"Nobody's trying to pretend that it's 1976 again," says front of house engineer Andy May, owner of one of the very first Yamaha PM5D digital consoles to roll off the production line. "But these shows are for the 'hardcore' fans, so we have tried to put on a good, old-fashioned rock'n'roll show."
He and lighting designer Pat Marks have succeeded admirably in t
Campus Westend of the Goethe University Frankfurt nestles in a burst of parkland, yet directly borders Frankfurt's downtown, boasting a wealth of eateries, shops, theatres and other recreational facilities. The buildings of Campus Westend are based around the Neo-Realist IG Farben Building , while immediately beyond the campus boundaries you can find splendid art deco residences and cutting-edge modernist architecture.
The House of Finance building is part of a gigantic investment by the State of Hesse to build a new site for the Goethe University. The House of Finance is encompassing 14,000
R20 is a non-profit environmental organisation founded by former Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the support of the United Nations. A coalition of sub-national governments, private companies, international organisations, NGOs and academic and financial institutions, R20 supports governments building a green economy.
The two day conference gathered nearly 600 participants, and was hosted by Schwarzenegger. Local broadcast company, RadioMax, led by production manager, Martin Jeschke, was appointed to manage all technical aspects, and freelancer, Andreas Putz, was appointed chief audio engineer.
Based in Austria, Putz specialises in live sound engineering for music and corporate events and also specialises in multimedia AV desig
Nashville-based consultant Steve Durr was called in to recommend a sound system whose sonic quality would keep it competitive with the city's many other music venues, while at the same time keeping the sound highly controlled and away from reflective surfaces, and keeping the energy channelled within the venue and away from neighbouring residences.
Th
Winter Jam serves up a wide range of music styles-from the dub step of the Capital Kings to the acoustic pop of Jamie Grace, the guitar rock of Red and the rap of headliner TobyMac.
"It's a challenge for the PA because you can't simply tune it for a certain style," says Jerry Holcomb, production manager and one of the FOH engineers on the tour. "Fortunately, the Meyer system shines on all of them. It's a very musical PA at any level. It doesn't have to be loud. The lighter bands early on all sound great, and by the time TobyMac comes on it's still very high fidelity-only much lo
Don McConnell, head of product, for the Hills SVL Group, commented, "We're delighted to be involved with such a respected and innovative company. The timing of the agreement is perfect with new products including ARCS WIDE, ARCS Focus and ARCS II sure to create a lot of interest. This along with respected line source products such as Kiva, Kara and Kudo, and the coaxial range, provides us with a wide yet complementary product offering. We're looking forward to introducing the full range of products to our customers. We know they'll be impressed."
Tim McCall, sales m
As one of the world's most-watched live music productions, attracting in excess of 100m television viewers each year, the Eurovision Song Contest has become a major annual showcase for the technologies at the cutting edge of the show production industry.
This year's Eurovision Song Contest, produced by the European Broadcast Union (EBU) and SVT, the national broadcaster of last year's winning nation, Sweden, will be preceded by PLASA Focus: Backstage Malmö - an opportunity for industry professionals to take a first-hand look at these technologies in context.
The event will include a series of excl
This allowed a conference and awards event to be staged in-the-round; ensured that all delegates in the room had a clear view of the proceedings with the installation of 16 plasma screens in strategic positions ... and maximised the very low and idiosyncratically shaped headroom of the space.
dbn's project manager was Nick Todd and the company was working for event producers, WRG.
The Pavilion Suite is a long rectangular room with a very low ceiling height of just under three metres down each side but up to five metres in the middle.
In addition to making this full ceiling area into usable space ... the other big challenge was a
Van der Haagen, for the last 17 years the leader of one of Holland's most successful live entertainment production companies, Sightline Productions, brings his enthusiasm and commercial management skills to aid the growth of Ampco Flashlight, the leading technical production group in the Netherlands with expertise that spans audio, lighting, video, rigging and every related service.
Dennis van der Haagen commented, "Sightline Productions has grown to the level that, from the foundation of the company, we always had in mind. It's with a lot of satisfaction to hand over the daily management to the safe hands of a younger generation that has grown up within the company.
"And now, I have decided to work fo
The new speaker will be built entirely in the UK. "We wanted to help bring back manufacturing to Britain and to fly the flag for home grown products." said technical director Graham Gosden. "We will be using high quality materials and components with a hard wearing, professional finish. The speakers will be made from European birch ply and will be fitted with high quality drivers supplied by British and European manufacturers. Manufacturing in the UK will also enable us to greatly improve stock control."
The new speakers will replace the highly successful TP range which has been a standard fixture in clubs, bars, schools and rental companies for the past three years.
The Blakite mid/top speakers will all include p
The company's 9500-strong Facebook fan base and 2000 Twitter followers will be kept in the virtual loop with clues, and a preview competition in the countdown to the show's opening on 10 April. "Show news and product information will continue to be beamed around the world directly from the stand during the four-day international trade fair, so Audient's clients, distributors and dealers will be fully informed. Whether they can't be at the show, or are tied up in meetings it's important that they don't mi
The Fader Fort presented by Converse and powered by Dell, has the reputation of being the spot to see live music during SXSW. This year it brought together a mix of today's most innovative and emerging artists as well as many notables including.
"We wer
The Academy draws upon the insight gained through its links to the production rehearsal studio and set construction operation LS-Live, to promote the teaching of current working practices, methods and technologies in the entertainment industry.
The month-long Live Sound module on the Academy's Foundation Degree in Live Events Production (validated by The University of Bolton) was delivered by audio engineer, author and writer Dave Swallow, who held training sessions on The Science of Sound, Digital Sound, EQ, Dynamics, FX Live Sound mixing, and by Nigel Pease of Selva Sound who delivered Pro Tools 101 training.
The module featured training sessions by Fu
The brief from Griffiths, who has driven the project from its inception, was quite clear. He felt that rugby fans deserved better audio than that delivered by the often aging systems seen in many rugby grounds. His view was that expectations are higher now than they used to be thanks to the influx of technology into peoples' homes and better, more sophisticated systems in most music venues. He wanted to be able to offer
Not only does this reduce the size of the rig needed, it also introduces many less obvious advantages. It opens up the opportunity to use a huge array of plug-ins, offers large channel counts without taking up any more space in the auditorium and offers higher resolution DSP than is generally available with a conventional live mixing console.
The concert in mid-February that gave the opportunity to put theory into practice featured the renowned Frenc
André Rauhut's company first introduced Martin Audio's multi-cellular loudspeaker array system to the artist's production back in 2011, when the two operations started working together. "We first used an MLA/MLX rig for a big outdoor show," remembers Rauhut. "They really loved how the system sounded, and as a result, they have since continued to work with us. MLA has become vital to the quality of the live sound."
For the current Guten Tag tour, which takes in most European countries, Complete Audio are providing a total of 26 MLA enclosures, two MLD down-fills, 16 MLA Compacts and 18 MLX subs (scalable to suit the venue).
For the past two years Flare has provided the sound for Shakedown's Supercharged Dance Stage, which has played host to artists including Zane Lowe, Chase and Status, Knife Party, The Freemasons and Kissy Sell Out.
Receiving positive feedback from artists and audience members alike, Flare's range of speaker systems "impressed festival organisers so much they have asked Flare to provide the sound for the entire festival this year, as well as for their new Love Supreme Jazz Festival," says the company.
The festivals' promoter Nick Beveridge commented: "Flare Audio will be providing both festivals with the best speakers I've ever heard in a field. With the introduction of Flare's new Space technology to complem
The essence of the new ArrayCalc V7 is its ability to perform acoustic simulations with mixed point source and line array system configurations; notably the White range installation products from the xS-
The B207MP3 features a built-in high-performance MP3 player for playing audio files from a USB stick, three-band EQ, and built-in four-channel mixer that accepts XLR, TRS and RCA inputs. Phantom power is provided for condenser microphones and one input allows connecting a Hi-Z instrument without the need for an external DI. There is also a dedicated stereo input for keyboards, MP3, CD or other sources.
The B207MP3 is compact and light enough to be mounted on a mic sta
Downsizing - Irish alternative rockers My Bloody Valentine and US singer-songwriter Rodriguez are to headline this year's scaled-down Hop Farm Festival in Kent. Promoter Vince Power said the festival, the sixth to be held since 2008, would be over two days, on
May and Ellis were playing in support of the Born Free Foundation, which works to prevent individual animal suffering, protect threatened species and keep wildlife in the wild.
Sound at the event came from an HK Audio Linear 5 Big Venue Pack, supplied by Hertfordshire-based entertainment and production firm Mr H Productions.
The Linear 5 Big Venue Pack contains four LSUB2000A active 2x12" subs, two L5115FA Mid/Hi active cabinets and four L5112XA multi functional active cabinets configured as stage monitors. The Front of House system delivers approximately 6.8kw, which was more than loud enough for May and Ellis' six song set.
The pair played classics like Born
The 8 input / 6 output units feature 10-bit Internal processing with built-in frame synchronisers and scalers on all inputs alongside full SDI support covering 3G, HD and S
"Meyer Sound's growth opportunities in the Middle East lie in our quality products as well as our ability to provide timely and knowledgeable technical support for customers in the territory," says Mauricio Saint Martin, director of Middle East sales. "Chris's in-depth engineering background and extensive experience with the regional integration market make him an ideal fit to represent Meyer Sound."
In his new post, Mead will assume the lead role in the region by supervising the design of Meyer Sound loudspeaker and digital audio systems, on-site project commissioning, a
In the design categories, the White Light Award for Best Lighting Design nominees are Paul Anderson for The Master And Margarita; Paule Constable for The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time; Lee Curran for Constellations and Mark Henderson for Sweeney Todd.
The B
