Belgium - As well as live music, theatre, sport and broadcast, Yamaha's CL series digital consoles are increasingly being specified by colleges teaching state-of-the-art sound mixing and networking. One example is Belgium's Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD), where a CL5 is a vital part of its live production courses.

IAD is located in the planned town of Louvain-la-Neuve which, since 1969, has risen from farmland to having a permanent population of over 30,000, plus many more students during term time. Originally developed to house the Université Catholique de Louvain - with which IAD has a close relationship - the city is now host to a number of education facilities, as well as a science park, exhibition centre, live venue, museums and other amenities.

With its focus on theatre, live music, cinema, television, radio and multimedia, IAD has to ensure its students are

Iceland - LazyTown Entertainment in Iceland is using DPA miniature microphones to capture the audio for the multi-award winning LazyTown pre-school television show, which is now shooting its fourth series in Iceland.

LazyTown is a leading and highly respected children's entertainment brand comprising an award-winning TV series, live stage shows, sports events, publishing, and more. The LazyTown concept is entertainment for children and the whole family, dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle in a fun and engaging way. The TV show has become an international success since it was first launched in 2004 and has been broadcast in over 170 countries, reaching over 500 million homes and dubbed in over 30 languages.

LazyTown's sound supervisor, Gunnar Arnason, who also owns a recording and post production company called Upptekid, is responsible for selecting all of the audio equi

Malaysia - Music Group Professional has announced a strategic expansion of their team for Asia Pacific. Graham Rowlands joins the company as senior manager overseeing business development across APAC effective 10 June, 2013. The appointment puts Rowlands in charge of intensifying the brands' growth across Asia including the dynamic economies of China and India.

Having most recently served as regional sales director Asia at Harman Professional, Rowlands is well acquainted with Asian markets. From his base in Kuala Lumpur he has been responsible for solid sales growth across 12 Asian countries with over 16 years of experience in managing pro audio distribution in the region. He has also operated successfully at the distributor level having notably placed several MIDAS consoles in the Sydney Opera House during his tenure with Australia's National Audio Systems (NAS).

"Adding

UK - Princes William and Harry recently conducted a rare Royal engagement together as they opened the latest Help for Heroes recovery centre at Tedworth House in Wiltshire. CPS Group chose a Yamaha CL5 system to provide audio feeds for the guests and a large media presence.

Tedworth House is one of four recovery centres run by the Help for Heroes charity, providing both residential and day care to servicemen who have had life-changing injuries or illnesses, acting as a 'launch pad' back to life.

"For an event like this we would normally be asked for a straightforward lectern microphone and small PA system," says CPS Group hire manager Mike Naish. "As servicemen and long-term supporters of the charity, the princes were invited to officially open the new facility and, of course, it created a lot of media interest. So as well as having to provide high quality audio

USA - Audio-Technica is debuting its AT-DMM828 Digital Matrix Mixer, the latest addition to the company's SmartMixer family of automatic mixers. The AT-DMM828 is a microprocessor-controlled, programmable, automatic-switching eight-channel matrix mixer. Designed for a variety of applications, including installed sound/sound reinforcement, houses of worship, broadcast, recording and more, the AT-DMM828 is designed to improve audio quality through a number of sophisticated methods.

One way it achieves this is by keeping the number of open microphones to a minimum, thus reducing background noise, feedback and other distractions, and increasing clarity and audio quality, while providing instant, completely transparent switching between channels. Additionally, the mixer features "correlation," which analyzes and interprets redundancy of source material between channels in re

Brazil - An Allen & Heath GLD mixer has been installed in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium in Brazil. One of the most renowned stadiums in South America, the venue has been closed for a three-year major renovation, and now includes a GLD-80 mixer at the heart of an EV sound system distributed via a Dante network.

"The main reason we chose GLD was because of Allen & Heath's fantastic sound quality, reliability and ease of use," explains Augusto Bergamim, sound manager and system programmer at the Maracana.

The stadium reopened with a friendly match featuring Ronaldo and Bebeto, and has since hosted a friendly match between the national sides of Brazil and England. The Maracana will host world class events such as the final games of the Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Cup in 2014.

(Jim Evans)

USA - One of this season's hottest tickets on Broadway is the runaway hit Motown: The Musical, which features a story line that weaves together more than 60 hit songs by the artists that transformed Detroit into a hit-making capital. To accurately transmit music originally created by legends like Diana Ross, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, and others, sound designer Peter Hylenski specified a reinforcement system of Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.

The sound of Motown has received rave reviews from critics. Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune describes the show's run at the 1,505-capacity Lunt-Fontanne Theatre as featuring "a top-tier sound system that far exceeds what you usually get on Broadway."

After applauding "spot on" performances by singers and musicians, Elisabeth Vincentelli of the New York Post says, "All are b

France - The Odeon Theatre in Tremblay-en-France situated north-east of Paris, has recently replaced its aging digital desk in favour of an Eclipse GT digital console from Innovason. It is also one of the first sales/installations to have been handled by Sennheiser France since they took over distribution of the Innovason brand at the end of 2012.

The Odeon theatre in Tremblay is part of a municipal cultural centre that also houses an academy of arts offering courses in music and dance. There are two performance venues within the Odeon; the main theatre which offers a wide variety of musical production, from classical concerts to jazz, blues, contemporary music and 'la chanson francaise', while the smaller stage is dedicated to auditions for the arts academy.

Head of sound at the Odeon, Sylvian Fievet, had already decided that the new console would be an Eclipse, having partic

UK - Electra Partners has announced the acquisition of mixing console manufacturer, Allen & Heath, from D&M Holdings. £43m of equity and debt has been provided by Electra Private Equity PLC and Allen & Heath's management.

Founded in 1969, Allen & Heath designs and manufactures audio mixing consoles for live sound, such as concerts, theatres and houses of worship. With an experienced management team and an extensive global distribution network, the company holds a leading market position and has consistently achieved strong revenue growth for over twenty years. Allen & Heath's existing team and distribution networks will remain in place.

Commenting on this acquisition, Alex Fortescue, chief investment partner at Electra Partners said, "The ability to invest across the capital structure, in this case funding both the equity and debt instruments, is a great example of

UK - CUK Audio is pleased to announce the appointment of Carl Tomkins to the position of Sales Manager, with special responsibility for AV Integrator sales and support.

Tomkins former career has included sales roles with Reflex, Pro AV (formally Asysco) and AMX. He joins CUK Audio from Audio Logic where he held the position of business development/ account manager.

"With a world-class range of pro-audio brands, we need to ensure a high calibre of specialist staff to support each vertical market", said CUK Audio's MD, Stuart Thomson. "Carl brings with him valuable experience in several sectors, particularly AV integration. He also has the enthusiasm and consistent attitude to customer support that is fundamental to CUK Audio. I'm sure he'll fit in well and do a great job for our company and customers."

Tomkins comments: "I have followed the rise of CU

China - Behringer product and applications experts descended on the PALM Show in Beijing recently to host training seminars on the company's Eurocom installed sound products as well as the growing family of X32 Digital Mixers. Staged at the new Beijing Exhibition Centre and attended by dealers and integrators from across China, the event included seminar presentations as well as critical listening tests of the entire Eurocom speaker range.

"The Chinese market is home to over 3,000 Music Group employees so we have a real affinity for this country's people and culture," noted senior vice president of marketing Costa Lakoumentas. "This opportunity to showcase some of our most recent developments, especially the cutting edge design and class-leading efficiency of our EUROCOM range, underscores our commitment to the dealers and integrators in this market."

Train

USA - For more than 170 years, North Carolina's State Capitol building has served proudly as a centrepiece of the city of Raleigh, and a focal point of state government. This classic architectural masterpiece, its majestic columns evoking ancient Greek temples like the Parthenon, has been a gathering place for generations of events, both large and small.

With this grand building as a backdrop, Pat McCrory was recently sworn in as the 74th Governor of North Carolina. Despite the familiar setting, McCrory's inauguration was the first to take place on the Capitol's South Lawn, with the stage looking out down Fayetteville Street, a vibrant thoroughfare that serves as Raleigh's ceremonial centre.

With highly reflective marble buildings lining both sides of the street, the setting presented some daunting obstacles to speech intelligibility. "We were really concerned about the l

UK - Mixing the Pet Shop Boys' current Electric world tour, the band's long term sound engineers, Holger Schwark (front-of-house), and Seamus Fenton (monitors) have been relying on an Optocore 'multicore' system to transfer signals, and keep the sound within the digital domain.

Holger has been carrying two Optocore DD4ME MADI converters in his compact FOH side rack for some time, with a third DD4ME at the monitor desk. Providing production on this tour is Capital Sound Hire - who themselves invested in an Optocore system for last year's Take That stadium shows.

Both Holger and Seamus have chosen the compact DiGiCo SD10-24 consoles, along with a DiGiCo SD-Rack at the monitor desk. While these consoles come equipped with an optical loop interface, they decided instead to run Optocore as an entirely independent network, giving them greater flexibility to patch signals between the

London Calling - Punk pioneers The Clash are to be given an honorary award recognising their contribution to the music industry at the Silver Clef Awards next week. Mick Jones, the guitarist and co-frontman of the group which split up almost 30 years ago, said it was a "real honour" to receive the award..

David Munns, chairman of music charity Nordoff Robbins, which organises the awards, said, "The Clash's music has just as much influence today as it did when they first came onto the music scene in 1976." Other award winners to be honoured at the event in London on 28 June include Coldplay, Labrinth, Alison Moyet and Barry Gibb. The winner of the best live act prize will be announced on the day. The Kinks' Ray Davies will get an ambassador of rock award. New York band Vampire Weekend will also receive the international award.

Glastonbury Live - The B

Australia - Wildfire, one of the leading waterfront restaurants in Sydney, has gained an enviable reputation over the years for fine dining, fine wine, all with a stunning view. Recently, owner Ton?i Farac decided it was time to give their fine establishment an audio makeover calling in the experts at Compact Monitor Systems.

"The client also wanted to expand the audio to several zones and include areas that haven't previously been covered whilst redoing those that had with a more complete sound system," explained Bill Richardson, managing director of Compact Monitor Systems.

Compact Monitor Systems completely dismantled the existing audio system and replaced all of the processing with BSS BLU, all amplifiers to Crown Audio and added a wide range of JBL speakers. The venue already had a dozen JBL Control 25AV speakers which were redistributed into areas that were not

UK - On 15 June, the ladies of Delta Sound and Sound By Design pulled on their hiking boots and windbreakers to make the 245 mile trip to climb the highest peak in England and Wales, Mount Snowdon. Leaving behind the warmth and safety of their office in Surrey were Emma, Emily, Ruth and Sarah who braved fierce winds, lashing rain and freezing temperatures as they trekked to the 3,560ft summit to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

The idea for the expedition began back in January when Sarah chirped up with an idea of mountainous proportions. "I want to climb a mountain, who's with me?" she said. Just half an hour later the team was assembled, a plan formed and the all-important team name chosen. The MountainEARS, were going to climb Snowdon in the middle of June in the beautiful Summer sunshine. It was foolproof....

Fast forward to 4am on 15 June as the pierci

UK - The University of Southampton Students' Union building, more familiarly known as SUSU, is a busy place offering a broad and varied range of facilities to the students. The Bridge venue offers a relaxed bistro dining experience during the day and in the evenings is host to a varied line up of events and performances. Consequently when Ed Blackwell, assistant technical co-ordinator at SUSU, needed to install a new loudspeaker system into The Bridge venue, his shopping list needed to tick a lot of boxes simultaneously.

The choice of a d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system from the xS-Series was made after extensive research despite SUSU already being a d&b customer through Entec Sound and Light, as Blackwell explains, "When The Bridge was refurbished, the aim of the project was to create a space that appealed to a wider demographic of students, provide a small gig space for

Lithuania - The new Kaunas Žalgiris Arena in Lithuania, originally opened in August 2011 to host the European Basketball Championships, today enjoys a multipurpose role and has the ability to accommodate up to 17,500 people when used in concert mode.

Owned by the Kaunas City government, the €50m Žalgiris Arena spans 39,684sq.m and is the largest in the Baltic states. This required a top quality PA that would deliver excellent sound coverage to every seat in the house. Management company Kauras Arena found this with a Martin Audio H3+ horn-loaded solution, proposed by Martin Audio's Lithuanian distributors, Audiotonas, which not only met the overall specification but introduced other advantages, when used for basketball or ice hockey matches.

Audiotonas co-owner, Algirdas Sidiskis, explains. "During basketball play, in particular, we typically have audience noise crossi

Qatar - To take account of growing interest in the sport, a new stadium, the Qatar Cricket Stadium, was built recently in the municipality of Al Rayyan in Doha. The stadium is part of an entertainment complex that includes restaurants and a cinema. With a capacity of 13,000 spectators, the Qatar Cricket Stadium satisfies the highest international standards.

That is true not only of the sporting facilities but also of the stadium's sound system. For the installation, the stadium operators commissioned the Doha-based specialist Helmet Trading and Contracting. After conducting a variety of tests and head-to-head comparisons, the company opted - with the full agreement of the stadium management - for a sound reinforcement solution from Electro-Voice.

There were several reasons for this decision, as Mahmoud Fahmawi, Helmet's project manager, explained, "First of all, the quali

Japan - Adding to its already substantial rental inventory, Japan's Hibino Corporation has recently purchased a number of DiGiCo digital mixing consoles, which include four of the UK manufacturer's flagship SD7 consoles and two SD10s.

These additions bring Hibino's total to six SD7s, four SD10s and ten SD8s, allowing the company to continue to support the Japanese touring markets increasing requirement for top quality audio equipment.

"Of course the most important reason for investing in DiGiCo consoles is because of their high quality and usability," says Hibino's managing director, Mr Ryoichi Hashimoto. "A significant amount of DiGiCo consoles are being used all over the world and have achieved the trust of many engineers. Their high reliability is another big reason why we keep choosing DiGiCo consoles, along with the fact that we have trust in DiGiCo and hav

The Netherlands - When De Levende Steen (The Living Stone) Pentecostal ministry outgrew its existing building in the Dutch town of Hoogvliet, the church built a brand new facility in nearby Spijkenisse. Opened in the spring, the €10m state-of-the-art house of worship features Yamaha a digital audio system.

The new building covers an area of 12,000m². Its main space - dubbed The Dome - seats 2000, with a second room holding 450. Central to the design is a high quality audio network - needed to provide sound reinforcement for services and other events, as well as to allow De Levende Steen to broadcast its Saturday morning service on Dutch national television channel SBS6 and to record services for future use.

"People come from all over the Netherlands and from Belgium," says the church's technical manager Rens van Reenen. "The old building was too small to accom

UK - Rycote, the UK-based manufacturer of advanced microphone windshields and suspension systems, has announced the departure of Stefano Pucello, the company's sales & marketing director.

Pucello, who joined Rycote in January 2010, is leaving at the end of June. During his time at Rycote, first as sales & marketing manager and then as S&M Director since 2011, the company has diversified successfully from its original broadcast supply base into the pro audio and DSLR accessories markets, which has involved a great deal of travel to set up and service new sales outlets internationally. Pucello initially plans a well-earned rest before deciding on his next career move.

"It's always important to leave a company on a high note, having achieved what you came on board to accomplish, and Rycote has expanded enormously into new markets during the time I've been here," he comm

UK - Atlantis Nightclub, situated at the end of Eastbourne Pier, has recently undergone a full re-fit complete with brand new audio and lighting systems.

Christos Stylianou, general manager of Eastbourne Pier and Atlantis Nightclub commented: "I wanted to use 3D LED tubes to maximise the impact of the arched ceiling. In addition to this we required moving heads, architectural highlighting and a complete sound system. All of this was needed on a budget."

Christos approached Ian Goacher from Accord Audio, based in East Sussex, to specify and install the equipment. Ian has a very long working relationship with the venue and understands their requirements perfectly. He sourced the majority of the equipment from MilTec (UK) Ltd, based near Maidstone in Kent.

The Miltec lighting equipment comprised of 172x 3D-PixelTubes and 4x EPW2 LED moving heads. For the architectural

UK - When Pacha London recently won the 'Best Dance Club' category at the London Club & Bar Awards 2013 it became the latest leading night club with a Martin Audio sound system to win an award.

The Awards, which have been run each year since 1994, were presented at a gala event, held at the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel. And following the Ministry of Sound's recent success in the premier international IDMA's in Miami, Pacha was rewarded for their recent £500,000 refit which has seen them extend to a third, soundproofed Glass Room on the first floor as part of a complete club redesign earlier this year.

During the refurb, the Martin Audio WT3/WS218X system, installed back in 2008 by Bernard Mani's Systems Etc was reconfigured and enhanced by Viba Sound, with their project manager Hugh Sadleir adding a pair of WSX subs to complement the flown Martin Audio Blackli

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