The AcousticDesign AD-S52 is a full-range, surface-mount loudspeaker with contemporary styling for multiple environments and applications, including hotels, restaurants, convention facilities, and multimedia environments. The LF driver is magnetically shielded for use near video monitors, and the enclosures are weather-resistant and paintable.
Part of the ISIS family, the QSC I-82H is an 8", 2-way, full-range loudspeaker for similar applications, while the ISIS WideLine line array speaker system is a full-range (55Hz-18kHz per enclosure), wide-coverage line-array designed for ballrooms, theatres, nightclubs, concert halls and houses of worship. RMX 505, finally, is an addition to the RMX Series power amplifier line.
EAW announced the update of its 10-year standing KF850 Series touring mainstay, adding the latest proprietary technology and contemporary components. The resulting KF850z gains a neodymium Orbital Magnet Array HF driver offering increased surface area for better cooling and greater reliability. A new HF horn extends HF response and fidelity while minimizing throat distortion, while the MF subsystem is now based on EAW's Radial Phase Plug design used in the more recent KF650, KF750 and KF760 models. The LF section horn-loads the 15" woofer first used in the KF650z.
Two KF850z models are offered: the KF850zF for flown applications and the considerably lighter KF850zR for ground stacking. The SB850zR also updates the SB850R sub.
As of 1 March, KF850EFs, KF853Ds and KF855EFs will only be available by special order. On 1 July, they will be discontinued.
Soundcraft's integrated mixer/amplifier GigRac is the most compact sound reinforcement solution yet - and is among the most closely blended Harman technology so far. Only mics, speakers and cables are required to complete the system, which contains mic preamps, 2-band EQ, 7-band graphic EQ (designed by BSS Audio) and a selection of preset digital effects.
GigRac 300 has an integrated 300W power amp, while GigRac 600 has 2x300W amplifiers - enough for main PA and stage monitors too.
Soundcraft's flagship MH4 console, meanwhile, now has an updated mono input module. The new input expands the use of the 16 aux busses by adding true mono/stereo configurations.
UK - Following the successful launch of the new 8-bus Verona console from Midas, one of the very first purchasers was Surrey-based rental company, PMI Ltd, who purchased the console from LMC Ltd. Owner Peter Maciuk said: "A significant part of our business is corporate and the Verona is tailored to meet our needs in this market. It plugs the gap between the Venice, which although a great console, often proved to be too small to handle a mid-sized conference, and the Heritage, which is often physically too big. The Verona however, remains a compact console whilst still having eight sub groups, eight auxes and an eight by four matrix. The market has been crying out for a new desk like this, and the fact that it is Midas makes it instantly synonymous with the quality required for today's corporate market. The Verona is set to be a massive success for Midas.''
USA - Mackie will use this year's NSCA show as a platform to introduce the commercial audio market to exciting new products including the new TT24 digital live console - a powerful 24-mic input digital mixer developed specifically for live sound applications such as clubs, theatres, houses of worship, rental companies, sound production companies and regional touring acts.
The TT24 is a 56 x 45, 24-bit, 96kHz capable console with 100mm touch-sensitive faders, on-board analogue and digital I/O, full channel metering, digital recall, EQ, dynamics, and effects. A unique control section combines a 5" touch screen, eight function buttons, and 12-parameter rotary encoders that work together to provide easy access to key live functions such as: Fat Channel overview, EQ, Dynamics, Group/Aux assignments, Aux masters, Snapshots, FX control, and Matrix. Absolutely nothing is out of im
Pennsylvania-based Aviom Inc showed enhancements to its digital audio 'snake', capable of transferring 24-bit audio over industry standard Cat-5 cable.
The AN-16/i input module, the AN-16/o output module, and the AN-16SB system bridge work with Aviom's proprietary A-Net protocol to ensure less than one millisecond of latency from analogue input to analogue output. All are compatible with Aviom's modular A-16 Personal Monitor Mixing System.
This gains a new A-Net product, the A-16D Pro A-Net distributor. The 2U device is designed to distribute the A-Net signal from an A-16T transmitter, the AN-16/i input module, the original A-16D distributor, or another A-16D Pro distributor.
Each A-16D Pro accepts one A-Net input signal and provides for eight simultaneous A-Net outputs using Cat-5 cable. The A-16D Pro also features a dedicated A-Net Thru jack that allows the A-Net signal to be sen
Sennheiser unveiled the Evolution wireless G2, the second generation of the successful Evolution series. This generation is said to extend the product features with an enhanced design concept, while maintaining the price level of its predecessor, and offers systems for vocals, instruments, presentations, camera work or wireless monitoring.
The G2 makes 1,440 channels available through a much broader 36MHz switching bandwidth, while the bodypack transmitters and mobile receivers have been reduced in size by about 30%. New features include a scan function that automatically searches for free channels, a new user menu and large backlit displays. A pilot tone squelch creates noise-free transmitter mic on/off, adjustable and compatible with first-generation units.Rental companies are expected to use a new reset function, restoring the system to initial settings for the next gig. Meanwhile,
USA - DiGiCo LLC has recently added seven new representative firms for various territories within the USA. The reps will handle the company's complete product line including the D5 Live digital mixing console and DiGiTRACS hard disk show and rehearsal recorder, plus the full range of Soundtracs digital post-production consoles.
Dobbs Stanford of Dallas, TX has been appointed to handle the territories of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Missouri and the western part of Tennessee. On the East Coast, Sigmet Corporation of Manalapan, NJ has taken on the Metro NY and Mid-Atlantic region while Millar Electronics now covers the south-eastern USA for DiGiCo and Meyer Marketing of Wellington, FL handles all of Florida.
In the West, GLS Marketing of Huntington Beach, CA is the appointed representative for southern California and southern Nevada; Plus Four Marketing of Concord, CA for norther
UK - Marquee Audio has set up a new division to focus specifically on product marketing - and the first own brand product to come out, under the new 'Molto' name, is a hard disk system.
Having watched the development of hard disk delivery and other media streaming systems - aimed specifically at 'chameleon' licensed venues operating over an all-day trading pattern - Marquee Audio has waited for the market to mature and new-generation technology to kick in before making their move, according to MD Spencer Brooks: "As an essential part of our installation work we were increasingly being requested to supply a product which exceeds the performance of other proprietary hard disk systems on the market, and after putting Molto through a number of prototype stages we now believe we have a product that fulfils that."Molto will offer storage capacity for 600 albums' worth of mat
USA - Stanton Magnetics has announced that Pablo La Rosa has joined the company as marketing manager. La Rosa brings more than a decade of marketing experience to Stanton, and will report to Henri Cohen, director of worldwide sales and marketing. "We're very excited about having Pablo here at Stanton," says Cohen. "His unique skill set, which includes five years of MI marketing experience, an MBA degree, and a background as a DJ/producer, is not something you see very often. Pablo will be an integral part of Stanton's new management team."
Pablo La Rosa comes to Stanton after five years at Roland Corporation, where he held the position of marketing writer and editor of the Roland Users Group magazine, one of the largest music industry publications. At Roland, La Rosa also created content for Roland's websites, wrote advertising copy and product literature, an
UK - For the last 17 years, the Square in Harlow has taught its young musicians the gospel of rock 'n' roll according to ElectroVoice. The Square is funded by Essex County Council's Youth Service to provide musical education for young people between the ages of 13-19, and to host live music events. Three nights a week, up-and-coming local acts play live at the Square, as well as touring acts from further afield. This year, the leading rock school in Essex has bought a new front-of-house system for its 300+ capacity live venue - an Rx system from EV.
Technical team leader Dan Moriarty, who installed the Square's new EV Rx system, purchased from the Wembley PA Centre, says: "We've got Rx 112/75s left and right of the stage, and another pair in a centre cluster, supported by MTL1X subs on either side. The system is run by ElectroVoice DX38 processing. Intelligibility used to
USA - Allen & Heath will be the exclusive DJ mixer supplier for this year's annual Ultra Music Festival USA in Miami. Xone:V6, Xone:92, Xone:62 and Xone:02 models will be in use on all 11 stages at the event. Now in its sixth year, the 14-hour long, non-stop Ultrafest, is the premier event on the US dance calendar and will once again be held at Miami's 32-acre Bayfront Park during the annual Winter Music Conference, on Saturday 6 March 2004.
Allen & Heath will also be co-sponsoring the VIP Ultrabeach Arena with the Hard Rock Café. The stage will feature top DJs spinning day and night, including Andy Rigby-Jones, the designer of Allen & Heath's Xone products. Rigby-Jones is an established DJ with over 20 years' experience. The VIP Ultrabeach Arena will also serve as a preview of the Ultrabeach Party planned for summer 2004 in Miami. The PA system will be supplied by the UK's ren
UK - Following the successful launch of its E Series lightweight, switchmode amplifiers at last year's show, MC2 Audio will use the ProLight&Sound 2004 exhibition in Frankfurt for the debut of its long awaited E45 (2000+W/channel into 4 ohms). The first two models, E25 (1250W/channel into 4 ohms) and E15 (750W/channel into 4 ohms) are now in full production, and the company says demand is high, with buoyant sales around the world.
Designed specifically for the touring market, the E Series has all the sonic qualities and reliability of the company's MC and T Series amplifiers, without the physical weight, and will bring the well-renowned MC2 sound quality and reliability to an even wider range of users.
- The EASE acoustic simulation program, distributed world-wide by Renkus-Heinz, contains a massive amount of detailed technical data for every loudspeaker in its database. This data, which is used by the program to create accurate EASE simulations, has previously only been available to purchasers of the program. Now, the Renkus-Heinz Loudspeaker Data Reader gives everyone access to detailed loudspeaker data on line - even non-owners of the EASE program.
The R-H Loudspeaker Data Reader accesses the EASE database and displays a large number of important speaker parameters graphically in detail. A pop-up window also provides access to necessary information like dimensional data in the form of 2D PDF and 2D/3D AutoCad drawings, architects' and engineers'' specs, PDF data sheets, and high-resolution product photos. The Loudspeaker Data Reader can be accessed at the website below.
UK - Telex has introduced the new A2, B4 and C6 frequency combinations to expand the performance range of the BTR-800 system, with a range of new combination options. Telex's BTR-800 dual-channel UHF wireless intercom system was specially designed for applications in TV and radio broadcasting, theatres and musicals as well as high-end rental companies.
The updates of the BTR-800 are CE-approved, meaning that their use is authorized in most European countries. The BTR-800 employs a fully UHF-supported synthesizer technology as well as the ClearScan function, which automatically selects the frequency set with the highest transmission and reception quality, and is equally suitable for stage announcements, wireless talk-arounds (where the audio signal of the transmitting wireless user is only received by participants of the same wireless group), TV broadcasting and high-end rental a
UK - Professional audio manufacturer Audient has recently strengthened its Board of Directors by inviting Luke Baldry to join as sales and marketing director. Baldry has an extensive knowledge of the music industry stemming from his work in the early 90s with notable Hendrix sampler band, Beautiful People. Following success with this band, he went on to run his own lucrative studio as a recording engineer/producer, further strengthening his understanding of the industry.
He ventured into the sales side of the business in 2000 working for Apogee Electronics as European sales manager, and joined Expotus in May 2001. He has held the position of director of sales and marketing for the Audient and LA Audio brands since the group's merger in the summer of 2003. Baldry says of his new position: "I am delighted to join the board and am confident that this new position will allow me
USA - Since its debut on Broadway in the summer of 2002, Hairspray, the lively Tony Award-winning musical, has been packing audiences in at the Neil Simon Theatre. Capitalizing on its success, a duplicate of the smash hit began touring major cities across the US last year, appropriately starting with Baltimore, the setting for the story.
Like the Broadway production, sound design for the tour was provided by Steve Kennedy, well known for his previous work on The Producers, The Lion King, Rent, Aida and Tommy. Upon the recommendation of fellow sound designers John Shivers and Andrew Keister, Kennedy chose to specify 10 L-Acoustics dV-DOSC loudspeakers to deliver intelligible coverage to the often 'acoustically-challenged' balcony seating areas of host venues out on the road. Sound Associates of Yonkers, New York provided the sale of the dV-DOSCs, as well as a
Germany - Electro-Voice has introduced the new SxA360 compact powered sound reinforcement loudspeaker. Building on the renowned Sx300 passive loudspeaker, the EV SxA360 sets a new standard for powered loudspeakers. The SxA360 design provides the user a simple-to-use system with plenty of power in a very compact package, and at only 36lbs, is the most lightweight powered 12" loudspeaker on the market, claim EV.
The SxA360 is a full-range loudspeaker ideal for most applications requiring high-quality sound. The SxA360 offers a unique combination of high SPL, natural frequency response, and dynamic headroom in an extremely lightweight package. Its linear response provides excellent feedback-free sound without additional equalization. Built-in suspension points and pole mount make it easy to position for your application without expensive accessories.
UK - Carlsbro re-issue the '50 Top', an all-valve, point to point, hand-wired, British made valve guitar amplifier. Fondly remembered as the workhorse of gigging musicians in the 70s, this simple, single-channel valve head is being re-issued exactly as it was 30 years ago.
Featuring original 1970s specification with military specification hand-wiring, chassis-mounted porcelain valve bases and a heavy gauge welded steel chassis, the amp is supplied in the original black vinyl with yellow panel cosmetics. Following a surge of initial orders, stock will be available in April.
UK - Quested Monitoring Systems has appointed Sonic8 as its UK distributor. Ian McCarthy approached Stephen Helm, managing director of Sonic8 not long after the acquisition of Quested by himself and co-director Terry Clarke. Following final negotiations, the appointment of Sonic8 was formally announced at Sounds Expo last week.
Sonic8 was set up in March 2003 by Stephen Helm and Greg Cato and is based in Leeds. The company now has a team of highly motivated product specialists covering the UK for sales and customer support. Over the past year, Sonic8 has been appointed as UK distributor by a number of manufacturers, including ART, an American company, which provides solutions for the home recording and studio markets and the innovative Scottish signal processing company, CLM Dynamics. Quested, with its well established reputation for uncompromising sonic accuracy, will fit well
USA - In the wake of the recent NAMM launch of the new 8-bus Midas Verona, among the very first US recipients were the United Nations building in New York City and the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. Herbie Hancock played a World Peace benefit concert at the UN, and an emotionally charged series of Children of Uganda productions at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul also put the Verona through its paces. Children of Uganda is an acclaimed dance troupe of 20 Ugandan children aged 8-18 orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The troupe has toured the US biennially since 1994 with the aim of supporting the 1.7 million Ugandan children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS while maintaining global awareness of the disease and its devastating impact on children.
Children of Uganda FOH engineer and Kampala, Uganda-based Emmy Studios managing director Luswata Emmanuel remarked: "The Midas Ve
UK - Marquee Audio has returned to Shoreditch's club/live music hybrid, Cargo, three years after carrying out the original fit-out, to reinforce the sound system. Matt Smith, technical manager of the Cantaloupe Group's venue, said that Marquee was called in when it was felt that certain areas of the venue needed boosting. "In particular, we needed to upgrade the bass amps and add front-loaded 15" bass bins, to achieve a faster, tighter bass response from the system. We knew this would allow the existing speakers to concentrate on a narrower bandwidth, thus giving more clarity across the full audio spectrum."
Cargo also wanted to add more power to the existing set-up in the main room. To fulfil these requirements Marquee recommended QSC PowerLight PL4.0 (2 x 1400W) amplifiers to power the bass, which now consists of a pair of Turbosound TQ-425 (2 x 15"), with
Spain - With the objective of reinforcing its presence worldwide, D.A.S Audio has appointed Mónica Ramírez as media coordinator. Qualified in Communication Sciences, she will be responsible for all communication with the specialized media on both the national and international levels. Ramirez's previous experience includes work as a writer for numerous Spanish newspapers and magazines. For the last two years she has been working in the company's marketing department and has been responsible for press relations with the Spanish media.
UK - An innovative exhibition, sponsored by Shell, has been in place on the Thames riverside in the heart of London for the last few months - an outdoor sound and light installation, powered by wind energy, intended to celebrate the natural forces of the planet. The exhibit stretches for some 600m along London's South Bank. At its heart is a full-size wind turbine, which generates the power to operate lighting, sound and effects units. Nexo PS8 compact loudspeakers are hidden in more than 40 trees, playing original music co-ordinated with the light and mist effects.
Sound design for the Shell Electric Storm was developed by Robin Whittaker of Out Board, and the system features Out Board's TIMAX system, a large number of digital processors to provide network capability, and an Apple Macintosh computer to respond to the atmospheric sensors and change the remixes according to the w