Community Professional Loudspeakers has chosen Schneider Audio Concept Vertriebs GmbH (SAC) as its distributor for Austria.

Based in St Leonhard am Forst in central Austria, SAC was founded in 2001 by its current management team who each have more than 25 years’ experience in the professional audio industry. With a portfolio of premium brands, the company is strongly focused on delivering the highest level of service and technical support for its customers in the installation market.

‘SAC has a well-established network of installers and integrators in the installation sector and will provide Community with great distribution,’ says Community EMEA Sales Manager, Jamie Ward. ‘Equally important is their first-class technical backup and support for customers. We’re pleased to welcome them as our partner and look forward to working together.’

‘Community has a proven track record for performance and reliability and it has substantially developed and refined its product offering in recent years. Its outdoor, distributed and engineered systems approach provides a comprehensive range of outstanding loudspeakers,’ says SAC’s Christian Muhm. ‘It is complementary to the brands we distribute and enhances the solutions we can provide to cover a wider range of applications.’

Canada’s most prestigious music awards event, the Juno Awards recently aired live on CTV from Calgary’s Scotiabank Saddledome, with performances by Alessia Cara, Bryan Adams, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Dean Brody, Jann Arden, Shawn Mendes, The Tenors and The Weeknd. Solotech’s live sound reinforcement system kept the music clear throughout.

Solotech’s L-Acoustics system proved to be a particularly ideal solution for the venue, a beautiful sounding hall with a hyperbolic paraboloid-shaped roof (the world’s longest) offering fantastic interior sightlines but presenting a number of challenges in terms of weight limitations.

‘The K2 provides lots of power for its weight, so it was the perfect choice for this show, and perhaps the only real choice,’ says Solotech Project Manager Patrice Lavoie. ‘Because of its light weight we were able to design a system optimised for the venue and show’s particular setup without having to focus on structural limitations.’

The system more than sufficiently accommodated the show’s wide range of musical performances – from rock, pop and electronic to country, folk and classical. The main PA consisted of four K1 enclosures over 14 K2 per side, with low frequencies extended by eight K1-SB subs flown to the outside of each K1/K2 hang plus six total SB28 ground-stacked below. Out-fills were comprised of 16 K2 per side, while two more arrays of six K2 were flown out in the house for delay.

To cover the challenging V-shaped audience space in front of the stage, four ARCS Focus enclosures made up a centre cluster – two firing downward toward the base of the V with a single cabinet addressing each side section. On stage, monitor duties were fulfilled by ten 12XT coaxial speakers powered by three LA4X amplified controllers. Aside from the stage wedges, the entire system was powered using 56 LA8 amplified controllers.

Considering the range of music genres represented at the show, Lavoie says that many system designers would raise an eyebrow at the fact that only six floor-stacked SB28 subs were deployed. That, he notes, is testament to both the SB28’s power and K2’s full-range speaker design.

‘The amount of sound and low-frequency response that we achieved using only six subs on the floor was amazing,’ he says. ‘And K2, of course, gave us excellent coverage, with a tight pattern that was able to deliver sound exactly where it was needed, in a venue with considerable weight-loading restrictions. The show had a lot of great sound from a system smaller and lighter than you would have expected. It wouldn’t have been the same without K2.’

The final match at White Hart Lane – home of Tottenham Hotspur, before the ground is demolished to make way for a new stadium in 2018 –  saw victory for Spurs in front of the stadium crowd and a broadcast audience of 13m. ‘The closing ceremony proved a triumph,’ said Andrew Zweck of Sensible Events who helped produce the ceremony.

‘We brought in rock-and-roll companies, because this had to be fast and be really classy,’ says season ticket holder Zweck. ‘Phil Mercer at Unipix provided an additional big screen up on Stageco towers, and all audio came from Britannia Row.’

‘The fact is it needs a lot of care and attention to detail,’ says Brit Row Project Manager, Tom Brown. ‘This is 2017, and audio has to be perfect – not just within the stadium, it has to be perfect to broadcast as well. We were not allowed to place anything around the pitch before the game had ended, apart from a small amp station placed well behind each goal and fully padded just in case. We had barely 20 minutes after the match ended to have everything on the field and ready to go live to broadcast.’

The system comprised 11 stacks of L-Acoustics Kara including SB28 Subs around the pitch perimeter, two Yamaha CL5 for live mixing and IEMs, and a Profile to manage Pro Tools tracks. ‘We had ambient mics to track a 30-piece marching band and 30-voice choir,’ Brown says. ‘That’s a big deal in itself. Then there was a close-miked tenor Wynne Evans a world-class opera singer and all were performing live in a torrential downpour. Plus, we had VT of Spurs Legends narrated by Sir Kenneth Brannagh. That all had to be perfect.’

‘There is no blueprint for something like this,’ Zweck reflects. ‘It has to evolve. Spurs management knew they wanted their fans to feel involved, to have the fans singing and be part of it. Tom Brown and the guys from Brit Row did a great job making it seem simple. It couldn’t have gone better. They have people with vision at Spurs.’

Renowned Amsterdam music venue Paradiso has installed SSL Live consoles for both its FOH and monitor positions, with an L500 for front-of-house and an L300 for monitoring.

Paradiso opened in 1968 as the Cosmic Relaxation Center Paradiso, after an abandoned church was occupied by hippies who aimed to turn it into a music venue. Since then it has hosted some of the biggest bands and artists in the world, including Prince, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chili Peppers and U2 – who see the Paradiso as an essential and stop on tours that normally fill venues many times its size. It’s also one of the busiest venues there is, with an extraordinary throughput of acts, both new and established, from all genres.

Having invested in a new Adamson PA system, the Paradiso team turned their attention to audio consoles with a short list of candidates and three days of testing. The criteria were simple – reliability and flexibility, allowing visiting engineers to work without a long learning curve. Above all, the consoles had to sound fantastic.

‘Because of the names we have coming here, we have to be at the top of our game,’ says Paradiso Head of Sound and Production, Marian Emmen. ‘System failure is not an option.

‘Around 20-30 per cent of acts bring their own FOH desk, monitor desk or both. The rest will be using the SSLs, and might only have ten minutes to learn to use them. Sometimes we do mini festivals where we have five bands on in a night. We have one sound check, and the rest has to be done on-the-fly.

The desks were supplied by Dutch pro audio specialist and SSL partner, Audio Electronics Mattijsen. ‘In Amsterdam there is great support from AEM – a solid company that has its own service department, which makes our system engineer very comfortable when it comes to maintenance and support, Emmen  says. ‘Also, SSL is a well-known company with a great reputation for support and that played a role in our decision to buy the consoles.’

It was during the test sessions that Paradiso’s Principal Sound Engineer Dick Versteegh was convinced: ‘It got into me – it had the wow factor,’ he recalls. ‘Other consoles have a lot of toys, but with the SSL I thought, ‘this is a sound desk... Everything has its place. It sounds musical. Everything has space without being separate...’

‘I also like the crazy amount of routing you can do. Some like it easy and simple, I sometimes like it a bit complicated. With this you can do either. With the Stem busses, being able to route to an output or another buss, I find myself dreaming about how I might layer a drum kit.’

For visiting engineers who have not experienced SSL Live before, the set-up can be easily simplified to familiar input channels, traditional buss types, and straightforward fader layouts. ‘If you set it up properly,’ continues Versteegh, ‘An engineer can ‘get it’ within five minutes and start mixing straight away. And of course it really helps that you can change things without disturbing the sound. That’s a big improvement on what we can do now.’

‘The Amsterdam Paradiso is a legendary venue that has hosted an unbelievable string of the world’s very best artists in the centre of Amsterdam,’ says Audio Electronics Mattijsen, Product Specialist, Rafael Nagelkerke. ‘It’s a four-decade long Who’s Who of music.

‘In practice, Paradiso is a highly sophisticated and efficiently run operation with dozens of engineers doing over a thousand shows per year. We are extremely proud the Paradiso team decided SSL Live consoles were the one and only solution of choice after careful evaluation and demos.

‘Like SSL recording consoles were part of laying down many of the most legendary albums, we’re proud SSL Live consoles will be part of many memorable performances to come.’

When the Stereophonics added a second acoustic stage to their latest tour performances – accessed via a long thrust from the main performance area – it presented a conundrum to the band’s long-time technical crew: FOH engineer Dave Roden, and rental/production company, Capital Sound Hire.

With lead singer/guitarist Kelly Jones – exclusively on in-ears for the first time – preferring to be as far away from the sub energy as possible, Capital Project Manager Robin Conway set about reworking the traditional broadside cardioid array of Martin Audio MLX subwoofers into something that accommodated these new considerations. The solution was a central cardioid dual-loudspeaker cluster.

Berlin-based Complete Audio recently provided sound reinforcement for a concert by Sting at the 24,000-seat Waldbühne Berlin in the Olympic Park – the first time the company has worked with the former Policeman.

As this was not a full production tour, PA and lights were sourced on a local basis with the Martin Audio premier rental partner was on hand to provide the MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array: ‘We offered MLA and they were happy to take it,’ reports Complete Audio MD, André Rauhut.

While the system was delivered ‘flat’ as requested – enabling Sting’s FOH tech to handle fine-tuning and final EQ – the challenges for the PA related to the contouring of the venue, which was extremely steep and high. ‘We had to work with lots of throw to get to the top of the seats,’ Rauhut says.

To mitigate this, Complete Audio designed the main system hangs with 13 MLA elements and an MLD Downfill per side. Out fill consisted of four MLA Compact, and front fill was composed of eight MLA Compacts, distributed alongside the stage in stacks of two. Subs consisted of 24 MLX set in LR stacks, to get a better coverage of the sides, with a further seven packs of two MLX along the stage. Complete Audio also took advantage of the in-house delays, which were set around 80m from the stage.

‘[Howard Page] did a great job with the tuning and he mentioned to the crew many times how impressed he was with the sound of the MLA rig,’ says Rauhut. ‘I have to say that I was there to see the show and the sound was amazing. This was partly because the band’s performance was top notch and partly because of the proficiency of the tech.’

The Complete Audio tech team itself comprised Benny Franke, Martin Eckert, Niko Fuchs and Nils Uhthoff.

More: www.martin-audio.com

Having supplied sound for each edition of San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass since its debut in 2001, Bay-Area-based Sound On Stage (SOS) deployed L-Acoustics PA systems for all seven of the festival’s 2016 stages.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB) is a free, non-commercial festival staged in the Hellman Hollow area of Golden Gate Park – named after the investment magnate that conceived, founded and funded the three-day event, and whose family has continued to financially support it since his death in 2011.

‘Golden Gate Park is an amazing location,’ says SOS General Manager, Wes Norwood. ‘It doesn’t feel like you are in the middle of the city, but you are. It’s always a great vibe out there.’

Managing the audio for the event begins just three days prior to the show, with two of the stages going up on Wednesday, the other five stages going up on Thursday, and the event starting on Friday. This year, for the first time, in addition to the live music, a ‘silent disco’ was added featuring some of the area’s top DJs.

Although L-Acoustics has been a part of the mix since the beginning, this year marked the first time that the entire rig for each of the seven stages was fully L-Acoustics. ‘We had K2 rigs on Banjo Stage and Swan Stage, and all of the other stages were V-Dosc with 115XT HiQ wedges, plus our newest addition, a bunch of X15 wedges. Those were on Swan Stage with hosted acts ranging from Kris Kristofferson to Chris Isaak to a bluegrass version of The Who’s Tommy.’ Beyond the mains and monitors, the systems were complemented with 8XT front fills, dV-DOSC and ARCS delays, and everything was run by an army of LA8-equipped LA-RAK amplified controller racks.

‘The music really covers a wide range,’ adds Norwood, who has been with Sound On Stage for two decades and a part of every version of HSB since its inception. While the fare leans heavily on acoustic music, the artists this year included classic rockers such as Cyndi Lauper and Jackson Browne side-by-side with San Francisco musical heroes like Hot Tuna and Boz Scaggs, plus many more Americana, folk, roots and indie rock artists.

The addition of the K2 has made providing the best possible audio experience to the crowd – as many as 750,000 people attend over the course of three days – a more ‘do-able’ task, says Norwood. Being outdoors and on temporary stages in a geographic location famed for weather that can change in an instant, load limits are a major consideration.

‘K2 is the perfect box for HSB,’ he notes. ‘It’s smaller and lighter than other boxes in its class but still has tons of output. And the lower weight allows us to hang more boxes and cover a larger area more consistently than other options will allow us to do. Plus, the X15 wedge was a big hit – both the artists and our techs loved it. It’s lighter than the previous version and it has that little kickstand that actually comes in really handy,’ he says, referring to its built-in riser allowing it to be angled at 35° or 55° onstage.

The festival leans heavily on traditional musical but is all about tech when it comes to audio: ‘The LA8s let us run AES format out of the consoles and straight to the rack, so it’s analog going into the mic and analogue again coming out of the speaker, but the rest of the chain is digital.’

With more than 100 bands of widely differing genres performing over the festival’s three days, the need for a single audio solution to best accommodate them all was paramount.

‘While the K2 is certainly more than capable of delivering major output, this is a festival where both that nature of the music and our choice of PA is really about delivering the best possible audio quality for this really special event,’ Norwood says. ‘In our opinion, L-Acoustics clearly delivers the most natural reproduction of what the artists are wanting to communicate, regardless of what their style is. What is being performed on stage is precisely what is being heard by the audience, whether it’s in a small venue or on huge festival like this where the sound was fantastic. All that being said, my personal mantra is “I need eight more of everything”, so I’m going to want more boxes for next year.’

Studiomaster’s new HX and QX digital power amplifier series exploit the compact form factor and weight-saving, and operational appeal of the latest class-D technology, claiming ‘new levels of power and performance, at highly competitive professional entry market (HX series) and premium market (QX series) price points’.

The ultra lightweight and compact 1U-high HX series meet a range of professional audio requirements, including commercial installation, conferencing, small- and medium-scale sound reinforcement, and rental applications. Features include high efficiency power factor correction (PFC)
, Thermal, Overload and DC protection, protection and Status indicators, output limiter, universal 90-250VAC power supply, multiple gain modes, variable speed fan cooling, balanced XLR inputs and professional speaker connectors.

Two-channel and 4-channel models with stereo/parallel/bridge mode operation, provide reliable and efficient operation at 2Ω loads, No less than eight models in the range include four 2-channel models, rated at 300W, 500W, 700W and 900W (at 8Ω), and four 4-channel models rated at 600W, 1kW, 1.4kW and 1.8kW (at 8Ω).

The QX series is intended for large to very large-scale, high-end sound reinforcement, installation and rental applications. Featuring advanced amplifier adjustment technology to provide over 95 per cent efficiency, and stable performance under high current, low impedance (2Ω) conditions. Features include active power factor correction (PFC) and a soft power switching power supply, which operates universally between 90-250V AC, as well as a 32A mains power input socket, Thermal, Overload and DC protection circuitry, Thermal, Overload, DC and Status indicators, multiple gain modes, balanced XLR inputs, output limiter and variable speed fan cooling.

The 1U-high lightweight design weighs-in at less than 12kg. Two-channel and 4-channel versions of the amplifiers, with stereo/parallel/bridge mode operation, offer power ratings ranging from 2.55kW/channel up to 5.1kW/channel at 4Ω. At 2Ω operation, the top-of-the range QX4-8000 will deliver up to 4 x 5.78kW. The QX series comprises three 2-channel models rated at 3kW, 4kW and 6kW and two 4-channel models rated at 6kW and 8kW (all at 8Ω).

‘With the HX /QX amplifiers, no installation or PA hire company, no matter how small or price competitive, need settle for inefficient, underpowered poor quality amplification,’ says General Manager Patrick Almond. ‘We have come relatively late to market with digital product offerings but we have spent considerable development time, both in configuring these products precisely for specific applications and market sectors, and in exploiting latest processing technologies when they become available at a price point that allows us to offer these extended specifications, features and operational capabilities, previously unavailable to more budget sensitive market sectors.’

More: www.studiomaster.com

Establishing a new festival at a relatively untested site in central London during crowded festival season was the challenge set for itself by the Sunfall Festival at Brockwell Park founder NVS. To load the equation in its favour, NVS called on the established expertise of RG Jones Sound Engineering, Martin Audio’s MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker PA system and production company, Whole Nine Yards.

For the past five years, this team has served the two other events in the NVS Promotions portfolio – the back-to-back Dimensions Festival and Outlook Festival in Pula, Croatia. Brockwell Park was to run until 9pm (the Sun element) and then the audience was to move into surrounding clubs (Fall) for a serious underground club vibe encompassing jazz, electronica, house, hip hop, dubstep, techno, soul, drum & bass and disco.

Having invested in a K-array KR102 loudspeaker system from pro audio equipment supplier LMC in late 2015, SXS Events put it to early use at the international dinner for Princess Yachts in the historic Ropery at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, UK. The long, narrow 17^th century building scored highly on atmosphere, but not acoustic friendliness – allowing the KR102 to prove its worth.

Princess Yachts specialises in building motor cruisers that claim to be the last word in luxury. The dinner for its international dealers, was divided into several areas, with the KR102 used in the area for the event’s reception. ‘You’ve got to apply the right system to the right application – get it wrong and the event just doesn’t work,’ says SXS founder and director Johnny Palmer. ‘I like the way the sound of the KR102 propagates, it’s immersive with a uniform frequency response. It’s also great for vocal throw. Aimed across the Ropery it delivered great sound quality and coverage from a very discreet system.

‘A primary benefit of the KR102 is that it is aesthetically very discreet, but it sounds great and is very versatile,’ he says. ‘It caters for a wide range of events without being visually distracting. In addition, the fact that it’s very quick to deploy and take down, it has a tiny footprint and takes up minimal transport space is great. The integration and onboard DSP is also very useful. We often use the internal mixing and phantom power at events when it’s impossible to deploy a lot of equipment, like an external mixer.’

The SXS team also used the KR102’s onboard processing to assist with the overall sound of the event. ‘It was a complex, multi zone system which we set up using 16 matrixes. There were speeches from multiple places, a DJ, background music… we time aligned everything to ensure uniform sound quality at all times in all areas of the event,’ Palmer says.

‘Most of our clients have been using us long-term and they trust us to always deliver a great sonic solution. I believe in using the right tools for the right job – whether it’s a big name on the box is irrelevant. We have used the KR102 on a number of events and it has been very successful.’

‘We are working closely with 2B Heard to raise the profile of K-array loudspeakers in the UK market. The technology within their portable systems really makes it possible to have virtually ‘invisible sound’,’ says LMC Audio’s  Louisa Woodford. ‘The KR102 is ideal for companies like SXS who work with very high-profile clients, where events demand high aesthetic and audio values, but prominent black boxes are unacceptable.’

Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced the appointment of Tau Audio Solutions as its distributor for The Netherlands. Established in 1997, Tau is a leading distributor with an established portfolio of quality audio brands, including Ashly, Clockaudio, Audix Microphones and Baldwin Boxall.

‘Community has an excellent reputation for quality and reliability and its wide range of outdoor, distributed and engineered systems greatly enhances the solutions we can provide to our customers,’ says Tau Audio Solutions Sales Engineer, Arjen Bezemer. ‘We see great potential for the products in The Netherlands and look forward to working with the team at Community.’

‘Tau is a really strong fit for Community as they focus purely on supplying and supporting the installation markets,’ adds Community EMEA Sales Manager, Jamie Ward. ‘The company’s dedication to ongoing training and customer support is outstanding and they have a great range of complementary brands to provide complete solutions for our target markets. The Netherlands is a key European market for Community and it’s great to welcome Tau as our distribution partner for this territory.’

Brooklyn Steel is a new live music venue in East Williamsburg, New York. What was a steel fabrication business is now a 20,000-sq-ft space equipped with L-Acoustics K2 line arrays, plus delays and stage monitors. A gantry crane retained from the former steel fabrication business enables the flown arrays to be repositioned, along with the movable 50,000-pound steel and concrete stage, to scale the audience area according to the expected attendance at each show.

National concert promoter The Bowery Presents (TBP) is behind the venture, with its in-house team designing and installing the loudspeaker system, which is patterned after a similar rig at Terminal 5, a 3,000-capacity venue in Manhattan that the promoter also exclusively operates.

Already resigned to its role of ‘poor relation’ to video and film, sound has recently seen new terminology further challenge its dignity. Locked film reels are increasingly being replaced with ones that are ‘soft locked’ or ‘parked’, giving the sound team a moving target.

A recent conference on sound for picture saw a series of high-profile speakers turning this to their advantage, among other insights, however…

Staged in-the-round at the Young Vic theatre in London, director Joe Wright’s recent interpretation of Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo draws on Galileo’s preoccupation with circles, ellipses and their spatial movement.

Central to the sound design by Tom Gibbons and associate sound designer Dan Balfour was a TiMax SoundHub processor, which provided the platform for rendering immersive 3D spatialisation of multi-layered sound effects and the high-energy music beds commissioned from Chemical Brother, Tom Rowlands.

‘In tech, we were able to add movement complementary to the action, responding to the theme of circular movement,’ Balfour reports. ‘It liberated the sound design from simply being playback and speakers.’

The action takes place as if within a planetarium. To support the soundtrack, additional loudspeakers around the stage area bolster the Young Vic’s in-house sound system. Above the central area, where actors play their parts among lounging members of the audience, a dome projected with lighting and video-mapping effects depicts areas of the solar system. A circular staged area surrounds the centre and further scaffolded staged areas, opposed across the central space, are brought into the action sporadically.

The dome is edged with 12 d&b audiotechnik Y7Ps with a further four positioned around its centre. Eight d&b Q7s are positioned around the rear of the stage area in a circle with 22 E0s for surround. In the grid sits a pair of d&b B2 subs, a further two subs on the first gallery are Studiospares and four REL Acoustics subwoofers are positioned on the floor behind the audience.

As the action moves and circulates, the dynamic soundscapes created using TiMax spatial Image Definition objects use the full auditorium space. ‘There’s an awesome close-up of the Sun projected onto the dome at one point, and as it moves and fills the space we mapped the sound with it, starting from one balcony speaker and out to the whole immersive system,’ Balfour explains. ‘It’s a subtle effect, but gives another dimension to the experience.’

‘Similarly, for the Jupiter and Moon sequences we began in the centre of the dome on the four Y7Ps, and as the planets get closer we added the 12 Y7Ps around the edge – until the image fills the entire screen and we’ve added in the balconies and the 22 E0 surrounds. It gave a real sense of depth.’

With so many possibilities at their disposal, Gibbons and Balfour kept the music bed static, assigning the mix to alternate close-field left and right front and rear pairs around the auditorium to create a spatial stereo effect wherever you sat. In Balfour’s words, ‘We had all the stems and we could have done all sorts, but when you apply too many spatial treatments you can sometimes lose the core of the mix. It has to be handled very carefully, and in this case keeping the music static made shifting the sound effects on top of it all the more effective. That was something we discovered during tech, especially with the finale.’

More: www.outboard.co.uk

Tokyo’s New National Theatre (NNTT) has installed a 32-channel TiMax2 SoundHub-S32 and TiMax Tracker system, with six TT Sensors and 32 TT Tags, for automated vocal localisation and audio showcontrol in its main Playhouse auditorium and smaller Pit theatre.

The multi-tasking system was specified by Kunio Watanabe, manager of the NNTT’s Audio Division, who contacted SCA Sound Solutions in search of effective and natural vocal tracking and immersive audio spatialisation.

‘We now have a very natural and smooth sound imaging for the actors’ voices, without the feeling of it being a sound “effect’” – the audience could feel the individual voice at the exact position of the individual singer, not from left, right and centre speakers. This may sound obvious, but other systems do not give this,’ he says.

Tracked by TiMax Tracker tags, the individual output of each performer’s radio mic channel routes from the mixing console channel direct outs through to the TiMax2 SoundHub DSP, which dynamically delay-matrixes it to the distributed loudspeaker set-up for both venues – templates for which are stored in the TiMax unit.

The installation was completed in time for use on a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning Passion. ‘I could easily adjust the level of each speaker precisely in the process of creating image definitions and there was no sense of incongruity in the sound images created,’ says Sound designer for the production, Yoshio Ueda. ‘Additionally, transition from image definition to image definition was very smooth and beautiful. The sound of the choir is also faithfully recreated as a 3D spatial image and it sounds very natural and a beautiful effect. I was very much satisfied with the result.’

More: www.outboard.co.uk

A former church building in Toronto’s Little Italy now provides a live performance space for the local music community. While its designation as a Toronto historic building requires its frontage to be preserved, there is no restriction inside…

Having opened in 2000 as the Revival Bar, Manager Mathew Saturnino recently decided to upgrade the 400-capacity venue’s sound system with the Electro-Voice X1 system from the X-Line Advance line-array loudspeaker family.

‘There’s a lot of competition in live entertainment, and quality of the sound system is one thing that sets one venue apart from another,’ he says. ‘We wanted a system that would sound great, with really good, tight sound output within the room. We did a lot of research, and the X1 from Electro-Voice seemed like the perfect fit – newer technology that would give us a very good competitive edge.’

The installation was performed by Mississauga-based integration firm Pure AV, with the system being designed by Clint Alves of SoundSoft Productions. Using Electro-Voice LAPS software, the design is based around two five-box arrays of Electro-Voice X1-212/90 loudspeakers, augmented by four X12-128 dual 18-inch subwoofers. The system is powered by six Electro-Voice TG7 amplifiers, all fitted with RCM-28 network and DSP modules to enable easy monitoring and control via IRIS-Net software. The team at PureAV ran the wiring in advance so that, once the shipment of loudspeakers arrived, the entire installation could be done in one day.

‘I personally lent a hand on the labour and it was a 19-hour day, but well worth it,’ Saturnino says. ‘From tearing down the old system to having everything plugged in and powered up, there were zero hiccups. Everything worked perfectly and sounded great right from the start.’

The twin arrays hang above the stage lip, using their tight 90° dispersion to create even coverage across the whole area. The four X12-128 subwoofers are hidden beneath the stage in a phase-aligned cluster. The entire sound system is digital, with AES50 (open-standard protocol for audio transport over Ethernet) running from front of house to the stage and amplifiers.

‘This is a fantastic product,’ Saturnino reports. ‘The artists and engineers love it, and it brings us up a level competitively,’’ he says, ‘It’s also very rider-friendly, which means we can book bigger and better acts. I frequent many different venues in the city and have heard everything, including some very expensive systems, and I would put our EV up against any of them.’

Now restored to its former glory – complete with its original pipe organ – Manchester’s Albert Hall is one of the most atmospheric live entertainment spaces in the city.

Rehabilitated by independent owner TROF, the venue has been equipped with a d&b audiotechnik loudspeaker system by Manchester-based audio specialist tube UK, to accommodate a diverse range of shows.

Adjacent to the Snow Canyon State Park in the mouth of Utah’s Padre Canyon is the 42,000-sq-ft Tuacahn Center for the Arts. In a canyon carved from the red and white Navajo sandstone in the state’s Red Mountains theatergoers have a unique experience…

The centre, completed in 1995, includes a 1,920-seat outdoor amphitheater, 328-seat indoor theater, black box theater and dance studio among other facilities. But what its lengthy show season, which includes two or three productions on the amphitheater stage, also offers is great sound. For the past ten years, that was assured by an L-Acoustics dV-Dosc sound system buth Tuacahn has entered its next decade with an L-Acoustics Kara line array system.

Installed in April by Poll Sound, which also installed the previous dV-Dosc system, the new rig consists of an LCR three-hang array of 11 Kara boxes each, as well as four SB18 subs flown two per side outboard of the left and right main hangs. Further rounding out the new system are 14 coaxial X8 enclosures used for low-front fill and stage monitors, and a dozen larger X12 enclosures – eight facing forward from the rear of the stage and four used for stage fills. The entire system is powered by six LA8 and six LA4X amplified controllers.

‘The dV-Dosc sound system worked incredibly well here for ten years – it was subjected to intense heat during the days and rain and other elements year-round, but it never let them down,’ recalls Poll Sound Owner and President, Deward Timothy, referring to temperatures that routinely hit 105°F during the day. ‘We recommended the Kara as the best choice for a new system to follow that.’

Timothy was familiar with the challenges of flying a large line-array system in an outdoor environment like this – a catwalk was able to be constructed around the weight and other requirements of the system – but this time it was compounded by a tight schedule, which saw Poll Sound technicians working in the rigging while the season’s first show was in rehearsals. Much of the system tuning was consequently done at night.

But as well as dV-Dosc accomplished covering the venue’s seating area and keeping sonic energy off of the rock walls, the Kara system has improved on that. ‘The coverage is exceptional – incredibly precise,’ says Timothy. ‘With the dV-Dosc we were using Lab.gruppen amplifiers and Lake processing, which needed considerable tuning. But the Kara is a much more integrated system, with its own FIR filters and distance-loss compensation calculations. It’s uncanny how the system is so perfectly tuned from top to bottom. There’s tons of gain and the kind of precise coverage that’s hard to achieve outdoors. The theater operators are immensely happy with it, and so are we. Here’s to ten more years of L-Acoustics there.’

Marking the start of its year as joint European Capital of Culture for 2017 – along with Aarhus in Denmark – the ancient city of Pafos in Cyprus staged a dazzling Opening Ceremony – supported by tube uk’s sound provision and expertise.

tube was put forward for the project by Liz Pugh from outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank, who produced the event together with a team of Cypriot creatives and artists. A soundtrack for the show was written by Pafos-born composer and music director Christina Athinodorou, who combined classical and electronic elements in an intricate soundscape.

tube’s Melvyn Coote took on sound for a cast of hundreds and an enthusiastic audience of around 12,000 who packed into the 28th October Square in central Pafos to enjoy the occasion, which was also broadcast live by national TV network, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CYBC). He liaised with a number of locally based audio suppliers and compiled a control specification which was sourced from tube’s rental stock in Manchester, UK.

The project involved three site visits by Coote to scope out the location for the ambitious mixed-media show – arguably the largest integrated live event held on the island. From a sonic standpoint, this required considerable organisation and communication ‘to amalgamate kit from around seven different companies, who are all geared up to provide a good system for about one medium sized live show – which is the market in Cyprus’.

The control package comprised a Yamaha CL5 console – Coote and tube FOH engineer Adam Taylor’s choice of main show mixer – supplied with a Yamaha DME64 matrix control system, two Yamaha RIO 3224 racks and two Mac Mini servers, which were configured as an active machine plus ‘hot’ backup. These were used to run a QLab system for the audio playback. This set-up was operated in conjunction with locally supplied control, including a Yamaha QL5 and another RIO 3224 for additional inputs.

tube also shipped a comms system to be used for show communication.

A 3D surround-sound reinforcement system was set up around the square, with nine loudspeaker points,  including two stacks either side of the Town Hall for the two main performance stages, and the remaining seven for the soundscape that underpinned the show narrative.

‘Getting the audio movement flowing between all these nine point sources was a crucial element of the sound design and vital to the storytelling, where certain effects needed to be in certain places at specific times,’ Coote explains.

The PA stacks included 20 L-Acoustics Kudo boxes and subs, 16 Martin W8LCs and subs, 12 Nexo Geo-Ds and 12 Turbosound Flex Arrays. One main PA of three four-deep stacks of Turbosound Flex was rigged into a scenic constructed Lighthouse towering 10m above the square – these created the ‘voice’ of the lighthouse, which was the essential narrative for the whole show. A 100m-ling catwalk provided a runway entry for 300 children, 40 young dancers, and gymnasts and 15 professional dancers onto the main stage under the lighthouse.

These groups took to the Town Hall stage at different times – among them, the Choir of the Pafos Music Lyceum directed by Isabella Christofidou, the Pafos Municipality Band directed by Zacharias Evangelou and the Aarhus Jazz Orchestra. Ensuring that all performances and areas had unobstructed audio for the public’s enjoyment was a major task.

An additional consideration fro Coote, Taylor and the audio team was a massive concert by famous Greek singer Alkistis Protopsalti that followed the Opening Ceremony, requiring a completely new and different FOH set-up, monitors and backline that could be turned around in just ten minutes. All of this had to be factored into the overall audio management, the plans for stage layout.

Poor weather made rehearsals difficult. A mini storm, blustery winds and driving rain on the ripped the structure off the FOH position soaking all the control kit. Sorting this out ate into the  rehearsal time made crucial by the number of artists involved – but everyone pulled together to salvage the situation in challenging and stressful conditions.

‘It was definitely a “moment” Coote says. ‘Of course, this is also all part of the edginess and unpredictability that makes site specific work like this so exciting. The camaraderie between the UK production team and the Pafos suppliers really developed during the week, with the adverse weather also encouraging all to work together and deliver a smooth, successful and very special event.’

More: www.tubeuk.com

One of Europe’s largest cultural festivals, the Gentse Feesten is an annual highlight for residents and visitors to the city of Ghent, Belgium. It was also a highlight for Splendit, the largest Turbosound rental company in Benelux, who provided a system of more than 70 loudspeakers for two stages

Noise control is a critical factor for the city’s ten-day festival, which takes place in and around Ghent’s residential areas: ‘The Turbosound Flex Array was chosen for its 75° dispersion,’ Splendit’s Marijn Broeckaert explains. ‘It is able to deliver clear, directed sound without impacting areas outside of the immediate festival area.’

The largest of the festival’s stages, the Bij St-Jacobs, used a Midas XL4 mixing console at FOH, with two hangs of nine TFA600H and two TFA600HW loudspeaker elements per side, with 12 TSW218 subs ground-stacked at the front of the stage in a cardioid array. Two hangs of three TFA600HW boxes were used for delays, with 16 TMW115s and a TFA600L drum sub for monitoring.

The dispersion, sound quality, power and small footprint were the reasons Sint-Jacobs stage sound manager Dirk Brysbaert chose the Flex Array: ‘In addition to the controlled dispersion of the flown arrays, both stages employed cardioid bass array set-ups,’ Broeckaert says. ‘This worked so good that we had nothing but compliments about the sound quality.’

For the Baudelopark stage, two hangs of three TFA600H boxes and two TFA600HWs were set each side, with nine TFA600L subs in a central cardioid array at the front of the stage. Again, monitoring was covered by eight TMW115 and two iQ12 for fill. A Midas Pro2 console was used at FOH.