UK - West London based Entec Sound & Light supplied the lighting design, equipment and crew for Punjabi pop/singer/songwriter superstar Gurdas Maan's recent sold out shows at London's Royal Albert and the LG Arena at Birmingham NEC.

The lighting design was created by Entec's Ryan Brown. With no production rehearsals, scant on-site programming time and some seriously high profile shows ahead of him, he took full advantage of Entec's newly updated WYSIWYG system to visualise and pre-plot the show in their Northolt HQ. This proved "Absolutely invaluable" he comments.

It's the third time that Entec has worked with Maan's management, UK Box Office, who approached them to create a "fabulously elegant" lightshow after being inspired by seeing archival images and hearing about previous projects that the company has undertaken.

Gurdas Maan's spectacular career has

Belgium - Flashlight/APR and DEE Sound & Light will as of now closely cooperate in the field of renting out professional sound, lighting, backline and rigging equipment.

Both parties are no strangers to each other and have regularly worked together as colleagues and neighbours over the last years, also as Synco Network partners.

Due to this cooperation, the companies have even decided to change the name Flashlight/APR into Ampco Flashlight Rental. DEE's managing director Andre Schneider will be responsible for the general management of Ampco Flashlight Rental in Belgium as well as DEE Sound & Light within the scope of this new cooperation.

Andre Schneider comments, "Ampco Flashlight is a market leader in the Netherlands and an important player in Europe. DEE is known as a small, but extremely high-quality company in Belgium and abroad. Both companies are reputable renta

UK - A historic 18th century Grade II-listed congregational church in Merthyr Tydfil has been lovingly restored following a six year bid to secure development grants.

Following a spend of £1.4m the building, which had fallen into disrepair, has been converted into a multi-cultural arts, community, educational and Welsh Language Centre, incorporating a new 250-seat amphitheatre; this has been equipped with an end-to-end Harman Pro sound system, supplied Sound Technology and installed by Adlib.

The project is the brainchild of the Soar Project's chief officer, Lis McLean, who secured a total of 13 grants - including £527K from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £300,000 from Heads of the Valleys funding programme - with contributions coming from their own Welsh language bookshop, based in the adjacent vestry opposite. But she says the dream for a Welsh community cen

Destination: Music - UK Music has published Destination: Music - the first study of its kind to scope the economic contribution of music festivals and major concerts to tourism throughout the UK.

Drawing on unprecedented access to more than 2.5m anonymised ticketing transactions, the report's main findings are as follows:

Large-scale live music across all regions of the UK attracts at least 7.7m attendances by domestic and overseas music tourists

Collectively they spend £1.4bn during the course of their trip

This is a positive contribution of £864m (GVA) to the national economy and equivalent to 19,700 full-time jobs

Although 5% of all music tourists come from overseas, they contribute 18% of total music tourist spending

From these findings UK Music has issued a list of recommendations to Government - including the implementation of a national live m

Czech Republic - Five days dedicated to lighting and sound design will literally light up and resonate the programme of this year's Prague Quadrennial (PQ) of Performance Design and Space, the world's largest event dedicated to performance design, held in Prague every fourth year since 1967. This year, the PQ will occupy the city centre and public spaces around town from 16-26 June, with Light and Sound - one of PQ's seven sub-projects, bringing Prague's National Theatre to life from 19-23 June.

Light and Sound is being organised by PQ's general commissioner, scenographer Boris Kudli?ka, and by UK-based sound designer Steve Brown. The section will feature an exhibition, interactive presentations of the latest approaches to sound and lighting, and panel discussions, with the personal participation of famous artists such as Scanner, Tod Machover, Olaf Winter and Feli

Czech Republic - Set to take place during this year's Prague Quadrennial, Scenofest is an educational project of the Prague Quadrennial and OISTAT which looks at more than just sound and lighting design - it also presents workshops focused on the entire range of performative and theatre arts. As with the PQ's other projects, inter-disciplinarity plays an important role in the educational programme, meaning that audiences can look forwards to novel approaches such as the combination of sound and costume design in a workshop led by a team from Purdue University (USA), headed by professor Richard K. Thomas. Another workshop, Pop Up Your Ears (led by the réaltympanica arts group and Tania El Khoury) will aim to uncover the subjective perception of reality through sound. Sound compositions and their relationship to the visual aspects of performance will be explored

Turkey - Leading Turkish football team, Galatasaray recently moved to its new Türk Telekom Arena - and immediately established a world record as officially having the loudest fans in the world.

Passionate and partisan, when they played local Istanbul rivals Fenerbache on 18 March, an impressive 131.76dB was registered in the 52,695 capacity, all-seater stadium, qualifying it for entry in the Guinness Book of Records.

It was left to Asimetrik (QSC and EAW's Turkish distributors) who were awarded the AV installation contract, to design a networked QSC system, based around DataPort-equipped ISA and CX amplifiers, and BASIS signal transport operating under QSControl.net, to overcome the mighty roar on match days.

Using the HD15 DataPort facilities on the CX amplifiers, Asimetrik set up a QSControl.net network to control the main system, creating two IP-rated rack spaces

Czech Republic - The distinctive style of Bobby McFerrin filled the Vodova arena in Brno twice over, with 8,000 people in the audience and 100 of them on stage with the artist. The lucky 100 had a good look at Bobby's four Nexo 45°N-12 line monitors, the newest element of an all-Nexo PA system supplied by Rental Pro.

The 60-year-old musician has an impressive vocal range of four octaves, and is famous for the interaction he has with his concert audiences throughout the world. He is a particular favourite in the Czech Republic, and this is his third tour of the country.

Rental Pro asked Nexo to ship the new 45°N-12 stage monitors into the country for the first time, setting up McFerrin with two pairs of the revolutionary wedges.

Using a Nexo Geo T system for the main PA, 10+2 per side, with out-fill arrays of 16 Geo S8 modules, and 8x CD18s for subbass. Geo S8s were a

Switzerland - Acoustic amplification systems manufacturer Schertler has announced that the Deluxe versions of its popular Unico and David portable acoustic amplifiers are now available. The three-channel Unico Deluxe and two-channel David Deluxe have been re-engineered to deliver "outstanding transparency, clarity, warmth and accuracy of sound, while offering a feature set that has been specially designed to suit any acoustic performance situation".

Both models contain a new Class A preamplifier (with no integrated circuits), re-engineered power amp and new hi-end speakers. A hi-end headphone preamp has also been added. A further innovation is the inclusion of intelligent inputs that will automatically recognise the impedance of the pickup or microphone, with no DI box or buffer required. Each channel has a four-band EQ and a special dedicated filter. Peak LEDs are als

USA - DPA Microphones CEO and shareholder Christian Poulsen has assumed day-to-day management of DPA Inc, the Danish manufacturer's US subsidiary, with immediate effect.

Poulsen, who was appointed CEO in October after four years on the DPA board of directors, is a graduate of the Danish Engineering Academy and founder of digital camera and scanner company Imacon. The fastest growing industrial company in Denmark in 1999 and 2000, Imacon merged with Hasselblad in 2004 to transform the Swedish photography giant from high-end film camera company to a fully digital camera operation.

Poulsen has transferred his business acumen to DPA, spearheading a new phase for the manufacturer marked by the launch of the new Reference Standard series. Improvements and redesigns of DPA's classic microphone ranges as well as innovative new product launches are planned for the near future, says the

The Netherlands - Alcons Audio has launched the BC543, a new triple 18" cardioid sub-bass loudspeaker, designed to give the company's pro-ribbon audio systems the tightest and crispest possible low end.

A self-contained, high-output cardioid subwoofer, the BC543 is designed for both permanent and portable ground-stacked applications, offering a high output plus tight and accurate bass response.

The BC543's front and rear located woofer configuration combines with Alcons Digital Drive Processor (DDP) to offer selectable cardioid, low-frequency pattern control and up to 18dB of rear rejection, without any need for additional cabinets.

The unit's front features two AW18.6NDC/8 18-inch, long-excursion woofers, complemented by a 5.3 inch voice-coil with vented triple-spider frame, Neodymium motor structure, carbon fibre cone and dust cap. The rear features a single AW18.6NDC

China - The Meyer Sound stand at PALM EXPO China promises to be a bustling hub of activity, with demonstrations of the Constellation acoustic system alongside an extensive display of advanced audio technologies. Meyer Sound will also make a corporate announcement that will be "of critical interest to audio professionals in the region".

For the first time at a trade show in China, Meyer Sound will present demonstrations of the Constellation acoustic system. Featuring celebrated saxophonist Sarah Underwood, the live demos will reveal how advanced digital processing, working in conjunction with arrays of precision microphones and linear loudspeakers, can transform a performance space into acoustical environments ranging from an intimate theatre to a cavernous cathedral.

At the heart of Constellation is the new D-Mitri digital audio platform, a flexible suite of hardware

India - The Indian Recording Arts Awards (IRAA) aim to highlight the esteemed technical and creative talent contributed by leading sound recordists, music composers, music directors and recording engineers. IRAA was launched in 2006 as the Recording Arts (RA) Awards for music recording, sound designing & soundtrack by Pro Sound Systems - India's only trade publication on music production and live sound - and the Audio Engineering Society (AES) India.

The 2010 Expo saw the rebranding of RA to IRAA, but despite the name change the awards retain the same goal of recognizing the creative art forms of sound recording, mixing and mastering and, of course, creating music, say organisers.

Awards are given across a number of categories including: Best Recording Engineer; Best Mix and Mastering Engineer; Best Record Label; Album of the Year; Record Company of the Year, and Life T

USA - Blue Microphones has extended its audio expertise to the stage with the recently released enCORE series. Bringing studio-quality sound to live performances, the Blue Mics enCORE series of live mics has been infiltrating venues around the globe, says the company. The series includes a range of mics designed to meet specific needs of the live stage or recording studio.

These include: enCORE 100 - a studio-grade dynamic microphone with Blue's proprietary capsule technology; enCORE 200 -adds Blue's custom-tuned active dynamic circuitry, coupling high SPL handling of a dynamic mic with the consistency and low noise of a phantom powered mic; enCORE 300 - the flagship of the series, a live condenser microphone with a Blue capsule custom-tuned to a matched phantom powered circuit and an open architecture design that allows for uninterrupted sound no matter now the mic is gripped,

India - PALM Expo, India's most established exhibition and conference on pro audio, lighting and musical instruments is scheduled for 2 - 4 June, 2011 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon (E), Mumbai, India. This June, the Expo will celebrate 11 successful years in operation.

With 15,000sq.m spread across two halls, the PALM Expo 2011 has increased 20% since its last successful staging in 2010.

"A 50% increase in exhibitors showcasing over 400 international and local brands will keep the show floor buzzing with action on all the three days. The 2011 Expo will not only see international product and brand launches, but also product clinics, workshops and an extensive three day Seminar and Conference programme. The Harman sponsored Performance Arena, an open-air line array demo area, an Indian Acoustic Musical Instruments Village, the Integrate Expo Kramer Technical Cla

USA - Donny and Marie's headlining act at Las Vegas' Flamingo Hotel recently celebrated its 500th show, and Audio-Technica has been the microphone of choice for the show since its premiere.

Donny and Marie Osmond have been headlining at the Flamingo Hotel since September 2008, and the show has proved to be a huge success, with the duo set to continue their run through at least December 2011. Both performers use Audio-Technica's Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless System with the AEW-T5400 Cardioid Condenser Handheld Transmitter, AEW-R5200 True Diversity Frequency-Agile Dual Receiver, the AEW-DA550C UHF Antenna Distribution System and the ATW-A49 UHF Wide-band Directional LPDA Antennas.

Sax, trombone and trumpet are handled by the 3000 Series Wireless System with ATM350cW Cardioid Condenser Clip-On Microphone. Also used are the Artist Elite AE3000 Cardioid Condenser Instrumen

USA - From their home base in Augusta, GA, Quest Sound covers the East Coast from Washington, D.C. to the Florida panhandle, providing sound for a wide range of live events. Quest's go-to rig is built around the Renkus-Heinz CF101-LA modular point source array loudspeaker system.

"We handle everything from local gigs with small combos to larger national acts, and the CF101 cabinets provide the versatility to cover it all," says Rob Boggs. "Recently we used a pair them on sticks with a jazz band, playing to around 100 people here in Augusta. The same week we did a festival down in Florida with close to 1000 people, and ran 14 different bands through the system."

Versatility is one reason the CF-Series fits the bill for Quest Sound. "In the past few months we've used them on music ranging from the Julliard Jazz Band to Shawn Mullins to the band Saliva, a

Germany - A network of Midas PRO9 andPRO6 live audio systems and an analogue XL4 was used at FOH and monitors respectively for the recent PRG LEA German Live Entertainment Awards held at the Frankfurt Festival Hall.

The event featured top acts on stage and celebrities on the red carpet. Bandleader James Last was the surprise guest while Michael Bolton, German country star Helene Fischer, mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and pop artist Juli entertained the crowd.

PRG's Kai Reiss handled FOH duties for the artists on the PRO9 following some training with Lars Lüdemann from German distributor Mega Audio. "It's the best sounding digital desk I've used so far," he says. "It immediately reminded me of the first time I encountered a Midas XL3 back in the early nineties. The EQ is second to none and I really liked the dynamics and effects - I've been a great fan of t

UK - Matt Napier is monitor engineer for Kylie Minogue and has been with her since the summer of 2010. His mixing console of choice is a DiGiCo SD7, chosen because it is a desk that can grow as the tour's remit expanded.

"We're at the end of the UK leg of the Aphrodite - Les Folies tour and heading off to America," says Napier. "The SD7 has done a fantastic job so far. It's done everything we hoped for."

The console, part of audio supplier Solotech's inventory for the tour, is currently running at just 60% of its capability. There are approximately 86 inputs from stage and, with the addition of talkback and effects returns, the channel count runs to around 110. There are 14 stereo and six mono sends for effects subs and thumpers, plus several stereo mic groups, which are used for shout mics around the stage, and a 16x12 matrix, used for backups and s

UK - Baldwin Boxall has confirmed BS EN 54-16 certification on all of its VIGIL2 voice alarm products. The complete range (including touchscreen control , microphones, amplifiers and routers) passed the rigorous testing procedures by an accredited third party testing house. In addition, the VIGIL2 power supplies have been BS EN 54-4 tested and certified.

The company believes it is the first voice alarm manufacturer in the UK to achieve BS EN 54 certification on a complete product range. Due to the number of products and their diversity, the product testing took in the region of six months overall then a further months wait was required for the certification process to be completed.

Marketing director Nick Baldwin commented, " We were determined to have full certification prior to the Standard becoming adopted in parts of Europe. The whole company is delighted that we have

UK - Gruv Gear, the Californian manufacturer of utility carts, hand trucks and music accessories, has signed a deal with Adam Hall to distribute its product line to the European market.

The deal, which was announced at the Musikmesse, Frankfurt, follows a meeting at the 2011 Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, California, where daily visits from Adam Hall's Markus Jahnel reinforced the positive interest he expressed from day one, Gruv Gear says.

"We had overwhelming attention from dealers and distributors from all over the world." says Jay Baldemor, president of Gruv Gear. "Markus definitely became one of the most familiar faces by the end of the show, and that says a lot about Adam Hall's sincere desire and commitment in working with us.

"We talked to guys from Italy, Spain, the UK and others, but I'm thoroughly impressed with what Adam Hall puts on the table.

Slovenia - Akustika Bahun is has purchased the first L-Acoustics Kara WST line source system in Slovenia.

The system's first job was a corporate event in Slovenia's largest and most acoustically challenging arena, Stožice, which has an nine second reverberation time when empty. The complete front of house/front- fill system consists of 36 Kara cabinets configured as 12 per side as left/right hands and 12 as a delay line, eight SB28 subwoofers in cardioid mode, two 108P and two 112P coaxials, and 12 115HiQ active stage monitors. All units are driven with LA8 amplified controllers.

"We'd like to thank the complete team for their technical support during this event," says Akustika Bahun's Miha Bahun. "This includes Slaven Tahirbegovi? from Croatian distributor Dicroic who supplied us with the system; Wilhelm&Willhalm for equipment support; KSS for trussing and rig

UK - Orbital Sound reports on the success of the sound system supplied for the UK tour of dance spectacular Midnight Tango, which features Vincent Simone and Flavia Cacace, famed for their Tango routines on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing series. With sound design by Gareth Owen, the show is employing a scalable system based on d&b audiotechnik T-Series loudspeakers, to cater for the tour's broad spread of venue capacities and acoustics.

Gareth Owen's design challenge was twofold, involving creating a system that could handle the score's huge dynamic range, while also delivering consistent results across the tour's many venues. These range from small, 600-seaters, up to theatres such as the Brighton Centre, one of the largest regional theatres in the UK, with over 4,000 seats.

Gareth Owen commented, "Midnight Tango is a very classy dance show, and depends as

USA / India - Apogee Electronics has confirmed the appointment of Ansata Computer Systems as its new distributor for the Indian subcontinent.

"We are very proud to have appointed Ansata as our exclusive distributor for Apogee's entire product line in India," said Marc Fenton, Apogee's APAC sales representative. "CEO Leslie Lean's impressive knowledge of the market from both the technical and marketing perspectives along with the company's far-reaching connections across the country make Ansata the perfect partner for Apogee in India."

Ansata distributes pro audio hardware and software, ranging from retail products for budding musicians to industry standard professional gear for studios, live concerts and broadcast. Apart from Apogee, Ansata partners with Avid and Automated Processes, Inc. (API) to distribute their range of digital and analogue audio interfa

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