Serbia - In preparation for one of the world's most famous sporting events, systems integration firm Studio Berar outfitted 13 sports venues in Serbia with JBL loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers for the 2009 Summer Universiade games.

The Universiade is an international event that hosts university athletes from around the world. This year's Summer Universiade took place from 1-12 July in Belgrade. It hosted more than 9,000 athletes from over 140 countries, all of who competed in 15 different sports and 203 disciplines at more than 50 sport venues. This year's games celebrated three anniversaries for what some consider to be the largest and most important sporting event next to the Olympic Games: the 25th Summer Universiade, the 50th anniversary of Universiade, and the 60th anniversary of the International University Sports Federation.

For the largest sports venues, including so

Germany - Following the success of the Neumann KMS 104 hand held stage microphone, Neumann has announced the arrival of the KMS 104 plus.

The KMS 104 plus is tailored to have an extended bass response, so it's especially suitable when extra weight is needed in the bottom end. For example, to enhance low end growl for female vocals and for any voices that need low-end enhancement. Having been developed with a wide range of professional vocalists, the KMS 104 plus delivers natural warmth, but without any loss in transparency, says the company.

In comparison with other handheld microphones, most of which use dynamic capsules, the KMS series, with its condenser capsules, has a high acoustic transparency, a wide frequency range and "excellent" feedback rejection.

All Neumann KMS microphones have a robust housing, tough enough for the rigorous demands of touring, and com

Germany - The Comet Awards were recently held at König-Pilsener-Arena in Oberhausen, with sound reinforcement coming from more than 190 Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers, which stayed out of TV sightlines for the live broadcast pop music event. The TM Array configuration of subwoofers was deployed to provide even low-frequency coverage.

Appealing to a large teenage audience, the Comet Awards was presented by Viva TV, a German subsidiary of MTV Networks. System design for the show's dual stages required special care from project manager sound David Bergmann, system tech Thorsten Maier, FOH engineer Kai Reiss, and monitor engineer Mathias Hentschel, using Meyer Sound MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction programme and loudspeakers supplied by Hamburg-based Procon Event Engineering.

The first stage was mostly used by performing artists including Sportfreunde Stiller,

Spain - Desfase Sonido e Illuminicatión is a pro audio rental company located in Albendín, Cordoba in Andalusia, Spain. Desfase's's main business is made up of rock, pop and flamenco shows. The company has provided sound reinforcement for the Festival Fiestas del Vino in Valdepeñas, Cuidad Real, which was attended by an audience of 20,000, as well as for the Layenda Tour 2007, La Madre Que Los Parió Tour 2008, and the Córdoba Blues Festival and many other events and tours.

Last year, Desfase owners Francisco José Morales Martín and Julio Santiago García attended a Cohedra training seminar at HK Audio company headquarters in St. Wendel, at which they were so impressed with the system that shortly thereafter they invested in a 2x8 HK Cohedra Line Array made up of 16 CDR 208 mid/high units and an equal number of CDR 210 2x10" subs as w

Germany - Last month, the latest product of the Meyer Werft shipyard, the Celebrity Equinox, sailed down the river Ems and into the open sea. It was a feat of navigation calling for millimetre precision, because the cruise liner, which cost more than €500 million, is 317m long, 36m wide, and boasts 13 decks.

The Celebrity Cruises' vessel boasts a casino, library, theatre, golf course, and several swimming pools. Equally lavish are the sound systems on board. Like its sister ship the Celebrity Solstice, which launched in the fall of 2008, the Equinox relies on Dynacord Promatrix 4000 systems. FUNA Nachrichtentechnik of Emden installed and networked no fewer than four of these reference electro-acoustic systems on board the cruise ship.

FUNA Nachrichtentechnik's senior manager Andreas Köhler comments: "The Promatrix 4000 has already proved itself to us one hundred percent

USA - Viewers of the 2009 Tour de France saw hundreds of racers cover over 2,200 miles during July, each vying for the finish line on Paris' Avenue des Champs-Elysées. Audio-Technica AT835ST M-S stereo shotgun microphones were mounted to the cameras on five motorcycles that covered the miles-long pack of racers.

The AT835ST microphones were provided by the Societé Française de Production (SFP), a division of the Euro Media Group, which has been a longtime supplier of broadcast technology and services to the Tour de France and other major sporting events.

Throughout the race, the motorbike crews covered the action from top to bottom, pacing the riders and collecting crowd reaction effects. The audio, embedded with the video signal, was sent via low-power broadcast to a pair of helicopters and two circling airplanes. They, in turn, relayed the signals to three gro

UK - White Light supplied the principal productions at this year's Manchester International Festival, which ran from 2-19 July.

A biennial event, the event describes itself as "the world's first festival of original, new work and special events". The Festival was established in 2007 and White Light supplied the lighting to many of the shows at that year's event, including the opera Monkey: Journey To The Westsubsequently seen in London again using equipment from White Light.

At this year's festival, White Light supplied lighting rigs to two headline events - the new opera Prima Donna, composed by Rufus Wainwright, and It Felt Like a Kiss, created by Punchdrunk with Adam Curtis and Damon Albarn.

Prima Donna, at the Palace Theatre, tells the story of soprano Regine Saint Laurent confronting the ghosts of her past as she prepares to

Eire - Dublin-based lighting EQL has supplied a ChamSys MagicQMaxi Wing to LD Kris Berzins for Rodrigo y Gabriela's European festival tour. Berzins chose the console for a number of reasons, one being its compact size, as they are flying to most venues.

This is the second time Berzins has used a MagicQ Maxi Wing for Rodrigo yGabriela, as he also used it on a short American tour. One of the functions that Berzins is using the most is the built in pixel mapper which allows you to make visually stunning effects in seconds.

Mathew Killmurray is deputising for Berzins on some shows and as a new user of ChamSys was given full training at EQL Dublin. After the day's training he felt totally comfortable taking the desk out.

EQL stocks the ChamSys range of MagicQ products for hire and sale in Ireland and are available to demo or train anyone wishing to learn more about their products

USA - The planning and construction of Northwood Baptist Church's new worship centre in North Charleston, South Carolina, took nearly four years. "It took a little longer than we had originally hoped, but the patience paid off," admits worship pastor Michael Bell. "But by taking the time to get it right, we got way more than we ever thought we could have. Our new Allen &Heath iLive-T console is a perfect example."

Design-build integrator Signature Sight and Sound handled the audio, video and lighting for the new facility. "When the T Series was announced," says Mark Gladden, president and chief systems designer for Signature, "it had everything we had hoped for. It's got that Allen & Heath sound quality, with great EQ and mic preamps, plus virtually all the capabilities and ease of use of the full iLive, but at a very comfortable price point. W

Germany - Not so long ago OHM were linked with Ferrari to supply audio to their home town store in Milan, the company report that it has happened again, but this time for Maybach.

Maybach is a brand name that stands for elegance, luxury and the sense of prestige. They have been producing motor vehicles since 1909 but Wilhelm Maybach himself revolutionised the industry with the first combustion engine for a personal vehicle in 1885.

At the beginning of the year in the town of Neumarkt (near Nuremberg) Germany, the Maybach museum is home to some of the world's rarest models, cars which had limited product runs and lucky survivors of the Second World War. The museum houses the timeline of the Maybach developments dating back to works by Wilhelm and Karl, his son.

To keep Maybach's image of excellence, the museum was created in exactly the same manner. To go with the modern buil

Australia - Australian Concert Productions Pty (ACP) is one of the largest suppliers of audio and lighting equipment in Australia. Their thriving rental division has just invested in a significant Turbosound FlexArray rig powered exclusively by Lab.gruppen's new PLM Powered Loudspeaker Management systems with on-board Lake Processing.

The new Turbo/Lab.gruppen system was put through its paces at a number of shows, and "ticked all the boxes" with the ACP team as well as receiving very favourable comments from several FoH engineers. "The guys were impressed by stunning audio quality as well as the coverage we achieved with the system," remarked ACP's director, Mick Privitera. "They also really appreciated how easy and straightforward it was to rig and configure." The first show was an outdoor festival for 6000 people featuring a number of top acts inc

Jazz at The Palace - Buckingham Palace has been included on a shortlist of the UK's most important jazz venues. To mark the 50th anniversary of Miles Davis' celebrated Kind of Blue album, Brecon Jazz Festival asked people to nominate unsung British live venues. The winning venue will receive a plaque as part of the scheme. Jazz legends Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet played at Buckingham Palace during royal command performances for George V between 1919 and 1932. The Queen's residence joined the likes of Ronnie Scott's and the infamous Club Eleven on the shortlist for the inaugural (Kind Of) blue plaque scheme.

Security Matters - A number of London's West End theatres are to boost their security to counter worsening audience behaviour, owners have said. It comes after reports of drunkenness and even fights during performances. The owners of several venues, includ

UK - For the eighth year running Hawthorns has supplied Walk the Walk's MoonWalk and SunWalk power walk challenges in aid of Breast Cancer charities.

As well as supplying the London MoonWalk held in Hyde Park, Hawthorns has also supplied the Edinburgh MoonWalk, and also the Bristol and Newcastle SunWalks.For the two MoonWalks and over 27,000 walkers, Hawthorns provided lighting, sound, staging, rigging and power distribution which was installed into De Boer's massive 'pink palace', a 150m x 60m Galaxy structure.

Three artics of lighting, sound, rigging, power distro and site services made their way to Hyde Park for the main structure and nine smaller ancillary marquees. Hawthorns used six main generators and over 10 miles of cable to supply the marquees, 280 toilets and numerous catering wagons with power.

Hawthorns also introduced t

UK - Cadac desks and the Ronnie Lane Mobile Studio in the 70s and 80s between them recorded some of Rock music's most iconic recordings. Just for the PLASA show, Cadac have put the S-Digital desk next to the old classic analogue Cadac so visitors can listen to the past and see and hear the future.

The S-Digital Live production desk is the culmination of 40+ years of audio design excellence brought into the digital age while retaining the looks, the feel, the sound and the mix of analogue, says the company.

The new Cadac Live1 series of desks priced under £8,000 bring Cadac audio quality to a whole new market for the first time. Designed and manufactured in the UK and packed with features, they include an innovative digital interface IO and networking capability, a unique feature on a desk at this level.

The digital interface and networking also makes an appearance on t

USA - In a fixed installation where high performing sound systems are critical, North Shore Cinemas, a Marcus Theatres Cinema in Mequon, Wisconsin has chosen Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers to power its UltraScreen theatres. The theatre is the first to deploy I-Tech HD to power its audio systems.

Mark Collins, director of projection technology for Marcus Theatres comments: "I know that a lot of the technology in the amplifier was built with the tour sound market in mind. However, I think this type of application is even more demanding than having the equipment on the road because the amplifiers are constantly running. For cinemas you need power and reliability. These amps give us a ton of headroom and with Crown you know you are getting a great product,"

The move to I-Tech HD also proved to be cost-effective because the additional power means each theatre needs fewer ampl

UK/The Netherlands - The HHB stand at IBC in Amsterdam will be the venue for a number of new product announcements.

Receiving their European debuts on the HHB stand are the new Wohler AMP1-16-3G AMP1-E16-3G compact audio monitoring systems. Occupying just a single unit of rack space and therefore ideal for use in applications where space is at a premium, both devices offer 16 channel, multi-rate HD/SD-SDI and AES audio monitoring, plus the facility to handle next generation 3G sources. The AMP1-E16-3G adds Dolby E and Dolby D capability.

Also new from Wohler is the RMT-170-HD, a 17" high-definition desktop/ rackmount LCD monitor featuring dual HD-SD/SDI inputs with loop through.

Another important new development being shown for the first time on the HHB stand is the M-48/S-4000D personal monitoring system from Roland. Using the REAC pipe and further expanding a range of

France - The Stade de Roland Garros, the event grounds for the annual French Open tennis tournament, has recently implemented a major PA and digital audio network upgrade on its centre court. The world-famous arena has installed a Nexo Geo D line array system, complemented by compact full-range PS8 cabinets under the rafters, and powered by NXAMPs via an EtherSound digital audio network.

The stadium grounds are home to 20 courts that include the Court Philippe Chatrier and the Court Suzanne Lenglen, and the Tenniseum, a museum of tennis.

Court Philippe Chatrier is the main court. Built in 1928, it can hold 14,840 spectators. It is named after Philippe Chatrier, who was head of the French Tennis Federation and helped bring back tennis to the Summer Olympics in 1988. Today these grounds are known for hosting one of the four major grand slam titles of the APT tour and for being t

UK - In the ten years since opening, London club fabric has been networking audio through its three dance rooms using the BSS Audio SW9088 Soundweb. During that time the venue's sound reinforcement has undergone constant revision to keep it at the cutting edge, but the DSP remained the same - until now.

"The old green boxes gave us great service but we had to own up to the fact that technology has moved on - processing speed has become a lot faster, and there is now greater capacity and more powerful capabilities," says head of technology Sanjeev (Sanj) Bhardwaj. This was something he became aware of last year when he was installing the audio at sister club, matter.

As a result he has just replaced the entire digital network with the new generation BSS Soundweb London BLU solution, using BSS Audio's BLU-Link network transport, endemic to the BLU-160 and BLU-120 devic

Spain - The Face in Valencia achieved legendary status during the 1990s as one of the best underground dance music venues on the Spanish Coast.

Now, the Valencian club has undergone a complete renovation and re-opened much to the delight of both old and new clubbers alike, and it has chosen to install the entire venue with over 35.000W of VMB sound systems.

The Club directors were very specific when specifying how they wanted the club installed - "Constant pressure level throughout all the rooms in the club with the best sound quality possible". With this in mind they chose a Lynx V8 Line Array for the main system, located in the exterior part of the club and the Phase Neo installation series was installed in the rest of the venue.

Electrotech solutions were in charge of the installation. Matt Senna says: "The Lynx V8 was the perfect choice. We had to cover a

USA - Nearly 200 attendees packed the International Plaza Resort's Indian-Pacific Ballroom for Renkus-Heinz's 18th Annual Consultants' Breakfast at this year's InfoComm Convention. This year's event held added significance as Renkus-Heinz celebrated its 30th anniversary at the show.

After a breakfast buffet, attendees were treated to a presentation by Mark Dodd, Celestion's head of group research, entitled A New Methodology for the Acoustic Design of Compression Driver Phase-Plugs with Concentric Annular Channels. Dodd's enlightening dissertation helped to shed light on new directions in driver development technology.

"Renkus-Heinz as a company is well known for its passion for innovation," commented Dodd. "I'm honoured to have been invited to speak at this event, which is an ideal opportunity for us all to share our experience with a view to opening up n

USA - The Juilliard School is an internationally renowned performing arts conservatory located at Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts in New York City. In 2008, the school identified a number of areas to be built or renovated as part of a redevelopment project. One of those newly created spaces included the Rosemary and Meredith Willson Theatre, a multi-use performance and event space. A DiGiCo D5T will serve as the central hub of the control room, connecting the theatre with the Music Technology Programme's new recording room.

Juilliard's Chief Audio Engineer and veteran audio professional, Marc Waithe, specified a DiGiCo D5T system for the theatre. In his 17-year tenure at the school, Waithe designed all of the main performance audio systems, as well as systems for The Museum of Modern Art and The School of American Ballet as a freelance consultant.

Altel Systems, based i

UK - Somerset PA company, Maltings Audio, recently invested in a new mixer, selecting Allen & Heath's iLive-T digital system, to complement an HK Audio contour line array and complete the company's main FOH system.

"We first evaluated iLive-T at the Anstruther Homegame festival, where we were impressed by the system's capacity, easy load in and set up, and intuitive layout," explains Maltings Audio's Doug Siddons.

Maltings ordered an iLive-T, comprising the iDR-32 MixRack and iLive-T80 Control Surface, and immediately put it to work at the Holt Music Festival, a one day event featuring eight bands, with a headline performance from 14-piece soul band, Soul Destroyers.

"This event would have been impossible for me to manage with my old desk but the new system handled it brilliantly," continues Siddons. "iLive's DCA groups were the pivotal featur

The Netherlands - Bosch Security Systems now supports the new EASE Address package by SDA (Software Design Ahnert) Berlin to enable easy simulations for ceiling-loudspeaker applications.

As speaker installations become larger and acoustics more complex, designing loudspeaker systems for public buildings can present major challenges.

In this respect, Bosch says it has long recognised a growing need for support tools for both designers and installers to help them design satisfactory installations. For the more complex installations, well known packages such as EASE, Catt-Acoustics and Ulysses are already supported by Bosch.

These packages are able to simulate all ranges of applications and loudspeaker types, but for installations with, for example, a lot of ceiling loudspeakers they are often found to be too difficult.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Denon Professional, Marantz Professional and Denon DJ, represented by D&M Business & Professional Group (Europe), will be introducing a total of eight new products at the forthcoming PLASA09 show in September.

D&M Professional will be launching the DN-V500BD blu-ray disc player, and introducing the DN-F Series of solid state audio players (comprising the DN-F300, DN-F400 and RC-F400), the DN-S700 CD/MP3 player; DN-HC5000 and HC1000S media controllers, DN-HP500 headphones and DN-X1700 digital mixer.

PLASA09 marks the worldwide launch of the DN-V500BD. The first blu-ray disc player for professional applications, it has full RS232 control for integration with control systems, such as AMX and Crestron, offering the flexibility to satisfy many audio visual applications from retail point of sale displays to visitor attractions and corporate presentations.

The DN-F300 1U audio

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