USA - Over the past five years, the Free Press Summer Festival (FPSF), staged at Eleanor Tinsley Park just west of downtown Houston, has quickly grown into one of Texas' most eagerly anticipated music festivals. This year notably marked the first time that the event completely sold out in advance, ultimately drawing nearly 100,000 concertgoers to enjoy 90 national and local artists performing on six stages over two days.

Houston's LD Systems once again served as the primary audio, video and lighting provider for FPSF 2013 and supplied production gear and services for the festival's four primary stages. This year, however, the company chose to deploy L-Acoustics K1 systems on the two largest stages, Mars and Saturn.

FPSF' Mars stage featured night-closing performances from EDM superstars Bassnectar and Calvin Harris preceded by a broad spectrum of musical artists like Of Monste

UK - Damon Crisp's DAC Pro-Media Ltd has proved that even in recessionary times expansion is possible when the portfolio of products - and the markets they are aimed at - are carefully considered.

Following a period of sustained growth in the Audio Visual, Installation, Education and Commercial sectors - as well as his traditional heartland of MI/DJ - Crisp has announced a relocation of his operation to a new 3600 sq. ft warehouse in Surrey, the recruitment of a further sales rep and addition of a key brand to his burgeoning portfolio.

Explaining the underlying reasons, he states, "Over the past two years DAC Pro-Media has seen growth running at over 50% and now has 'Sole UK Distributor' status with many high profile manufacturers." These brands include Mono DJ Bags, Odyssey Cases, Symphony Acoustics, Panoramic Lasers, Laser Science and Newhank AV products.

In addi

Japan - Turbosound has selected Sound House to handle distribution, customer support and service for its loudspeaker systems in Japan. The two companies already have a well-established relationship, with Sound House serving as a major distributor of parent Music Group's Behringer-branded MI products.

Sound House sales manager Kotaro Suzuki commented, "We are proud to become an official distributor for Turbosound in Japan. We will put all our effort into making Turbosound a well known name in music circles throughout Japan."

"We are delighted to be working with Japan's foremost distributor of music products," said Nigel Beaumont, head of Music Groups's Professional Division. "We are convinced that our live sound and installed sound products - including the new Milan series of portable powered loudspeakers - will fit perfectly within the Sound House port

Slovenia - The popular Ambasada Gavioli nightclub, situated in Izola, has taken possession of a Martin Audio dance system to celebrate its many years of operation, and lead it into the next generation.

The manufacturer's territorial distributors, KLS Studio, repurposed a powerful club rig from Llubljana-based venue, Inbox, after it went into demise and was taken back by the leasing company. Now the redesigned system has given the 2,500-capacity Ambasada Gavioli - which specialises in techno and house from its origins in electronica - a new lease of life.

KSL managing director, Bostjan Konic, confirmed that his company was asked to service, design and reinstall the system for owner Becic Edis - a devotee of Martin Audio's signature sound and the impact it produces at venues like the Ministry of Sound in London.

There are some notable similarities. For the Slovenian nightclub

Italy - Powersoft has announced that it has reached the milestone of 600 million Watts of audio power spread out around the world. "This impressive figure has been 15 years in the making, in which time Powersoft has strived to supply the pro audio industry with power amplifiers of the highest quality and efficiency," says the company.

"We recently had a count up and realised that we were getting close to the 600 million Watts mark," explains Luca Giorgi, Powersoft's Audio BU Director. "Nearly 600 million, but not quite. We were still missing about 3 million Watts and it became our goal to achieve this target before the end of August"

"To help reach this landmark figure, we needed to come up with an effective promotion," added Francesco Fanicchi, Powersoft's Marketing and Communication Manager "so we created the '600millionreason' ca

Bulgaria - Club Sound in the city of Shoumen is housed in an old cinema, where intensive construction work had been taking place for more than six months to convert it into a modern centre of club culture.

The architecture, comprising a small and a large hall, enables the successful staging of events of various scales, and the audio visual equipment is cutting edge.

But what owner Svilen Dimitrov wanted more than anything was luxurious sound. He embraced the idea of a system consisting entirely of products by Martin. "The choice of equipment was of paramount importance to the future of the club, which is why we invested in the best," he said. "Over the past ten years Martin Audio has had the greatest number of successful club installations, including Ministry of Sound."

Drawing on the Martin Audio heritage for accurate horn design and the legacy of the W8

Switzerland - The 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival (5-20 July) featured the usual diverse range of artists on the shores of Lake Geneva, ranging from Joe Cocker, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Prince, and Richie Hawtin, to George Benson, Brian May, Green Day, Leonard Cohen and Kraftwerk.

The jazz festival has been held in Montreux for 47 consecutive years, but the 2013 event celebrated another anniversary; it was the 20th consecutive year that Shure has been the Festival's Official Technical Partner for Microphones & Wireless Systems.

As in recent years, Shure EMEA supplied almost the complete range of current Shure microphones to Montreux's many venues, including the jazz clubs, bars, theatre stages, the so-called 'rock caves', and the floating stages on boats on the lake. Even the press office and internal broadcast crew used Shure products this year.

In total, over 1500 individu

USA - The Naval Academy Chapel is a historic focal point for the U.S. Naval Academy and the city of Annapolis, Maryland. Dedicated in 1908 and remodelled in 1940, the Chapel underwent an extensive restoration in 2009. Its classic cruciform design centres on a 121-foot-high dome, seats 2500 worshipers and includes a 268-rank pipe organ.

The Chapel's large volume, hard surfaces and large, high dome present substantial acoustical issues. As a result, the Chapel has always suffered from poor speech intelligibility and uneven coverage. In an attempt to deal with these issues, the Chapel tried several different sound systems including a distributed system and a pew-back system. Finally, in 2010, while operating with an unsatisfactory mix of these different systems, the Chapel published an RFP asking for proposals for an entirely new sound reinforcement system.

After an extended, for

Canada - When Grand Théâtre de Québec decided to update their sound system, Robert Charbonneau, head of sound assisted by Robert Caux, helped conduct over two years of testing on various loudspeaker, to ensure the new system would cover the theatre's diverse needs.

"We had very strict parameters, and wanted to make sure we saw all of our options. Different systems would come in for gain tests, vocal tests and instrumental tests; we would record the results. Then we'd move all around, so we compared the quality of the systems from every seat in the house. Being so thorough helped in the end, because now there is no doubt that the d&b audiotechnik J-Series was the right choice for our space."

Once d&b was selected, regional manager Francois Corbin worked closely with the theatre to provide custom coverage and system design. "After two years of resea

Australia - As one of the largest auditorium venues in Australia, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a bustling live music hub in Melbourne's Arts Precinct, Southbank. Since opening its doors in 2009, the MRC has been operating with DiGiCo consoles, beginning with the DiGiCo D5, then adding an SD8 and most recently, an SD11.

The MRC comprises two auditoriums: the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall (which seats 1000) and The Salon (seating 132). The Elisabeth Murdoch Hall features a 135m2 stage as well as an optional 51m2 extension when required. This has made it suitable for chamber music and orchestras alike and this is where the D1 and SD8 are most utilised. The Salon is a completely configurable space that can be tailored as required and both auditoriums feature highly engineered acoustic treatment, both internally and externally.

The MRC, located on the very busy Southbank strip, i

USA - Electric Forest is a music festival held in Rothbury, Michigan that features an electro-themed set of concerts that take place on six stages over the course of four days.

Burst Sound & Lighting Systems, based in Detroit, was tapped to provide sound reinforcement systems for the main Tripolee stage as well as The Observatory, one of the smaller stages at the festival.

"We rolled out a complete E15 line array rig for the Tripolee stage," explains Scott Ciungan, operations manager for Burst. "The system was so clean, it's like listening to a pair of studio monitors at 130 dB - absolutely pristine."

The line arrays consisted of 24 E15 boxes - 12 per side - with 24 T21 subwoofers stacked two high and 12 wide in front of the stage.

"The arrays were hung behind scrim on scat bays constructed to the left and right of the stage," Ciungan adds. &q

UK - Howard Smart has joined Turbosound as senior technical support specialist. Having started his pro audio career with Sussex-based Blue Box Company and worked with many of the UK's top production companies, Smart has a wealth of experience of both national and international concert touring spanning more than 20 years. Learning much of his audio engineering skills at the sharp end of the electronic dance music boom of the 90s, he quickly progressed to become a freelance engineer for Capital Sound, SSE, Entec, RG Jones and Audile.

, Smart was instrumental in taking Leftfield's seminal dance music studio albums on the road in 1996 and again in 2000, and has mixed monitors for Ian Brown, Moloko, Tata Young, Ed Harcourt, Massive Attack, Apollo 440 and Badly Drawn Boy.

Latterly, Smart was project manager and systems engineer for new rental company and early adopter of Turbosound'

Philippines - Cadac has announced the appointment of Stagecraft International Trading Group in Manila as its regional distributor for the Philippines. The UK mixing console manufacturer is also making its debut appearance at the PALMM Philippines exhibition with its new distributor this month.

In addition to exhibiting its complete new console range on the Stagecraft International stand, Cadac's International sales manager, Ben Milson will be making daily mainstage presentations on the CDC four, CDC eight and LIVE1 consoles in the main exhibition hall.

Ahead of the PALMM exhibition, Ben Milson will also be hosting CDC four and CDC eight training days with Stagecraft International, on the 12 and 13 August. The first day will be at the Stagecraft International's HQ; 312 AB Sandoval Bldg., Cor. Oranbo Drive, Shaw Blvd. Pasig City Philippines, Zip 1603. The second, with Stagecraft

UK - Stage Electrics has recently completed an important sale from leading British audio manufacturer EM Acoustics to ACC Liverpool.

Located in Liverpool city centre, ACC Liverpool is an award-winning building. Within it is the BT Convention Centre, which houses a 1,350 seat auditorium, 18 break-out rooms and 3,725 m2 of exhibition space, and the 11,000-capacity Echo Arena. Both are interlinked by a central galleria.

When ACC Liverpool decided it was time to update its existing audio system within the BT convention Centre, their technical staff turned to Stage Electrics.

Nicky Norman, senior production and technical manager at ACC Liverpool worked closely with Stage Electrics' business development manager Rob Beamer to find the ideal solution.

"Since becoming a dealer for EM Acoustics we have been holding demo days around the country and inviting our customers to come

Europe - Frank Ocean, has just completed a tour of Europe with an Allen & Heath iLive digital system at FOH. Requested by engineer, Dave McDonald, who has toured using iLive with Adele, AIR, and Florence & the Machine, the iLive system comprises an iLive-112 Control Surface with 8 in, 24 out, RAB2 ACE, connected to a modular iDR10 MixRack with 56 in, 24 out, RAB2 ACE and Dante. There was an analogue split between the iLive and monitor console.

"I've been with Frank for 14 months now, starting off with club shows where there was a different console and different PA every night. For the tour, I'm travelling with an iLive-112 and iDR10 - my favourite mixer, which is flexible for what we're doing. We are using 64 channels, as on stage there is everything from modular synths to old EV1 bass guitars to concert drums, so it's quite a challenge," says McDonald. "Combined

UK - The first deployment of JBL's new all-weather AWC stadium speakers has taken place at one of the oldest professional football clubs in the UK.

The 125-year-old Preston North End (PNE) has relied on the services of public address specialists TG Baker to keep its audio fit for purpose for nearly two decades.

When it came to upgrading the 8,100 capacity Sir Tom Finney stand - built in 1995 at a cost of £4.4m - they saw the opportunity to debut the new AWC129.

Project manager Jason Longworth recalled, "We were sent a couple of speakers for evaluation by [Harman Professional UK & Eire distributors] Sound Technology and we put them through their paces and really liked them." The AWC129 itself is a compact, coaxial-driver, 2-way, highly weather-resistant (IP56) full-range loudspeaker which is designed for speech and music.

Faced with installing these as part

India - TC Group has implemented a definitive plan for sustained growth in the Indian market with the opening of a new office in Noida, India, and a significant appointment to its technical sales team.

Binny Sharma has been appointed as the company's technical sales and support manager for India. Based at the new India office in Noida, Binny will be responsible for providing application and technical support to Tannoy, Lab.gruppen and Lake customers throughout the country.

Binny comes to TC Group with several years of experience in the pro audio industry, including six years in the field of AV systems integration. He has been part of the design and technical support departments in Bose and Bosch.

In his new post, Binny will assume the lead role in the region by providing design and project commissioning support for system integrators, as well organising technical seminars an

UK - ASVL Group has introduced the new QTX SG300 and SG350 Shotgun microphones which offer focused, long range sound pickup.

Powered from a single AA battery inside the microphone body with a 3-way switch for off, cardioids and hypercardioid polar response patterns. Each has a balanced output and is supplied with a 4m XLR lead.

Also supplied is a short XLR to 3.5mm jack lead, hot-shoe mount and foam windshield for location camera work. They are available in shotgun and long shotgun versions to cover a range of broadcast, stage and surveillance applications.

(Jim Evans)

Hungary - The Agora community and arts centre (Hungarian: A Vértes Agorája) in Tatabánya, Hungary, has been equipped with two Meyer Sound systems, supplied by Budapest-based Chromasound.

In the Agora theatre, Chromasound installed a permanent CQ-1 loudspeaker system to support small ensemble musical and theatrical performances. A separate mobile system, based on the Meyer Sound JM-1P arrayable loudspeaker, complements the CQ-1 system during rock concerts, and is also used for outdoor events. The upgrade at the Agora was part of a wider government initiative to upgrade Hungary's cultural facilities.

"The mobile system is capable of delivering a very high SPL, and the integration between the mobile and installed systems is easy to achieve," says Makkay Imre, director of Chromasound. "The outstanding quality of the Meyer Sound loudspeakers proved itself fr

USA - Audio-Technica reports that Nyack, New York-based On the Road Marketing has been presented with A-T's President's Award, for their work representing Audio-Technica U.S. On the Road Marketing's Principal Doug Brown accepted the award, which recognises a leading manufacturer's representative for outstanding commitment and dedication during the Audio-Technica 2012/2013 fiscal year.

The award was presented by Philip Cajka, Audio-Technica U.S. president and CEO and Michael Edwards, A-T V.P. Professional Products. Also representing On the Road Marketing were Justin Walker, Chris Grajewski, Jon Stafford and Jason Longobardo. On the Road's Frank Portalatin was absent. The A-T President's Award was presented at a ceremony during the 2013 InfoComm Expo on 12 June in Orlando, Florida.

Phil Cajka commented, "On the Road Marketing has been awarded this honour for their continued

UK - Due to continued growth, Rubber Box moved premises this year into a larger building, putting everything under one roof. It has allowed the company to expand its already extensive range of standard boxes and look at developing more new products.

New to Rubber Box this year is a range of audio breakout boxes. Says the company, "We looked at the market and found there is a need for a range of audio boxes. We then had discussions with audio and sound engineers and took on board their comments and suggestions to come up with boxes specifically designed for the audio market: We currently have five new standard boxes that have been added to our 'On the Shelf' range."

Rubber Box has been designing and building custom boxes for customers for over 20 years and will continue to offer the same bespoke service in the audio box range.

The audio box range will use the same t

UK - PLASA London 2013 has confirmed that Robe Lighting, Martin Professional Lighting, Clay Paky and Roland will sponsor this year's show. Over 12,000 people have already registered to attend PLASA London 2013, which takes place at the ExCeL Centre, London from 6-9 October 2013.

For the second year, the Platinum Sponsor is Robe Lighting, the Czech manufacturer of innovative, high quality moving lights and digital lighting products for the professional entertainment & leisure, architectural and themed environment industries. Josef Valchar, general manager, Robe Lighting said, "Our company philosophy is centred around working as closely as possible with our business partners and end users, listening to their needs, thoughts and wishes in order to understand their markets. PLASA London is an essential event for us as it provides the ideal opportunity to meet many of them in pe

Germany - The House of Delegates - or 'Stadthaus' - in Cottbus, Germany, is a historical building that is an important part of the local community, with its Grand Hall used for many purposes including meetings, events and theatre shows.

Since the Grand Hall is such an important space, it was decided that a new sound system would provide the degree of flexibility required. However, initial plans included a system made up of almost 20 loudspeakers - something that would have seriously affected the aesthetics of this historical venue.

Diego Noack, procurement manager of audio specialists G. Fleischhauer ing. Büro Cottbus GmbH, suggested Tannoy's award-winning digital beam steering loudspeaker array, QFlex. He had been aware of the architecturally sensitive profile and its ability to distribute smooth, even coverage in acoustically challenging spaces, and after some careful model

UK - The Wireless Festival, now in its ninth consecutive year with headliners Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, will.i.am, Snoop Dog, A Tribe Called Quest, and Rita Ora drew record crowds to London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. A Turbosound Flashline PA was deployed by Britannia Row Productions for the Pepsi Max Stage, which also saw appearances by Calvin Harris and Tinie Tempah.

Britannia Row Productions' Johnny Keirle was systems tech for the event and, despite arriving in the UK from New Zealand recently, has seen plenty of Flashline action. "I'm pretty familiar with Turbosound as I worked a lot with Oceania back in New Zealand, they have a large Flashlight and Floodlight rig that's one of the best sounding systems around. The very first time I heard Flashline, I loved it. Since then, the more I work with Flashline the more I like it," he says.

"Mechanically, the r

Latest Issue. . .

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