UK - Orbital Sound's annual Easter Sound Fundamentals for Theatre training course was fully subscribed, with over 20 students taking part in the four-day programme. Now in its 11th year, Orbital reports that to date it has helped prepare more than 250 theatre sound and technical theatre students for careers in live entertainment, with the latest contingent principally drawn from the UK's leading drama schools, as well as freelancers and the corporate sector.

The course took place at Orbital's purpose-built Brixton training facility, with the students guided through the essentials of theatre sound by course leader Richard Carter, supported by Orbital's technical director, Bill Addison.

Richard Carter explains the course's rationale: "This course is very much about combining a solid grounding in theory with practical skills, aiming to cater for a varied mix of skill

USA - Free registration is now open for the PLASA Focus: Nashville 2012 Professional Development Programme, a two-day programme of free educational seminars and workshops, running alongside PLASA Focus: Nashville, on 11-12 July 2012.

The programme has been specially curated by some of the industry's leading talents, giving visitors a unique opportunity to broaden their specialist knowledge and take part in discussions about innovative projects and cutting edge techniques.

"One of the benefits of hosting a Focus event in Nashville is the depth of professional industry knowledge that is intrinsic to the area," comments PLASA CEO Matthew Griffiths. "Being able to tap into that regional passion for live entertainment and to share it in a common space is something which will not only benefit the local entertainment technology community in Tennessee, but also the surr

UK - There has been a massive increase in visitor registration for PLASA 2012 at Earls Court Exhibition Centre on 9-12 September 2012. Over 11,000 people have already signed up, representing a whopping 40% increase in registrations so far. Visitors that pre-register now can gain entry to the entire four-day event for only £10 - a saving of 50% on the full price of £20.

In this unique year for London and the rest of the UK, PLASA is taking the opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the extraordinary contribution made by the lighting and sound industries to the London 2012 Olympics. As PLASA Events Manager, Sophie Atkinson, comments, "The record breaking surge in pre-registrations for the show this year is enormously encouraging and goes to show that people want to come to PLASA 2012 to reflect on their industry's input in the 2012 Olympic story and experience th

Belgium - The Parlamentarium, the new visitors' centre at the European Parliament in Brussels, uses a variety of interactive multimedia exhibits to take visitors on a journey into the heart of European Politics. Electrosonic engineered and installed the main exhibition audio-visual hardware for Stuttgart-based designer Atelier Bruckner. The Parlamentarium is the first visitors' centre fully accessible in 23 languages, and to-date has attracted over 120,000 visitors from across the globe.

Guided through exhibitions by a personal electronic multimedia guide, visitors see how policy decisions are made and how they influence Europeans' daily lives. All signage and media is presented in 23 languages, which had an enormous influence on how AV techniques were used throughout the centre.

Electrosonic won the bid for the project in an open Europe-wide competitive tender; the scope of w

UK - Stage Electrics has chosen a DiGiCo SD9 console to control an all-new audio system, designed for both live performance and digital cinema, at the Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells.

Built in the mid 19th century, the Holy Trinity was Tunbridge Wells' first parish church. After its final religious service in 1972 its Grade 1 listed status ensured safety from demolition, and by 1975 a public petition had secured permission from the Church Commissioners to produce a plan for community or public use. An appeal committee raised £50,000 and five years later it reopened as The Trinity Theatre arts centre complete with a raked-seating auditorium: growing popularity soon saw an art gallery, licensed bar and computerised box office added.

Its latest upgrade sees the venerable space take on the very modern mantle of digital cinema, although a cursory gaze at the vaulted balcon

Korea - Fohhn Audio loudspeaker systems and DSP-controlled amplifiers have been installed in the Doonsan First Methodist Church, Daejeon, Korea. The recently built church accommodates up to 2500 worshippers and has been equipped with state-of-the-art technology including several high quality sound systems.

The main system comprises two 12 Fohhn PT-9 line array systems, flown to the left and right of the altar and stage areas, in combination with two bass arrays each including eight Fohhn PS-4 high-powered subwoofers. Four AT-10 Arc series speakers function as front-fills, with eight XM-4 wedges used for on-stage monitoring. The system is powered by a number of Fohhn DSP amplifiers.

Fohhn loudspeaker systems have also been installed in smaller worship areas and childcare facilities on various floors of the 10-storey building. Six worship rooms on the seventh floor have each bee

Malaysia - DPA dealer AV United has supplied a number of mics to two companies staging the Penang World Music Festival 2012, Kinakoworx Productions and Echo Sound.

The annual event, hosted by the Penang State Tourism Development and Culture Office, was held at Penang's Botanic Gardens. It featured 18 bands from as far away as Colombia and Mongolia as well as from neighbouring Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines.

The DPAs - 10 DPA d:vote 4099D clip mics for drums and two 4099V clip mics for violins - were specified by the festival's technical director Niall Macaulay for their ability to be deployed across a variety of musical instruments thanks to their mounting accessories for piano, guitar and bass, as well as drum and violin.

"This was my second time working with DPA 4099s," says the festival's monitor engineer, Desmond Lee. "I did a jazz festival las

USA - Peavey is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its legendary 6505 Series guitar amplifier line, the amps that have "defined the sound of aggression in music for two decades".

"The Peavey 6505 Series has earned its place in rock history as the guitar amplifiers of choice for a wide range of top rock and metal artists," said Hartley Peavey, founder and CEO of Peavey Electronics.

The Peavey 6505 has helped define the down-tuned sound of modern metal in the arsenals of artists like Machine Head and producers such as Colin Richardson, Andy Sneap and Jason Suecof, who have produced the most enduring metal and hard rock albums of the past two decades.

"The 6505 was the first amp you could plug into for that heavier, thrashier tone," said Sneap.

One of the keys to bringing metal's new lows to the masses was Peavey's patented Resonance circuit, wh

Spain - American diner chain Tommy Mel's has arrived in Spain. Music is an essential ingredient and to this end Digiline-8 from Equipson has been chosen, allowing easy control of the eight zones that divide the audio in all its restaurants via TCP/IP control.

The audio distribution comprises RCS 003 ceiling speakers, which have a wide frequency response, with very low-frequency body, designed for ambient sound at a moderate volume.

The volume of the zones is controlled from the POS terminal of the box, thanks to an application specifically designed for these restaurants.

To date, systems have been installed in restaurants in Madrid, León, Jaén and Seville. More installations are scheduled.

(Jim Evans)

UK - EM Acoustics has recently supplied three pairs of EMS-51 compact full range speakers, a pair of EMS-61 small format full range speakers and an i-8 compact subwoofer to another well-known British company, console manufacturer, Midas, for their training room at their factory in Kidderminster. Midas had taken the decision last year to upgrade the systems in their training room, but hadn't found any loudspeakers that met their stringent requirements, until they took a closer look at the EM Acoustics range.

Midas's technical support manager, Jason Kelly, who oversaw the upgrade, explained that he had a fairly comprehensive list of criteria that needed to be met by the new systems. "The first point was that they had to be small," he stated, "partly because space is at a premium in the room, and also because with five sets of loudspeakers on at once during a trainin

USA - When it was ready to upgrade its Meyer Sound MSL-3 loudspeakers of more than two decades at its 2,472-seat Andrew Jackson Hall, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in Nashville chose Meyer Sound again, this time a system based on the M'elodie line array loudspeaker.

"The MSL-3s had served us well since the mid-80s," says Larry Bryan, TPAC's chief audio engineer. "But we were ready to step into the 21st century with the latest Meyer Sound line array technology."

As typically deployed, the system comprises left and right flown arrays of 16 M'elodie loudspeakers each, plus six deck-stacked 700-HP subwoofers, eight MINA line array loudspeakers spaced across the stage lip as front-fill, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with a Galileo 616 processor for drive processing. The system was provided by Blackhawk Audio of nearby White House, Ten

Lebanon - New venue Life is one of the largest in Beirut, hosting 1,500 people in its indoor area with a large motorised, retractable roof, and double that number in its open-air area.

Maurice Salloum, sound engineer and co-owner of Life, chose the sound system as well as the right company to complete the installation. Having a long-term relation with Beirut-based Hi Fi Service, Salloum knew he is in safe hands: "I wanted an unparalleled system for our venue," he says, "a system that can generate high SPLs and at the same time produce an excellent sound. Additionally, I needed a system that could be used as an indoor system during the winter season and that could be moved outside during summer, when the club shifts to the open air area."

Oussama Mansour Abou Faraj, manager of Hi Fi Service reports, "I proposed using a Dynacord VariLine system. We have

Cuba - When Pope Benedict XVI recently visited the Cuban capital of Havana, the government of Cuba chose RCF TT+ (Touring & Theatre) series to broadcast the Papal Mass.

Hundreds of thousands of Cubans from the capital and neighbouring provinces filled Havana's José Martí Plaza de la Revolución - at 72,000sq.m, one of the biggest squares in the world.

The system specified comprised 64 x TTL55-A (16 elements left and right of main stage and two 16-hang out-fills) and 24 x TTS36-A subwoofers (12 per side). In addition, 27 x TT25-A's were deployed as delays - in 12 towers (each containing two cabinets), and three towers with one cabinet in each.

Finally, eight TT25-SMA and eight NX12-SMA wedges provided stage monitoring while system control was in the shape of two DX 4008 4-in/8-out digital loudspeaker management devices and RDNet Control8 control and monitoring network

USA - Lectrosonics has developed the SPNDNT network processor to expand the ASPEN digital matrix processor family. The new network processor is much more than a simple network interface. Instead, it is a full featured DSP processor that can address both the ASPEN and Dante matrices and add mixing, gain and delay functions to the digital audio signals, says the company.

Any of the 48 final mixes in the ASPEN matrix can be assigned to any one or more of the Dante channels for transport to other endpoints in the network. Dante signals can also be imported into the ASPEN matrix in a local processor sub-system for mixing with other local and network signals, and then routed onward to other local or network devices.

The new processor debuted at ISE 2012 in Amsterdam earlier this year and met with an enthusiastic reception. A redundant network was installed in the exhibit stand betwe

UK - Harman Professional's distributor for the UK, Sound Technology, has appointed Gary Jackson and Jonny Blower to the newly-created positions of area sales representatives for the south and north of the UK respectively.

Joining area sales managers Joe East, Darren Elliott, Jason Lovatt and David Titherington, Jackson and Blower will be responsible for independent MI dealers, installers and PA hire companies across Sound Technology's MI and Pro Audio portfolio.

Both men join Sound Technology with considerable experience in the MI and Pro Audio industries. Jackson joins from SSE Audio Group, having previously spent 16 years at FX Rentals, supplying the recording, post-production, film and live industries.

Jonny Blower joins with over 10 years' experience in the sector, most recently with Leeds MI retailer Play Record and prior to that sound and lighting installation and hire

France / Russia - L-Acoustics has confirmed that Sonoruss has become a new certified provider distributor in Russia. The newly-formed company, headed up by local industry expert Igor Verkolat, has a network of 200 dealers in place to support and promote the L-Acoustics brand in the region.

"L-Acoustics is very a famous brand in Russian show business," says Verkolat. "Their systems feature on the technical riders of leading artists, and many Russian rental companies include L-Acoustics in their inventory for a variety of events. Thanks to the sound, features and ease of use, several Russian theatres and concert halls have also installed L-Acoustics systems, with more sales and installations in the pipeline."

"I am delighted to introduce Sonoruss as our CP distributor for Russia," says L-Acoustics sales manager Peter Owen. "Igor and his team ha

USA - dnp denmark is set to make a big impression InfoComm 2012, Las Vegas, 13-15 June in Las Vegas with seven screens on display at its own booth and many more being shown around the fair.

dnp will unveil two prototypes of its new Short Throw front projection screen line for the education, conference room and signage markets. Both displays are optimised for maximum performance in classrooms, smaller sized meeting rooms and shops or malls with limited space and lots of ambient light.

In the retractable screen category, dnp will present upgraded versions of the dnp Supernova Flex Classic, while an ultra-quiet version of the dnp Supernova Flex, featuring new motor and new remote, is also being shown. Additionally, visitors can experience the new dnp Supernova Core II, featuring a new frame design and improved wall mounting and tension system for easier installation.

In the lar

Poland - Established in 1976 by the Wroclaw actor Andrzej Dziedziul, the Zdrojowy Teatr Animacji (or Spa Theatre) in Jelenia Góra, is housed in the classically designed Spa Theatre, which was built in 1836. Used mainly for children's productions, it also stages adult plays as well as outdoor performances.

With the prevailing demand for state-of-the-art technology in theatre, the plan for Zdrojowy Teatr Animacji's modernisation began in 2008. Enter Polish entertainment technology specialists M.Ostrowski, with a brief to supply and assemble a lighting, stage management and theatre audio system for an audience capacity of 200.

Recognising the need for a top-performance sound reinforcement system, M.Ostrowski deployed the newest CF Series solutions from Renkus-Heinz.

Using EASE 4.3 software to determine the optimum position of the loudspeakers, eight full-range Renkus-Heinz CF1

Germany - The Nowruz celebrations mark the beginning of the New Year for Indo-Iranian cultures, which follow the solar calendar. Oberhausen arena hosted its 15th Nowruz celebrations this year - the largest of their kind in Europe - and the top-class line-up reflected the full spectrum of the Persian music world, from traditional folk music to pop and disco beats.

Soundart KG from Bochum has been responsible for the technical side of this festival for several years. Preparation is always highly complex in terms of meeting the artists' technical requirements: the final design involved a set-up in which the changeover time between bands - sometimes with dancers and an onstage pyrotechnics and laser show - could be carried out in just five minutes including reorganisation time.

The sometimes very elaborate instrumentation of the bands, some of whom had large numbers of acoustic st

Germany - HK Audio's new website (www.hkaudio.com) promises "a hipper look and feel, no-nonsense navigation, even more information".

All portals are clearly marked Musicians, Entertainers & DJs, Rental, Install Sound, Line Array, Worship Audio, and Personal Pro Audio, so finding your gateway to audio bliss is simple, says the company. The new navigation system takes you straight to the systems that are likely to be of the greatest interest to you.

HK Audio's revamped corporate design figures prominently on the website. Finding the latest videos and news is simple now that they are featured right there on the homepage. State-of-the-art rendering technologies such as HTML 5 and CSS 3 are sure to delight all users, and the mobile crowd especially. Our website is now formatted perfectly for every device.

(Jim Evans)

UK - Boxing trainer Brendan Ingle whose gym produced the likes of Herol 'Bomber' Graham and current IBF light heavyweight titlist Clinton Woods is perhaps best known for being Prince Naseem Hamed's mentor from the age of seven to 25.

Ingle has now been given a new PA system for his gym at St Thomas' Club, Wincobank, so he can be heard above the noise of pounding punchbags. The TXA-800CD portable PA system has been donated by TSG Media and Monacor International. Ingle said. "I'm absolutely delighted with this fantastic system. It's very noisy when everyone is training but the system means I can be heard by all."

Neil Clayton, managing director of Monacor UK, said, "TSG Media have been working with the St Thomas' Club for several years and approached us for a possible solution for Brendan. The TXA-800CD meets his needs perfectly and we are more than happy to have

Australia - The Florida Beach Bar at the Crowne Plaza Terrigal is an icon venue on the Central Coast of NSW. Positioned opposite Terrigal beach, it is a favourite place for locals and visitors on holiday. The venue was originally designed as a small sports bar to service the beer garden and food services. In a recent renovation the hotel decided to tear down a connecting bar wall into what was once a nightclub entertainment venue. The design objective was to open up and combine the spaces, transforming the interior into a modern, fresh inviting destination.

The new venue's interior design is now made up of eight zones that require different speaker types to suit each zones acoustic condition. The JBL Contractor speaker series was selected as the preferred speaker solution to suit the various interior design aspects and operational requirements of the now larger venue.

AVents S

UK - Following the success of last year's events, Sennheiser UK has announced the dates of its 2012 integrated systems seminars. This year sees the number of events increased to three, with Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, once again chosen as the initial venue on 23 May, followed by two new venues, Ragley Hall in Warwickshire on 29 May and Surrey's Pennyhill Park on 31 May.

"The format of the seminars has proved popular over the past couple of years, so we will be keeping the basis the same, but tailor the content to account for the constantly changing requirements of the industry," says Ken Morrison, business area manager for Sennheiser UK. "The accent is still firmly on providing information, education - and a little entertainment - for our integrated systems, AV and live sound colleagues in the industry."

Participants can expect to learn about the latest

USA - The nominees for the 2012 Tony Awards have been announced, and the nominees in the lighting, sound, scenic and costume design categories are as follows:

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A PLAY

John Lee Beatty - Other Desert Cities

Daniel Ostling - Clybourne Park

Mark Thompson - One Man, Two Guvnors

Donyale Werle - Peter and the Starcatcher

BEST SCENIC DESIGN OF A MUSICAL

Bob Crowley - Once

Rob Howell & Jon Driscoll - Ghost the Musical

Tobin Ost & Sven Ortel - Newsies

George Tsypin - Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A PLAY

William Ivey Long - Don't Dress for Dinner

Paul Tazewell - A Streetcar Named Desire

Mark Thompson - One Man, Two Guvnors

Paloma Young - Peter and the Starcatcher

BEST COSTUME DESIGN OF A

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