UK - Following 26 action-packed years with stage set fabricators Brilliant Stages, John Gittins has branched out as a consultant offering his design and project management skills on a freelance basis.

Gittins, a qualified engineer and CAD designer, spent his time at Brilliant Stages project managing and designing specialised sets for large-scale tours, cruise ships and events. Originally coming on board to look after the woodwork side, with Tony Bowern on metalwork and Charlie Kail on welding, Gittins experienced every aspect of the industry and, as operations manager, spent the last 10 years running the company with general manager, Tony Bowern.

"It's been a brilliant journey and I have had the opportunity to work on some of the greatest, largest and most technically challenging projects of the last quarter of a century," says Gittins. "I'm now looking forward

Germany - Bosch Security Systems has announced that it now supports the new EASE EVAC speaker simulation software, a high-end package developed by Berlin-based AFMG (Ahnert Feistel Media Group), well-known for the acoustical simulation package EASE. This move spells good news for voice evacuation system designers since it will in future ensure even faster verification and optimization of systems based on Bosch EVAC loudspeakers, says the company.

EASE EVAC enables all acoustics-related quality parameters to be analysed, including the most popular: STI (Speech Transmission Index). This can be done for all Bosch ceiling- and wall-mounted speakers, without any limitations. Simulating a 3D room with different types of speakers is also no longer a time- consuming task and can instead be achieved in just a few mouse clicks.

(Jim Evans)

USA - Flightcase and loudspeaker solutions specialist Penn-Elcom has joined forces with California based Janal Cases - one of their long time valued customers - in a new year long initiative to help raise awareness of breast cancer to celebrate the 25th year of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM).

BCAM is an annual international health campaign organized by major breast cancer charities every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to all those affected by breast cancer.

Penn Elcom is donating pink grip handles to the initiative, which are being offered - fitted free of charge - on cases ordered by Janal's customers for a donation of any size, starting at $25.00.

Muffie Alejandro from Janal Cases approached Penn-Elcom to be a partn

UK / Australia - Crosspoint Solutions has purchased a Yamaha M7CL-32 digital mixing console, which is currently serving audio aces at the Australian Open tennis championship.

The Hampshire-based company specialises in the provision of temporary production and broadcast facilities for the television industry. A key service is the supply of master control rooms, where multiple signals need to be distributed.

"Our success in this field, and having relationships with many location broadcasters, led to enquires for more specific services," says Crosspoint head Geoff Mann. "In response to this demand, we developed a small 'flyaway' style presentation studio that we take to different events around the world."

The studio normally uses four cameras and a compact, high quality mixing console was needed for the associated audio requirements, including mixed returns

UK - December saw the chance for over 100 up-and-coming bands to reach a potentially huge audience as London's O2 ran its December Sessions music programme, giving music fans the opportunity to enjoy 20 nights of live music at no cost. With Sennheiser equipment featuring on every show, one special performance saw the company unusually embracing the sound of silence.

The December Sessions took place on a specially-constructed stage in the O2's London Piazza and were supported by Sennheiser UK, which also sponsors the nearby British Music Experience. For every performance, the company provided ew 300 G3 GB in-ear monitors and e 604, e 614, e 901, e 902 and e 935 wired mics.

In the first of a series of events organised by innovative live events company Silentgig, for one very special performance, the company supplied SKM 5200 wireless mics with KK 105 heads, KMS 105

Martinique - Formule Teck, one of Martinique's biggest rental companies and a long-standing APG customer, has recently taken delivery of 14 DX15 monitor speakers from APG to add to his already considerable APG inventory. The first outing for the new equipment was the prestigious and now traditional event organized each year by the Tourist Office of the Martiniquan capital Fort de France called Les Boucans de la Baie on 30December. Formule Teck handled all the audio requirements for the concert in the evening which included a full APG PA and monitor system.

Les Boucans de la Baie is a celebration that involves the whole town and culminates in a spectacular fireworks display over the bay and a concert held at La Savane, a beautiful 12-acre park that borders Fort St-Louis overlooking the bay. The concert was given by Mahogany, a well-known Martiniquan orchestra of 18

Denmark - The Broendby Hallen Arena is just minutes away from the Danish capital Copenhagen, and is home to the capital's own handball team, AG Kobenhavn. This sports arena, with seating for around 5,000, recently overhauled their sound system, installing a number of products from D.A.S. Audio's vast catalogue of professional sound systems.

Danish firm ProShop Europe was contracted to install the sound system. Project manager Thomas Duch was assisted by D.A.S. Audio sound projects engineer Eva Argandoña in pre-configuration tasks and the final adjustment and setup of the system. Given the characteristics of the arena, with its uneven stands and other architectural challenges, the studies and simulations carried out by Argandoña led ProShop Europe to install D.A.S.'s Aero, Variant, and BiDriver series, according to the needs of the different parts of the arena.

Specifically,

The Netherlands - Analog Way will announce the release of its new website during ISE 2012. The site offers improved design and new, useful content for customers. In addition, Analog Way will launch mobile versions of the website for optimized access to product information from smartphones.

Completely re-designed, the new website offers improved organisation to help users quickly find useful information. Users can easily browse Analog Way's wide range of mixers & seamless switchers, event controllers, scan converters, multi-format converters, scalers and Interfaces.

The Products section has been improved with new comparison charts, application notes, as well as demo and training videos. Pages dedicated to Technical Support offer optimised presentation of firmware and remote control software. White papers on different topics are also available online to answer customers' recurri

UK - Solid State Logic has announced that Bella McAvoy has joined the company as marketing communications manager. McAvoy brings a multitude of experience to the table from her varied work in communications, as a broadcast journalist and as composer and songwriter.

"We are delighted to welcome Bella to the SSL team," says Dan Duffell, marketing director for SSL. "She will be working closely with me to further our traditional and digital media relations, develop our marketing programme and boost our social media presence. Bella is an accomplished composer with a strong track record in music production. She also brings a wealth of strategic communications experience with her, which will help us drive forward our vision for SSL. The creation of this new senior role within our marketing team is a sign of the company's continued expansion and is driven by the success t

UK - The Roland M-480 Live Mixing Console has been in constant use in recent theatre productions across Glasgow and Edinburgh with Glasgow based hire company Sono Vie.

For the production of Beauty and the Beast at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow, the RCS was primarily used by the radio mic technician to check the functionality of the numerous radio mics in use at one time by the cast. When connected online, the M-480 RCS can be configured so that the remote screen (PC/Apple Mac) can view and control separate content than that which is live on the screen of the console itself. In this case, the M-480 itself was used to mix the show FOH (utilising all 48 channels), but at the same time, by working with a separate screen, keyboard and mouse, the radio technician could check all the radio receivers and view all the meters.

As well as making things simple in the rehearsal, the

UK - Peavey recently deployed two separate audio systems into Passmores Academy, a new 2000-student secondary school in Harlow, which was featured on Channel 4's seven-part reality TV show, Educating Essex.

Passmores recently achieved Academy status and was rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted; last year, 67% of its students achieved the equivalent of five or more GCSEs at grades A-star to C.

Harlow-based company, Gig Gear, first provided the school with a mobile Peavey audio solution, and then carried out the more heavyweight Peavey installation in the facility's main hall.

"They wanted to be able to transport one of the systems, and despite the fact that it's mobile, we still managed to deliver a high-powered solution," explains Virgil Lund, UK sales development at Peavey. "We decided on QW2Fs for the tops, which have a two-inch compression driver, and then

UK / France - TC Group International (TCGI) has announced the appointment of DV2 as exclusive Tannoy distributor in France.

This appointment consolidates TCGI's relationship with the French distribution company, who have enjoyed a long-standing successful relationship with Lab.gruppen and Lake in France (both of which are also part of the TC Group of companies). The new business agreement to distribute Tannoy commences with immediate effect, and DV2 will be taking the opportunity to represent the renowned UK loudspeaker brand formally for the first time at the SIEL show in Paris on 29-30 January.

Carsten Ishoy, TC Group's VP international sales for installed sound products, said, "After building up a very successful relationship with DV2 over a number of years through the Lab.gruppen and Lake brands, we are delighted that we can now extend that to our loudspeaker business

Qatar - The 12th quadrennial Pan Arab Games took place in Doha, Qatar recently - the first time that the country had hosted the multi-sport event.

Khalifa International Stadium was the main venue for the competition - as well as the Opening & Closing Ceremonies, which were attended by around 40,000 people.

Norwest Productions again worked alongside event sound designer Scott Willsallen, fielding a specialist crew including Ian Shapcott, Steve Caldwell, Trevor Beck and Justin Arthur. Another familiar presence at the stadium was the giant Optocore fibre ring.

According to Norwest Project Manager, Andrew Marsh, "The designs for these Opening & Closing Ceremonies almost always use Optocore for the signal distribution. We have a great investment in the Optocore brand and we hold many of the devices in our rental inventory. Optocore is a very unique product that has placed it

USA - A basketball arena at the University of Wisconsin has been decked with 20 dBTechnologies Arena 15 loudspeakers, which managed to overcome the foibles of a room with a broad range of applications. Beside sporting events, Quandt Fieldhouse in Stevens Point is also the venue for 'commencement' ceremonies and hosts a multitude of concerts and assemblies, asking a lot of the sound system - and the design/build team.

Brian Baumann and Kent Laabs of Soundworks Systems Inc. handled the design and installation. They explain, "The audio system needed to be capable of high SPL's for UWSP Pointer basketball games and other athletic events. It needed to be capable of clear music reproduction whilst maintaining high speech intelligibility for both low and high SPL events. On top of all that, budget was a factor.

"The room itself presented acoustic challenges which included i

Theatre Figures - The West End enjoyed record box office sales in 2011 for an eighth consecutive year, according to figures released by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT). Takings topped £528.3m in 2011 - up 3.1% on a like-for-like basis on the previous year. Due to the closure of a number of theatres while new shows were set up, the overall attendance was 13.9m - down 1.73% on 2010. According to SOLT, though, the average audience at each performance was up. The Society said the growth in sales could be attributed to sell-out productions such as Matilda the Musical and the continued success of Les Miserables, now in its 26th year.

"We are extremely proud that our theatres have yet again gone on to achieve another record-breaking year of sales," said SOLT president Mark Rubinstein. "Despite the prevailing rigours of the economic climate, theat

USA - Clear-Com has launched the Clear-Com Global Rental Group (CGRG). Through a network of experienced rental partners equipped to provide Clear-Com intercom systems for productions of any size, the new service, led by industry veteran Larry Estrin, offers "greater flexibility and options for addressing customers' communications requirements".

The CGRG comprises "a hand-selected team of trained and experienced rental businesses worldwide". These partners support short-term and rapid installation needs with a full range of advanced wired and wireless production intercoms and technical support. As director of CGRG, Estrin (who has extensive experience with events such as the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, Grammys and Academy Awards) provides rental partners with greater knowledge, skills and resources to supply the highest level of production communications, says

USA - Systems integration firm Axxentos of Fort Lauderdale, Florida turned to Technomad upon evaluating the outdoor audio needs of Club Med Sandpiper in nearby Port St. Lucie. The new outdoor audio systems, featuring 14 Technomad weatherproof loudspeakers, comprise part of a property-wide renovation alongside indoor AV upgrades and general construction projects.

Club Med Sandpiper's 400-square-mile resort property exists in southern Florida's sweltering climate, requiring durable outdoor audio systems that can withstand the year-round heat, humidity and moisture. The resort also required high-quality loudspeakers that could power full-range, high-volume audio over long distances, and reproduce soothing background music at clearly audible levels.

"I've learned what gear can survive in harsh environments over the years, and from all the outdoor installations I have done, on

Switzerland - A system comprised of MediorNet, Artist and RockNet equipment from Riedel Communications was used to distribute video, audio and communication signals for the renowned alpine skiing competition at the Swiss Chuenisbärgli in Adelboden.

Rivella AG was the on-site technical partner for the event. Riedel delivered a versatile installation that helped make the Ski World Cup in Adelboden a successful weekend with over 40,000 visitors - despite the bad weather conditions.

The World Cup race in the Bernese Oberland, a major event in the FIS skiing tour, is one of the most difficult giant slalom courses in the world. The demands of the event in Adelboden included establishing a reliable communications infrastructure as well providing a fail-safe distribution of the event's video and audio signals.

For the first time, Rivella used a MediorNet system to distribute

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) 's specialist Audio division has been selected as one of the primary UK sub-distributors for RCF.

As part of the agreement, A.C. Audio will become a 'one stop shop' for all RCF equipment including the TT High Definition Touring and Theatre Professional Speaker System and Commercial/Public Address ranges.

The sales division has taken immediate stock of some of RCF's most popular ranges, including the TT Line Array, Point Source, NX series and ART series.

A.C. Audio sales manager, Peter Butler comments, "We are delighted to officially represent RCF, whose products have a strong reputation and presence throughout the production industry. We are very enthusiastic about bringing RCF products to our diverse customer base and developing the brand."

(Jim Evans)

Russia - "The important factor is to analyse exactly what is required, identify the correct tools to achieve this then implement it." Alexander Fetisov talking about a complete refit of RIA Novosty, Russia's largest and most significant news agency. A comparison to the BBC World Service might give a fair insight, RIA Novosty broadcasts in Russian and five European languages, producing programmes focussed upon political, social, economic, scientific and financial information.

"The tasks of the agency also include distribution of official messages of the Russian government, ministries, agencies and social organisations," continued Fetisov. "The offices of RIA Novosty are a complex of multi-storied buildings including a large multipurpose hall the Big Universal (BUH), several conference halls, apparatus rooms, operational halls, all located in the centre of

World - Katy Perry's engineering team relies on DPA Microphones' 4088 cardioid headsets for all the pop superstar's live performances, including her current California Dreams world tour. With the fast-paced, high-action set mechanics of the tour, Perry's front-of-house engineer Peter Keppler needed a mic that could adapt to any situation.

"When selecting a microphone, I wanted something that would provide a well-balanced, open and airy sound for Katy," says Keppler. "She's a strong singer with a great voice and I thought finding a good headset mic would be a challenge. From the moment we tried the DPA 4088, I knew the sound was no longer going to be a problem."

During Thinking of You, Perry stands atop a pink cloud that allows her to fly out over the audience playing an acoustic guitar. During this performance, Perry is in front of the main PA

UK - Monacor has introduced a new range of column loudspeakers - the ETS-240TW/WS, ETS-220TW/WS and ETS-210TW/WS. These slim design, weather-proof speakers feature extruded aluminium cabinets with an aluminium front grille. All of which are completely hose-proof and weather proof with an IP66 rating.

Each model offers five power taps from the two-way speakers with additional integrated tweeters for a clear and crisp sound. The range topping ETS-240TW features eight speakers and four tweeters and can be tapped at 40/30/20/10/5 W, resulting in an impressive 90dB.

Adam Garner, sales manager, Monacor UK comments, "The new ETS-240TW/WS, ETS-220TW/WS and ETS-210TW/WS combine all the advantages of a column speaker with an excellent sound quality and particularly high stability level."

Each model is supplied with mounting brackets and a connection cable.

(Jim Evans)

Germany - In the Autostadt Wolfsburg, the communication platform of the Volkswagen operation, everything revolves around mobility. Over 23m people have visited the theme park and out-of-school learning centre since its opening in the year 2000, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Germany.

The Autostadt is the world's largest automobile distribution centre and its automobile museum - the ZeitHaus - is the world's largest. With a multitude of cultural events staged there each year, the Autostadt is also an attractive venue for cultural pursuits, offering an ambience in which art, architecture and design combine to superlative effect in a 25-hectare landscaped park.

Work began on a technical upgrade to the Autostadt's sound reinforcement system around a year ago. The planning, project management and supervision were undertaken by the bureau of engineers Taub

Europe - Internationally renowned guitar duo, Rodrigo Y Gabriella, recently embarked on their EU tour, cutting out the big production and stripping back to just two people and two guitars. Performing in a handful of intimate venues across Europe, the tour also carried a compact Allen & Heath iLive digital system, comprising the iDR-16 MixRack and iLive-R72 rackmount Control Surface, with a Dante audio interface card for virtual soundcheck.

"We kept all the gear down to just what we could carry," comments production manager, Mike Taylor. "You might think that two guitarists can't need much but we didn't want to compromise quality just because we had to fly from venue to venue. Both Rodrigo and Gabriella have two set-ups each - a full electric and an acoustic - so in reality we are taking four guitar rigs.

"We are carrying a total of nine cases of guitars and

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Analytics
Tools used to analyze the data to measure the effectiveness of a website and to understand how it works.
Google Analytics
Accept
Decline
Advertisement
If you accept, the ads on the page will be adapted to your preferences.
Google Ad
Accept
Decline