UK - A 'condemned' Victorian Grade II-listed church in Wales has been saved from destruction, renovated, and installed with a JBL sound system.

The Diocese of St Asaph, serving the Anglican churches in North-east Wales, had been looking to close Holy Trinity Church in Holywell, Flintshire. However, newly appointed Rev Canon John Lomas was confident the church still had an important role to fill within the community. And so it received a stay of execution leading to a complete quarter of a million refurbishment project.

The 200-seat church, with its vaulted roof, was originally built in 1871 to a design by Ewan Christian and extended in 1910. When Richard Hughes of Richard King Systems of Oswestry was brought in, he knew just how he was going to treat it.

"We have fitted out around 40 churches in this diocese; mostly using loudspeakers from the JBL range and recently the

USA - The sanctuary at Davidson College Presbyterian Church in Davidson, North Carolina, has been fitted with a new sound system utilising high-performance, low-profile Renkus-Heinz Iconyx loudspeaker systems.

"The sanctuary is a really reverberant space, and we've always had trouble with people being able to hear spoken word clearly," says Rick Cardenas, the Church's technical director.

"It's a beautiful space, and the idea of putting a big speaker system in the middle of it just wasn't an option." The solution was found in a pair of Renkus-Heinz's Iconyx IC24-R digitally steerable line array loudspeakers. The steerable arrays are configured to provide focused coverage to every seat.

Working around the sanctuary's full calendar, Cardenas got together with college staff members to install the IC24-R systems into soffits on either side of the proscenium. T

South Africa - The newest jewel in VDP's global crown, Clapham Gold, opened earlier this year in Johannesburg. The sound system, designed and installed by Johannesburg-based Surgesound, is the fourth of VDP's South African locations to use the same Avalon Series components in the same system configuration. Other VDP Clubs include the Manhattan Club in Johannesburg and the Clapham Grand in Durban.

The sound system consists of four EAW Avalon Series DCS2 Bent Horn Dance Subwoofers and four Avalon Series DC4 Medium-Format Dance Club Loudspeakers in the dance floor area, powered by Lab.gruppen C-Series and FP+ Series amplifiers with all processing handled by EAW's UX8800. Four CIS400 Ceiling Loudspeakers serve the club's reception area, and four Avalon Series SMS5 Surface Mount Loudspeakers provide sound for the outdoor bar are and are controlled by an EAW UX8800 Digital Signal Proc

UK Blackbox Recorder manufacturer JoeCo has announced that the new digital Lightpipe variant of the 24-track live recorder is now shipping. The BBR-1A enables capture of multi-channel audio from a digital mixing console that supports Lightpipe (TOSlink) inputs and outputs.

Three eight-channel Lightpipe inputs can be connected from the console to the recorder, with the signal returned to the console via three Lightpipe outputs. This particular i/o format limits 24-channel recording to either 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz, although it can record 12 channels at higher sample rates using the SMUX2 protocol. However, the unit still has the complete analogue i/o functionality of the unbalanced BBR-1 version for situations where use of a Lightpipe interface is not possible. This makes the full 96 kHz facility available in the analogue domain.

All other standard Blackbox Recorder features such a

Serbia - Production company Studio Berar deployed a full JBL VerTec line array system for the 2010 Exit Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia. The festival, which is one of Europe's largest and most popular every summer, took place 8-11 July at the historic and picturesque Petrovaradin fortress near the Danube River, drawing 165,000 music fans from around the world over four days. Studio Berar was awarded contracts to support three of the largest stages of the festival.

More than 500 artists performed on 20 different stages during the event, which was recently voted 'Best European Festival' by UK Festival Awards according to Yourope, the European Association of the continent's 40 largest festivals. This year's Exit performance line-up included Faith No More, Chemical Brothers, David Guetta, Missy Elliott, Placebo, Mika, LCD Soundsystem, Royksopp and Crystal Casteles.

The

Bulgaria TV station Nova TV, part of the Swedish group MTG, has transformed its audio capabilities in live news and sports applications, thanks to two Studer OnAir 3000 consoles.

According to Vesselin Todorov, president of Bulgarian music company Factor TC, Bulgarian television has always been notorious for its poor sound quality, but the installation of two Studer OnAir 3000 broadcast consoles into Nova TV has broken that conception; it is now the best-equipped TV station in Bulgaria.

More often than not, the OnAir 3000 is utilised in radio stations, but Dobromir Georgiev, systems support engineer at Nova TV, believes it to be the perfect choice for live TV broadcast. "The 'Touch'n'Action' user interface is what makes Studer the best, because it's just so easy to use," he said. "Having the touch screen there in front of you means you can access all of the funct

UK - Three and a half years since Leona Lewis won television talent show The X Factor, the summer of 2010 saw her embark on her first headline tour, themed after the singer's favourite film, Labyrinth. A DiGiCo SD8 features at the monitor position.

Alongside Lewis, the tour features a four-piece band and two backing vocalists. Monitor engineer Ant Carr chose the SD8 after a lot of deliberation. "I'd used D5s from when they first came out, back when I worked for Skan PA Hire. I'd gone away from them for a bit as newer consoles hit the market, but when this tour came up I spent a long time evaluating and listening to the SD8 at the tour's rental company Wigwam with Alex Hadjigeorgiou's help," he says.

"The SD8 was the right choice because its preamps are such high quality compared to other consoles capable of the same I/O, which was an important cons

Turkey - Altincizme Sound & Light, the oldest and most established production hire company in Istanbul, recently provided system solutions for Grup Yorum's 25th Anniversary concert to a record-breaking audience of 55,180 people at the city's Inonu Stadium--according to Biletix, the local subsidiary for Ticketmaster.

The system consisted of a variety of Harman products including a Soundcraft Vi6 large-format console for the front-of-house position - which was purchased in 2009 by Altincizme - and JBL VerTec line arrays.

A 96-channel expansion to the Vi6 handled the Philharmonic Orchestra's addition to Grup Yorum's band for this special event. "The soft Soundcraft sound, which is superior to most other digital consoles I use, along with the analogue feel of the console and the superiority of the Studer core left little doubt about the wisdom of purchasing the Vi6," com

UK - Arcola Theatre launched seven of its new HyLight fuel cell powered lighting systems across the Latitude Festival site; providing lighting for everything from marquees, to forest performances to toilets, as well as powering laptops, phone chargers and ticket machines.

HyLight is the first fuel cell product to be developed specifically for the events industry and offers the high reliability demanded through an onboard 'brain' which monitors performance and seamlessly switches to battery back-up in case of fault or user error.

Running on hydrogen, with a run time of 50 hours between refills, the system produces zero emissions and is almost silent. Carbon emission reductions of up to 60% are likely in performance settings through use of the latest LED lighting. The system is also suitable for safety and security lighting where emission reductions of up to 90% are possible by

Brazil - A Midas PRO6 has been installed into one of Brazil's newest venues, the SESC Gama theatre in capital city Brasilia, by AV company Projesom which has been supplying the industry for over 30 years. The 400-seat venue, which opened in April this year, hosts a variety of productions from plays to rock concerts.

"Three years ago we installed a Midas Verona 480 for the same client in another theatre," says Ruslan Viana, Projesom's chief audio engineer, "but it was time to take the step forward to Midas digital. It has been a great success."

Amos Miranda, Projesom's chief electrician on the project, says, "Everyone has been impressed with the user-friendly controls, the flexibility and durability of the system, and, of course, the Midas sound. The PRO6 stands head and shoulders above everything else. There is no doubt that the theatre has the audio w

World - Joan Armatrading has chosen a DPA 4088 cardioid headband mic for vocals on her current world tour, which began in Germany in March.

"It was Joan's intention at the end of her last tour in 2008 to switch to a headworn system so she could be free of the mic stand," says her regular front of house engineer Mike Hogg. "Although I had not tried the 4088 before, previous experience with other DPA microphones gave me the confidence to recommend it for her.

"We have now done over 80 shows with it this year and I love it. The clarity and definition is astounding; even in some of the smaller venues with lower roof heights and tighter stages it performs well with ample gain before feedback. The headband also holds its position well during the show. It's safe to say that we are all very happy with it."

Armatrading's tour has continued across Europe befor

UK - The Adlib Audio team, this year crew chiefed by Hassane Es Siahi, returned to the King Tut's Wah Wah Tent at T in The Park Festival at Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland.

A rainy & windy weekend didn't stop 80,000 people enjoying the Festival. King Tut's Wah Wah Tent had featured an array of artists and an electric atmosphere throughout the weekend.

The eclectic line up featured amongst many. Ellie Goulding, Empire of the Sun, We Are Scientists , Diana Vickers , Mumford & Sons and concluded with a set by David Guetta on the Sunday evening.

Adlib designed and installed a JBL VerTec PA system, with 10 flown VT4889 elements per side, complete with nine ground stacked VT4880As subs.

New for this year, they ran the subs in cardioid mode, with two stacks of two cabinets pointing forward and one in the middle facing back, which helped spread the general coverage and concentrate

UK - MTR has introduced the next product in the stageClix family, the stageClix 'Pack', a belt-pack version of the 'Jack' digital wireless system from Holland.

The 'Pack' continues to provide all the features of the 'Jack' for which stageClix is already well known. These include rechargeable NIMH batteries, receiver with a built

in charger, 15 hours playing time on one charge, no menus, no compander, a frequency response of 10Hz-20kHz ±3db, 24 bit digital converters, no audible latency (2.4 ms), twelve user selectable channels, encoded transmission, and unique triple-diversity, 3 frequency transmission in each of the 12 channels simultaneously.

And like the 'Jack', the 'Pack' operates in the 2.4GHz band, legal throughout the EU and beyond, and completely sidestepping the government frequency sell-off problem.

The 'Pack' transmitter has two inputs: a 3.5mm high impedance j

Canada - Now in its 23rd year, the Toronto Jazz Festival has grown from an ambitious upstart to become one of the world's premier jazz events, attracting some 500,000 visitors annually for 10 days of music that features jazz legends and newcomers, and even well-known musicians of other jazz-inspired genres.

This year's festival brought Maceo Parker, Herbie Hancock, and Harry Connick, Jr., as well as The Roots, Taj Mahal, Chaka Khan, and Macy Gray to the largest city in Canada. To accommodate all of the acts at the 1,200-seat Nathan Phillip Square main stage and the demands of their engineers, FOH guru Brad Mulligan set up the new Innovason Eclipse digital console to have a predictable 'analogue' topology.

For almost all of the engineers, it was their introduction to Innovason's M.A.R.S. integrated multitrack recording system, which allowed them to record portions of the soundc

UK - BSS Soundweb London digital building blocks have been used to control three karaoke pods in Red Monkey, a new Japanese-themed diner in Clapham's Battersea Rise.

F1:Sound Company undertook the technical fit-out of the new Asian-inspired lounge and karaoke bar for Sanzaru - formed by MD Steve Kelly, with Jeff Veitch and Toby Cobb.

The three karaoke pods are running Lucky Voice software and IT as part of the powerby.Luckyvoice scheme (another karaoke concept with which the F1:Sound team are closely associated).

The venue, which has been created in collaboration with Focus Design, features three karaoke pods for up to 20 guests each, down in its basement. On the ground floor, which is split into four separate sound zones, guests dine on Asian cuisine and drink cocktails while listening to an eclectic mix of funk, soul, blues, chilled house, Motown and lounge.

F1:Sound's d

USA - In preparation for the 2010 NBA Play Offs, Oklahoma City Thunder decided to upgrade the existing analogue FOH console in its Ford Centre arena to an Allen & Heath iLive digital system.

"The Thunder organisation was concerned that Ford Centre's sound system wasn't adequate to handle the playoffs," says Jerry Hooper, owner of Hooper Sound Production Services in Norman, Oklahoma. "The Thunder fans are among the loudest in the NBA, and a playoff scenario against the defending champion, Los Angeles Lakers, was sure to test the limits of the current system. We determined that the analogue FOH console was the weakest link in their situation."

Hooper consulted the house sound engineer for the arena, Jeremy Griffin, and recommended the Allen & Heath iLive, largely for its ability to be quickly integrated.

"We brought in an iLive-144 console and tied it

UK - PLASA 2010 will see Women in Stage Entertainment (WISE) - an organisation established to address under representation of women in the entertainment technology sector - host Tea O-Clock, on the White Light stand, Earls Court 2 from 4 -6pm daily.

Olivier award winning lighting designer and co-founder of WISE, Paule Constable, comments, "Each day WISE members from all sectors - sound, AV, lighting, rigging - will offer PLASA Show visitors a calm oasis from the frenetic show floor. We will by providing refreshing mugs of scalding tea, fabulously tasty home baked cakes, an empathetic ear and some scintillating conversation. Tea O Clockis open to anyone attending the PLASA 2010 trade show and everyone who drops by is guaranteed a warm welcome from our WISE members. Details of who will be available and on what day will be confirmed on the WISE and the PLASA Show

South Africa - Wild & Marr recently installed Crown amplifiers to power sound at World Cup venue Moses Mabhida Stadium. The stadium also features AKG, BSS Audio, JBL, and Soundcraft components as part of the sound reinforcement system.

Situated in Durban, the new stadium has a capacity of 70,000 and hosted five group games, one second round game, and a semi-final match during the World Cup. The venue is named after Moses Mabhida, a former General Secretary of the South African Communist Party. The stadium's design is highlighted by an arch, which represents the once divided nation of South Africa coming together.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium system installation was handled by South African Harman Professional distributor Wild & Marr and features 74 Crown I-Tech 4000, 36 I-Tech 8000 and 33 CTs 4200USP/CN amplifiers. Signal processing is provided by BSS Audio with three BLU-800 de

USA - Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro) has appointed industry veteran Doug Simpson to spearhead a new sales initiative specifically geared toward providing the Las Vegas market with special access to all of GC Pro's services, with a particular focus on the hotel/hospitality industry. The announcement was made by GC Pro director Rick Plushner, and represents the division's ongoing commitment to the continuing growth of GC Pro as a turnkey supplier for professional end users, says the company.

Doug Simpson has over 20 years of experience using and selling professional audio and video gear, and has lived and worked in the Las Vegas market for six years. Most recently, Simpson was the regional manager for Vegas-based MDM Group, where he managed all aspects of the Convention Services division.

States Simpson, "In Las Vegas, we have everything from major recording studios an

UK - Boasting such a strong historic connection with London's Roundhouse - dating back to the late 1960s - it was fitting that more than 40 years after Martin Audio's pioneering installation at the venue, it should find itself hosting the UK debut of the manufacturer's next generation MLA Multicellular Loudspeaker Array for the duration of the iTunes Festival.

Although the MLA has been designed to take on venues up to stadium level, the Roundhouse has a capacity of just 1,800 (seated) and 3,300 standing - and being circular the throw distance is fairly minimal.

The design was set accordingly. With the newly created balcony also requiring coverage, eight MLA elements were flown at either side of the stage, with eight MLX subs in a broadside array, hidden under the stage apron. A further two flown four-element W8LC Compact arrays provided side-fills and four W8LM Mini arr

Brazil - Renkus-Heinz has announced the appointment of AMI Music International as the company's new Brazilian distributor.

Based in Sao Paulo, AMI is one of the leading professional audio distributors and project design groups in Brazil, with an impressive distribution network of audio and live sound professionals covering the entire region. The company offers regular training seminars and technical assistance to its user base, and also boasts an award-winning resume of high-profile installations that spans houses of worship, museums, convention centres, and the Brazilian headquarters of Fiat and Renault.

"Brazil is a vibrant country and a powerful, influential force, both in the South American region and beyond," says Rik Kirby, Renkus-Heinz vice president of operations. "We're excited to welcome AMI International into the Renkus-Heinz family, and we're confide

France - Opened earlier this year, La Source is a multi-function arts venue in Fontaine, south east France. As a new facility, the technical infrastructure was designed to be as high quality as possible. Three DiGiCo SD8s were specified for its two biggest spaces.

Comprising three spaces, the 'Big Room' with a capacity of 400-600, the Ampli (240 standing) and the Auditorium (119 seated), La Source has a tricéphale (or three-headed) function. The first is educational, with the teaching facilities of the city's Municipal Music School having moved into the new building. The second function is cultural - involving the local population in a range of events, both as audience and participants, while the third is artistic - providing high quality facilities for a wide range of live music and theatrical performances.

"Being a new building, the technical specification was de

Love Parade Tragedy - Survivors of a stampede at a free dance music festival in Germany in which 19 people were killed have blamed organisers for the deaths. Witnesses criticised the decision to have just one entrance through a tunnel to the Love Parade, and said they had warned police about overcrowding. German prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the disaster.

The mayor of Duisburg told a press conference that it was too early to blame anyone for the incident. The organiser of the festival said that there would be no more Love Parades. "The Love Parade has always been a joyful and peaceful party, but in future would always be overshadowed by yesterday's events," , Rainer Schaller said. "Out of respect for the victims, their families and friends, we are going to discontinue the event in the future, and that means the end of

UK - Allen & Heath has launched iLive Tweak, its first iPhone app, to provide real time mobile control of the iLive digital mixing range. The release adds another option to iLive's array of remote control possibilities, which includes laptops and touch tablets running iLive Editor control software, and the PL Series of controllers.

Available to download free of charge from the Apple store, iLive Tweak opens up new control possibilities for iPhone-using sound engineers, enabling them to remotely browse and select channels on their iLive MixRack, and adjust levels and mutes, PEQ, GEQ and delays, says the company.

iLive Tweak is compatible with iLive's latest software release, v1.7, and runs on the iPhone 3, 3G, 3GS and 4, as well as the new iPad.

"iLive's flexible architecture has enabled us to pioneer the use of remote control devices instead of the traditional control s

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