Sound

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14 March 2016

The 45th Annual CMA Awards aired live in 5.1-channel surround sound Wednesday, 9 November, on the ABC Television Network from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and featured over 200 Audio-Technica microphones, including an impressive array of hard-wired mics and Artist Elite 5000 Series UHF Wireless Systems.

The team responsible for the audio at this year's CMA's again included a who's who of broadcast audio. The audio was supervised by award-winning audio producers Michael Abbott and Tom Davis; ATK/Audiotek provided the sound system with FOH mixers Patrick Baltzell and Rick Shimer; the broadcast music mix was handled by New Jersey/California-based M3's (Music Mix Mobile'

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14 March 2016

Both the strict security requirements as well as the technical demands were extremely high for the five main events associated with the visit. It was crucial to build a reliable communications infrastructure in each location that was also secure from eavesdropping. In addition, the locations needed to be ready to distribute audio and video signals to both broadcast networks and to the on-site video walls.

The two largest events were held in Freiburg, including a vigil and the farewell celebration at the local

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14 March 2016

Two XL8s continue on Jamiroquai's world tour, with Rick Pope at FOH and Tristan Farrow on monitors. "Out of all the digital boards that I've used in the live environment, the XL8 is sonically by far the best," says Pope of the XL8. "The definition in one's mix can only be described as 3D; I have not heard separation like this before."

Another XL8 has been out with Cliff Richard, with James 'JJ' John on monitors, while FOH engineer Mike 'Bunny' Warren has been using a PRO6. An XL8/PRO6 combination is now being used on Kasabian under the control of FOH engineer Paul Ramsey, with a PRO6 being used by monitor engineer Yogi.

PRO Series consoles are also out on other BRP tours including a PRO9 on Tinie Tempah, wit

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14 March 2016

Paul Nicholson who runs Salisbury based Midas ProSound and Red Square Audio has toured with Toyah for almost 20 years and is in charge of specifying, supplying, and operating the sound equipment for the Toyah band and her other project The Humans. For the UK Toyah tour, Nicholson specified the Roland M-300 Live Mixing Console together with the Digit

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14 March 2016

The opening ceremony, under the guidance of director Alexey Batkovsky, was based on Ukrainian history, with more than 2,000 volunteers and dancers involved in the larger performances. At the concert's finale, Shakira appeared on stage to a backdrop of spectacular fireworks before an audience of 50,000, including Ukrainian president Victor Janukovich.

The event's technical coordinator Vlad Voloshuk, from Concert Bis in Moldova, invited freelance system engineer Andrey Akhromeev to design a sound system for the event. Drawing on L-Acoustics' proprietary acoustic design software Soundvision, Akhromeev's solution consisted of 18 K1 boxes and 6 K1-SB subs per side, with side- ha

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14 March 2016

"The PA company had a few of them and I decided to try them on piano, double bass and cello," says Pinheiro, who has been chief engineer at Biscoito Fino Records' recording studio for the past 10 years. "It was the first time I'd used a microphone on a live double bass that gave me a great sound. Right there I decided I needed some of these."

Having purchased two of the kits, which include a carefully selected pair of DPA 4061 miniature omni mics with mounting accessories, Pinheiro went to work trying out the mics on his projects. "I do a lot of live recordings as well as those live in th

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14 March 2016

Fortunately the theatre has purchased several Shure UHF-R wireless microphone systems which are not only compact and lightweight but also sweat resistant.

"The Shure UHF system has been very reliable," commented Holly Newcombe, senior sound technician at Pilbeam Theatre. "Sometimes we run up to 32 in one go and there's never any issue. Occasionally we get a little bit of sweat on the microphones but it's not a big deal as I just give them a wipe with contact cleaner and they're fine - and believe me some of the people we get are quite sweaty.

"We also have four hand-helds. We use the packs with the jack adapters for guitars and keyboards - we have a battery powered key

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14 March 2016

With the introduction of the latest three models, the D-Power series of two channel amplifiers extends the series to six models. Covering a meaningful power output range from 250W per channel at 4 Ohm to 2300W per channel at 4 Ohm, the D-Power series makes for a perfect match with any speaker brand in any pro application, says the company.

(Jim Evans)

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14 March 2016

One of the first LEED certified arenas in the world, the AMSOIL Arena seats 6,600 for hockey and ice shows, and more than 8,500 for concerts and other entertainment. Its sound system was designed and installed by TSI Technology Solutions LLC, the systems division of TSI Global LLC, in St. Charles, Missouri, with consulting provided by Gary White of WJHW in Dallas.

"The budget for this job was smaller than what we typically have to work with for a sports stadium or coliseum," says Scott Durham of TSI, "so we had to be creative. We wanted to han

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14 March 2016

The construction has been built in the place of the former Ilie Oan? Stadium, which was completed in 1937. The old stadium was demolished and a complete new one has been built featuring all top modern facilities and already appointed by UEFA to host the group matches and semi-finals of the Champions League.

An RCF audio system has been installed to cover all areas of the stadium. Romanian RCF distributor FBS Lines provides the audio system project.

The audio system design for the Ilie Oan? Stadium was done in collaboration with the RCF project department that specified the individual product system solution, documentation, acoustical simulation, measurement and more.

"Simply a milestone

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14 March 2016

The Peavey TriFlex II system is a complete sound system providing 1,000watts of power through a three-speaker setup-one 15" Peavey subwoofer plus two satellite speakers with 10" premium woofers and Peavey RX14 1.4" titanium compression drivers on patented Peavey Quadratic Throat Waveguide horns. The system is engineered for balanced sound and crisp presentation regardless of the application, with clear sound at high output levels and "plenty of punchy bass".

The TriFlex II chassis is housed in the subwoofer enclosure and includes all of the system electronics-two-channel preamp, electronic crossover and subsonic filter - as well as the three power amps. For

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14 March 2016

Ahead of their Download performance on Sunday 10 June, Black Sabbath are to record their first album with their original line-up for 33 years. The 1968 incarnation of the band, which also includes guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, will record new material with producer Rick Rubin. Black Sabbath have released 18 albums since 1969, when they formed in Birmingham.

Music Business - EMI has said it will sell its recorded music unit for £1.

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14 March 2016

The birthday celebration for Moscow was a spectacular mega event, which included a cutting edge 4-D projection mapping show taking place on the walls of the Moscow University and a fireworks show. For providing a reliable communications system for the whole area, the organisers split up the area into to dedicated zones: The control tower and the university building.

The two areas were interconnected via fibre. Artist 64 and Artist 32 mainframes at both positi

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14 March 2016

Travelling to countries as varied as the USA, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica, such was its success that it was nominated for Billboard's best live tour of 2010, yet it still had months to run.

Fernando Diaz, is a veteran of 30 years on the road and has worked with Sanz for the past decade. Using DiGiCo consoles since the company was formed, he was an early adopter of the SD7, along with monitor engineer Frank Aponte.

"I remember perfectly the first day, three years ago, that Tim Shaxson from DiGiCo came to Madrid to help us with setting up the SD7. My first impre

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14 March 2016

Multiple contact style modules can be mixed to suit particular needs. Multi-pin modules can support analogue and digital audio transfer, while multi-way coaxial modules can handle CCTV, SDI, HD-SDI and 3G-SDI video. A full range of power modules allows current handling from a few amperes to 200 A.

RJ45 data modules allow Ca.5 10/100 Mbit/s, Cat 6e 1 Gbit/s or Cat 6E 10 Gbit/s Ethernet transfer via Harting patch leads. Signal security between power and data lines can be ensured where necessary through EMC screening options or by the use of SC fibre-optic mod

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14 March 2016

"It's absolutely brilliant, it's revolutionised the show," he reports. "I've trained my deps on how to use it to its full potential with specific application to this show and they're complete converts, even the analogue junkies. The house technicians think it's a genius application of the right technology and Beardyman loves it.

"Feedback has been a massive issue with Beard's set-up up until now but with the DP548 he no longer needs to worry about it. In really extreme scenarios I have made use of the phase related filters in order to move bass nodes around the room and prevent localised coupling on stage which would otherwise be a show stop

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14 March 2016

This year's dramatic medley included Lord of the Flies, Beggar's Opera, with a children's version of Pericles running concurrently under it during the day time, and the light and entertaining Gershwin musical, Crazy for You. Walker explains the one common factor driving his sound design for this diverse mix of performances, "It's about pulling the audio image back to the performer, so tha

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14 March 2016

Like the popular Roland VR-5, the "all-in-one" design of the VR-3 simplifies production and streaming of live events. The VR-3's design incorporates a video switcher, audio mixer, preview monitors and streaming-ready USB output all in a compact, single unit.

The VR-3 is extremely portable - the size of an A4 piece of paper and weighing 2kg. The reduction in hardware equipment, setup time and connection complexity mak

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14 March 2016

Mapp had previously relied on a Midas XL4 for every tour, before switching to digital desks a few years ago. "Why did I make the change to Midas Digital?" he says. "Tone, feel and most importantly, audio quality. I've had some great shows on other digital desks but nothing sounds and feels like the PRO9 does."

Citing the PRO9's EQ as one of the first features that won him over, Mapp continues, "It really blew me away, reminding me of what it was like to mix on a great analogue desk. I just pushed up the guitars, did a little tonal shaping and they sounded massive.

"Another thing I've noticed after bouncing from festivals to theatres on a variety

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14 March 2016

Founded in 1994, Woodend Arts is run by a collective of paid staff and volunteers. The Woodend Barn hosts a diverse programme of music, theatre, comedy, dance, film, children's events, art exhibitions and workshops.

AC-ET had previously supplied lighting equipment and a background music system to the Woodend Barn project for their cafe/bistro. At that stage, plans to further develop the Barn were already underway, and more recently, additional funding enabled the investment in a new sound and cinema system.

Once funding was granted by Creative Scot

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14 March 2016

DBs Music has opened a new music technology training centre in partnership with Cornwall College, choosing GS-R24M recording mixers for four production suites and several ZED-10FX. An addition to DBs' existing Plymouth centre, the new facility offers a variety of new training programmes in Music Performance and Music Production, with plans to add university-level courses in the future. All four GS-R24 mixers have been installed into bespoke furniture, connected to 27" iMacs with Pro Tools and Logic. There are also a few small ZED-10FX mixers installed in their custom built live and performance rooms.

Mark Trewin, who is DBs' development director,

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14 March 2016

First introduced in 1998, the 01V96 has proved one of Yamaha's most widely-used digital consoles, being employed in broadcast, live sound, corporate and entertainment installations, as well as project studios. Now, the 01V96i brings a raft of new features to this popular mixer.

Featuring a 24bit/96kHz sample rate, the 01V96i features newly improved, studio-quality head amps with onboard 24bit/96kHz A/D and D/A converters.

With the demand for multi-track recording in live sound applications continually growing, the01V96i also features 96kHz, 16 in/16 out USB 2.0 audio streaming. This new facility makes high quality multi-track recording and playback quick and straightforward and provides full in

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14 March 2016

Other features include a three-way equaliser and balance controls, adjustable FX send output, adjustable stereo AUX return input, Tape record/play connections, adjustable headphone output, +48V phantom power, and the possibility to connect a gooseneck light.

Neil Clayton, managing director of Monacor UK commented, "The MMX-1282USB is a great addition to the IMG Stage Line brand and heads up the range perfectly. It boasts so many features for such little money it's almost embarrassing. We have often been asked for a wider choice of mixers with DSP effects and we are now pleased to be able to m

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14 March 2016

The venues were a selection of theatres and Wembley Arena in London. Adlib's crew of Ian Nelson and Otto Kroymann worked closely with Keith's own engineers - Dirk Durham (FOH), Bill Collyer (band monitors) and Russell Fischer (Toby Keith monitors) together with their systems tech, Scott Halle.

Durham specified JBL VerTec which he uses when touring in the USA, so Adlib supplied a total of 24 VerTec 4889 speakers with 12 VerTec 4880A subs and 10 x L-Acoustics Kara for front-fills and lip-fills.

For Wembley, they added side-hangs of another 10 VT4889s left & right, plus four additional subs a-side.

The FOH console was a Midas XL4 complete with a substantial array of outboard. These i