UK - Award-winning band The xx has bought two DPA d:facto II Vocal Microphones after being impressed by their audio quality and ability to deliver an incredibly natural sound during a recent tour of the US.

The band, which comprises Oliver Sim, Romy Madley-Croft and Jamie Smith, won the 2010 Mercury Music Prize for their debut album xx. They were introduced to DPA's d:facto Vocal Microphones by their live sound engineer Rik Dowding who was keen to find an alternative to the microphones Oliver and Romy had been using.

"One of the most important things about working with this band is the translation of the very intimate, late night vocals of the albums to a live situation," Dowding says. "Higher mic gains introduce unwanted stage noise into the microphones, e

USA - Bandit Lites has revamped its website, www.banditlites.com, with a vibrant, dynamic new look. The website includes updated information regarding lighting tours, special events, system sales and solutions and LED technology.

Galleries showcase photos ranging from concert tours with Garth Brooks to special events such as the Presidential Debate. Additionally, an installation gallery highlights projects including Dollywood, The Hollywood Wax Museum and Pirate's Voyage.

The site will be a one-stop site where people can not only discover Bandit Lites current news and projects, but also find manuals to Bandits' GRN Lite fixtures, apply for employment opportunities, read about the rehearsal facilities and even shop for used gear.

"I feel like we hit the mark on this site, as we updated it to include many of the Internet's best practices such as social media integration,&

USA - PRG (Production Resource Group) has stepped up its use of CAST Software's wysiwyg in the programming of world-class productions, among them, the recent Superbowl XLVII Halftime Show.

R&B star Beyoncé's performance for the show was watched by over 70,000 people at the New Orleans Superdome and broadcast to 108m viewers, with its breathtaking visual design by Al Gurdon, known for his work with Madonna and The Who. It was Gurdon's fourth year on the Superbowl and the fifth for wysiwyg, however, this year, around 90 per cent of the design was programmed virtually using the latest release of the suite, R30, more than a month in advance of the show, at PRG's purpose-built pre-visualisation studio in London.

Lighting director Rich Gorrod worked with Gurdon to design a system in AutoCAD, before uploading it to wysiwyg with the help of previz expert, Chris Burnage, and pat

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OPUS X4 PROFILE – the most powerful LED moving head from Cameo to date

The OPUS® X4 PROFILE is the new flagship model from Cameo and is among the most powerful LED moving heads on the market. Equipped with a 1,400-watt LED white light engine, this spot profile moving head produces an enormous light output of 50,000 lm, providing powerful spot and gobo projections on even the largest stages and much more.
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USA - Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Compendium are two of the more significant Grammys awarded every year. At the 55th Awards ceremony held on 10 February, these were won by recordings made and mastered on Merging Technologies' Pyramix. One of those is based at the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra's home and the other is located in Europe, in Warsaw.

Jack Vad is accustomed to making fine recordings of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony in the spectacular Davies Symphony Hall but he just had a feeling that this one might be a cut above the usual. The main piece on this Hybrid SACD is Harmonielehre by contemporary composer, John Adams. The complex and challenging orchestral writing in this piece requires careful microphone placement as well as precise execution. As always, the recording was live and portions of this production were simulta

UK - Gary Barlow's recent solo tour was of a more intimate nature than those he undertakes with his fellow band members, but the quality of the audio is no less important than it is for Take That's stadium shows. The requisite equipment inventory boasts DiGiCo consoles, supplied by audio rental company Delta Sound, at both Front of House and monitor positions, a combination that is as sure to please as Gary himself.

Front of House engineer Gary Bradshaw, who also engineers for Take That, opted for a DiGiCo SD8 to take into account the restrictions on space presented by the tour's choice of venues.

"The gigs were very varied in their size," Bradshaw explains. "The biggest being the Brighton Centre, going down to a tiny seaside theatre in Scarborough where there's not much space at all. So I went for a nice, compact package, for which the SD8 fits the bill perfect

UK - Surrey-based electrical contractors, The Technical Department has achieved the internationally recognised ISO9001, establishing it as one of the leaders in its field.

This independent assessment was conducted by the leading Certification Body, the British Assessment Bureau and demonstrates The Technical Department commitment to customer service and quality in delivery.

The Technical Department has now earned the right to display the coveted British Assessment Bureau ISO 9001 certification mark to demonstrate its conformance to the standard.

ISO 9001 was first introduced in 1987 and requires organisations to demonstrate that they do what they say they do and that they have a quality management system in place to ensure consistency and improvement; leading to high levels of performance and customer satisfaction. Certified organisations are committed to continuous improvem

Germany - At the upcoming ProLight&Sound 2013, Ayrton will show a range of products including the NandoBeam 302 - an elegantly designed, compact 300W LED moving head providing ultra bright, concentrated beams and the possibility of concentric circles, individually controllable for special effects. NandoBeam 302 uses 19 RGBW 15W Osram light sources coupled with an ultra fast 8° to 40° zoom (beam angle). An innovative and advanced optical system allows bright, very concentrated beams to travel far and wide, with deep and colourful wash capacity, says the company.

The WildBeam 302 benefits from a large colour screen, an internal battery to run the unit when without access to power distribution and new Neutrik PowerCON True One power connectors. The internal structure is made of steel and aluminium which makes the WildBeam 302 road ready, says Ayrton.

Also showing will be

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Case Study: Hans Zimmer Live

When award winning film composer Hans Zimmer brought his smash-hit tour Hans Zimmer Live to North America fall 2024, the show's audio team sought out to bring infrafrequency bass to the show to add new depth to the show's audio experience. The team chose Danley Sound Labs.

USA - J. R. Clancy, Inc., has added to its sales and estimating staff, maintaining and expanding its technical services and expertise to serve its customers.

Eric Huss has joined Clancy as technical salesman. Prior to joining J. R Clancy, Huss worked for Artec Consultants on projects including Darat King Abdullah II Performing Arts Centre in Amman, Jordan; Dr. Phillips Centrefor the Performing Arts in Orlando, Fla.; Grand Theatre du Bouregreg in Rabat, Morocco; and the Star Performing Arts Centre in Singapore.

Scott Uhrig joins J.R. Clancy as an estimator, coming to the company from The Oncenter entertainment complex in downtown Syracuse. As the complex's technical services manager for nearly 20 years, he was responsible for the technical operations of three facilities: the John H. Mulroy Civic Centrer Theaters, the Onondaga County War Memorial, and the Nicholas J. Pirro Conve

Germany - Music Group, the parent company of Behringer, Midas, Klark-Teknik, Turbosound and Bugera, will showcase their ever-expanding line-up of high-performance audio products at this year's Prolight + Sound Show, held 10-13 April in Frankfurt.

The Music Group booth in Hall 8.0 M90 will showcase products from Midas, Klark-Teknik and Behringer, including the latter's Eurocom installed sound products. With the main focus on digital mixing, Behringer will present the latest additions to its growing X32 product family plus the new iX16 iPad mixer, while Midas will have their full PRO line and XL8 consoles on display. Recording studio pros and aficionados will be able to experience the new NEKKST studio monitors, a major collaboration with Keith R. Klawitter that debuted at NAMM 2013, as well as the U-PHORIA digital interfaces and iSTUDIO iS202 docking station for iPad.

Costa Lak

UK - NBCUniversal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies, has recently completed the refurbishment of its Central St Giles offices in London. The project included the creation of two state-of-the-art preview theatres for executive and private screenings. Alcons cinema specific C-series loudspeakers were chosen as an integral part of the installation.

"For NBCUniversal's new facility at Central St. Giles, we wanted to achieve the highest quality environment for sound and image," says cinema optics consultant Laurence Claydon, who engaged acoustic consultancy company White Mark on the project. "We already had experience of Alcons CR1, having achieved excellent results at Universal's original Oxford Street facility, and retained some of these components for the smaller screening room."

The larger room has a CR4 three-way screen system, c

Australia - ARX has recently shipped 112 units of their MSX 12 four channel mic / line splitters for a substantial A/V install at a 'Government Facility' in Australia.

The MSX 12s were supplied to the Installation Contractor by ARX's Australian distributor the Resource Corp Pty Ltd.

The ARX MSX 12 transformer isolated microphone / line splitter delivers noise-free audio splitting and is a totally passive device requiring no power, and consists of Four channels of transformer isolated ultra low noise microphone/line splitter.

Each of these channels has a direct looped Main / FOH feed allowing phantom power to pass through the unit with a transformer isolated monitor split on the front panel and a transformer isolated aux split on the rear.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Given the inherent challenges presented by the 2012 upgrade of Sacred Heart Church's sound system in Bellevue, Washington, specifying Tannoy loudspeakers and Lab.gruppen amplifiers for the project was an appropriate choice.

"Previously, they had no real high-end in the room. There was no intelligibility. The room sounded muffled and speech was indistinct, so the priest always felt like he wasn't loud enough," said Morgan Sound A/V consultant, Stephen Weeks. "Tannoy's dual concentric technology is very helpful for keeping things coherent. The speakers are very clear, very clean and very warm in the low end and there were no smear issues like you might experience with a more traditional box, which was critical."

The 750-capacity sanctuary is a decidedly modern and elegant space. "Although impressive, it's also very reverberant," Weeks continue

China - The processing power and ease-of-use that Apex Intelli-X2 processors deliver mean that they are being adopted in high end audio installations across the globe. Seven of the units have recently been installed in two of China's most prestigious nightclubs, with six more installations to follow.

Club TNT in Xi'ang is an 850sq.m venue which features a diverse array of live music and DJ sets, including pop, rock, electronic and hip-hop. The audio system was designed and installed by Real Music Acoustic & Lighting Technology, one of China's leading production technology houses, who specified four Apex Intelli-X2 48 processors to control a comprehensive Adamson audio system.

"We designed the system with a matrix of loudspeakers, to ensure that all guests are covered by audio from at least two different directions wherever they are," says Real Music managing director

UK / Ukraine - Devon-based drapes, starcloth, LED and visual effects specialist S+H Technical Support (S+H) is again supplying its innovative LED Video Floor product to the latest UK series of BAFTA Award winning games show, The Cube - via producers Objective Television.

Presented by Philip Schofield, Cube contestants can win up to £250,000 of prize money by completing straightforward tasks within a 4x4m Perspex cube, which becomes extremely challenging with the addition of disorientating visuals and sonic effects coupled with the pressure of performing in front of a live audience.

The video floor is an integral element of the show's overall concept

S+H also supplied the same quantity of 36 x Video Floor panels making up a 3.6sq.m surface area to the latest Ukrainian series of The Cube, which has now finished being filmed in Kiev. It is the fourth series

Finland - SGM has made an important breakthrough with its revolutionary LED products in Finland, notably with Jaakko Peltomäki Ltd. After the Helsinki-based events company saw the Danish company's impressive display at Prolight+Sound 2012 Jaakko Peltomäki himself made the decision to invest, after being particularly impressed by the LB-100 LED Balls.

"We were looking for some new ideas for our productions - and these were perfect," he said. Seeing how they could be formed into curtains to deliver alluring 3D spatial effects, they invested in 550 strings, each containing seven 34mm Balls, 20 TLD-612 pixel drivers to run it ... and some extension cords.

The 21-year-old company has a versatile work roster, ranging from fashion shows to retail, and they have full turnkey capability, with sound equipment, trussing, video and LED screens. "In fact I was looking for

UK - When St. Andrew's C of E Church in the Gloucester village of Churchdown decided to re-orientate its interior through 90° to better accommodate its growing congregation, it presented a real audio challenge for Kelly Gibson's locally-based integration company Revolution Multimedia. And it was one he was able to meet with a Harman Professional solution.

Long established in both the education and HoW sectors, he has worked with this church for many years. Despite the complexity of this latest project, and the fact that the committee had invited much larger audio companies to tender, his bid was comfortably the most competitive and he was awarded the contract.

"The church is growing at an enormous rate," he confirmed. "The building is extremely wide, with what are almost transepts on the side, so they decided to tear out and replace the floor, using under-fl

UK - Following the successful opening of SW19, London's newest rehearsal facility, the SW19 team has launched a complementary production company to provide turnkey solutions to the live events industry,

To provide a high level of knowledge and expertise, SW19 employs the skills of a team of production managers, headed up by Kevin Hopgood, who has spent many years touring the globe to produce world-class concerts for Kylie Minogue, Mark Knopfler and The War of the Worlds stage show.

"The requirements of each production vary according to the client or the artist," says SW19's Hopgood. "To accommodate this, SW19 is all encompassing, allowing access to the latest in audio, lighting, video and staging technology, logistics planning and financial administration, from a single source."

Other key members of the team are Charles Ellery and Lisa Santos Hanna

Greece - Turbosound loudspeakers are a key part of the ambience in Athens's luxury Catwalk Café-Bar. The bar, situated near the seafront in Greece's capital, invited local suppliers Metro Audio Systems to install a Turbosound system consisting of ten Impact 65T two-way loudspeakers and two TSB-110 sub-bass speakers.

"Catwalk Café-Bar features a warm, inviting, but timelessly classy atmosphere," comments Pavlos Symperas from Metro Audio Systems. "The bar is open day and night so the flexibility of the Turbosound speakers are an important part of this changing feel. They help to set the tone with their clear, high quality sound reproduction."

The biggest challenge for Metro Audio Systems was to deliver powerful quality sound, yet ensure that the system had an elegant and distinctive design. "We believed that the Impact series was the best f

Switzerland - A new permanent audio system structured around the Meyer Sound Mina line array loudspeaker is destined to bring even greater versatility to City Casino Basel.

Part of Switzerland's cultural landscape since 1824, City Casino Basel occupies two multipurpose spaces in addition to the Musiksaal, its principal concert hall. Musiksaal regularly hosts 1,500 people with performances from the world's leading orchestral ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony. Until recently, there was little call for sound reinforcement because the programming was dominated by unamplified music.

In the past few years, however, interest in jazz, blues, and stand-up comedy has grown, highlighting the inadequacies of the Musiksaal's long-serving loudspeakers. With many touring productions bringing in their own sound reinforcement equipment, the Musiksaal team dec

Slovenia - Ljubljana's Top 6 night club has just had a complete refurbishment and technical lighting upgrade which features the first Robe Robin DLX Spots and LEDBeam 100s in a club installation in Slovenia.

It was a "Logical" move for Ljubljana based specifiers and installers MK Sound Light to suggest some of Robe's latest Robe moving light technology for this installation explains project manager Dean Karov.

Apart from hosting the beautiful people in the metropolis, the venue has stunning views across the centre of the city and up to Ljubljana's historic Castle from the glass fronted lift that whizzes seamlessly up and down the six floors to the top of a high profile downtown apartment store.

Top 6's owner, local entrepreneur Anthony Tomzin, asked MK Sound Light - who also supplied the sound system - to come up with 'something special and cool' for his 700 capaci

Austria - Wireless Solution Sweden AB, manufacturer of the award-winning W-DMX wireless DMX technology, worked with Ampco Flashlight Rental, based in Utrecht the Netherlands, to use the new Wireless Solution W-DMX G4 system to control dozens of moving lights, LED fixtures and conventional lighting fixtures at the FIS Alpine Ski World Championship 2013 Opening Ceremony in Schladming Austria on 4 February 2013.

Lighting designers Frank Lischka, Daan Oomen and Jeffrey Goes from The Unit Showcontrol placed lighting fixtures over a very widespread area along the ski slope and the finish area. Some of the many lighting positions were only accessible by helicopter. W-DMX transmitters and receivers were placed in distances from 50m to 500m of each other. W-DMX allowed the lighting team the opportunity to get DMX512 at places that were impossible to get to with hard-wired connections.

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