UK - PA/VA specialist Millbank Electronics has recently supplied Metronet - the company responsible for upgrading and maintaining two thirds of London's Underground network - with their new DsPAC Class D 3U mainframe amplifier.

The DsPAC was specified by Metronet to augment the original Millbank PowerPac system in Bank underground station. Situated in the heart of London's financial district, with more than 45 million passengers passing through each year, Bank is one of the most used underground station in London.

Installed and integrated by London-based contractor Qubic Transportation Systems Ltd, the DsPAC integrated seamlessly to the system, and has dramatically augmented its capacity as a contemporary VA system. Metronet's commercial asset engineer, Neil Wilkinson, commented: "The DsPAC is a superb product. It offers Metronet a powerful tool, which has seamlessly up

UK - A new nine-screen multiplex cinema has opened at The Kassam Stadium, home to Oxford United Football Club. With two showcase screening rooms (and four of the nine screens running full digital formats), the cinema forms part of the major Ozone Leisure and Entertainment Park, developed at a cost in excess of £25 million by owner Firoz Kassam, and also featuring bingo, bowling lanes, health and fitness centre and restaurant facilities.

The Park is operated by the stadium's owners, Firoka Leisure Group, and the work was completed in just 12 weeks by designers and architects, NBDA Ltd. The audio and projection infrastructure was designed and fitted by cinema specialists, Sound Associates, who chose Cinemecanica projection and a combination of Martin Audio's purpose-designed Screen 4 and Screen 2 loudspeakers, both biamped, Martin Effect 3Rs (for surround sound) and Screen Sub 1

The Netherlands - Since its official launch at the end of January, Midas Consoles Holland has made a number of significant console sales, including 20 Venice consoles of different types, five of the new 8-bus Veronas and a 48-channel Heritage 2000. Among the most recent sales was a 48-channel Heritage 1000 to Dutch rental company Van den Berk Stage Equipment.

Van den Berk is active in both concert touring and the festival markets, but specializes particularly in theatre tours, and required a console that would be capable of handling the demands of all three environments. Proprietor Toine Van den Berk compared several brands including a demo console from Midas Consoles Holland before making his choice. "I felt that a digital console was not an option given the still relatively complex nature of the equipment and the fact that the sound quality, in my opinion, still does not

UK - Stage Electrics has moved its Central Stores operation. To ensure the minimum disruption to customers, the stores closed at lunchtime on Saturday and re-opened at 08:00 Monday morning - by which time 4,500 product lines were moved. "I have been planning this move for eight months," said distribution manager Darren Williams, "and it has gone like clockwork, thanks to everyone's help."

Stage Electrics Central Stores is now housed in 17,000sq.ft with 5,000 linear feet of space. The building holds 320 pallet spaces as well as the store for the expanding contracting installation arm of Stage Electrics. "This new space will allow us to work more effectively," says Dave Friend, the company's central stores manager, "and will revolutionise the way we pick and process orders ensuring we improve the service to our customers. With a Central Stores Te

UK - Celebrating its 50th year, integrated systems company Snelling Business Systems has provided audio-visual solutions to a wide range of local industry applications in their native East Anglia - including The University of East Anglia, North Norfolk District Council, City College Norwich, The Zuckerman Institute for Connective Environmental Research and Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital.

Now the company is embarking on a phased programme of teaching room fit-outs for Norwich Technical College - for whom they have long been preferred contractors - and have placed an initial order with Wharfedale for 40 of their Programme 50s for audio playback. These two-way, ported systems - housing 5.5" woofer and 0.75" titanium driver - are ideal, since they provide a wide frequency range coupled with high power handling in an attractive, acoustically-efficient enclosure. Snel

Germany - At the forthcoming Frankfurt ProLight&Sound exhibition in Frankfurt, Dutch pro audio manufacturer Alcons Audio will celebrate its first anniversary: while last year's show featured the basic Alcons line-up, this year a stream of new products will be presented by the company.

Making its debut at Frankfurt will be the LR16: not only will a complete system be on the stand, but in order to give an idea of what Alcons' pro-ribbon technology means in terms of output and quality, the company is also organizing off-site demonstrations of The Ribbon line-array system.

In addition to the Ribbon system, the LR16 Bass will be introduced. Featuring double 15" Neodymium drivers in compact bandpass configuration, for high efficiency and low weight (102dB 1W/1m. @ 43kg.), the system forms a bass extension to LR16, when additional pressure-bass is required. The LR16Bass can be f

Germany - Electro-Voice has introduced the NetMax N8000 - a modular digital audio matrix boasting networking capabilities and the integration of what the company is calling revolutionary safety concepts. The 2U master frame of the NetMax N8000 audio matrix offers slots for audio input and output modules as well as Cobranet.

The new Electro-Voice signal processor is capable of executing 300 MIPS per frame, with possible expansion to 600 MIPS per frame. Up to 32 channels of input and output are available per unit. The possibilities of the system, which accepts 8-channel input and output modules, are virtually unlimited in network configurations, say EV. You can, for example, link any number of N8000 units via Cobranet and Ethernet. The new, modular matrix is suitable for all fixed installation and mobile professional audio productions - or any application requiring system integrat

UK - Canegreen provided its Meyer Sound Milo line-array PA system for the UK leg of the recent Jethro Tull tour. Canegreen has a long history working with Jethro Tull, so were fully aware of front-man Ian Anderson's interest in achieving a good live sound. The Uk dates in February took in a range of spaces among 14 'theatre style' venues that included the Watford Colosseum, Manchester Apollo and the Brighton Dome. Canegreen suggested that the band try the most recent equipment, in the form of their Meyer Milo line-array system.

"We have used the Milo system with several artists in larger venues and outdoors with excellent results, so it was great to bring that quality of sound to audiences in smaller venues with an artist who is passionate about the sound," explained Canegreen's MD Yan Stile. With the varying dimensions and characteristics of each venue, the speaker se

France - Loudspeaker system manufacturer Nexo has announced that a new series of GEO training seminars has been scheduled to take place at the company's Paris headquarters in April. The previous series was fully booked, and high demand is expected again, so interested parties are advised to contact their Nexo distributor as soon as possible.

Seminar 1 is called 'GEO On the Road' and is dedicated to users (sound engineers, system designers, operators and rental companies) of GEO systems and will last two days (8-9 April 2004). Seminar 2 is titled 'GEO In Fixed Installations'; it is dedicated to specifiers and designers and will take place over one day (7 April 2004).

Capacity for each session is limited to 10 persons, and applications are registered through Nexo's distribution network. The sessions will be led by François Deffarges.

(Lee Baldock)

USA / Switzerland - Shure Inc and the Montreux Jazz Festival have agreed to extend their long-running relationship by signing a three-year partnership agreement carrying through the Festival's 40th anniversary in 2006. Entering its tenth year of cooperation, Shure will continue as official supplier of microphones and wireless systems and remain as principal sponsor of the annual Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition.

As official supplier, Shure will provide a wide range of microphones and wireless, personal monitoring, and conferencing systems to support both artists and press events during the festival. In addition to equipment, Shure will provide 24-hour, behind-the-scenes technical support for the duration of the festival. "Shure's dedication to the festival is outstanding," noted Christoph Stahel, executive production manager of the festival's main venue, Stravinsk

Germany - The latest addition to Electro-Voice's range of powered speakers is the SbA760 subwoofer, which is rated at 760W, and provides an ideal complement to the new SxA360. This new and extraordinarily powerful specialist in the bottom end of the sound spectrum is equipped with a stereo crossover, a 760W power amplifier and the EVS15FR long-excursion low frequency driver. The SbA760 extends the acoustic output all the way down to 40Hz.

Despite its immense power, the SbA760 is notable for its compactness as well as its simple and intuitive handling. The enclosure, which is robust and designed to withstand rough use on the road, is kitted out with four rollers and a scratch-proof Futura coating.

(Lee Baldock)

USA - At the 13th Ibero-American Summit in November last year, Shure ConferenceONE discussion systems were chosen to facilitate the historic meeting of heads of Spain, Portugal, and all Latin American countries. Among the dignitaries at the summit, which took place in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, were the King and Queen of Spain and the vice-president of Cuba. This meeting represented the first installation of Shure's new conference system in Latin America.

All leaders participated in-group discussions utilizing a 25-channel standard ConferenceONE discussion system. Combining a mixer, amp and high-quality loudspeaker with an innovative, fold-out telescoping microphone arm, ConferenceONE makes setup and use exceptionally easy and delivers superior audio quality. According to Raul G. Alcocer Montero of Alcocer Servicios in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, both organizers and sound en

UK - The SM500 Ultima is the first mixer in the new Ultima range from Citronic. The design is based on the popular SM450 and comes with a host of enhanced features designed to meet the needs of medium-sized installations. The dual microphone facility features a comprehensive Mic override system ideal for radio microphones, 3-band equalization, balanced and unbalanced inputs and individual on-air buttons.

There are 4 CD, 3 Line and 3 Phono inputs routed to the four heavy duty music input faders via input gain, and shared EQ controls for level matching. Channels 1 and 2 share a 3-band equalizer, as do channels 3 and 4, which is then routed to their respective ends of the on-board VCA crossfader.

The music channel 3-band EQ can be internally installer defeated to prevent any additional EQ being added by the DJ once the sound system has been set. The SM500 Ultima also offers the m

USA - Industry veterans Gary Mass and Nick Freed have teamed up with Gear-Source president Marcel Fairbairn to form a new venture - Rental-Source - modeled in part after Fairbairn's successful web-based business, Gear Source. Rental-Source will serve today's production needs with a 'single source' method of locating production equipment of all types.

With backgrounds in manufacturing and production, managing partners Gary Mass and Nick Freed will head efforts to solve the many man-hours spent sourcing equipment for production purposes. Working in tune with an extensive worldwide vendor base and an easy-to-use web design for locating the most cost-effective, and logistically suitable rental equipment, Rental-Source promises to ease the ever-growing process of completing a production.

"Over the past 10 years or so, we've noticed an incredible incline in the need for product

UK - Fostex has announced the launch of the cost-effective FR-2 field memory recorder. Although specifically designed for high quality location recording, the FR-2 is equally at home in TV and radio documentary applications, broadcast and sound effect acquisition, say Fostex.

The FR-2 has been designed for flexibility and records industry-standard Broadcast Wav Files (BWF) to either PCMCIA 1.8" hard drives or Type II Compact Flash cards. The FR-2 incorporates many features that have resulted from Fostex's wide experience in digital location recording - such as a 10 second pre-record buffer, battery power, on-board limiter and phantom-powered, balanced mic inputs.

The file-per-take system developed on the industry acclaimed PD-6 and DV40 machines, is a welcome feature to a recorder within this price range. The FR-2 also features scene and auto take naming, which makes keep

UK - Adlib Audio has won a competitive tender to design and install an audio system for the main venue in the new £13 million refurbishment project at the Villa Marina leisure complex in Douglas, Isle of Man. The Liverpool-based company will be supplying a JBL VerTec 4888 line array system and dbx drive rack system control to the 'new' 1,500 capacity Royal Hall. The JBL and dbx elements will be supplied to Adlib by Harman Pro UK. Adlib is also supplying Crown amplification and Soundcraft consoles, and will be building a customised JBL-loaded sub bass system to fit under the stage.

Adlib's Andy Dockerty has designed and specified the system. He is working to the brief to provide top quality live production facilities for to all types of performance - music of all genres from rock to cabaret to comedy. With his vast experience in the live concert touring industry, Dockerty and h

UK - With a reputation for good sound, comfortable surroundings and a bar stretching along the side of the venue, Club West OneFour at The Fox, West Kensington, achieved status as an international venue for hosting launches of new groups and artists some years ago. The venue can cater for 300 guests, has a well-equipped large stage and hosts every type of music from rock bands to jazz bands, classical to country, from the well-known to the up and coming new bands.

The venue was redeveloped in October to improve the club's amenities and this has now been followed with the installation of a full new FOH system, supplied and installed by Opus Audio. The new system comprises an Opus XS234 loudspeaker management system and three Opus HD Series high definition power amplifiers driving four Opus SB218 sub-bass and two Opus CS1000 active mid/high loudspeaker systems.

Commenting on the

UK - Having enjoyed the company's busiest ever February in the corporate events sector, Shaun Pearce, managing director of Pearce Hire, has heralded the return of economic growth as corporate events re-establish their importance in the marketing and communications strategies of businesses. He commented: "Just as events seemed to have gained their place within the corporate world three years ago the worldwide economy pushed them off the agenda. Fierce competition over recent years has focused suppliers to deliver higher standards; we have been continually monitoring the market and our forward planning has enabled us to keep pace with the upturn and service event requirements at short notice this Spring."

At the start of the year, says Pearce, the company's order book gave no indication that during one week this February the Pearce Hire team would have been working on ev

USA - Event production company massAV has appointed Stephen Santomenna as director of production. In his new position he will lead massAV's growth in large event staging, live events and production. Santomenna has over 20 years' experience in the industry, having worked on Broadway and staged events on five continents. Prior to massAV, Santomenna served as an executive producer and director of technical services for Preston Productions, facilitating the management of events for EMC, API, IBM and PTC-User. His background also includes various positions with Image Engineering, Trinity Repertory Company and as a contract designer, technician and project manager.

(Lee Baldock)

UK -Theatre sound specialist Orbital was appointed by The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) to design and supply a sophisticated system for the 28th Laurence Olivier Awards. Under the stewardship of producer Adam Spiegel, the event was staged in London's Park Lane Hilton.

Since its inception in 1978, The Olivier Awards have recognized distinguished artistic achievement in London theatre. Spiegel said: "This year's event was a resounding success and the live music and sound was particularly enjoyed by all those attending. We were very grateful to the Orbital team for doing such an excellent job."

For the first time, a new awards category for Best Sound Design was introduced and awarded to Mike Walker for his work on Jerry Springer - The Opera - finally recognizing sound design as an artistic discipline in its own right, alongside others such as lighting design a

Greece - Audio-Technica microphones will be used by Athens Olympic Broadcasting S.A. (AOB) in the broadcast of the 28th Olympic Games, from August 13-29, in Athens, Greece. Media representatives will cover the 16-day event for a worldwide audience of billions. AOB is the host broadcaster for the Games, responsible for producing and distributing audio and video coverage.

The use of Audio-Technica microphones for the broadcast of the 2004 Olympics marks the continuation of A-T's Olympic involvement, which began with the Atlanta Games in 1996 and has included Sydney in 2000 and Salt Lake City in 2002. "All eyes and ears will be on Athens in 2004 when the Olympic Games begin, and the demands of the multitude of settings in this event call for Audio-Technica mics," says Michael Edwards, Audio-Technica product manager in the US. "The durability and dependability of A-T

UK - KV2 Audio reports the first installation of its ES system for the Edwards chain, courtesy of Orritt Electronics in Liverpool. Trailing a concept dubbed "Club Edwards" the owners wanted to enhance the existing sound system at their Liverpool venue, with something that would still look discreet, but allow them to compete on a more equal footing with some of the legendary clubs in the city.

After an extensive look at the marketplace Dave Orritt, of Orritt Electronics, realized KV2's ES system would be the perfect product for this application, and immediately arranged a demo. The clients didn't take much convincing, and within a few weeks their concept turned to reality. From a practical point of view, the amplifier room was a long way from the speakers and since the initial first fix, many walls had been plastered and cable routes blocked off. The flexibility of the

UK - Steve Howe, legendary guitarist with YES for 30 years and also founder member of Asia with Steve Hackett of Genesis and Carl Palmer of Emerson Lake and Palmer, has chosen Outline's H.A.R.D. 212 low profile stage monitors for his dates in the UK before embarking on his European and USA tours. The monitors were supplied by Entec Sound & Light.

Outline's H.A.R.D. 212 is the lightest 2 x 12" configuration in its class. Weighing only 26kgs and standing at a less than 13" (33cms) high, it also boasts a revolutionary wave guide utilizing absorption, reflection and diffraction. The H.A.R.D. is fast becoming the on-stage sound reinforcement tool for the world's top musicians. Steve Howe joins Eric Clapton in the ever-increasing list of acclaimed performers.

(Lee Baldock)

UK - UK-based sound rental specialist AudioLease, based in East Anglia, has purchased an Adamson Y-Axis Y10 line array system. The system, supplied by Sennheiser UK, is controlled by XTA DP226 and DP224 digital loudspeaker processors and powered by Lab Gruppen 6400 amplification. It made its début on the UK leg of the Air tour.

The Y-10 is a full-range, medium-format, three-way line array featuring a single, patented Adamson mid/high drive module. The Adamson drive module has a co-axial co-entrance and a co-linear exit comprised of a high frequency sound chamber mounted within a mid frequency sound chamber. The drive module is powered by a proprietary 9" Kevlar mid and a JBL 2451 compression driver. Together, the drive module and trapezoidal cabinet design create a smooth, slightly curved, seamless wave front with no gaps between cabinets, say Adamson. Highly regarded in b

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