic loudspeak

USA - In celebration of World Hearing Day 2016, hearing wellness expert Sensaphonics reached out to a star-studded array of musicians to help raise awareness of the importance of hearing health among online fans. Participating artists included Coldplay, Maroon 5, Dave Matthews Band, Lisa Loeb, OK Go, The Lumineers, and Umphrey's McGee. Their social media posts on Twitter and Facebook used #HearingDay and #RespectYourEars hashtags along with hearing-related messages.

Building momentum from Sensaphonics' artist outreach, World Hearing Day messages went out to an audience estimated at over 60m people. Tracking activity throughout the day, Sensaphonics documented over 15,000 likes and 2,000 shares/re-tweets from artist posts alone. Additional musicians, sound engineers, audiologists, and organizations like Audio Engineering Society joined in, with fans liking and sharing, thus ext

UK - Martin Audio has announced that its Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology, that lies at the heart of its best-selling CDD installation range, has been awarded a UK Patent, GB2525407.

Coaxial Differential Dispersion technology combines the true 'point-source' benefits of coaxial designs with the consistent coverage Differential Dispersion technology, and in the process overcomes the weaknesses of both classic coaxial systems and systems with fixed dispersion X° x Y° horns.

Significantly, until now one disadvantage of conventional coaxial devices has been high frequency beaming, where the high frequency dispersion reduces as the frequency increases. This is primarily because conventional coaxial devices channel high frequencies through a narrow tube in the pole-piece of the magnet system. CDD Series coaxial devices overcome this by incorporating an innovati

France - Nexo fielded a stellar team of different loudspeaker models for one of the most prestigious sporting trophies in France, the Leaders Cup, which is organised by the LNB (Ligue Nationale de Basketball) and staged at the Disney Events Arena at Disneyland Paris.

In an arena packed with nearly 5000 spectators, the final eight teams of France's premier basketball league competed for the Leaders Cup in a high-octane environment, complete with dazzling lighting effects, high SPL concert sound and half-time entertainment from dancers and cheerleaders.

To mark this highlight of their calendar, the Ligue Nationale has announced the signing of a technical sponsorship deal with Nexo, which will see Nexo systems widely used in professional basketball throughout France. As explained by Alain Beral, president of the LNB, "sound is an integral part of the experience offered to our

UK - The new £4.5m Leicester Community Sports Arena - a joint venture project between Britain's oldest professional basketball club (Leicester Riders), Leicester City Council and Leicester College - opened at the end of January, with the 2,400-capacity audience treated to quality sound exclusively from Martin Audio's new CDD installation series.

Twelve of the CDD15 (15") loudspeakers were specified and installed by local sound and lighting integrators, MBSL.

Mark Broadhead's technical company was brought in just two weeks before the venue's inauguration when it was discovered that while the six 100V line speakers, specified by another party, might have been sufficient for voice evacuation, it was certainly not up to delivering American style razzmatazz, complete with cheerleaders, in the arena on match days.

With nearly 30 years' experience under their belts, and

Australia - Community Professional Loudspeakers has appointed Hills Limited as its exclusive distributor for Australia and New Zealand. Hills is a leading ANZ pro AV distributor for commercial installations across the enterprise, hospitality and entertainment, health, sports education and security sectors.

"We are delighted to partner with Community Professional Loudspeakers as their exciting product range of commercial loudspeakers complements our range of industry leading audio technologies and provides our customers with complete end to end solutions for their commercial audio and video needs," said Dan Fletcher, Head of Hills AV. "Community are well known for high-performance outdoor loudspeakers as well as indoor products designed to be attractive yet unobtrusive. They offer great musical sound quality and clear voice intelligibility, with many Community products ETL cert

Italy - FBT is set to welcome visitors from around the globe to its newly opened demonstration facility in Recanati, Italy, the result of a substantial investment on the part of the company's owners. The facility is equipped with a full range of FBT's audio solutions from line arrays to systems for installed sound.

The facility will now serve as the main hub of FBT's technical education programme, hosting seminars for both international and domestic visitors. As well as providing a dedicated space in which FBT technical experts and product specialists can meet and assist FBT clients, the demonstration area will also provide new opportunities for product testing, ensuring that FBT remains at the forefront of the market.

"The investment that we have poured into this facility has been quite high, and we have equally high expectations of how it will help us to reach out to our

UK - SSE Audio Group has been identified in the top 1000 companies to inspire Britain, by the London Stock Exchange. Dubbed a 'landmark report identifying the UK's most exciting and dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises (SME's)', the companies included needed to show consistent revenue growth over a minimum of three years, significantly outperforming their industry peers.

This is the third report of its kind published by the London Stock Exchange Group and it shows some interesting trends emerging.

Xavier Rolet, chief executive, London Stock Exchange Group said, "Our report shows more high-growth firms coming from outside London, with 8% fewer companies coming from London compared with last year. Continually strong UK sectors such as IT, telecommunications and the creative industries remain exceptionally well represented.

"High growth SMEs are the driving force be

UK Turbosound is celebrating the arrival of its iNSPIRE Series of powered modular column loudspeakers, one of the most anticipated product lines in the British company's history.

"The market response for a lightweight, portable, vertical array has been overwhelming. We've developed an industry-leading product which exhibits powerful, high-quality sound and optimized dispersion - perfect for small to medium sized venues." says Andy Trott, SVP of MUSIC's Enterprise & Entertainment Division.

Designed for challenging performances, the iNSPIRE iP1000 and iP2000 feature 1,000 watts of sonic performance in a lightweight, easy to use, all-in-one, ultra-portable form factor.

(Jim Evans)

USA - DPA Microphones is debuting its line of d:screet Miniature Microphones at this year's United States Institute for Theatre Technology convention | USITT (Booth 1501). On display at the company's booth will be the d:screet 4061, d:screet Slim Microphone and d:screet Necklace Microphone.

"We are excited to debut our line of d:screet Miniature Microphones at this year's USITT convention," says James Capparelle, marketing manager, USA, for DPA Microphones. "Miking talent in a fast-paced theatre production can be an extremely delicate process. At DPA, we offer easy-to-use and easy-to-conceal high quality condenser microphones, providing sound designers on Broadway and productions alike the best tools possible to get the job done."

DPA's d:screet 4061 Miniature Microphones are well-known and are used in theatres around the world. In situations where the talent requires flex

Germany - Two of the world's best known pro audio and MI companies, Yamaha Music Europe and DPA Microphones A/S, will join forces at the 2016 MusikMesse and ProLight+Sound shows in Frankfurt to demonstrate the advantages of combining their two powerful technologies.

As always, Yamaha will have a major presence at both events. The company's Musical Instrument division will be exhibiting in Portalhaus at MusikMesse, with the company's professional audio products shown in Hall 3.1, Booth E50 at ProLight+Sound. DPA Microphones will be exhibiting on Booth C11, Hall 4.1 at ProLight+Sound.

Yamaha's live performance stages will be equipped with DPA d:vote Instrument and d:dicate recording microphones, while the DPA booth will be equipped with Yamaha band and orchestra instruments for a number of demos and workshops and for by-passers to try out.

"We are looking forward to show

Croatia - Since 1991 Eldra LLC has been building a reputation as one of the foremost sound, lighting and video rental and sales houses in Croatia. Based in Bregana, near the capital Zagreb and established with the aim of bringing the best technologies to the Croatian market, Eldra's portfolio includes television shows, corporate events, festivals, high profile tours, even state visits by international leaders. Recently, Eldra's founders and co-CEOs - Igor and Damir - made the decision to invest in L-Acoustics Kara and K2 systems.

"Kara is a small system that can be used for big things," says Damir. "We use it as a main PA for smaller gigs and it is on almost on every rider for things like delays, fills and DJ monitoring, so it is in constant use. It's lightweight, very easy to handle and performs amazingly well on corporate events and live shows."

Eldra is the first compan

Germany - Sommer Cable knows what it's all about when it comes to good sound: neutrality and musicality. The new hi-fi connection leads of the SC-Stratos line will precisely meet this demand. Moreover, they rely on a heat-dissipating design to ensure a long service life - especially when plugged into power amplifiers, which produce considerable heat also on the input side.

"A lot of budget-priced cables on the market show a noticeable decline in sound after only a short period of time," says Pascal Miguet, product & sales manager at Sommer Cable. "A porous jacket, shrinking insulation or oxidized copper are among the most frequent problems. Our new SC-Stratos line takes a stand for better quality here.

"During the development phase it was important for us to design a product that convinces both sound-wise and in technical respect. The combination of durability and a natura

USA - With its new Every Story Starts with an Idea video, Powersoft seeks to deepen the brand's connection with its customers, partners and professional audio-oriented professionals, while reaching broader audiences via YouTube, Vimeo and other interactive social media platforms.

The video explores many of the key attributes that have made Powersoft a leading international audio manufacturer: innovation, teamwork, research, energy and many others. The narrative utilizes compelling video and imagery, capturing the people behind the design, engineering and manufacturing process.

Every Story Starts with an Idea takes viewers through a 'day by day' experience at the company through different vantage points. From the very first scenes in the video, Powersoft makes it clear that the essence of its brand is its people: product designers, researchers, engineers, asse

UK - Abbey Road Red is an incubation programme based at the world famous Abbey Road Studios. Designed to support the brightest music tech entrepreneurs, researchers and developers, the global programme involves the Studios selecting and mentoring three of the most promising and innovative music tech start-ups, and then working with them for six months to help develop and grow their businesses. The programme goes live on Monday 14 March.

Providing a bespoke mentorship programme delivered by executives and experts from both Abbey Road Studios and Universal Music, and unparalleled access to Abbey Road's facilities and international network of contacts, the inaugural three companies have been announced as OSSIC, UberChord and CloudBounce. All three companies were recruited through an open process of online submission, followed by multiple rounds of assessment, pitching and selecti

UK - On Tuesday 22 March, Oran Burns of d&b Education and Application Support will present the timeless d&b Electroacoustics seminar at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, in London.

The focus of the session is 'achieving intelligibility' and the day is pitched at anyone wishing to broaden their knowledge and understanding of the principles of electroacoustics for sound system design and engineering.

"The seminar covers the basics in an accessible and fun way through practical demonstrations," explains Burns. "It's been evolved over the last fifteen years and has become something of an industry standard."

The seminar is suitable for all levels of experience, for anyone wanting to know more about how loudspeakers interact with their environment and how that affects what the listener hears. Spaces are limited so please book as soon as possible. To register or t

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