Midas’ new Pro2C live console made its debut at the Lake of Stars Festival on the shores of Lake Malawi.

Given temperatures of up to 42°C, an abundance of sand and grit plus a fuel shortage (which meant power was only available 30 minutes before the festival opened) it made easy work of FOH duties in the hands of engineer Craig Williams.

‘It was very easy to get to grips with; after just 30 minutes I could start the show confidently,’ he says. ‘I’m more accustomed to the Midas Heritage series and the classic XL3, which I will always love, but the tiny footprint and low weight for a festival like this is perfect.

'Not needing a rack of outboard saves a huge amount in shipping costs to somewhere like Africa, and even more in sweat when you have to handball the kit across a beach in the sun.’

Williams was using the Pro2C for artists including Beverley Knight, Foals, Africa’s Freshlyground, Malawian music from Black Missionaries and Lucius Banda and a host of international acts. The new Midas MCA groups made a big impression on him: ‘The MCA groups are fantastic and make mix navigation much easier on such a small footprint console, especially with the ‘hide unassigned channels’ in flip mode engaged,’ he says. ‘My favourite feature of the desk is probably the daylight visible screen; even in the midday African sunshine I could clearly see the screen, something that not a single other digital desk can boast. The channel control panel is great and easy to use without having to hit button after button to get where you want, and the gain/trim feature is really good, giving the chance for example to drive a guitar, bass or kick drum the way I like to with an XL3 or H3000 then allowing some attenuation without digital clipping.

‘I had multiple camera feeds and audio recordings to deal with, so the matrix system was used a lot, it was quite simple to route and patch when the recipients turned up two minutes before they needed the feed that they had forgotten to ask for.’

Despite this being the first sighting of a Pro2C at a live event, visiting engineers took to it with ease: ‘The engineers for Foals and Freshlyground both used the desk and both loved it, Keith from Freshlyground being a Pro6 user,’ says Williams. ‘In fact, one of the band’s engineers liked it so much he’s interested in purchasing one for touring. The colour coding system for selected channels in the VCA groups is also invaluable in a festival situation on a small desk, and my Malawian ‘students’ were particularly fond of red, gold and green…

‘What I really like most about it is the way it sounds; it doesn’t sound cheap and grainy like many other digital desks, and the depth of field is beautiful,’ he adds. ‘This console wipes the floor with its competitors. It’s easier to use on the fly, sounds better, seems more stable and is generally more pleasant and straightforward to use, plus of course it’s a Midas and is laid out in the same familiar style as their classic analogue consoles.’

‘The festival was borne from a desire to raise money for a developing economy, promote Malawi as a top travel destination and expose Malawian artists to international crowds, as well as putting on an amazing event that now forms part of the global festival circuit,’ says Lake of Stars founder, Will Jameson.

Midas was one of the festival’s many technical partners to provide free audio visual equipment, helping raise a profit for the local economy. Last year the festival generated $1,000,000 of local spend, employing more than 100 Malawian people and providing a major boost to local families and businesses. The festival, which attracted 3,500 people this year from across the globe, also ran an outreach programme with ballgames, acoustic performances and an HIV screening clinic.

‘We are so happy to welcome Midas to our family of technical partners,’ continues Jameson. ‘We have always used Venice desks but to have use of the Pro2C is incredible. All the bands loved it and it coped well with the heat and sand of Malawi – it is also a good size and weight when it comes to being air freighted all the way from the UK. The high production standards set Lake of Stars apart from other events in the region, and having the world’s leading console manufacturer involved in the project is a massive boost for us and for Malawi’s music industry.’

More: www.midasconsoles.com

Local events staged in Holland and Spain gave current and prospective dBTechnologies customers their first opportunity to get up close to dBTechnologies’ latest and largest line array module, DVA T12 in a stadium set-up.

‘What better way to find out about the T12 than to actually hear it in a live situation?’ says dBTechnologies MD, Michael Herweg. ‘In my experience this is the only way to fully appreciate what the product has to offer.’

Holland’s Kerkrade football stadium was the backdrop for the Dutch event, where visitors were able to hear different configurations for a DVA system. Twenty-four T12 units were flown (12 per side) and after hearing these, tracks were played through the 36 T4 units (18 per side). Subwoofers were then added to create a full system for each DVA model: four stacks each of three S30s augmented the T12s and the 12 S10 flown centre stage, augmented the T4 system.

‘In order to demonstrate that T12 can be counted among “industry standard” line arrays, we decided to set up a well-known French competitor’s system on the day,’ explains Herweg. ‘It’s not a case of being better, we just want to prove T12 can hold its own when compared to a similar sized system.’

The two line arrays were flown alongside each other and a light was illuminated to show which system was being used at the time. Various tracks were played through each, swapping between the two systems for direct comparison. ‘dBTechnologies was really impressive,’ says Herweg. ‘The T4 at low SPL was very convincing, even next to the T12. The T12 certainly kept pace with the competition; the sound was more transparent and seemed to have a broader frequency range. When we engaged the full T12 system with the subwoofers, it sounded incredible.’

There was a lot of positive feedback about the sound of the system, including Bob Offenbach from Bolution BV: ‘The new line array from dBTechnologies is compact, powerful and extremely flexible.’ But it was the price point that really stunned: ‘Best value for money ever!’ said a spokesperson for De Grooth Audio.

Running concrrently in a private outdoor space in Madrid, local company Sound Service lent a hand with a demo using eight T12 boxes per side, and two T12s with four T4 units in a centre array. Eight S30 subwoofers in clusters of two formed a subwoofer array on the ground beneath. Juan-Miguel Ramonde of dBTechnologies explains: ‘Initially we played a few tracks using just the centre speakers - in mono. Then we added the two sets of eight T12s, at this point still without subs. Finally we played some tracks using complete system, and I’m happy to say the customers were amazed all the way through.’

A representative from Projeccio Visual from Valencia, said ‘I’ve already got some T4s, and there’s no question that I’m going to order some T12s. With their greater throw, they are exactly what I need for more coverage. It sounds great.’

‘Another customer – also a T4 owner – was particularly interested in the sub array set-up of the bass bins,’ Ramonde adds. ‘We definitely had excellent interest during the day.’

Visitors totalled more than 200 at the two demonstration events including new customers, those looking to add to their DVA T4 stock and technicians curious to find out more. Before the listening tests, those visitors new to dBTechnologies were introduced to the brand, then there followed presentations about what led Claudio Ottani and his team to the final design of the T12 and more detailed information about the technology behind the company’s latest digital line array.

‘Both events were a great success,’ Herweg concludes. ‘We hope events like these will help people see that dBTechnologies really is getting serious about line array.’

More: www.dbtechnologies.com

Midas/Klark Teknik distributor NMK recently hosted a Midas Academy in Dubai, prior to the InfoComm exhibition held at the Dubai International Convention Center.

The one-day event attracted more than 25 sound professionals and highlighted the UK console manufacturer’s latest digital desk releases, presenting the Pro2 and Pro2c live audio systems to the Middle East market for the first time.

‘Our last academy took place in 2009, so it was time for a follow-up event in the Middle East – especially with all the new consoles and other products from Klark Teknik,’ says NMK Business Development Manager, Chicco Hiranandani. ‘Although it was a busy time of the year, we had a good turn out and – more importantly – great interest in the new consoles. We expect to make some announcements soon.’

More: www.nmkelectronics.com
More: www.midasconsoles.com

A recent live performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London saw a JoeCo BlackBox Recorder used to add electronic tracks to the Video Game Heroes concert.

Part of the Vision Sound Music Festival – the UK’s first festival of music for visuals – the tracks were prepared by project programmer Chris White, who was also responsible for making sure that they were triggered on cue during the actual performance. The BlackBox was situated by the monitor console, with feeds from the recorder going into the console. From there, click tracks were sent to the conductor Andrew Skeet and other relevant performers, while backing track stems went to the FOH desk to be mixed with the orchestral channels.

‘We discussed various options and settled on using a hard disk machine, as the idea of running on a laptop was too scary,’ says White. ‘The things that I immediately liked about the BlackBox were the fact that the screen was so bright and simple (as it was dark during the performance) and the fact that the unit was so compact! We were initially going to have a lot of stems running on separate tracks but were worried about the number of inputs on the Royal Festival Hall’s FOH desk (the orchestra were close miked so the desks were pretty full!). So we decided to keep it simple and for most items we only had a few stereo stems (main backing/percussion/bass) plus click. The backing tracks themselves were stored in the session folder on my Glyph drive and came up in the order they were to be played. I then triggered each track manually on cue from Andrew. It all ran beautifully on the day and the concert went very well.’

Tracks performed at the concert were also separately recorded for an album, due for release shortly.

More: www.lpo.co.uk/heroes
More: www.joeco.co.uk

Lab.gruppen has announced the recipients of its worldwide Distributor of the Year Awards, 2011.

‘These awards recognise the outstanding efforts and successes of distribution companies in their respective regional markets, many of whom have helped build the Lab.gruppen brand and drive business to unprecedented levels over the past 12 months,’ says Miguel Hadelich, Lab.gruppen VP of International Sales for Touring Products.

Distributor of the Year 2011 – Europe
DV2 Audio, France
Distributor of the Year 2011 – Far East
Rivera International, India
Distributor of the Year 2011 – Pacific Rim
Hills SVL, Australia

‘As Lab.gruppen is a world-renowned and very successful brand with market-leading product lines being used across the globe, it is our pleasure to reward those outstanding individuals and companies that have helped get us to that position in their respective regions,’ says Hadelich. ‘We are delighted to be represented by Hills SVL in Australia, Rivera International in India, and DV2 Audio in France, and would like to take this opportunity to thank all of their staff who have worked tirelessly to provide the very best service to their customer base, and also help educate them about the many benefits that Lab.gruppen products can bring to their inventory.’

With proprietary switch-mode and other patented technologies, Lab.gruppen provides advanced power amplifiers and powered loudspeaker management systems. The company strives to maintain its status as a leading brand within the professional audio community. The flagship PLM 20000Q is in common use for some of the largest concerts and tours across the globe, including powering the U2 360⁰ Tour – now officially the highest grossing concert tour of all time at its conclusion earlier this year.

More: www.labgruppen.com

Following several years of strong growth as Martin Audio’s exclusive Portuguese distributor, Tecnimúsica has been awarded full brand representation by the British manufacturer for all the PALOP territories (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe), the group of five African countries using Portuguese as their official language.

Tecnimusica’s new status was confirmed during last month’s Plasa Show in London by Martin Audio Director of Sales, Simon Bull, and Export Sales Manager, Martin Kelly. ‘We have worked with Tecnimúsica’s owner Jorge de Oliveira and his team for a number of years and have been impressed by the way they have built the brand – particularly in recent years,’ Kelly says.

With more than 25 years’ experience, Tecnimúsica’s founder said he was delighted by the recognition and the increased responsibility” ‘It will enable us to strengthen our reputation and promote the Martin Audio brand to a much wider marketplace.’

More: www.tecnimusica.pt
More: www.martin-audio.com

The track slopes that gave the last Motocross World Championship Grand Prix of the season its thrills presented quite a challenge to the sound system used for the two-day event. In keeping with the comevent’s competitive spirit, audio engineer Andrea Salvioli, was definitely up to the challenge, however, making use of dBTechnologies’ latest digital line array, the DVA T12, dBTechnologies.

‘We used three clusters each comprising ten T12 modules, flown from a crane at a height of 16m,’ he says. ‘Beneath these were a further two stacks of DVA S20 subwoofers, six facing one way and six the other, to get the best possible low-frequency coverage for the area. One stack of subwoofers was delayed by 4.5ms to compensate for the gap between the two stacks, which was easily adjusted by RDNet remote control.

‘The starting line – the highest point of the track – was served by two clusters of four T12s, each coupled with four S20s. The difference in height between the lowest and highest points of the track was 150m, so it was hard to organise coverage for all the public, but using the three clusters at different angles turned out to be the perfect solution.

‘The total area of the track was about 500m x 400m and with the dBTechnologies DVA system, we were able to spread the sound almost everywhere,’ Salvioli says, clearly pleased with the outcome. ‘We were all impressed by the efficiency of the system and especially the ease of installation, despite the peculiarities of the place.’

Sending audio signal between the three clusters and the control room was exceptionally slick, using dBTechnologies’ MS120 (directive transmitter antenna) and a PU920 (receiver). ‘We used two different radio frequencies rather than signal cables for the total distance of 350m, and two repeaters for safety. There weren’t any drops in transmission though,’ says Salvioli.

Both the event organisers and dBTechnologies customer/rental company Bebo Service were extremely satisfied: ‘They told me that previous races during the championship didn’t sound as good as this one,’ he enthuses.

More: www.dbtechnologies.com

Joining North Carolina-based Special Event Services (SES) and Las Vegas-based On Stage Audio (OSA) as key North American companies in Martin Audio’s growing MLA Network, Delicate Productions (Camarillo and San Francisco) has taken delivery of an extensive MLA System comprised of MLA enclosures, MLD down fill enclosures and MLX subwoofers.

‘As a Martin Audio vendor for 30 years, Delicate Productions is excited to offer the MLA System to our clients,’ says Jason Alt, Account Executive Concert Touring for Delicate. ‘The MLA’s ability to create a uniform response through the listening area, control coverage, and its unparalleled sonic quality sets a new standard of excellence in professional audio far beyond anything that is currently available. We are thrilled to continue our longstanding partnership with Martin Audio and to be part of the MLA Network.’

Founded in 1980, Delicate provides full-service multimedia production for live entertainment and corporate events. A longtime innovator and standard-setter in its field, Delicate recently won the 10th Annual Total Production International Award for Favorite International Production Company.

‘We’re pleased to see the size and scope of the worldwide MLA network continue to grow at such a rapid pace,’ adds Martin Audio MD, Anthony Taylor. ‘It’s especially gratifying that key sound companies such as Delicate are committing to MLA in part based on positive word of mouth from leading engineers and artists. At this point, there’s also little doubt that the audience experience in every kind of venue has been measurably enhanced by MLA and the Multi-cellular approach to loudspeaker array technology.’

Delicate Productions has already used the MLA system on a Selena Gomez tour of North America in August and September, and will be deploying an expanded version of the system on Gomez’ Canadian tour starting in Victoria, BC.

More: www.delicate.com
More: www.martin-audio.com

This year marks the fourth that Norwegian PA company Sceneservice has provided sound, light and staging for the Blues in Hell Festival – held in the village of Hell in the Nord-Trondelag area of Norway.

Selecting Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing systems for FOH and monitors, Sceneservice handled the Magic Mirror tent which hosted headline performances from artists including Delbert McClinton, Johnny Winter, Popa Chubby and Jeniva Magness.

The set-up used an iDR10 MixRack with iLive-144 Control Surface for FOH, and an iDR-32 MixRack and a xDR-16 expander rack with iLive-T80 Surface for monitors. There was also an analogue split to provide a broadcast feed.

‘Our experiences with the iLive system have proven it to be very reliable, nicely compact for small venues, and always sounds amazing,’ says Stein Larsen. ‘It is also very easy to teach guest engineers about it, even during change over at a busy festival. We have been using the iLive iPad app for some while and trust it totally, and we are looking forward to exploring the Dante networking option for multitrack recording.’

As well as the Magic Mirror tent, performances were staged in the Værnes Church, Norway’s oldest stone building dating from the year 1100. ‘We used our iDR-32 and iLive-T112 for this beautiful, 400-capacity venue, which featured a performance by local singer, Siri Bones,’ Larsen adds. ‘I can only describe the sound with the overused expression ‘crystal clear’, even Siri’s lowest whisper was audible at the back of the church.’

More: www.sceneservice.no
More: www.allen-heath.com

Bringing a fresh approach to the tired orchestral ‘classical rock’ format, the duelling cellos of Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser chalked up 5m hits with their version of Michael Jackson’s ‘Smooth Criminal’ within a month of posting on YouTube. To date, 2Cellos have performed with Sir Elton John and George Michael, and appeared on TV shows around the globe.

For their performances, the duo call on AKG's IVM 4 In-Ear Monitoring system and C414 XLS microphones, provided by Croatian distributor AVC. ‘2Cellos have come a long way in such a short time,’ says Reinhard Mitter of AVC. ‘Using AKG’s mics and monitoring systems, their tour and performances are as successful as their online videos. AKG’s classic C414 microphones provide a great, true sound that translates into any genre, including the amazing style of 2Cellos. Luka and Stjepan also continue to praise the supreme performance of their monitoring system, IVM 4.’

Extremely accomplished musicians, Sulic and Hauser both started playing cello at an early age. Sulic has won numerous international awards and performed at venues, including London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus.

Hauser has performed in the majority of European countries, including for Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Place, South Africa, New Zealand and throughout Asia and the United States. He has earned 21 national and international awards.

2Cellos self-titled, debut album, which features covers of well-known rock and pop songs, was released in the summer of 2011, landed them in Billboard’s Top 200 albums at No.2 in the Classical Crossover chart.

For more than 20 years, AVC has had an active voice in systems integration of professional audio and video, broadcast systems, lighting, multimedia presentations and networks and video surveillance.

More: www.avc.hr
More: www.akg.com