Sound

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02 August 2024

USA - Providing sound design services and equipment delivery since 2018, as overseen by Eighth Day Sound’s Sean Sturge, UniverSoul Circus is one of North America’s most-loved family friendly, non-stop action productions. This year, the show has 10 acts from multiple continents, reinforcing its position as a truly cultural live entertainment offering.

Production manager Kabelo Mashobane begins: “The idea here is to bring everyone from different cultures together. Soul doesn't have a colour. It doesn't matter where you are from, when it comes to seeking entertainment, we all speak the same language.”

To convey the messaging behind the circus’ new show, Kabelo explains why Eighth Day Sound is the right fit: “Our audio delivery is unique; we have a lot of dynamic sounds due to our different acts bringing their own regional take. From classica

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02 August 2024

USA - Valtteri Salomaki and Ethan Castro, founders of EDGE Sound Research are making waves in the pro AV and pro sports worlds with their audio technology called Embodied Sound.

Salomaki and Castro aim to bring sound not only to the ears of their listeners but to their entire bodies. They recently performed a high-profile audio installation at the VIP experience for a multipurpose Las Vegas arena and turned to LEA Professional, to deliver completely immersive sound to the guests.

“We take the audio from the game that gets picked up by the broadcast, and we provide it in our sections of a venue,” Salomaki said. “That way, a fan can hear and feel everything from the dribbles to the shots, the swooshes, everything that makes them feel like an actual player in the game versus a spectator. Our ultimate goal is to redefine how personalised and curate

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01 August 2024

France - Having featured Sarah Bernhardt on its stages for almost two decades, and staging the very first play by Sartre, Théâtre de la Ville has an impressive pedigree. Throughout its 150-year history, the venue has staged all manner of productions and today is known for its offering of modern dance, theatre and world music. 

Following a major seven-year refurbishment designed to equip the 19th century building with 21st century innovation, Théâtre de la Ville has again placed itself on the edge of technology, able to offer L-ISA immersive experiences to audiences via its BLive-installed sound system.

For almost a decade, Théâtre de la Ville had been in search of the perfect system to realise its immersive audio ambitions. As part of a wider refurbishment, the venue, in collaboration with L-Acoustics certified partner BLive – a long-time te

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01 August 2024

UK - The Let’s Go Round Again (One Last Time) tour was the final, farewell trip around the highways of Average White Band’s (AWB) UK roots. From Manchester to Scotland via the Royal Albert Hall, the tour was a celebration of the power of AWB.

Charlie Dale, at the front of house position, chose to tour with a DiGiCo SD10, thanks to the accessibility of the console’s surface and Mark Gazaille at the monitor position opted for the SD12. The tour covered the UK over April and May, with the band saying their final goodbyes in the USA from July.

Charlie Dale has been with the band since meeting them at his day job, mixing sound at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. The band had arrived without an engineer, so he jumped in, sparking a relationship that would stand the test of time and continue for over 15 years. The choice to tour a DiGiCo SD10 was

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01 August 2024

USA - Milkshake Concepts, the Dallas-based hospitality group, has unveiled Saaya, their latest dynamic dining and nightlife destination. Bespoke Technology Group was contracted to understand the goal for Saaya and come up with an optimal audio design and installation.

Bespoke Technology Group is a Dallas-based audiovisual integration company specializing in customised audio solutions for a variety of venues. Central to this design is the integration of high-performance 1 Sound loudspeakers.

Saaya needed an audio system that could provide both high quality background music and impactful sound for DJ sets and night-time events. "The trick was to have a system that could set the atmosphere and play elegant background music during the week but still crank up to DJ levels on the weekend," explained Phil Ayache, president of Bespoke Technology.

Bes

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31 July 2024

UK - Opened in May 2024, Woodland Village is a new accommodation site at Legoland Windsor Resort. Offering a family stay in a woodland retreat, Woodland Village also encompasses an entertainment and hospitality space, The Clubhouse Restaurant and Bar, which required the integration of an immersive, zoned audio system to enhance the guest experience.

David Shepherd of DS Audio led the sound design on the project, having worked with Legoland Windsor Resort on previous areas within the park. Shepherd collaborated closely with the internal technical team and integrators, JPSL, to design and install a full EM Acoustics system that would provide immersive background audio and sound reinforcement for onstage performances. 

“The Clubhouse required highly intelligible, zoned audio and an entertainment system to support a small stage area that sits alongsid

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31 July 2024

UK - This year, Stage Sound Services integrated Clear-Com advanced communication systems supplied by Amber Sound into two of the West End’s most high-profile shows. The technical capabilities of Clear-Com’s Arcadia system have been integral to the seamless execution of complex audio and communication requirements for Stranger Things at the Phoenix Theatre and MJ The Musical at the Prince Edward Theatre..

The critically acclaimed Stranger Things adaptation at the Phoenix Theatre has greatly benefited from Clear-Com’s communication solutions. Spearheaded by sound designer Paul Arditti, with associates Chris Reid and Rob Bettle, the production’s sound team deployed Arcadia.

Rob Bettle, leveraging his extensive experience with Clear-Com’s HelixNet Digital Network Partyline System and FreeSpeak II wireless systems, was

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31 July 2024

Saudi Arabia - On Saturday, 22 June, fans descended on the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh for the UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Aliskerov. While Clair Global has previously provided audio services for UFC globally, this was the first partnership for live audiences in the Middle East.

The occasion was led by Phil Campbell and mixed by FOH Engineer Andy Banks, who opted for a Yamaha Rivage PM7 from Clair's ever-growing Middle East inventory.

To fully service UFC's live audio requirements, Clair Global regional manager, Stu Wright, oversaw the deployment of an in-the-round Cohesion PA. The system, which has been chosen for music tours by major artists including Bad Bunny, Blackpink, The Weeknd, U2 and many more, also delivers quality audio clarity for high end live sports performances.

Clair Global UAE COO, Al Woods, says: "The event is televised for

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31 July 2024

Switzerland - Schwingen, known colloquially as trouser wrestling, is a martial art practised almost exclusively in Switzerland. An unofficial national sport, the annual NWS Championship is a celebration of this cultural tradition. Hosted in an open-air venue designed to accommodate thousands of enthusiasts, alongside plenty of wrestling, this year’s event also showcased an audio system installation from Wharfedale Pro.

In a collaboration between technical event specialists, Powerlight and Pixava, distributors Sacher Music and Wharfedale Pro's own application and solution manager, Alex Lane, the event was an action-packed day of Swiss traditions accompanied by clear, high-quality audio.

The venue, featuring four grandstands, can host up to 4,500 visitors with two grandstands seating approximately 1,050 visitors each, and the other two accommodating

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30 July 2024

UK - Rik Kirby has been appointed to the newly-created role of commercial manager for TiMax, and Out Board motor control brands, recently acquired by Focusrite Plc.

Originally from the UK where he worked in international sales management for BSS Audio and Turbosound, Kirby moved to the United States and Renkus-Heinz in California over 20 years ago, before starting his own pro-audio distribution company, Allied ProTech.

Returning to the UK, Kirby assumes the global development of sales and promotion channels for both TiMax Spatial and Out Board motor control, building upon the thriving business of both brands to further develop new opportunities for growth across all territories and sectors.

“I first encountered the TiMax products over 20 years ago at an AES event where we were respectively presenting,” explains Kirby. “I was really draw

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30 July 2024

UK - DiGiCo is known throughout the industry for its high levels of support and customer care. The ethos of understanding is not just reserved for customers, as James Thompson found out when he landed the role as mechanical designer at DiGiCo.

Thompson is autistic and for him that means being hyper focused and having acute attention to detail. Thompson had not often used DiGiCo consoles and, as a designer, on the job experience is essential. As a freelancer for T&B Events, Thompson has mixed on a variety of consoles, so when they suggested joining them over the summer and mixing on a DiGiCo Quantum 225, he jumped at the chance.

T&B Events are a production company on the UK’s South Coast specialising in live events and during the summer they are kept very busy with festivals. Owned by Ben Wood and Thomas Hands, the company has been facilitat

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30 July 2024

UK - SWG Events extended their long association with the Glastonbury Festival, again deploying Martin Audio systems in a number of feature areas.

According to head of audio, Simon Purse, they made significant changes to two stages: BBC Introducing and Woodsies, while also providing Martin Audio systems for The Park Stage and Leftfield.

BBC Introducing embraced Martin Audio for the first time, having traditionally had its sound delivered by another brand.

The move from its usual enclosed tent behind the Pyramid Stage to a more open, saddlespan structure required a fresh, upscaled approach to the PA, as it was able to attract a larger audience. “We were able to swap out the previous system for a ground-stacked [Martin Audio] WPS system - so it was quite a major upgrade. Having more PA meant we were able to deliver a superior sound,” stated

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29 July 2024

Indonesia - Meyer Sound has announced a new distributor in the growing Indonesian market. PT Promedia Sejahtera Raya, a newly formed entity, will exclusively represent Meyer Sound in Indonesia, bringing their professional audio and cinema products to the region.

This new entity is a collaboration between PT Promedia Innovative Solution, a prominent player in Indonesia’s pro audio market, and Sejahtera Raya Group (Cinema 21), Indonesia’s largest cinema chain with 1,300 cinemas nationwide.

“We are excited to announce this new distributor in Indonesia,” says John McMahon, Meyer Sound’s senior vice president. “After meeting with Yosua and his team at InfoComm, we knew this partnership would be instrumental in expanding the Meyer Sound brand in this dynamic market. The road ahead will have many opportunities for product launches, demos, traini

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29 July 2024

USA - Located in the heart of Ocean Drive in Miami’s South Beach, the Palace Bar, renowned for its status within the LGBTQ+ community, has been serving up dining experiences for more than three decades. The venue recently went through a complete overhaul of its sound system, including 14 Powersoft amplifiers.

Since its first opening in 1988, the Palace Bar has built a nationwide reputation thanks to its exuberant drag brunches and live entertainment, with more than 1,500 guests visiting each weekend. With music serving as the lifeblood of the venue, the owner of Palace Bar, Tom Donall, was keen to improve the previous audio equipment with a sound system that would be capable of conveying the energy of the Palace Bar shows.

“Being one of the most well-known gay restaurant bars in the world and putting on a famous drag show, the sound and the clari

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29 July 2024

USA - Free Chapel Church, a contemporary Christian congregation based in Gainesville, Georgia, is redefining the worship experience with innovative audio solutions from EAW.

The flagship main campus in Gainesville boasts a comprehensive EAW setup, including Anya ADAPTive line arrays and EAW SB828P dual drive subwoofers, meticulously engineered to cater to the venue’s unique architectural nuances. Glenn Setchfield, the global audio director at Free Chapel Church, emphasised the importance of EAW’s ADAPTive technology in tailoring sound dispersion to optimise acoustics.

According to Setchfield, “Our main campus presents challenges due to its fan-shaped layout. The decision to implement EAW’s Anya line arrays was driven by the need for superior coverage and clarity. EAW’s ADAPTive technology empowers us to precisely direct sound, expanding hor

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26 July 2024

USA - Sonic Sphere is an ever-evolving concert hall for the 21st Century. Conceived in the tradition of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kugelauditorium, a nearly spherical concert hall built for the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, Sonic Sphere is the Brainchild of Ed Cooke, a British cognitive science expert and entrepreneur, sound architect Merijn Royaards, and engineering director Nicholas Christie.

Since 2021, Cooke and his team have built Sonic Spheres in France, UK, Mexico, and the United States, including Burning Man. Each time, the hall has grown bigger; the sphere at The Shed in New York City is the eleventh and most advanced sphere, after iterations of increasing size and technical sophistication.

The result is the first Sonic Sphere to be suspended in air, costing more than $2m. The infrastructure includes 1,178 steel struts, 3,500 yard

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26 July 2024

UK - HearAngel (a LimitEar company) and Sonical have announced a software licensing agreement to integrate the HearAngel smart hearing safeguarding solution into Sonical’s CosmOS operating system for headphones. This collaboration allows manufacturers using the Sonical platform to offer hearing safeguarding either as a standard feature or user option.

Stephen Wheatley, CEO of HearAngel, stated, “CosmOS is enabling the next generation of headphone platform, allowing for personalised and updated devices through downloadable cloud apps. The functionality needed from your headphones can now be changed anytime based on preferences and usage.”

Gary Spittle, CEO of Sonical, added, “Hearing safeguarding is increasingly important, with extended listening at high volumes potentially causing permanent hearing damage. HearAngel provides easy-to-use infor

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26 July 2024

France - A ‘secret’ event on the roof of the Terminal One Building, Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on 17 July was planned as part of Olympic Celebrations and live streamed via Amazon Music’s Twitch channel to huge audiences. The entire proceedings, from set-up to pack-down, were also recorded for a feature film to be aired later in the year. Tristan Mazire captured the whole event live, whilst mixing for the live stream and the roof-top audience of 2,000.

The specially created audience areas were filled with a mixture of invited guests and lucky Parisians who had won the chance to be there on the night via an event ticket lottery. There were live performances from Phoenix, AIR and Zaho de Sagazan, plus DJ sets from Etienne de Crecy and Inès Mélia. The event highlighted the role of the airport as a gateway to the summer’s festivities.

Mazir

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26 July 2024

Germany - Bremen-based Folk band Versengold have recently enjoyed their biggest tour ever. With a string of sold-out performances ahead of them, they knew their current sound set up would need upgrading. A more transparent monitor mix solution was required to allow them to re-engage with their larger audiences, plus a mix that would offer space to hear the bigger crowds, but not allow them to over-power the acoustic instruments which are key to their six-piece ensemble.

KLANG was their solution and the man behind implementing it successfully was Tjado de Vries. Choosing KLANG:konductor meant the band could enjoy effectively spaced monitor mixes while still maintaining the clarity they need to communicate with each other as they perform.

Since 2018, Versengold have been on a steep trajectory, both in terms of venue size and recognition. Going from a s

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26 July 2024

UK - Plymouth Argyle FC recently hosted its first two-day concert weekend at its Home Park stadium. Run in conjunction with the local Depo nightclub, who also hosted the after parties, day one was EDM-oriented, and dubbed ALIVE at Argyle, followed by the more family-focused RELIVE at Argyle on the Sunday.

The two days were quite distinct in that while house music and drum and bass dominated the first day, with a Becky Hill DJ set, Bru-C, Ben Nicky and others, the following day saw heritage acts and radio DJ’s (including Gareth Gates, Five, Liberty X, Chris Moyles and Craig Charles).

Local production company, and Martin Audio partner, Nub Sound were brought in to provide technical infrastructure. Having worked with the promoters on various events at their nightclub, in addition to the PA, they also provided the stage structure and upstage video elem

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25 July 2024

UK - Following a near two-year break from touring, Elbow are taking their new album Audio Vertigo on the road with a Skan PA Hire audio package.

Operated by the band’s long-standing engineers, Danny Evans (FOH) and Julien Helme (monitors), the system features Avid VENUE S6L 24Cs at both ends, and a d&b audiotechnik GSL Series PA system design by Skan’s Scott Essen.

Tour and production manager, Tom Piper, comments: “We have a very long-standing relationship with Skan, who are the long term and very much preferred audio supplier for Elbow tours. They provide state-of-the-art systems and are super-efficient operationally, a pleasure to work with.”

Danny is both the band’s FOH and studio engineer. He comments: “There’s generally a lot more time pressure when working live. I don’t mix particularly loud, but I think tha

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25 July 2024

USA - At its Spring 2024 opening, Flyover in Chicago became the newest of Flyover Attractions’ immersive indoor flying rides, joining existing installations in Las Vegas; Vancouver, Canada; and Reykjavik, Iceland.

Located within Chicago’s landmark waterfront Navy Pier, the multi-sensory experience, which incorporates leading drone technologies along with impressive aerial shots and first-person narratives, showcases the city from perspectives never seen before. Flyover’s signature Chicago journey is shown on an impressive 65ft spherical screen with flight motion seats engineered to swoop, dip and turn, giving guests the feeling of flight. The attraction transports 61 guests at a time, with complete sensory immersion using wind, mist and scents, as fliers hang suspended.

The ride employs a massive number of audio sources, which are controlled an

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25 July 2024

France - SoundPLAN, developer of noise simulation software, is exhibiting and presenting its latest research and software developments for noise prediction and control, including for open-air events, at Inter-Noise 2024.

This year, the annual international congress on noise control engineering takes place in Nantes, France from 25-29 August  at La Cité Nantes Congress Centre. Visitors can find out more about SoundPLAN’s comprehensive noise prediction software, including forthcoming updates, and its consulting services and expert noise reports by meeting the team at stand 54.

SoundPLAN is currently developing the next edition of its software for indoor and outdoor noise analysis, SoundPLANnoise. Designed for creating high-quality noise surveys, from standard investigations to special tasks, SoundPLANnoise version 9.1. incorporates a range of new f

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25 July 2024

UK - Focusrite Group has announced that Phil Dudderidge OBE has been made an honorary doctor in a graduation ceremony at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU). A longstanding and valued supporter of BNU’s School of Creative and Digital Industries, Dudderidge accepted the accolade at Wycombe Swan theatre, before delivering a speech to the graduating class in attendance.

Dudderidge has enjoyed a distinguished career, having started out as Led Zeppelin’s touring sound engineer in 1970, before setting up RSD Systems in a partnership of three in 1971, building bespoke PA systems with custom-built mixing consoles. This evolved into Soundcraft Electronics which was sold to Harman International in 1988.

He acquired the assets of Focusrite in 1989 and rebuilt the business as Focusrite Audio Engineering. In 2014, Focusrite Plc was formed to take the group p