With its legacy audio system fragmented and failing, and no comprehensive understanding of its installation, the JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Florida was increasingly unable to cope.
The resort is expansive, with 12 restaurants, two championship golf courses, fitness centre, spa and multiple meeting/conference facilities. With music and audio quality of critical importance to the guest experience, it was time to call for help.
The centenary of the BBC’s first radio transmission saw sound artist Nick Ryan invited to submit a proposal for an installation drawing on the the exchange of ideas, education and art appreciation offered by a well-travelled common space.
‘I was the only artist that suggested sound,’ he recalls. ‘My idea was to use sound in a controlled way. I wanted the soundscape to change every second or every minute, and use a long speaker array to animate the space through sound.’
Status Quo spent much of 2022 playing a series of UK theatre shows, followed by festivals, arenas and theatres across Europe. With the band every step of the way were Yamaha PM5D-RH and M7CL mixing consoles.
‘The band wants three things,’ says FOH engineer Andy May. ‘Reliability, great sound and, just as important, consistency. They need to know that the sound out front and in their monitors will be the same every night.’
Amadeus has collaborated with South African artist, performer and director William Kentridge on an immersive sound environment for his latest multi-sensory installation, More Sweetly Play the Dance, at France’s Les Champs Libres centre.
The exhibition evokes the concept of celebration in its broadest sense, as ‘a place to rejoice, resist, make a claim for social, identity and cultural rights, and catharsis – a place where spectacular and intimate meet’.
Set on the Delaware River midway between New York and Philadelphia, ArtYard in Frenchtown, New Jersey, was founded six years ago with a remit to be ‘an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art’.
In fitting out its recently completed 162-seat McDonnell Theater, ArtYard chose an Alcons Audio pro-ribbon systems for sound.
Almost prescient in its timing, the 5G Festival project sprang into life in 2019, just as the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic was shaping up to impact the world and decimate the live entertainment industry.
Together with growing calls to action over environmental concerns, an exploratory venture into the world of remote entertainment technology couldn’t have been a more welcome endeavour.
Turning a 125-year-old Fort Lauderdale church into a modern restaurant and nightclub provided hospitality and venue operator David Cardaci a further opportunity to demonstrate his tenacity and vision.
More than two-and-a-half years in the making during a global pandemic, The Angeles nightclub and Holly Blue restaurant recently opened their doors to a capacity audience and high praise from club and restaurant goers, and critics alike.
When John Harris and Jody Elff recruited to engineer the recording of CBS’ One Last Time: An Evening with Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga shortly before Bennett announced his retirement from live performance, they immediately understood the musical and cultural significance of the event.
‘We knew this would be a big show on so many levels,’ says Harris. ‘We had to capture magic in a bottle.’
The growing popularity of gaming is seeing audio facilities flourish – particularly under the global pandemic and lockdowns. One such, G4F in the French city of Angoulême, ranks among Europe’s leading gaming production houses.
At G4F, designers find some of the most highly skilled and experienced professionals in the business. With Focusrite RedNet hardware throughout its multi-studio facility, everything game audio might require is available in one place.
With Bettina Bertók-Thumm and Michael Thumm taking ownership in 2017, Bauer Studios in Ludwigsburg has entered a new phase in its history. Both German and international artists record here – Udo Jürgens, Herbert Grönemeyer, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Miles Davis among them.
‘We have a tradition of looking forward,’ says MD, Michael Thumm. ‘We enjoy exploring new things, and I think that’s why we’re still around after 70 years.’
Specialising in both high-quality and innovative 3D recording, Hannover’s Tonstudio Tessmar makes extensive use of microphones from Sennheiser and Neumann to create immersive experiences in the controlled acoustics of the studio’s mastering suite, using Neumann studio monitors and a Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar.
‘Ever since I was young, I’ve been fascinated with tape recorders and audio technology in general,’ says studio owner Karl Tessmar...
