South Africa - The Mediatech Africa exhibition, which takes place at the Coca-Cola dome in Northriding, Johannesburg, from 20-22 July, will feature Live Outdoor Sound Demos, in which several exhibitors have chosen to demonstrate their state-of the art sound systems and sophisticated staging rigs.

Some of the most technologically advanced sound systems will be able to strut their stuff without the constraints of an indoor demonstration area and visitors will be able to view, hear and experience this outdoor fest between 20-22 July.

Viva Afrika Sound and Light will be demonstrating DAS audio sound systems in the outside area. "The systems we intend to demonstrate are the Aero 8A; Aero 12A and Aero 50 line arrays with a new powered, ultra-compact unit ideal for small to medium applications" says the company's Bernard Pienaar. "The Aero 8A was shown at the recent Pr

Kenya - Electro-Voice has delivered the first Electro-Voice mid-sized line array loudspeaker system to its African concert sound partner Live Gigs Co-Operative AV in Kenya. The system was first demonstrated during the Kenya Music Week in December last year by Audio Visual Engineering (AVE) as a part of the event's live stage performance system. Live Gigs' new system consists of 12 XLC 127 DVX, two Dx46 processors, and six CP4000S amps.

Easy rigging and easy setup were two of the reasons for the system acquisition, the other being the Electro-Voice Dx46. This IP-based DSP enables the user to control the complete system from front of house using wireless network protocols. Complete system control and supervision via IRIS-Net software and its easy-to-use GUI was an added feature. The amplifier and touring racks were supplied with Electro-Voice power and audio distribution panels.

Belgium - On the occasion of their 2011 distributor meeting in Belgium, APart Audio has announced a number of new products for the second half of the year.

OVO is a new cabinet speaker series that combines budget with quality sound. Available in low impedance as well as 100 Volts, and ready to fit in any décor or interior style, OVO can be used in covered outdoor applications and exists in three sizes : three, five and eight inch.

The MA247 (100V mixing amp) replaces the MA246 and has been improved with 24V dedicated priority output per zone and folder selectable MP3 playback.

CMAR is a new range of low-impedance marine speakers. A series of three in-wall/in-ceiling speakers designed especially for use in the most humid and hot conditions like on yachts or in saunas.

CHAMP-3D is still the flagship of the 2011 line up. The three-channel fully programmable digital amp

USA - Audiologist Michael Santucci, founder of Sensaphonics, has accepted a position as lead audiology advisor to Hearing Health Science (HHS), a start-up company specialising in hearing research and therapy. HHS is set to launch Soundbites, a patented nutraceutical supplement that "has shown exceptional clinical promise in preventing noise-induced hearing loss".

Developed by HHS and based on the research of Dr. Josef M. Miller at the University of Michigan, Soundbites are chewable supplements consisting of micronutritional agents that have shown great efficacy in preventing hearing impairment from loud sound exposures. The company is preparing for field trials in at-risk populations in military, industrial, and music markets, prior to the product's consumer market release.

"Soundbites is one of the most exciting developments I've seen in my entire career in aud

USA - At the recent InfoComm show in Orlando, Florida, Xantech presented Bensalem, Pennsylvania-based firm APA Music & Pictures with a special plaque commemorating the two-millionth installation of Xantech products and thanking them for their years of Xantech use.

The landmark installation was performed at Mount Laurel, New Jersey's Twelve Thousand Building Conference Centre, housing training room and boardroom spaces for TD Bank. Xantech products, including the WIC1200 Web Intelligent Controller and CWTC10 10.4-inch Wireless Touch Controller, now form the foundation for the A/V distribution in several rooms in the building.

The ceremony was attended by APA's VP of sales and production Dave Pedemonti; Xantech president Graham Hallett; and Xantech director of business development Rick Seegull.

Pedemonti stated, "We are very proud to have completed Xantech's two-millionth

USA - Audio-Technica has recognised Wadsworth, Ohio-based Online Marketing as its Rep of the Year for the 2011 fiscal year.

Philip Cajka, Audio-Technica U.S. president and CEO, and David Marsh, Audio-Technica territory manager, professional products, presented the award to Online Marketing principal Mark Taylor. Online Marketing sells Audio-Technica's complete line of professional audio products to sound contractors and retailers in Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Philip Cajka stated, "Online Marketing is one of the premier rep firms in the pro A/V industry. They are keenly dedicated to their customers and the brands they represent, which are among the best in the marketplace. We are extremely proud to have them take the top award in the fiscal year of 2011."

(Jim Evans)

USA - The three-day Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival annually attracts crowds of up to 70,000 a day to see more than 180 international artists perform on six stages at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, in the California desert.

To meet the requirements of the artists performing on the stages in the Mojave and Gobi tents, Rat Sound, the production sound provider for the Coachella Festival for the past 11 years, this year supplied two complete systems comprising a total of 28 EAW MicroWedge12 (MW12) stage monitors.

"We provide the artists with what they want rather than what we think they should have, and we offer three premium monitor systems," stated Dave Rat, Rat Sound Systems founder and co-developer of the MicroWedge line with EAW. "The sound quality, volume level and feedback stability of the MicroWedge are exceptional and meet or exceed the competing p

Slovakia - A new venue, Happy End, opened in the Slovakian Jasná ski resort this year, featuring a flexible Funktion One and XTA audio system.

Happy End functions as a restaurant during the day and a lively entertainment venue during the evening, so an audio system was needed that would provide subtle background music for diners, but also provide high energy, high quality sound reinforcement for DJs and live bands.

"There was only one requirement - to provide the best sound, positive vibes and maximum power for the music," says Igor Horváth of Humenné-based installation company Citylight. "So, for me, there was only one possible solution."

Happy End's owner had been to the Blue Note jazz club in the Slovakian town of Nové Mesto nad Váhom, which was Igor's first Funktion One, MC2 and XTA installation in the country. "With that combina

UK - Scottish band, GlasVegas, is currently on a global tour with a compact Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system managing its FOH audio. The band has already visited an assortment of venues across Europe and the USA, and is playing at many of the international summer festivals, including a headline spot on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury.

FOH engineer, Steve Pattison, has previously used various iLive systems for bands such as Alphabeat, Ellie Goulding and Royksopp, and for this tour, has opted for an iDR-48 MixRack with the rackmount iLive-R72, supplemented by the iLive MixPad app, providing remote and instant control of key faders.

"The R72 fits anywhere and I can carry it under my arm but that's only part of the story," Pattison reports. "To me, using only the basic functions of a desk is like having a gym membership and never going. There are a lot o

Germany - Hamburg's oldest parish church, Hauptkirche St. Petri, founded in the 11th century, has been equipped with a state of the art sound system designed and installed by Cobra sound light. The Hamburg based live event and system design company has fitted church of the Hanseatic city with Renkus-Heinz IC Live digitally beam steerable loudspeakers.

Located in the heart of downtown on Hamburg's major shopping hub, Mönckebergstrasse, the 1,033-seat Hauptkirche St. Petri is considered the 'city church' and opens its doors daily to offer on oasis of calm and a place to meet.

Cobra sound light engineer and project manager Hendrik Thode says the company's roots in live events is reflected in its approach to installations. "In live shows we always meet a new challenge. The fascinating job definition now is using new tools which offer new potential even in difficult locations

Germany - The Eurogress in Aachen is one of the most modern conference centres in Germany. Situated in the middle of a park, the complex offers facilities for a wide variety of events, including concerts, exhibitions, theatrical performances, trade fairs and conferences.

The facilities include 16 conference rooms (with capacities varying from 15 to 420 places) as well as three halls of different sizes (with capacities of 1700, 650 and 430 seats respectively). Of the three halls, the best known to the general public is the Europasaal. It is this architecturally outstanding venue that provides the setting for the presentation of the annual Wider den Tierischen Ernst awards that brings the carnival in Aachen to a conclusion.

The progressive installation of a comprehensive alarm and sound reinforcement system in the building began back in 2004. Now the long-term project has

Australia - A new event production company, Absolute Sound & Lighting (ASL) offering a broad range of equipment and professional services has chosen dBTechnologies speaker systems.

The company is located equidistant from Queensland's Sunshine Coast and the state capital, Brisbane. Managing directors Steve Teunis and Camryn Brown saw the need for another event production company to serve the fast growing population and huge tourist market in the region. No strangers to event organisation and shifting black boxes, Teunis and Brown seized the opportunity, pooling their resources and putting together a comprehensive portfolio.

"We have a dBTechnologies box for every occasion," says Brown, listing the inventory which includes the DVA Line Array, FlexSys mid/high units, S20 subwoofers, DVX series monitors and the digital Opera series. "In fact, we have enough boxes t

Finland - Genelec has updated its 8000 Series monitors to include new contemporary colour options. The new finishes add a touch of style to the series while retaining the traditional strengths of the leading 2-way monitor series on the market, says the company.

"During its years on the market, the 8000 Series has become the benchmark for active monitoring loudspeakers" says Terho Savolainen, marketing manager of Genelec Oy. "With its combination of excellent performance and user-friendly features the range is a popular monitoring choice across a range of disciplines; studio, broadcast, installed event and fixed installation.

"This popularity has extended into the home studio market where aesthetic considerations can be a persuasive influence. We've responded to this trend by updating the colour palette of the range with some new contemporary finishes specif

The Netherlands - Fairlight has been appointed the new official distributor of Lynx Pro Audio products in the Netherlands. Fairlight made contact with Lynx Pro Audio at Frankfurt in April and went to Valencia for meetings and to demo the product range.

Peter Van Workum, Fairlight director said: "On paper the Lynx products looked really impressive so we decided to take a trip to Spain to see if they sounded as good as we thought. We were not disappointed. We were very impressed not only with the LX Line Arrays but also the ADP touring range and the QB Install series. We placed a substantial stock order and enough material to set up a demo room here in Holland.

Lynx's Ben Sinclair commented: "We are very pleased to be working with Fairlight. They are a very professional team with many years' experience in the Dutch market and they know their stuff. I am confident they

UK - Audient's ASP8024 mixing desk scored a thumbs-up from engineers, producers and artists at the first temporary recording studio at Glastonbury, this year. Consisting of a wooden structure and straw bales rendered in mud, Cowshed Studio hosted artists including the Noisettes, Jah Wobble, Seth Lakeman and Show of Hands as well as many unsigned hopefuls taking the stage.

Audient supplied the 24-channel high resolution console to the project, the brainchild of music producer Joe Leach of Cowshed Studio in London, who wanted to create a highly specified, fully soundproof recording studio in the middle of a field at the festival.

UK sales manager Gareth Williams was on hand to hear the comments from the various users throughout the five-day event. "We're not using any external mic pres at all, we are using all the console pres and they sound clean as a whistle. We're all re

Israel - Britannia Row Productions has provided a Midas XL8 live performance system for an open air production of Aida, part of the Masada, Dead Sea and Jerusalem Opera Festival in June.

Verdi's opera was performed against the backdrop of Mount Masada by the Israel Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Oren, with the Tel Aviv Philharmonic Choir. At front of house was engineer Richard Sharratt, veteran of many classical and operatic concerts, and a fan of the XL8 for his productions. "I always enjoy using the XL8 as the sound quality next to none, the EQ and dynamics are powerful and natural, and there is great versatility of control by using POP(ulation) groups," he says.

BRP's system tech Josh Lloyd has also worked with the XL8 on many gigs and festivals, and found the system's flexibility came into its own for the five Masada performances, which required a

USA/UK - Following the unveiling of their latest design/documentation tool, Stardraw Design 7, at InfoComm last month Stardraw.com has reported a massive uptake for the public beta programme.

Stardraw.com marketing director Rob Robinson explained that the beta program for Design 7 was announced publically on Friday 1 July and interested parties were invited to register. "Considering that it was the start of one of the biggest holiday weekends in the US, we were anticipating a slow take-up in the first week following the announcement. However, by Tuesday 5 July, despite the fact that there had been no working days in the US since the beta programme was announced, we already had well over 1000 registrants."

The application is Stardraw.com's seventh-generation software solution for systems integrators. Offering a holistic approach to system design and documentation, Sta

Indonesia - Located some 20k from Jakarta, the Sentul International Convention Center (SICC) was recently the site of the Justin Bieber concert. Held as part of the artist's My World Tour, Jakarta-based DSS (Don Sistem Suara) rental company was contracted to provide sound reinforcement services. The SICC is Indonesia's largest indoor concert facility and DSS provided an impressive sound system drawn from the Aero and Aero Series 2 catalogues of D.A.S. Audio.

With the ability to accommodate as many as 11,000 people in its main hall, the SICC is a challenging acoustic environment.Donny Hardono, owner of DSS and a highly recognized figure among the region's music industry, reports:

"For this concert, we deployed 32 D.A.S. Audio Aero-38, three-way, medium format line array elements. These enclosures were flown in four clusters - each with eight line array elements. We

France / Russia - APG has announced the shipment of the first Uniline compact line array system to Russia, courtesy of APG's distributor in southern Russia, Yugdoka, based in Krasnodar. Yugdoka has just taken delivery of eight UL210 and six UL115B cabinets along with an inventory of eight x DX12 multi-purpose monitor speakers.

In addition to their distribution activities, Yugdoka also runs a thriving rental and installation business. As long-standing APG customers and distributor, Yugdoka already owns a significant APG Matrix system complete with TB subs which forms part of their rental inventory. As a distributor, they have also sold numerous APG systems of varying types into Russian clubs and theatres throughout the territory. However, this is their very first Uniline order.

"The team at Yugdoka is already very familiar with many APG products, and the Matrix system in p

UK - The new £18.5m apex multi-purpose venue in Bury St Edmunds, owned and operated by St Edmundsbury Borough Council, now has a Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line Array system as part of its permanent technical infrastructure.

After the original fit out had been completed last year by Northern Light, new incumbent technical manager Tim Carr noticed that with an increasing number of amplified rock and folk events starting to appear on the upcoming programme of events, a conventional left/right proscenium line array hang was required to bolster the existing speech system.

Although the work went out to tender, and several sound systems were put forward as potential solutions, Tim Carr already had prior experience of Martin Audio's Mini Line Array - brought in by locally based W1 Productions when they were sponsoring a local band night. Thus the apex technical man was soon talking

UK - West Midlands-based Stage Audio Services (SAS) has purchased a Midas PRO9 live audio system, which is making its debut at FOH on Slipknot's worldwide festival tour this summer, joining SAS' existing Midas PRO6 on monitors.

The PRO9 was specified by long-time Slipknot engineer Dave 'Shirt' Nicholls, who was won over to Midas digital by a PRO6 which he used on tour with Stone Sour in the US. "I loved the sound of the desk and I loved the feel of it," he says. "The EQ is smooth and the preamps seem to be bullet proof. When the Slipknot tour came up, it was a no brainer to stay with Midas digital."

A Klark Teknik DN9696 high resolution audio recorder and Klark Teknik DN9331Rapide graphic EQ controller complete the set up. "Both have worked flawlessly and are extremely easy to use," says Nicholls who pays tribute to Rob Hughes at Midas and SAS man

Brunei - To mark 80 years of presence in the Sultanate since the discovery of oil in 1929, the Brunei Shell Petroleum Company (BSP) unveiled plans in 2008 to build its largest community development in the region. The Pusat Insani project is a multi-million dollar community centre that will serve as a link between the Oil and Gas Discovery Centre and Seria Town.

The development features function rooms, a gymnasium, a VIP lounge, a learning centre, and other modern amenities; however the key facility will be the centre's Multipurpose Hall which has the capacity to accommodate 1,500people in a lavish banquet style seating and will be used to host royal, government, community, and corporate events.

The centre's many facilities had to be equipped with reliable audio-visual solutions. Outline's distributor Synergy AVL, a Singapore based audio-visual consultant and systems integrator

USA - Public Broadcasting station WHYY has recently completed the construction of their new, high-tech media annex. The Dorrance H. Hamilton Public Media Commons is a venue, designed to educate the regional community on utilising digital technology for self-expression. The multifunctional space can fulfil multiple roles, from broadcast facility to lecture hall, classroom, or movie theatre.

Designed by Philadelphia's KSS Architects, the venue adds 8,000sq.ft to WHYY's existing 60,000sq.ft headquarters. The centrepiece of the project is the Lincoln Financial Digital Education Studio. This flexible studio space can host up to 300 participants, and has been designed to allow reconfiguration and relocation of major components within the various systems.

The studio's audio and technology systems were designed by RJC Designs of Glen Burnie, Maryland, who recently won the ProAV 201

Nigeria - At the Eko Le Meridien Hotel on Victoria Island in Lagos Fela!, the stage musical about Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, made its triumphant homeland debut during the recent Nigerian presidential elections.

Once again the Tony Award winning sound designer Rob Kaplowitz chose a TiMax2 SoundHub delay matrix as a central element of his immersive sound design to help bring out the drama and impact in this emotional story of afrobeat's inception and the political struggles of its founder.

Following its critically acclaimed Broadway debut, Fela! did a sell-out three-month run at London's National Theatre. Rob Kaplowitz employed a TiMax2 SoundHub matrix and TiMax Tracker performer tracking system to "create various 'zones' in the house which allowed us to fulfill the director's request to localise the voices to their sources, while simultaneously allowing me

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