July 2012 - PSNEurope

Transcription

PSNEUROPE
JULY 2012
Euro
2012 p25
www.prosoundnewseurope.com
THE BUSINESS OF PROFESSIONAL AUDIO
Euphoria in Baku
Stormy times ahead for
theatre sound design? p44
as Eurovision
heads east
p36
Metropolis move
for Roland UK
p17
InfoComm review
p14
RED alert!
The challenge of
broadcasting live events
p32
The standards stay,
but innovation never ends.
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July 2012 l 03
welcome
Photo: Jake Young
EDITOR’S COMMENT
“If I could hire the
arena at the end of
my road for a huge
egg-and-spoon race,
who would I ask to
come along?”
Cover picture: Azerbaijan’s
Sabina Babayeva sings When The
Music Dies in the Eurovision final
Photo: Ralph Larmann for Sennheiser
SO I WAS thinking. If I could hire the Ladywell Arena,
at the end of my road in SE6, for a huge egg-andspoon race, who would I ask to come along? Delta
Sound, Britannia Row and Dimension Audio, perhaps.
They could bring Yamaha desks, T5n amps, and those
DME mixing engine things, plus plenty of L-Acoustics
V-DOSC and dV SUBs (my iPod will sound fab!) .
We’d need Electro-Voice and JBL speakers on the
buildings around the park, I reckon. (Shopping list:
nails, hammer, healthy snacks, bottles of Pepsi.)
If some of the competitors fancied a splash about
later, I’d direct them to Ladywell Pools up the road,
where I would have installed a good number of
Community R-Series speakers and TRC transformers.
My neighbour’s got one of those basketball hoops
above his garage: we could hang some Community
boxes there as well. (Probably see if that clever Roland
Hemming chap could help wire all this gear in for me.)
Microphones? Lots and lots of Audio-Technica
models, for winning speeches and stuff, karaoke maybe,
some Sennheiser kit too. In fact, get the Wycombe
boys to bring their tents so they could stay over for the
duration. Invite Terry Tew and Mick Shepherd along,
but only if they brought a big box of AA batteries.
I’d ask Aussie bloke Scott Willsalen to keep an eye
on the volume levels at the pre-race party (check out
my edit of Born Slippy, done with Pro Tools – sensible
choice), and put Bobby Aitken in charge of everything
sounding nice. “He will, he will rock you...” Woo-hoo!
Right, time to get on the phone, see if everyone can
come... What’s that? Busy? All summer? WHAT?!
Dave Robinson
Twitter: @psneurope
IN THIS ISSUE...
NEWS
PSNEurope’s Olympic round-up
Allen & Heath celebrates Queen’s Award success
Industry appointments
Key pro-audio events and expos
4
5
6
8
TECHNOLOGY
Product review: Unity Audio, The Boulder
New products
10
12
InfoComm review
Highlights of another busy show
p14
STUDIO
Roland relocates to Metropolis Studios
Goldcrest Post enjoys Olympic success
Avid sheds M-Audio, AIR and Sibelius
Fenix Studios celebrates its first birthday
17
18
19
20
BROADCAST
Broadcasting Euro 2012
Intercom: what technology next?
Unique multi-site opera broadcast
Feature: Live reporting
25
27
30
32
LIVE
Meeting the challenges of Eurovision 2012
Noise Control Audio at UK’s newest festival site
PSNEurope talks to Line 6 MD Mike Muench
Feature: Theatre sound design
Feature: On the road, part 1
36
38
42
44
48
INSTALL
50 Triple product launch for VUE
51 Academy Music Group invests in VENUEs
52 Stuttgart convention centre fits out with Lawo
53 Olympic training venue opts for K-array
BACK PAGES
Hither & Dither
Interview: Gert Sanner, Harman Pro
57
58
04 l July 2012
For the latest news
news
UNITED KINGDOM
It’s not been easy,
sourcing technical
material in the lead up
to the Games. Here’s a
run down of what we
can print. And – yes! –
Olympic battery news
PANASONIC IS the official
audiovisual sponsor for London
2012. But you wouldn’t know
that from searching through the
press kit: the electronics AV
giant appears to be more
concerned with its V than its A.
Fortunately, some
information on the audio
component of the broadcast
coverage has been released prior
to the Games. Let’s start at
home with the BBC.
At the heart of the last two
years’ worth of sound planning
for the BBC’s coverage is
Peter Bridges, BBC Studios and
Post Production’s lead sound
supervisor for London 2012.
He and his team of 19 have the
technical challenge of delivering
audio content via TV (for both
scheduled and on-demand TV),
online and via mobile devices.
“London 2012 will give audiences
by far the most interactive and
immersive experience that I have
ever seen,” he says.
NEW DS8000
Bridges’ role also includes
designing the communications
system between production and
technical staff, a key part of any
broadcast TV facility, but
especially so for a large-scale live
sporting event such as this.
As a rights-holding broadcaster,
BBC Sport’s sound team, led by
Bridges, will be based in the
International Broadcast Centre
(IBC) in the Olympic Park in
Stratford. At any one time they
will receive up to 46 feeds from the
host broadcaster, Olympic
Broadcasting Services (OBS),
along with feeds from their own
cameras and commentary
microphones at the 34 venues, and
feeds from their own TV studio
based in the Olympic Park.
As Bridges explains: “With so
many feeds coming into the IBC
at any one time we need a very
organised way of dealing with
them so that they can quickly be
available to any of our galleries
at the IBC and to our VT area.”
Virtually all of the BBC’s TV
coverage will originate in one of
three main production galleries at
the IBC. Each is equipped with
its own state-of-the-art sound
control room designed by Bridges
specially for this event. Each
control room will feature a
62-fader Studer Vista 9 console
along with a Yamaha 01V96
mixer and SpotOn audio
playback software. The Vista 9
will output both a 5.1 and stereo
Quit horsing around and give us
the lowdown on the Games!
mix, and monitoring will be via a
Genelec 5.1 loudspeaker system.
On top of the main broadcasts
on BBC One and BBC Three,
they are rolling out an extra 24
digital channels which will be
populated with specific event
coverage for Red Button, internet
and other platforms including
Virgin Media and Freesat. Each
channel will carry its own stereo
mix of host clean effects along
with BBC commentary, mixed by
two Studer OnAir 3000 consoles.
Bridges continues: “Having
extra channels carrying dedicated
coverage of particular events is
not new for the BBC, but for
London 2012 we’re providing
coverage of every Olympic sport
live from every venue, every day,
so the scale is unprecedented.”
The communications system
is based on four Riedel Artist
Photo: Bob Martin, London 2012
The Games: what we know (officially)
128 matrices fibre-linked
together to provide a 512 x 512
port matrix between the IBC
and the venues.
In Germany, ARD Radio
covered the Euro 2012
championships, and for that
purpose rented two Lawo crystal
consoles, one mc256 console, and
one Nova29 from Lawo’s rental
partner Audio Broadcast Services
(ABS). It is the same setup ARD
will use to broadcast from the IBC
for London 2012, Lawo reveals.
Calrec Audio is supplying six
Artemis consoles to US
PA SUPPLIER RG Jones debuted its
new Martin Audio MLA rig at five
London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay
events last month, presented by
Coca-Cola. The system was acquired
at the time of winning this contract:
“It then became a no-brainer to
launch it on these shows,” said RG
Jones’ Steve Carr. “It was an
Audio Distribution System
DS8000. All new. Well, almost.
Some things you just can’t change, but everything else? No problem. Re-engineered from the ground-up based on your
feedback about the best-selling DS800, the DS8000 sets a new standard in audio distribution systems. With an all new mic
pre-amp, redundant power supply linking, quick one-to-many splitting, subtle panel illumination and an AES digital output option,
the DS8000 offers incredible performance and the highest reliability in all conditions. And it’s still blue.
broadcaster NBC Olympics. Two
64-fader Artemis Shine and two
24-fader Artemis Beam consoles
will be used in the IBC
for main feeds. The remaining
two 40-fader Beam consoles
will be used at the Basketball
Arena in Stratford, and for
volleyball at Earls Court. And!
Anton/Bauer will equip NBC
Olympics with Dionic HC and
Dionic HCX batteries, as well
as having its biggest chargers
readily available – the TM4 and
Dual 2722. n
www.london2012.com
opportunity to showcase it to a
number of FOH engineers, all of
whom wanted to experience this
pioneering system… and we received
great response back.” Acts appearing
at the shows included The Wanted,
Friendly Fires and Dizzee Rascal.
www.martin-audio.com
www.rgjones.co.uk
www.xta.co.uk
July 2012 l 05
news
UNITED KINGDOM
Mixing with royalty
explains Rogers, “and that’s
where they saw the potential to
capitalise by acquiring the
company. We’ve seen that
investment come to fruition,
with a great deal of support for
this platform. Since then, of
course, we’ve moved on to the
GLD launch, which has also
done extremely well.”
iLive was Allen & Heath’s
response to the emerging digital
market’s demand for flexible
control, audio networking
and application-specific
configuration. It was a
worldwide phenomenon, says
Rogers. “The core markets of
Europe and the US had great
success, but even territories such
as Indonesia, Australia and
China latched onto the digital
Allen & Heath MD
Glenn Rogers reflects
upon crowning export
glories in the face of
mounting global crises.
Phil Ward reports
TO WIN a Queen’s Award for
Enterprise in a Jubilee year has
a warm glow of Horlicks to it,
like Virginia Wade winning
Wimbledon in 1977. No doubt
the Cornish factory of Allen &
Heath, which has picked up its
second such gong in the
category for International Trade,
is festooned in bunting as
commemorative mugs are
handed out by tin miners’
children on penny farthings. For
MD Glenn Rogers, though, the
honour is a feather in a truly
global cap because, this time, it
represents British resilience to
worldwide economic broadsides.
“The export growth
recognised by the Award was
achieved in the period 2008 to
2011,” he points out, “which
anyone will instantly know was
not an easy time. The secret
behind it is our success with the
iLive family, and the subsequent
evolution of the iLive-T and
GLD concepts.”
Overseas revenue leaped by
64% during this time, which
Rogers characterises as “beating
the drum all over the world for
excellence in British pro audio”.
A winning enterprise in this
category simply has to be based
in the UK, and there are no
other caveats regarding
manufacturing locations,
partnership agreements or the
like. “As long as you’re creating
trade and value for ‘Brand UK’,
you’re eligible,” adds Rogers,
who has been with Allen &
Heath since 1983. “They look at
three years’ worth of overseas
performance, including the ratio
between export and UK sales,
and the kind of things you’ve
invested in to drive that growth
– all the things that go into
making a business that’s there
for the long run, rather than
short-term opportunism.”
64%
Glenn Rogers: Beating the
drum for British pro audio
The expansion has been
spread across all regions, with
no particular strength – or
weaknesses – reported from
Northern or Southern Europe,
Asia or the Americas. The real
catalyst, says Rogers, has been
iLive and the sustained
development of the digital
platform – not that the analogue
business has evaporated. In fact,
Allen & Heath’s long heritage in
this field is contributing to a
robust durability driven,
Rogers believes, by its sheer
friendliness, usability and highly
visible familiarity.
“The ZED Series has done
remarkably well, alongside the
good old workhorses like the
Wizard3 and GL series. Nothing
has dropped away: taken as a
whole, analogue circuitry is still
a bigger part of our business
than digital circuitry. It’s the
kind of mixing that does exactly
what it says on the tin. As far as
the DJ market is concerned,
2011 was tougher because the
software-driven controller
market really took off, making
things difficult for the
conventional hardware. But at
the top end, where we are still a
leader (with the Xone range),
the pro DJs still demand the
high quality and high capability
that we can provide.”
Product development and
R&D continue to represent the
most significant investments, all
of which is underpinned by a
corporate association now four
years old: D&M Holdings is
also the home of Denon,
Marantz, Calrec and several
other consumer and
professional brands. “We’d
already launched iLive,”
Rise in Allen & Heath’s
overseas revenue, 2008-2011
formula very early on. We really
had to be on our game with
training, because those users
were not used to complex, digital
systems. A lot of effort went into
documentation, backup, advice
and after-sales. We also had to
overcome people’s fears that
the digital sound was never
going to live up to the analogue
sound, so a hell of a lot of R&D
went into that.”
For D&M Holdings, Allen &
Heath represents a live sound
Allen & Heath team at the launch of the GLD (“GL – Digital”)
system on the eve of the NAMM show, January 2012
dimension to a portfolio already
exploring the fallout from a
digital explosion that has given
the world the iPod, internet
radio and all manner of
network-based entertainment
technology. “We had the same
vision,” confirms Rogers, “and
that’s why the partnership is so
suitable. It’s a long-term view
of how connectivity, user
experience and user expectation
of media is being shaped by
digital technology, and you’ll
see the same vision applied
to Calrec and its broadcastspecific applications.”
The seed of a digital project
inside Allen & Heath was
planted as far back as 1995,
when it seemed to some that all
mixing would be digital within
five years. But, displaying a
prudent conservatism of which
Elizabeth II herself would be
proud, the company has
cautiously balanced every
prerogative to arrive at this point:
a true enterprise allowance.
“It can easily go wrong when
you make that kind of
technology leap,” Rogers reflects.
“We’ve all seen cases when great
technology has not been
adopted, so you’ve got to make
sure that customers can gain an
affinity with what you’re trying
to do. That early investment into
iLive has really paid dividends,
because we were able to
demonstrate, above all, how
people could adapt it to their needs.
That flexibility is what helped to
drive the sales along.” n
www.allen-heath.com
06 l July 2012
industrymovers
Genelec grows
marketing team
Lars-Olof Janflød appointed marketing and
public relations director
AS PART of an expansion of
its marketing team, Genelec
has appointed Lars-Olof
Janflød (pictured) to the
position of marketing and
public relations director.
Siamak Naghian, managing
director of Genelec, said:
“Lars-Olof has two decades of
audio industry experience and is
known industry-wide for his
distinguished contribution to
professional
monitoring. This
experience and his indepth of knowledge
of all aspects of the
audio industry will
be invaluable as he
assumes leadership of
our newly expanded
marketing
department.” The newly
reorganised
marketing and
public relations
department will now
have responsibility
for all areas of
marketing
communications,
customer services
and business
development; the
intention is to
enhance the delivery of
product, training and customer
services across the globe.
The other key appointments
in the new team are: Willem
Haen as marketing
communications manager;
Markus Kahelin as customer
service manager; and Terho
Savolainen as business
development manager.
www.genelec.com
Martin Andersson
Lab.gruppen and Lake
Karl Bates
John Hornby Skewes & Co
Lab.gruppen and Lake
have appointed Martin
Andersson to the position of
product manager – touring,
working across the touring
portfolio of the two brands.
He takes up the position after
two years as part of the sales
organisation TC Group
International where he was
employed as international sales
manager for touring products.
The new appointment will see
Andersson drive forward
development of leading product
lines such as the PLM Series
from Lab.gruppen and LM
Series from Lake.
www.labgruppen.com
www.lakeprocessing.com
Karl Bates has joined
distributor John Hornby
Skewes & Co as pro audio area
sales manager south, looking
after customers in the bottom
half of England and Wales, as
well as the whole of Ireland.
He brings more than 25 years of
experience in the music industry
to JHS’s Pro Audio Division,
having previously managed UK
sales for major professional audio
brands, including JBL, dbx,
AKG, Sennheiser, Lab.gruppen,
Adamson and Lexicon.
www.jhstrade.co.uk
Andrew Boswell
LipSync
Philippe Fort
Netia
LipSync has named
Andrew Boswell as
commercial director. He will be
tasked with attracting more
projects for equity investment
and post-production to the
facility, as the company enters
the international co-production
arena for both film and
television projects. Boswell
brings high-level film and
television production experience
gained from companies
including Molinare and Mob
Film Company.
www.lipsyncpost.co.uk
Netia has announced a
significant organisational
change with the appointment
of Philippe Fort as CEO and
the departure of Netia
founders Christophe Carniel
and Pierre Keiflin. Fort is the
former president of Netia’s
supervisory board, and
has more than 20 years
of experience in the
telecommunications
sector with organisations
including British
Telecom, Alcatel,
Ericsson and
Atos. Fort
joined France
Telecom in
Dan Page, DiGiCo
2000 and has
David Krall
Universal Audio
been managing director of
GlobeCast since 2011.
www.netia.com
Universal Audio has
added David Krall to
its board of directors,
expanding his involvement
with the company from his role
as strategic advisor, which he
has held since July 2011.
Krall currently serves as
strategic advisor to Roku, is a
member of the board of
directors of Progress Software
and Quantum, and is chairman
of the board of directors
for Audinate and QSecure
Corporation.
www.uaudio.com
Dan Page has become a
sales application specialist
at DiGiCo following four
years in the manufacturer’s
R&D department. He will
be working to build
relationships with the
company’s distributors to
help further expand DiGiCo
sales into existing and
emerging markets,
providing technical
seminars,
workshops and
systems design.
www.digico.org
A PIONEERING 35K CAPACITY ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT DESTINATION IN THE HEART OF EAST LONDON
ALL AUDIO ELEMENTS FOR THE HUB AND DOME ARENAS WERE DESIGNED, BUILT AND INSTALLED BY NOISE CONTROL AUDIO
08 l July 2012
For more events news visit
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/events
expos&events
SHOW
SPECIAL
SPOTLIGHT
Extra Circulation
IBC 2012
6-11 September
Amsterdam, Netherlands
www.ibc.org
EDITORIAL
PLANNER
PSNLIVE
Published, July!
Preparations for the 2012 IBC conference and exhibition are
beginning to gather pace with more than 1,300 exhibitors lined
up for this year’s event. Technologies including mobile video,
automated playout, stereo 3D and Cloud production will be
covered across 14 halls in the RAI, while a six-day conference
programme covers topics including the convergence of broadcast
TV and the Internet, Archive Technology and Stereo & 3D.
To arrange a meeting with the PSNEurope team email
[email protected].
To advertise in the IBC Daily, published by sister title
TVBEurope, email [email protected].
AUGUST
IBC + PLASA preview, part one
Live consoles
Compact digital mixing systems are
back in the frame. The marketplace is
busier than ever...
EVENTS Your complete events calendar for the months ahead
Networking projects
There’s a lot of talk about protocols...
but where is digital networking
actually being put to use?
Cambridge Folk Festival
26-29 July
Cambridge, UK
www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk
IFA
31 August-5 September
Berlin, Germany
www.ifa-berlin.de
PLASA 2012
9-12 September
London, UK
www.plasashow.com
WOMAD
27-29 July
Charlton Park, UK
www.womad.org
CEDIA Expo 2012
5-8 September
Indianapolis, US
www.cedia.net
InfoComm Middle East & Africa
14-16 October
Dubai, UAE
www.infocomm-mea.com
SEPTEMBER
Edinburgh International Festival
9 August-2 September
Edinburgh, UK
www.eif.co.uk
Bestival
6-9 September
Isle of Wight, UK
www.bestival.net
GITEX Technology Week
14-18 October
Dubai, UAE
www.gitex.com
Audio in AV integration
Pro-audio, voice evac and LED
screens come together
IBC 2012 Conference
6-11 September
www.ibc.org
LDI/Live Design
24-30 October
Orlando, US
www.ldishow.com
IBC 2012
7-11 September
www.ibc.org
133rd AES Convention
26-27 October
San Francisco, US
www.aes.org
V Festival
18-19 August
Chelmsford, UK
www.vfestival.com
Leeds Festival
25-27 August
Leeds, UK
www.leedsfestival.com
A Camping Flight to
Lowlands Paradise
17-19 August
Biddinghuizen, Netherlands
www.lowlands.nl
Reading Festival
25-27 August
Reading, UK
www.readingfestival.com
Deadline: 20 July
Distribution: 7 August
IBC + PLASA preview, part two
Outboard (inc. software)
What’s so good about the ‘500
series’ and Lunchbox format?
Or can we do it in software instead?
Deadline: 17 August
Distribution: 4 September
UNLOCK YOUR CREATIVITY
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10 l July 2012
technologyreview
Unity Audio The Boulder
Unity’s first studio monitor, The Rock, was a bold move. This three-way active
follow-up, says Russ Hepworth-Sawyer, is Boulder...
SOME OBSERVERS might
question why a distributor would
design its own studio monitors.
What’s the point when there are
so many models to choose from
already? And, frankly, what
credibility, legitimacy and legacy
might that distributor bring to
such an endeavour?
Unity Audio’s operational
history has included the
distribution of notable monitor
manufacturers Dynaudio and
ADAM. Through this, Unity
has clearly learnt a thing or two
and subsequently cast aside any
doubt with its highly acclaimed
monitor The Rock.
My colleague Phil Harding
gave such a glowing review of
The Rock back in August 2011’s
PSNEurope that I could not
wait to get my hands on the big
brother, The Boulder.
Meanwhile news was spreading
that The Rock had ended up in
mastering rooms at Metropolis
Studio in west London. Surely
The Boulder is more suited for
that job I thought? Time to
phone Unity and request a pair.
Each Boulder is a fairly heavy
23kg and is extremely well built
from a plywood exterior and
faced in a hardwearing speckle
finish provided by the 30mm
thick DuPont Corian front panel.
Corian is a highly dense material
The Boulder: a three-way active monitor
that can be thermoformed to
form smooth curved edges for the
Boulder’s body, and the attractive
scoops either side of the tweeter.
This tweeter is actually a dual
concentric mid-range driver and
ribbon tweeter designed by Elac.
The mid-range is “a ring
radiator” made from an
aluminium honeycomb with the
ribbon tweeter placed in the
middle. Meanwhile, two
identical woofers to those found
in The Rock make this a threeway box despite its four drivers.
Unity Audio enlisted acoustic
designer Kevin Van Green for the
Boulder cabinet design, and Tim
De Paravicini of Esoteric Audio
Research (E.A.R.) for the
amplifier. E.A.R. provides four
discrete 100W Class A/B amps
for each of the drivers with
crossover frequencies set at
694Hz and 3.5kHz. This level of
power is welcome given that The
Boulder is a sealed cabinet
design, as with The Rock before
it. This is a positive feature as
The Boulder has a smooth bass
extension at low volumes for the
size of both the 7” woofers and
the cabinet. At times I was
wondering whether I’d left my
subwoofer on. The E.A.R. unit
also facilitates a midrange
cut/boost switch by +/-2.5dB plus
a high-frequency EQ shelf switch
at 10kHz+/-2.5dB to help keep
things matched in challenging
acoustic environments.
At the other end the highs were
exceptionally clear and mostly
smooth, although at higher SPLs
I felt a brightness at times that
could be a little tiring for some.
The Boulder’s mid-range unit
ensures that the mids, and vocals
especially, are delivered with
pinpoint clarity. Working at low
levels, Unity’s new monitor
provided solid low frequency
response as well as crystal clear
highs with relative ease that
almost mean you can turn your
usual working level down in the
control room.
As I tested The Boulder, I tried
to compare its sound to that of
ported ATC SCM50ASL
models. I felt the ATC monitors
were less aggressive than The
Boulder providing what could be
described as a smoother sound,
but one I am used to (its my
age!). Despite being smaller than
the SCM50, The Boulder still
had an imposing sense of power.
They provide a beautiful sense of
clarity and presence that is no
better or worse than the ATCs,
but of a differing character.
For mastering it is important
to have a sharp sense of the
stereo field and The Boulder
provides this. The placement of
the mid-range driver and tweeter
together provides solid alignment
that provides focus throughout
the SPL range. Interestingly I was
not pinned down to one sweet
spot in the room, as the dual
concentric drivers permit a bit of
user movement with little effect.
In a desperate search of a
fault to report, I drove these in a
fairly large room and eventually
reached the volume limits of
The Boulder but at an unhealthy,
painfully high SPL before any
distortion could be perceived.
If you’re out shopping for a
three-way mid-field monitoring
solution of this calibre you could
look at the ADAM S4X-H which
is more expensive in the £5-£6k
price bracket, or the ATC
SCM50ASL, which is far more
expensive. Given this, The Boulder
is hard to ignore. n
C L E A R
A S
"! """ "" PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
f £5,160 (€6,460) inc VAT per pair
Available from Unity Audio
Phone: +44 (0)1440 785843
www.unityaudioproducts.co.uk
TECH SPECS
f Three-way active monitor with
coaxial mid-range tweeter
f Crossover frequencies: 694Hz
and 3.5kHz
f Frequency response: +/-3dB
39Hz-30kHz
f Maximum output level 113dB
(1m on-axis)
f 4 x bespoke Class A/B 100
per Boulder
f Closed cabinet design
f Coaxial 5’’ mid-range and
50kHz folded ribbon tweeter
f 2 x 180mm (7’’) woofers
PROS
f Impressively sharp sound
f Excellent rounded bass
extension at low SPLs
f Accurate stereo imaging
f Bespoke E.A.R. amplification
for The Boulder
f Attractive Corian design
CONS
f Might be a bit too detailed for
some listeners
f Equally has a brighter character
some may not prefer
$ )!)'&
$ )!)'&
$ )!)'&
-,+*)('&+&*%'+$#"! ()(*&,)'%&$+$"&'+"&$!&!'%+$'&'$&+"&$'&!'%&$!&,)&+
&+(&+(&%'!%&+(&'($)%'&+ ,&&
$ )!&('&%$)"$&&!,'"& ('&%''&)$&+&
$ )!)'&,)'%"
!&)$ %'&)$&!,)(*& ('&)$&+(&++%#)(()(*&&!%&%'!%)(*&+(
,))(*&! %&, ")
(&+$&$'&*)*&! ($&)$&'&!!&$!&!($%!&)$&)'&)+&)+&)'&+)
"$%'+,)(*&+& &, $)$%+&!&! %&+(&)($!&! %&+$!
)(&! $&,!%'&+$&%'"!( "!,
Exclusively distributed in the UK & Ireland by Source • www.sourcedistribution.co.uk/presonus • T: 020 8962 5080
facebook.com/sourcedistribution
twitter.com/sourcedist
StudioLive™, Studio One Artist™ and Capture™ are registered trademarks of PreSonus Audio Electronics, Inc.
All other product and company names are property of the respective owners.
12 l July 2012
technologynew products
PSNEurope compiles this month’s list of hot new products
FBT AUDIO
Vertus CLA
What is it? A modular line array system for live and
fixed installations comprising the CLA 604A
column speakers and CLA 208SA subwoofer.
Details: The CLA604a is an extruded aluminium
column speaker fitted with six (4” custom
neodymium woofers and four neodymium dome
tweeters, each coupled to a wave guide. Class D
amplification, (400W for the woofers and 100W
for the tweeters) with switch mode power supply,
DSP processor and four equalisation presets,
allows for appropriate sound in any condition. The
modular design enables the doubling-up of CLA
604A modules to form a unified column with a
coherent source.
The CLA 208SA is an active subwoofer with two
8” drivers in a bass-reflex design, birch ply
enclosure. A Class D amplifier delivers 600W and is
matched with a switch mode power supply and a
DSP processor with filtering functions, equalisation
and speaker protection.
And another thing… The thin and long
form allows for the integration of the speaker
column in any environment in a discrete and
non-invasive way.
www.fbtaudio.co.uk
KALTMAN CREATIONS
ELYSIA
NVELOPE
500
RF-ID SOLO AND
RF-ID STATION
What is it? Elysia’s latest addition to
the increasingly popular ‘500 series’.
What is it? Two new products under
the Invisible Waves product banner
that aid in identifying wireless
devices’ frequencies.
Details: The nvelope 500 is a two-space
stereo dynamics processor capable of
making subtle or drastic changes to a
sound by altering its impulse
structure, providing direct control over
the envelope of a signal by shaping the
intensity of its attack and sustain.
It is primarily intended to shape
individual signals, but it can be used
in mixing applications as well, as it
can subtly shift a sound towards the
front of the mix using more attack
and less sustain, or blend it gently
into the background by reducing its
attack and increasing its sustain.
The nvelope 500 also benefits
from the enhanced tweakability
offered in Dual Band mode. Individual
frequency controls for attack and
sustain yield precise results while
avoiding unwanted artifacts, even
when used on complex material like a
summing bus. It can be used on a
range of different instruments such
as drums, percussion, bass, edgy
guitar, acoustic piano and even on
full mixes.
And another thing… The nvelope
500 offers true dual mono or linked
stereo operation in Full Range, Dual
Band or EQ mode.
www.unityaudio.co.uk
Details: RF-id SOLO and RF-id
STATION both key in on wireless
transmissions as nearfield frequency
counters, one as a handheld device and
the other in a self-contained case for
multiple wireless devices.
The RF-id STATION is primarily for
professional audio wireless users while
the RF-id SOLO is aimed at RF/audio
techs, production companies, rental
houses, contractor/installers and the like.
The RF-id STATION allows RF
technicians to efficiently stage and
manage their wireless microphones
before and during a live
TANNOY
VSX SERIES
What is it? A new line of compact
installation subwoofers.
Details: Developed to augment the
recently launched VX Series
and VXP Series of full-range sound
reinforcement loudspeakers, the
new VSX Series initially comprises five
passive enclosures, with powered
versions set to follow later in the year.
Developed from the ground up, the
VSX Series delivers high-impact, low and
ultra-low frequency reinforcement in a
compact format. The devices are said to
be ideal for providing high-definition,
extended low-end response for Tannoy’s
range of installation
loudspeaker systems.
The new range comprises
five passive models – three of
which are band-pass
configuration – VSX 8.2BP,
VSX 10BP and VSX 12.2BP
– and two direct-radiating
devices –VSX 15DR and VSX 18DR.
All models feature a compact
volume and footprint relative to
their driver complement and
performance capabilities.
And another thing… The VSX Series
heralds the introduction of
event/performance. It consists of a
rugged plastic carrying case with eight
designated foam-formed slots for
wireless microphones or wireless belt
pack transmitters.
With the unit’s LCD readout, the
RF-id SOLO user can simultaneously and
instantly confirm exact frequencies and
transmission signal strength, avoiding
the need to handle the transmitter.
It works with both digital and
analogue single carrier transmissions in
the 50MHz to 2.5GHz range and can be
used with assisted listening devices,
intercom, cell phones, two-way radio
and commercial RFID tags, provided
that the transmissions are not a
spread-spectrum or frequency hopping.
And another thing… The station can
also be used as a microphone and
accessory carrying case with storage for
up to 18 transmitters.
www.kaltmancreationsllc.com
BEYERDYNAMIC
DT770 PRO
LIMITED EDITION
What is it? A 32 Ohm edition of
beyerdynamic’s DT770 PRO
headphones released to celebrate its
88th anniversary.
Tannoy’s EMT (Excursion Management
Technology) on the VSX 8.2BP,
VSX 10BP and VSX 12.2BP. This is said
to optimise tonal balance and harmonic
output through precisely engineered
enclosure geometry and innovative
transducer design.
www.tannoy.com
Details: Like its bestselling
80 Ohm and 250 Ohm twins,
this special 32 Ohm version
is handmade in Germany. It
comes complete with a black
soft-skin headband and ear
cushions, a 1.6m straight cable
with 6.35mm and 3.5mm
mini jack connectors as well as
aluminium labels on the side cups,
which are embossed with the
anniversary number 88.
The limited anniversary edition
DT770 PRO 32 Ohm comes in a
retro-style box.
And another thing… The 770 PRO
32 Ohm anniversary edition
is compatible with smartphones,
MP3 players, tablets, laptops and
PC soundcards.
www.beyerdynamic.com
Bigger picture | Brighter ideas
The essential international
event for entertainment &
installation technology
• 300 exhibitors
• 500 new products
• Free four day Professional
Development Programme
Book online now and save
50% off the ticket price
www.plasashow.com
14 l July 2012
4%
showreview
Year-on-year increase
in attendance
Some 34,250 people
descended on Las
Vegas in June
UNITED STATES
AV intensified
More than 34,250 visitors descended on the Las Vegas Convention Centre for InfoComm
2012 last month – up 4% on last year – and it had a bit of everything: announcements,
new products and some very cool demonstrations, writes Paul Watson
Uli Behringer seems to
enjoy making the
headlines, and he
surpassed himself at this year’s
InfoComm. First, it was
revealed on the eve of the Las
Vegas show that Behringer’s
Music Group had acquired
Turbosound from Proel, then
both Midas and Behringer
brands revealed a significant
digital console offering.
The new, super-lightweight
(21.5kg), multi-application
PRO1 becomes the most
affordable of M idas’s PRO
range, and follows the successful
release of the PRO2 and PRO2C
at last year’s PLASA show.
Packed with all the features of
those two boards, PRO1 has a
smaller footprint, and thanks to
its newly-designed aluminium
frame, can be picked up and
thrown into the back of the car
(as Midas’s brand development
manager, Richard Ferriday,
demonstrated). It’s also the first
Midas PRO board that works
independently of its stage boxes,
as all its 24 inputs and outputs
are right there on the backplate;
alternatively, when connected to
any Midas I/O digital stage
boxes, it’s possible to mix up to
48 inputs simultaneously.
Bigger news arguably – and
surely enough to get the
attention of all console
manufacturers – is the release
of Behringer’s X32: a
128-input/output, 32-channel
digital board that boasts
Midas-designed preamps, and a
staggering $3,000 price-point.
A game changer? Well,
according to Behringer, it’s
already a case of “game
changed”. Watch this space.
Although the AVnu Alliance
took a stand (in both senses) to
raise AVB awareness in the heart
of the audio hall with a series of
seminars, it was also evident that
Dante is continuing to make a
significant impact. Lectrosonics,
for example, launched its Aspen
DNT Dante 32 I/O network
processor, which is the follow-up
to the manufacturer’s original
Richard Ferriday and the
super-lightweight Midas PRO1
Aspen system. This ultra-low
latency unit (typically 1.5ms for
a 48-input system) utilises the
protocol to transform Aspen
from an isolated system into a
network system.
“We chose Dante because it’s
gathered momentum in recent
years – it’s working now, and
it also runs off standard offthe-shelf network hardware,”
reveals Karl Winkler,
Lectrosonics’ director of
business development. “Audio
needs to be real-time, and
Dante adds very little latency to
route audio to a room; also, you
don’t need any expensive
switchers or routers.”
A fair point from Winkler –
and considering Cisco
(although a member of AVnu
Alliance) still hasn’t introduced
any AVB-compliant products at
this point, the fact that it is
responsible for more than 75%
of the installed sound market
certainly raises the question as
to when exactly AVB will really
get off the ground.
July 2012 l 15
InfoComm
2012
Meyer Sound presented
CAL, its new self-powered
series of steerable Column
Array Speakers, as well as a
full-scale surround sound
demonstration utilising a string
of its loudspeakers. CAL’s
vertical beam can be angled up
or down by 30º and can be
configured with vertical beam
widths from 5-60º. The
manufacturer says its multiple
or split beams can be used as
needed to fit any application.
EAW also held loudspeaker
demonstrations in an external
room, focusing on its muscular
Avalon range, which in honesty
almost made my ears bleed (that
is a compliment of sorts, by the
way!) I’m not sure I’ve witnessed
a more aggressive low-end, so
it’s unsurprising that EAW is
confident of Avalon making a big
impact in the dance club scene.
Renkus-Heinz presented its
Varia series to the pro-audio
world for the first time. Tailored
to both the touring and install
markets, its modular design
means the system can be
ground-stacked or configurable
as either a vertical line array or
point source horizontal array.
There are three different Varia
cabinets (7.5º 15º, and 22º
models) which feature
interchangeable waveguides and
transitional waveguides from
60-90º or 90-120º within a single
cabinet. The manufacturer
claims Varia to be its most
flexible loudspeaker series yet.
RTW showed its micro-sized
new loudness monitor, the
TM3. Available in both stereo
(two-channel PPM) and
six-channel (three stereo pairs or
5.1 metering) versions, its screen
can be oriented vertically or
horizontally, and its breakout
box has analogue inputs on
RCAs with a trim on the pot.
RTW’s proprietary Devicer DC1
software application allows
users to create up to 10 presets
Posse revealed a new IEM
system “designed by
musicians for musicians”
The ‘game-changing’ X32
from Behringer
quickly and simply, with just the
swipe of a finger.
For loudness alone, according
to the manufacturer, the TM3
is suited to broadcast, postproduction and film; for PPM, it
will work for ‘anything audio’,
from mixing in the home studio
to making master-quality
recordings. The TM3 is also
capable of True Peak, which is
now an official ‘spec’ for
broadcast; in the world of
professional recording and
mastering, this will suit
engineers who are mixing ‘hot’
or getting close to dBFS. Look
out for a review in PSNEurope
next month.
Soundcraft announced the
release of its ViSi remote iPad
App for the Si console range.
Available for free at the iTunes
store, the app provides full
remote control over multiple Si
consoles’ input channels, EQ
settings, aux sends, and mutes
from one single iPad, utilising
Harman’s HiQnet architecture
to connect the network of
consoles to a wireless router,
which then communicates to
the iPad.
Multiple iPads can be
deployed on the same network,
so artists can use the app to
control their individual
monitor mixes on stage.
Soundcraft says a software
update is coming soon that will
make the app compatible with
the Vi console range.
Finally (alphabetically at
least) XTA revealed its new
DS8000, the first XTA product
to feature the manufacturer’s
newly-designed mic preamp.
The successor to XTA’s DS800
mic/line splitter, this new box
has an illuminated front panel
which features additional
transformer balance outputs to
allow it to split audio to OB
trucks. On the back there are
buttons which enable users to
achieve stereo 16-way splits, and
a redundant power supply
connects two units via a five-pin
XLR connection, so the second
unit kicks in and takes over if
the mains lead is kicked out of
the master. n
www.infocomm.org
AT A GLANCE
Lectrosonics Aspen DNT Dante
32 I/O network processor
t
RTW’s
micro-sized TM3
loudness monitor
t
t
Posse Audio revealed an
interesting new take on personal
monitoring. The US-based
manufacturer has designed an
IEM system which incorporates
two stereo L/R ambient room
microphones, so as well as being
able to adjust vocal and
instrument level, the user can
literally turn up the sound of the
room in his or her mix, therefore
removing the isolation that so
many musicians struggle to deal
with when wearing headphones
at live shows.
The main control box clips
onto a mic stand and includes
an inline guitar tuner and
phantom power; it connects to a
floor box (receiver) via an
HDMI cable.
“This is a system which has
been designed by musicians
for musicians,” insists Posse’s
Scott Morrison. “From small
bar gigs to major productions,
this product can really work
for everyone.”
And I can vouch for that,
having tried it out at the show –
the audio quality was pristine,
and it’s very easy to use.
On the Peavey Commercial
Audio stand, a Full HD 7.1
surround sound system
utilising MediaMatrix, Crest
Audio and Architectural
Acoustics products was
demonstrated, booming out the
soundtrack from the movie
Captain America.
The system controlled several
third-party devices including an
Oppo Blu-ray player, and
consisted of a streamlined
MediaMatrix NION nE DSP
processor and the new
VSC-101 MediaMatrix video
scaler/switcher, both of which
were being controlled by the
MediaMatrix GUI and Crest
Audio Ci amps.
A selection of Architectural
Acoustics speakers were
deployed, including the WS
wall/ceiling mount range and
several Impulse 261 and 652
boxes. Multiple MediaMatrix
control access points were
configured to control the
system including nTouch 60
and 180 touchscreen wallmount units and the new
xControl LCD panel.
“The system was also
configured to be controlled from
NWare Mobile using an iPad,”
explains Peavey’s operations
manager EMEA, James
Kennedy. “This setup
demonstrates how Peavey
Commercial Audio products can
also be utilised in the residential
market place.”
showreview
Richard Fleming with
the XTA DS 8000
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July 2012 l 17
For the latest studio news
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/studio
Studio
UNITED KINGDOM
Roland powers up at
new Metropolis HQ
The new UK base for the
audiovisual musical
instrument/pro-audio
specialist locates it in
the heart of west
London’s creative hub,
writes Dave Robinson
ROLAND UK officially launched
its new showroom and offices
based in Metropolis Studios,
the Power House, Chiswick, on
21 June. Pianist and singer/
songwriter Tom Hickox was guest
performer for the debut of the
new HQ, which will serve as a
suite for demonstrating Roland’s
musical products as well as its proaudio and video equipment. “The decision to move to
Metropolis Studios is part of our
long-term strategy to increase our
visibility as a total solutions
provider to audio and video
professionals. The synergy
between both RSG and Music
products are demonstrated
clearly in an environment such as
Pianist and singer/songwriter Tom
Hickox performed at the event
Metropolis – and being here
allows us to gain a better
understanding of what our users
want and how we can better
address our target markets,” said
Peter Heath, business development
director at Roland UK.
A Roland ‘Silent Stage’ (often
seen at trade events) has been
created in the huge Metropolis
atrium, and there are facilities for
webstreaming rich content, and
the hosting of demos of Roland
keyboards and instruments to
artists and bands (artist liaison
specialist Jamie Franklin will be
on-hand to do just that).
“We are the only company that
can combine professional audio,
music and professional video
products. I can’t emphasise that
enough. Working in an
UNITED KINGDOM
Parr Street Studios (still) for sale
THE ICONIC Parr Street
Studios and Hotel in Liverpool
remains up for sale, but,
according to the Liverpool Echo
last month, it is now more than
£1 million cheaper than its
original asking price of £2.95
million (€3.7 million).
The newspaper reports that
City councillor Gary Millar, one
of the three co-owners of the
venue, confessed that only two
“cheeky” offers had been received
for the studio since it went on sale
in August of last year.
Millar, along with Steve
Macfarlane and Thomas Lang,
bought the studio in 2006 from
previous owners Hit and Run –
a company part-owned by
Phil Collins along with other
members of Genesis – to save the
property from being converted
into luxury apartments. The sale
comes at the end of an agreed
five-year plan, which involved
the successful introduction of
new office space, the hotel and
second bar.
“We are seeking buyers who,
like us, will be sympathetic to
the nature of the building and
its tenants. We have done what
we can in the past six years and
now it’s time for someone else to
take Parr Street Studios to the
next level,” said Millar.
In a recent company
release, Millar indicates that
environment that allows us to do
that is fantastic,” added Heath.
“Metropolis and Roland are
very like-minded – they are
pioneering in their space, as are
we in ours,” said Metropolis MD
Ian Brenchley at the launch.
“Everything we do at Metropolis
is about audiovisual excellence,
and Roland are the very best in
their game, so it’s a great match.”
Now in its 21st year, Metropolis
Group is the most successful
independent recording and
production facility in Europe and
offers a range of mastering,
creative and production services
for music film and TV. Plans are
afoot to expand into Qatar and
Los Angeles.
Roland UK MD Tim Walter
commented: “We’ve been looking
for a new base in London for the
RSG team, as well as somewhere
for artist relations. Our artists
need somewhere they feel safe and
secure, to try out equipment.”
Walter says the lease had come to
an end at the former Power Road
facility in Gunnersbury, and the
availability of Metropolis
“absolutely fitted the bill”.
“Particularly in these challenging
economic times, these kind of
partnerships become increasingly
important,” he noted.
From Power Road to the Power
House: but Walter denied the
suggestion that Roland might be
on a ‘power trip’.
“Well, I think it’s just about
moving forwards basically…” he
laughed. “Development, new
partnerships and progress as
opposed to power!” n
www.rolandsystemsgroup.co.uk
despite the economic climate,
the studio and hotel is
being sold as a successful,
on-going concern.
Throughout its history, Parr
Street Studios has been used by
an impressive list of recording
artists, including: Black
Sabbath, Coldplay, Diana Ross,
Rihanna, Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, Simply Red, Stone
Roses, The Stranglers, Take
That and Verve.
The piano used to compose
and record Yellow by Coldplay –
complete with Chris Martin
graffiti – is also included in
the sale. n
www.parrstreet.co.uk
21
years of operation for
Metropolis
SOUNDBITES
CEDAR Cambridge V8TM is now
available, featuring new video
playback support for up to eight
simultaneous AV files. Further
improvements include an expanded
file processing system, new region
categories to enhance its ability to
perform independent processing on
multiple audio regions, improved
output mapping, an expanded Hot
Keys section, and the ability to play,
record and process at 192kHz.
The latest software version runs on
legacy QTM systems as well as
Series IIITM hardware running
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
www.cedaraudio.com
Former Psychedelic Furs
keyboardist Ed Buller has installed
ADAM Audio A77X monitors in his
home studio in north London. He is
currently working with Suede on a
brand-new album, having produced
several albums for them in the
1990s. “Having been an ADAM fan
for many years the A77X was
perfect for my set-up. I love the topend and the unique tweeter means
that I can listen at high levels for
hours with no fatigue,” said Buller.
www.adam-audio.com
Germany’s Osean Studiois the first
in the world to get its hands on
Audient’s ASP4816 console. The
company’s latest compact 40-fader
desk has the same input and monitor
design as its large-format ASP8024.
Osean Studio owner Sébastien
Angrand said: “This console has not
only changed the way I record and
mix, but also the way I hear the music I
compose, arrange, mix and record.”
www.audient.com
Loudspeaker manufacturer PMC
will be presenting the first in a series
of educational listening events for
select groups of retailers at Dorian
Gray studios in Munich on
25-26 July. The ‘Making Waves:
From Studio To Home’ tour will
cover all aspects of music recording,
production and manufacturing,
giving attendees the opportunity to
hear from recording, mixing and
mastering engineers, performing
musicians, acousticians and PMC’s
loudspeaker designers. Details of
further worldwide events will be
announced in the near future.
www.pmc-speakers.com
18 l July 2012
studioreport
Photo: Adrian Rhodes
UNITED KINGDOM
First past the post
A flurry of new films with an Olympics theme has contributed to a medal-winning
summer for Soho’s Goldcrest Post, writes David Davies
IT WOULD be very easy to
assess the Olympian effect on
the UK industry in terms of
the flagship host venues and
surrounding musical events. But
post has also been a significant
beneficiary, as confirmed by
eminent London facility
Goldcrest Post’s recent
quadrathlon of Olympicsrelated projects.
Backed by the BFI and
Adidas, feature-length
documentary Personal Best
follows the journeys of four
British sprinters over a period of
six years leading up to London
2012. Director Sam Blair – who
also recorded audio for the
movie – worked with sound
designer Gunnar Oskarsson and
Goldcrest’s Mark Paterson on
the mix, employing a set-up
based around an AMS Neve
Boy saw producer Barnaby Spurrier join forces
with Goldcrest sound designer Adrian Rhodes
DFC Gemini console, Pro Tools
and some much-loved outboard,
including a Lexicon 960 and TC
Electronic 6000.
“In Personal Best, we made
some quite big decisions during
the mix that really improved the
film,” says Blair. “Mark is very
good at sensing if a scene isn’t
working sound-wise.”
“In particular,” recalls
Paterson, “there was a major
conversation about how best
to convey the noises and
atmosphere of the arena. The
result, I think, is a film with a
highly distinctive soundworld.”
possible. There’s nowhere to run
to on Mike’s films.”
Actor Timothy Spall is no
stranger to Leigh’s company
either, having appeared in
several of the director’s most
memorable movies, including
Secrets and Lies and Vera Drake.
More recently, he signed up
to star in Boy, an emotive
nine-minute short directed by
Justin Chadwick about a
carpenter – played by Spall –
who works at the Velodrome in
the Olympic Park and is battling
to cope with the loss of his
cyclist son. Music, sound and
“It’s been great to have
additional work here as a
direct result of the Games.
Now let’s go and win a
few medals!”
Keith Williams, Goldcrest Post
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Paterson also worked on A
Running Jump, a 40-minute
comedy directed by Mike
Leigh. Premiering as part of
the London 2012 Festival, the
film charts an east London
family and their experiences of
various sporting activities
during everyday life. For
Paterson, it was another
welcome opportunity to log
studio time with Leigh, for
whom he had previously mixed
audio on Happy-Go-Lucky and
Another Year.
“It’s a real pleasure to sit and
watch him coming up with
ideas,” marvels Paterson of the
esteemed British director.
“Mike’s philosophy is essentially
quite simple – he doesn’t want
anything that gets in the way
of the characters or the
performances – but that does
mean that you need the dialogue
to be as clean and ‘real’ as
visuals carry the narrative in a
dialogue-free picture that saw
producer Barnaby Spurrier join
forces with Goldcrest sound
designer Adrian Rhodes.
Over a two year-period, the
pair also collaborated on a
quartet of short films designed
to introduce British children to
the Olympic and Paralympic
mascots. Rhodes even lent his
vocal talents to the “squeaky
communication” of the
mascots Wenlock and
Mandeville, whose adventures
were crafted by War Horse
author Michael Morpurgo.
“From a business point of
view, it has been great to have
additional work here as a direct
result of the Games,” confirms
MD Keith Williams. “I’m sure
there are several other post houses
benefiting in a similar way. Now
let’s go and win a few medals!” n
www.goldcrestpost.com
July 2012 l 19
365
studionews
Projected job losses
at Avid globally
UNITED STATES
Avid’s sheds M-Audio and more
By Dave Robinson
AVID ANNOUNCED on 2 July
that it is offloading its consumer
audio (M-Audio and AIR
Software Group) and video
product lines, for $17 million
(€13.5 million).
InMusic Group, the parent of
Akai Professional, Alesis and
Numark, is said to have paid
around $15 million for the M-Audio
line of keyboards, controllers,
interfaces, speakers and digital DJ
equipment, and the AIR virtual
instrument/plug-in Software Group.
In a separate deal, the media
tools developer has sold consumer
video editing line (based on
Pinnacle Systems technology) to
Corel Corporation, a Canadian
consumer software company.
Shortly after it emerged that
the UK office of score-writing
software Sibelius was to close.
Gary Greenfield, Avid CEO
Ian Bruce, Avid director of
communications, confirmed to
PSNEurope: “Avid is closing its
Finsbury Park [Sibelius] site.
However, we’d like to stress that
this should not in anyway [sic]
be confused with a diminishment
in our commitment to Sibelius.”
Headcount at Avid will be
reduced by around 365, or 20%,
following the moves.
The proceeds from the sale
should offset most of the
restructuring charges paid
in 2012, says Avid. In a
conference call, Avid also
revealed it aims to save $80
million annually ($64 million by
cutting staff, $16 million by
“darkening facilities”).
Avid bought Sibelius in 2006
for $23 million from Ben and
Jonathan Finn, who first devised
the scoring programming in
1993. Avid bought M-Audio for
over $160 million in 2004, and
Pinnacle for $462 million in 2005.
In a press release, Gary
Greenfield, CEO of Avid (who
has an ‘executive compensation’
package of $4.8 million), stated:
“By streamlining and simplifying
operations, we expect to deliver
improved financial performance
and partner more closely
with our enterprise and
professional customers.” n
www.avid.com
PORTUGAL
REPLAY STUDIOS in Santa Maria
De Feira, Portugal, has installed an
SSL Matrix console as the last step
of a three-year progressive upgrade.
The studio opened in 2009 with
Alpha VHD Pre and Duende
plug-ins. The studio took its first
steps into the analogue domain with
an X-Rack, and is currently using a
MadiXtreme and Alpha-Link I/O
system alongside the Matrix.
“The Matrix’s open architecture
means we can approach almost all
production tasks from an angle best
suited to meet the needs of our
clients,” said studio co-owner Mário
de Sá. “We love it. Life’s good and
music is better!”
www.replaystudios.net
www.solidstatelogic.com
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20 l July 2012
studioreport
SWEDEN
Location, atmosphere, technology
There are three reasons
to record at Fenix
Recording Studios in
Varnham, owner Lars
Hallbäck tells Jim
Evans, as the facility
celebrates one year
of operation
FENIX RECORDING Studios
in Varnham – mid way between
Stockholm and Gothenburg –
is owned and operated by
musician and music business
entrepreneur Lars Hallbäck.
His band, Crossfade, is currently
recording its third album there.
But while using the studio
for Crossfade and other
personal recording projects,
Hallbäck has developed the
impressive facility as a full-on
commercial operation.
Hallbäck checked out many
potential locations for his
project before settling on
Varnhem. It is just 10 minutes
from the nearest town where the
trains run every hour between
Stockholm and Gothenburg.
Across the street is a small hotel
that accommodates up to 20
people, so most of Fenix’s
customers stay there.
“After I decided to go ahead
and build a larger studio, I
searched for about a year but
couldn’t find a building suitable
for a large studio with enough
ceiling height. Then I found out
about this 650sqm building,
with a ceiling height of 8m. So
Ingemar Olsson from Audio
The spacious control room offers the
best of analogue combined with the
best of digital
Data Lab, the designer and
myself went to take a look at it,
and we saw the potential so I
decided to buy it.”
The spacious control room at
Fenix serves many live spaces,
and the philosophy is to include
the best of analogue with the
best of digital. That means Pro
Tools HD and Studer A827
two-inch analogue tape recorder
coupled with a vast selection of
outboard gear and instruments.
The studio has been in full
commercial operation now for
about a year and is steadily
attracting interest and clients.
“The word is spreading and
we are getting more and more
interest and bookings,”
says Hallbäck.
“One of the first bands to
record here was Bronk, and Roine
Stolt’s progressive rock band
Agents of Mercy also recorded a
Lars Hallbäck with his SSL Duality
fantastic album here, all live
tracking, using [the] CLASP
[analogue signal processing
system],” continues Hallbäck.
“In my personal studio I used
to mix in the box with a
controller desk. Then we were
invited to SSL in the UK to test
the Duality. We brought a hard
drive with a Pro Tools session
and a mixdown that we made in
the box and flew there. We then
made a quick test comparison
between the SSL console and the
stereo file we had brought along.
Since Fenix now runs a 72channel Duality you can
understand how the test turned
out. I really like the sound and
flexibility of that console.
“As regards monitoring, I had
a pair of ATC 50s in my
personal studio for some years
and since the Fenix control
room is designed from the
ground up to be a 5.1 room as
well I wanted it to have full size
surround monitoring, with the
surround speakers moveable so
that you easily change the
placement of them depending
on what you are monitoring –
music or film. So we have ATC
300 as main speakers, with 150s
as surround and centre.”
Asked why artists and
musicians should bring their
projects to Fenix, Hallbäck
suggests that it’s all about
providing the combination of
location, atmosphere and firstclass technology. He notes: “The
big room features moveable
walls, the drum sound in there is
just marvellous. The smaller
room, 20sqm, is great for vocals
or even drums if you need a
drier sound.
“The 50sqm control room
offers a large enough console for
big mixes, a big collection of
outboards, vintage pres,
microphones, Yamaha Grand,
Hammond B3 with Leslie
speaker, Rhodes and a very large
collection of vintage and new
guitar amps, and cabinets.
Importantly, we can also offer a
friendly atmosphere, a large
lounge and creative vibes.
“It is also nice that these days
more and more bands realise
that even though they can do a
lot in their home studios, the
results when they record
together in a larger studio, the
sum of their collective input in
the recording becomes larger
than the parts alone.” n
www.fenixrecording.com
AUSTRIA
MG Sound expands with Munro
By Erica Basnicki
VIENNA’S MG Sound has
moved into a new building,
designed by Munro Acoustics
and architect Roland Gasperl.
The move doubles the studio’s
size and facilities, and includes
a Dolby mixing theatre. As
Munro Acoustics’ Andy Munro
explained, the move “was a
daunting prospect with
both technical and logistic
challenges galore”.
The facilities include two
main music studios – boasting
Europe’s biggest SSL 9000 K
console – with a shared live
recording area, a larger
‘orchestral’ space with natural
acoustics, and three postproduction rooms, including a
dedicated mastering suite, with
adjacent overdub rooms.
“The results have been very
encouraging with the rooms that
are completely finished sounding
very good indeed,” continues
Munro. “All of our acoustic
design is modular so every room
can be adjusted according to
the final measurements and
artistic feedback.”
The studio was designed and co-ordinated by architect Roland Gasperl
who also provided the original MG Sounds interior design
Studio owners Martin Böhm
and Ludwig Coss adds: “Our
goal was always to put Vienna
on the map musically speaking.
We are enthusiastic about
developing a business operation
that provides a 360º range of
audio services.” n
www.mg-sound.com
www.munro.co.uk
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22 l July 2012
1,300
studionews
SWITZERLAND
Surrounded by jazz
By Erica Basnicki
THE MONTREUX Jazz Festival
and the MetaMedia Center at
Switzerland’s École Polytechnique
Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
have built a multimedia platform
for playing the digitised media of
the Montreux Jazz archive.
The Montreux Jazz Heritage
Lab is a 7m x 8m room, referred
to as ‘the cocoon,’ in which up to
four people can experience over
5,000 hours of concerts recorded
over the past 45 years. A parabolic
screen surrounds the viewer, while
a PSI Audio 10.1 sound system
provides a 3D audio experience.
The system consists of 10 A14-M
speakers and an A225 subwoofer
enhanced by a 3D illusonic AV
processor envelope.
A PSI Audio 10.1 sound system surrounds you inside ‘the cocoon’
P A R T Y L I N E
Take the Stage
The HelixNet Partyline intercom was
created to perform on the big stage.
Reliable and durable to withstand the
most demanding productions, the
rugged beltpacks provide access
to two of four intercom channels
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cable. HelixNet leverages existing
cable infrastructures—no rewiring
required. It can also integrate with
other communication systems over
two- or four- wire interfaces.
Made from lightweight cast aluminum.
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pieces of wood used
to build the room
“It is not just a normal sound.
The sound envelops you. You are
into the image, into the sound,”
said Claude Nobs, founder of
the Montreux Jazz Festival.
The room is built of 1,300
pieces of wood assembled
together, acoustically designed
by EPFL’s Hervé Lissek. A
touchscreen control panel allows
the viewer to select the concert
or songs to be played, as well as
displaying information about
the selection.
The digitisation of the
Montreux Jazz archives is an
ongoing process, undertaken by
Montreux Sounds in partnership
with EPFL, with approximately
40% of the 10,000+ performances
digitised so far. The festival has
requested that UNESCO have
its archives added to the
organisation’s ‘Memory of the
World’, which aims to protect the
world’s intangible heritage. The
request coincided with the launch
of the first ever International Jazz
Day in April of this year. n
metamedia.epfl.ch
www.psiaudio.com
July 2012 l 23
studionews
OBITUARY
Gerry Bron (1933-2012)
Grammy award-winning
engineer Alan Branch
worked with Bron at
PRODUCER AND music
Roundhouse. “Gerry was a
business entrepreneur Gerry
one-off, a unique character,”
Bron has died aged 79.
says Branch. “Roundhouse
The founder and co-owner
was one of the classic
of Bronze Records, he was
studios of its time – shag
closely involved in the late
pile carpets up the wall and
’70s/early ’80s with the
everything. And it worked.
recording careers of Uriah
Gerry was a business man
Heep, Juicy Lucy, Richard
Gerry Bron: “A one-off,
as much as a producer and
Barnes and Colosseum, and
a unique character”
had his ups and downs, but
Hawkwind. He also ran
London’s Roundhouse Recording Studios I found him a good boss. He gave me
my break into the business for which I
in its heyday and later moved into
producer/studio management.
remain eternally grateful.”
Producer/engineer Paul Borg
Bronze Records gained a reputation for
hedonistic promotions. The label had its
comments: “Gerry played a significant
role in my career for many years. He
own associated airline and would fly
music industry hacks and radio promo
was a strong and influential figure
people round Europe to check out Bronze within the music industry, and those
that knew him personally will have
acts. There would later be analogies
been touched by his warmth and love
between Uriah Heep and the
for his family.” n
‘rockumentary’ movie This is Spinal Tap.
By Jim Evans
OBITUARY
Keith Grant (1941-2012)
The Who, Pink Floyd, The
Eagles, Jimi Hendrix, Queen
and Led Zeppelin all
ONE OF the recording
recorded in there.
industry’s more colourful
As well as being a
characters, Keith Grant has
consummate recording
died aged 71.
engineer across many genres,
Grant was a seminal
Keith was also mentor to a
figure in the history of
great many house engineers.
recording – not only as a
Prolific production sound
consequence of his own
Keith Grant: “A truly
mixer Alan O’Duffy worked
work, but as a result of the
inspirational man”
with Keith at Olympic and
positive influence he had, as
says: “I have hundreds of fond memories
chief engineer and manager of London’s
of Keith. The man should have had an
famous Olympic Studios, on other
OBE for his services to the industry. He
engineers and producers.
Keith recorded top artists across the
gave me my first job as a tape op and I
am forever grateful. He was a lovely
musical spectrum including The Beatles,
Dusty Springfield, Procol Harum,
character and a truly inspirational man,
loved by many. We will miss him.”
Barbra Streisand, Cream and George
Martin to name but a few.
Composer Chris Gunning adds: “We
all owe Keith so much. He became a
Studio One at Olympic also rapidly
great friend, so much so that he was my
became a favourite venue for what would
best man. He was extraordinary in so
be considered a who’s who of the UK
many ways.” n
record business – The Rolling Stones,
By Jim Evans
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the new I-Tech 4 x 3500HD.
July 2012 l 25
For the latest broadcast news
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/broadcast
broadcast
EUROPE
Viva Euro 2012 broadcast
Spain were victorious, Holland took an unexpected early bath, the host countries did worse than expected,
and England... well, England disappointed again. At least the broadcast kit worked, reports Kevin Hilton
EURO 2012 came to an end on
Sunday 1 July, with Spain’s victory
in the tournament, making it the
first national team to win three
major trophies in a row, captured
live in 5.1 surround sound and
high definition. Host broadcast
services were provided by UEFA,
the administrative body of
European football, bringing
together leading manufacturers
and facilities companies to work
on the games in the host countries
of Poland and Ukraine.
The central international
broadcasting centre (IBC) was
located in Warsaw, receiving video
and audio signals from the eight
stadiums, with four in each
country. Two Lawo mc2 66 digital
consoles were installed in the
audio control area of the IBC
to mix 5.1 feeds for the host
coverage. Among other mixing
desks used during the
championships were four Yamaha
CL Series and four M7CLs.
Euro 2012 mascots Slavek & Slovko
A CL5 was used
pitchside during the
opening ceremony
for all stadium
announcements and
entertainment mixing,
with multiple
playback tracks
coming from the
broadcast OB facility.
During the group
stages eight OB units
operated at the four
venues in Poland and
the four in Ukraine as
multilateral facilities,
with another eight
supplying feeds to the
big video screens in
the stadiums as well as
unilateral broadcasters.
OB companies
involved included
Alfacam, Euromedia
France, St Berlin,
Mediatec, Telegenic
and Arena Television.
The multilateral trucks were
linked to a technical operations
centre (TOC) at each venue.
These were built and supervised
by Gearhouse Broadcast,
each housing a 128 squared
Snell router, audio and video
monitors, embedders/
de-embedders, multiviewers and
general glue equipment.
Gearhouse Broadcast also
installed the cabling infrastructure
and looked after the RF
distribution in the commentary
areas. Glensound commentator
systems were supplied by HBS
(Host Broadcast Services), which
was subcontracted to UEFA.
Riedel Artist intercom systems
were used for communications
from the venues to the IBC.
Other technology providers
included GlobeCast, which
supplied Systembase C510ip audio
codecs to stream live commentary
between the IBC and the studios
of ITV Sports in London. n
EUROPE/HONG KONG
NHK Labs to win IBC excellence honour
By Kevin Hilton
NHK SCIENCE and Technology
Research Laboratories (STRL) is
to receive the International
Honour for Excellence at this
year’s IBC for its contributions to
broadcasting, including current
development of the 22.2-channel
immersive surround sound format
for Super Hi-Vision television.
The award is the highest
presented by the IBC and is given
annually to “an outstanding
individual or organisation who has
fostered or contributed to the
relationship between technology
and creativity in the broadcast,
movie or media industries”. Past
recipients include British broadcaster
Sir David Attenborough (2011),
film director and 3D evangelist
James Cameron and the BBC
Natural History Unit.
The STRL is part of Japanese
public broadcaster NHK and
has been at the forefront of
research into new broadcast
techniques and technologies
since it was established in 1930.
The labs were founded five years
after radio broadcasting began
in Japan and include soundless
areas and reverberation rooms.
A key part of NHK’s current
research into Super Hi-Vision,
which grew out of its pioneering
work on HDTV in the 1960s, is
Peter Owen, IBC Council
22.2 audio. This is intended to go
beyond conventional surround
sound and create a fully immersive
experience, with height and depth
as well as width and length. A full
sonic picture is created by nine
channels for the upper level, 10 for
the middle, three on the lower and
two low-frequency outputs.
The award has been made by
the IBC Council, whose chair,
Peter Owen, comments: “The
contribution to broadcasting
technology made by NHK cannot
be underestimated. Their work has
always been revolutionary but
equally important NHK has been
generous with its efforts,
collaborating with international
bodies like the ITU and SMPTE,
along with its contribution to
global standards like MPEG.” n
www.nhk.or.jp
SOUNDBITES
Ecreso’s Helios FM transmitter is
now available in a 1,500W range,
offering up to 74% efficiency and
very low heat dissipation. It can
operate as a standalone transmitter
in a single, compact chassis or as a
modular system comprising a
separate modulator and
amplifier(s). Additional features
include RDS and stereo coding,
audio backup and an FM limiter, all
integrated within the unit.
www.ecresco.com
Sales in Asia are on the rise for
German dynamics processing
manufacturer Jünger Audio. The
company has recently supplied
loudness control systems in
Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong,
Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan,
China and the Philippines. CEO
Peter Pörs commented:
“Television audiences in the Far
East are no different to those
anywhere else in the world – they
don’t like surprise level changes
in their audio and they complain
when they have to reach for
the remote.”
www.junger-audio.com
Trilogy Broadcast has appointed
specialist sales organisation
EMEA Gateway to lead its sales
efforts in the Middle East. EMEA
Gateway was established in 2010
by industry veteran Guy Elliott:
“Trilogy is widely recognised as an
innovator in intercoms, and its
infrastructure products like the
Mentor XL SPG/TSG are
technically advanced,” he said. “I
am relishing the challenge of
driving a real sales expansion in
the Middle East for Trilogy.”
www.emea-gateway.com
www.trilogycomms.com
Prism Sound has consolidated its
relationship with Qualis Audio by
taking on distribution for the
company’s products in the UK,
Ireland and parts of continental
Europe. Under the terms of the
new agreement, Prism Sound will
use its existing distribution
network, including its recently
opened sales office in Germany, to
support sales of Qualis Audio’s
Sentinel Surround Sound Audio
Monitor outside of the US.
www.qualisaudio.com
CANFORD
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canford.co.uk
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All products are subject to availability. All prices are shown in £ sterling and are valid at the date of going to press. Prices exclude VAT.
Specification is subject to change without notice. Canford Group retain all rights. Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE).
Canford Group PLC is a company registered in England and Wales with company no. 3154977
A0021
Canford Online
July 2012 l 27
broadcastreport
ITALY
Total communications for intercom
TECHNOLOGY IS always
moving on but the rate of
change today is surprising
even those involved in the
innovations. A good example of
this is intercom. As soon as a
standard to connect different
IP-based communications
systems has been established,
manufacturers are now
contemplating linking up with
other audio and video equipment
through one of two networking
protocols under development.
9
Number of members
of the OCA Alliance
Last year the European
Broadcasting Union published
Tech 3347, laying down
guidelines and specifications for
the use of IP in intercom systems.
This is based on the SIP (Session
Initiation Protocol) format,
developed by the IETF (Internet
Engineering Task Force) as an
internet protocol for live
communications to start and end
voice or video calls.
With intercom operations
moving more towards IP the main
manufacturers in the field are
producing Tech 3347-compliant
systems. The next step is to
expand the networking,
integration and distribution
capabilities of their products, with
AVB (audio/video bridging or
bridge) and OCA (Open Control
Architecture) the two contenders.
AVB is a generic open standard
based on IEEE (Institute of
Electrical and Electronics
and has already incorporated the
concept into its OMNEO media
networking system. Senior sales
manager Nico Lewis describes it
as “absolutely the next step
forward” and “the ideal
professional media network” as it
will allow the creation of a
“single off-the-shelf network and
cabling system for everything”.
While this is attractive to large
manufacturing groups with a wide
range of products, small
manufacturers are less certain.
Intercom technology is moving fast
Engineers) 802.1 and is designed
for interconnection, networking
and data centre bridging,
carrying, routing and switching
of audio and video signals over
standardised Ethernet connections.
The standard is backed by the
AVnu Alliance, with heavyweight
support from members including
Harman, Avid, Barco, Shure and
Sennheiser. The OCA Alliance
was formed in June 2011 by nine
professional audio companies:
Bosch Communications Systems,
d&b audiotechnik, Duran
Audio, LOUD Technologies,
Media Technology Systems,
PreSonus, Salzbrenner Stagetec
Mediagroup, TC Group and
Yamaha Commercial Audio.
OCA is described as a system
control and monitoring
architecture and, because it does
not have its own signal transport,
is intended to work with any
existing or future carrier. This
includes AVB and the Audinate
Dante IP over Ethernet
networking system, which is also
among the options for AVB.
German intercom company
Delec Audio and Videotechnik is
an OCA Alliance member as part
of Salzbrenner Stagetec
Mediagroup. Delec founder
Donald Dilocker sees AVB as
“the technology for the near
future”, as it is capable of audio
over IP (AoIP); by updating
Dante boards in its systems the
company can offer AVB
compatibility. But Dilocker views
OCA as the more compelling
technology. “Delec and the other
Salzbrenner Stagetec Media
Group companies are supporting
OCA in order to ease the
integration and compatibility of
systems of any brand,” he says.
RTS-Telex is involved in the
OCA Alliance as part of Bosch
t
Intercom is all about
broadcast staff
communicating with
each other but now the
race is on to make it part
of a bigger technological
communication network,
writes Kevin Hilton
We’re thinking small
Seems like all of a sudden,
compact arrays are big
business. So talk to
Celestion about our range
of high performance,
small-format drivers.
AN2075 50mm/2"
AN2775 70mm/2.75"
AN3510 88mm/3.5"
It’s another
innovation in sound
from Celestion.
Find us on Facebook
www.celestion.com
28 l July 2012
broadcastnews
CMC taps into T*AP
By Erica Basnicki
JÜNGER AUDIO has sold four
of its T*AP Television Audio
Processor units to France’s
CMC Laboratories, supplied by
French distributor 44.1. Part of
the MonalSystem group, CMC
clients include all the main
French TV broadcasters (France
Télévision, TF1, Canal+, M6),
as well as international
distributors such as Warner,
Universal, Metropolitan, Wild
Side and more.
“We tested all of the products
available on the market before
choosing the T*AP, and this
made us realise that real-time
loudness normalisation is not an
easy thing,” said Jean-François
Brion, assistant to the operating
manager and sound engineer at
CMC’s Jean Francois Brion with Daniel Almeida, senior maintenance technician
at MonalSystem
CMC. “We already knew the
Jünger product range well –
especially the D02 limiter/
compressor – and we were quick
to take an interest in the LEVEL
MAGIC algorithm. We
optimised the T*AP setup over
a long period of work to make
the loudness normalisation the
way we wanted it to be: smooth
and as respectful as possible of
the original sound.” n
www.cmclaboratories.com
www.junger-audio.com
UNITED KINGDOM
THE UNIVERSITY of Manchester Students’ Union radio
station, Fuse FM, has been supplied with two Studer OnAir
1500 mixers by HHB Communications. The studios are used
for production and live broadcasting, and both mixers feature
six fader expanders and the Relink I/O sharing option.
Fuse studio manager James Sandford said: “We are very pleased to
be able to offer our students a state-of-the-art digital broadcast facility,
providing them with the skills that can be useful in their future careers.”
www.fusefm.co.uk
www.hhb.co.uk
t
EUROPE
Total communications for intercom cont’d
Barry Spencer, general
manager of broadcast at
Trilogy Communications, says
while OCA makes sense for
companies like Bosch and the
Stagetec group, which have
ranges of different product
types, from loudspeakers to
intercom to mixing consoles,
this is not the situation for
everyone. “By doing all this
some people might take their
eye off their core business,”
he comments.
Simon Browne, director of
worldwide product
management at Clear-Com,
which is an observing partner
with OCA, hopes some basic
interoperability between
systems will come about
through the technology. “We
all have open standards and
so some common set of say,
crosspoint control, could be
found to help customers
exploit their varied system
solutions based on differing
manufacturer’s equipment,”
he says.
Other intercom
manufacturers are leaning
more towards AVB. “It is
really pushing the envelope of
what is possible in regards to
integrated systems distributed
over simple Ethernet
infrastructures,” comments
Riedel spokesman Nils Quak.
“This will be a great leap
forward in terms of
installation design for the next
years. AVB will be one of the
biggest – if not the biggest –
development in regards to
realising intercom systems.”
Both the AVB and OCA
camps are pushing on with
formulating and establishing
their respective formats.
The AVnu Alliance recently
took on three new members,
including beyerdyanmic,
and appointed the University
of New Hampshire
InterOperability Laboratory
(UNH-IOL) as the first test
house for AVB certification.
Work on pro-audio products is
scheduled to begin during the
first quarter of 2013. During
the recent InfoComm show
Alliance members including
Bosch, Riedel, Sennheiser and
Avid demonstrated the
possibilities for interoperability
using the technology.
On 7 June the OCA
Alliance announced it had
completed the OCA 1.0
specification, which defines
the overall architecture of
OCA and the communications
protocols that can be used,
as well as giving a detailed
list of possible control
and monitoring actions
and functions. n
www.avnu.org
www.oca-alliance.com
Commentary System
1
st
c l a s s p r o d u c t i o n ...
MADE BY EXPERTS
MADE BY EXPERTS
DELEC Audio- und Videotechnik GmbH
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.delec.de
2!)!MSTERDAM
#ONFERENCE3EPTEMBER%XHIBITION3EPTEMBER
#ONFERENCE
,EADINGTHEELECTRONICMEDIAANDENTERTAINMENTAGENDA
THROUGHINNOVATIONANDDEBATETHE)"##ONFERENCEISATTENDED
BYTHEMOSTINČUENTIALTHINKERSFROMTHELEADINGCOMPANIESIN
THEWORLD
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STREAMSp!DVANCESIN4ECHNOLOGY
#ONTENT#REATIONAND)NNOVATION4HE
"USINESSOF"ROADCASTINGAND!DDED
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AREREPRESENTED
4HECONFERENCECONSISTSOF
o DAYSTREAMCONFERENCEPROGRAMME
o WORLDCLASSHIGHPROüLESPEAKERS
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(OTTOPICSBEINGDISCUSSEDTHISYEAR
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o "ROADCAST$ELIVERY
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4&%INFO IBCORG
30 l July 2012
50
broadcastreport
Meyer Sound MM4 miniature
monitors were hidden on the sets
ITALY
After
the
ball
The intricacies of broadcasting an opera
live from four locations is explained to
Mike Clark by Rai audio chief Antonio Ciano
Rossini’s Cinderella was transmitted from three locations
ITALIAN STATE broadcaster
Rai and Andrea Andermann’s
Rada Film recently produced the
latest in a series of HD live opera
films from (or close to) the
locations in which they were
originally set: Rossini’s
Cenerentola (Cinderella) was
transmitted from three
spectacular stages in Turin and
the key technical challenge was
that the orchestra accompanying
the singers played in an
auditorium miles from all three.
The 62-piece orchestra was in
Rai’s Turing auditorium and
had a two-way AV link with the
three locations to enable soloists
and chorus to see the conductor
and hear the music, and vice
versa. The locations were the
Lake Villa on the huge Venaria
Reale estate, the Royal Palace
and Stupinigi Hunting lodge.
Rai official Antonio Ciano
was responsible for the entire
audio project. He explains:
“As on past productions, I chose
the audio team, with the
advantage that the RAI National
Symphony Orchestra is resident
at the auditorium, so it is
normally covered for broadcast
by my Turin colleagues.”
Each production room at the
three locations hosted a Studer
Vista 9 and a Soundcraft Vi1.
Marco Diodato and Domenico
Narducci manned the Studer,
the former handling the balance
between the stereo orchestra
feed, singers’ and chorus voices
and effects with a final mixdown
for playout, and
the latter an area
of the console used
to mix the seven
principals (double
DPA 4061 wireless
mics with Wisycom
MTP 30
transmitters).
Maurizio Trevisan
manned the
Soundcraft, mixing
the effects on the
sets (a tray falling,
water dripping into
a tub, etc).
In the
auditorium, audio
technician Dario Chiapino had
a Studer Vista 5 at his disposal,
while the orchestra was covered
by Neuman KM140, U 89 and
TLM 170, DPA 4600, with a
Delta Tree set-up, Scheops
CCM 21, plus two ORTF
MSTC 64U stereo microphones
Stupinigi Hunting Lodge
Lake Villa audio production room
with Antonio Ciano on the left
for ambient sound for the multitrack recording of the opera.
Regarding the complexities
involved in microphones and their
placement (out of camera
sightlines, but able to ensure good
coverage), Ciano adds: “Each of
the seven principals’ microphones
were hidden on their costumes
and, as well as Sennheiser MK
416 and CMC 421, CMC 4
and BLM 03 Schoeps mics,
strategically positioned on the sets
in such a way as to be invisible to
the cameras. We also used four
wireless mics mounted on the
napes of the necks of four of
the chorus soloists, who were
always positioned slightly in
front of the other members,
operating as ‘microphone men’.
This provided a very satisfactory
solution to covering movement
on the sets and we managed
to avoid unwanted noise by
muting mics whenever they
were unused.”
There were two analogue radio
links (main and backup) for
two-way signal transport
between the Venaria and
Stupinigi sets and the auditorium
and fibre optics for the palace.
With the first two, there was
absolutely no delay and with the
third it was in the region of
milliseconds, so imperceptible.
The final mix fed to the OB van
was delayed by the video team to
keep it in sync with the HD
video coverage before being
beamed out to the satellites.
On the sets, a Yamaha 02R96
was used for reinforcement of the
orchestra feed from the production
room consoles, heard by the
performers via a series of carefully
hidden Meyer MM4 miniature
monitors (50 all-in). The Rai
technicians on set also had a final
mix at their disposal and any VTR
audio for monitoring what was
happening at rehearsals and
during the live show.
Enthusiastic with the results
achieved, after the event, Ciano
said: “In spite of working
demanding shifts on such a
complex OB project – which
lasted two months – thanks to
the interaction between the closeknit audio and video production
teams, everybody was extremely
satisfied with the results.” n
www.dpamicrophones.com
www.meyersound.com
www.neumann.com
www.schoeps.de
http://en-de.sennheiser.com
www.soundcraft.com
www.studer.ch
www.yamahaproaudio.com
The Royal Palace
throne room
July 2012 l 31
broadcastreport
The MA64 MADI to
multi-format AES converter
UNITED KINGDOM
4HM fills the holes
The ever-growing need from broadcasters to interface equipment and convert different audio formats
has brought both new products and new manufacturers into a small but necessary marketplace.
Kevin Hilton profiles one of the latest entrants to the field, 4HM
NO MATTER how full a
market might seem, gaps will
invariably appear as people
realise they need their systems
and installations to do
something else or they have to
deal with an application or
function that was not apparent
before. Commercial success for
manufacturers can rest on
spotting these opportunities and
creating an individualistic
product before anyone else.
That’s the background to
specialist UK company
4HM, which was founded
approximately two-and-a-half
years ago by Barry Revels and
Craig Lovell. Both have track
records with niche
manufacturers and distributors –
Revels worked at Canford and,
briefly, Wohler, while Lovell’s
CV includes Cadac and Dolby –
but in recent years both were
self-employed and met while
working with Bel Digital Audio.
The gap in the market the two
saw was, explains Revels,
something that would “bridge
audio and video”. He says the
de-embedders provided with
many sound desks used for
sound to picture work were
expensive, so he and Lovell
Craig Lovell (left) and Barry Revels, 4HM
thought there was some mileage
in a stand-alone unit. The result
was the SAM64 SDI to AES
and MADI interface. This 1U
rackmount unit extracts 16
audio channels from each of its
four SDI inputs, producing a
total of 64 audio channels in
both MADI and AES3.
Revels and Lovell founded
4HM to produce and market
the SAM64, with first deliveries
going to broadcast equipment
hire company Presteigne
Charter for facilities it
provided to the BBC and ITV
during the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa. “They were the
main de-embedder for them
and took the MADI feeds
straight to the Lawo consoles,”
explains Revels.
Soon after the World Cup
contract further SAM64 were
sold to the BBC for its coverage
of Formula 1 motor racing.
Despite having what Revels
acknowledges were “two big
projects” right from the start,
there was the realisation that
4HM would need to create a
range of products to really
establish some credibility. “It’s
always frustrating when you
bring out your first product,” he
comments, “because with only
one thing to offer you don’t look
like a proper company. But as
the portfolio grows there is
more of a system for people
to work with.”
Consequently the SAM64 was
joined by the MA64 MADI to
multi-format AES converter,
which produces 32 pairs of
balanced AES/EBU and
unbalanced AES3-id signals to
be passed to routers, mixing
consoles or other AEScompatible equipment. “It’s a
useful tool for capturing any
MADI stream,” Revels says.
The 4HM product range
partly reflects the resurgence of
MADI in the past four years,
despite, Revels acknowledges,
being written off prior to that.
“Texas Instruments stopped
making its TAXIchip but now
everyone is making their own
MADI chips,” he says. “Part
of the reason is the move away
from Dolby E in favour of
more discrete audio to move
signals from A to B. MADI was
the obvious solution and fibre
connectivity came along at the
right time to give it an extra
lease of life.”
Another major factor in all
this has been the continuing rise
of sports broadcasting, which
demands not just surround
sound but multiple channels
for a range of applications.
“Sports is certainly driving the
need for more exchange,” agrees
Revels. “There is the interface
between the broadcasters and
then file-based OBs and fly-away
installations, which are used at
the big sporting events. MADI
is designed to reduce some of
that and units like the SAM64
mean multiple de-embedders
aren’t necessary, because there’s
often the need to bring in
individual audio feeds from up
to 24 cameras.”
The SAM64 and MA64 are
now part of a five-product range
that is completed by the ASBO
AES and BOB/O-32 AES/EBU
breakout boxes and the BOB/
I-32 AES/EBU interface unit.
These are all designed and built
at 4HM’s facility in Milton
Keynes, to the north-west of
London. The company has
formed relationships with local
component suppliers because,
Revels says, “production is
key” in this kind of small
volume manufacturing.
Three new products are
planned for the coming four to
five months, with launches due
at IBC 2012. One of these,
Revels promises, will be
“unique”. In the meantime he
and Lovell are building up a
distribution network but it is the
investment in R&D that will
carry on the search for those
remaining gaps in the market. n
www.4hmbroadcast.com
32 l July 2012
broadcastfeature
EUROPE
Still live but by
many means
Television is relying on live broadcasts more than ever
before but the good old TV set is not the only target, with
PCs, phones and tablets now all practical outlets.
Kevin Hilton looks at what this means for audio
grounds in the division fully
cabled up. A major
consideration in this is 5.1
audio, which was pioneered by
Sky Sports when it began highdefinition broadcasts of games
back in 2006. Initially feeds were
in the compressed Dolby E
format but in the past few years
Sky, like other broadcasters, has
moved to discrete surround
sound for much of the chain.
While high bandwidth fibre
connections are able to
accommodate this there is still
not full implementation of the
technology in most countries.
Satellite is still placed to step
in and provide connectivity in
locations and situations where
there is no permanently
installed infrastructure. But, as
Mark Shadbolt, sales director
of satellite uplink and outside
broadcast operator SIS LIVE,
observes, this has brought its
SIS LIVE’s uLink on location in Libya
The streaming area used for the Channel 4
wildlife show Foxes Live: Wild in the City
TODAY’S MEDIA is shot
through with jargon – uplink,
satellite phone, voice-over-IP,
3D, HD, webcasting, surround
sound, 7.1, 5.1 – but none of
these has the power and impact
of one of the most used terms in
the business, ‘live’. Because it’s
been used for so long and so
widely, we don’t necessarily
think of live in the same way
as other tech-speak but there
it is on the news – “We go to
our reporter live at the
scene...” – and on all kinds of
entertainment TV, from reality
shows – the ‘live eviction’ on Big
Brother – to concerts:
‘live from the Pyramid stage
at Glastonbury...’.
‘Live’ has always been part of
the broadcast vocabulary but
now it is in constant use. While its
general meaning is still the
same the technological reality
behind the word has changed
considerably in recent years
and continues to develop. A
significant period in the past
development of live broadcasting
was the 1990s, now regarded as
the “era of the dish” because
satellite technology was more
affordable and portable. It was
used for breaking news and the
big music concerts that started to
become the norm from the 1980s
onwards: the World Cup, Three
Tenors, Live Aid, U2’s ever more
bombastic touring circuses.
This technology gave
considerable bandwidth for both
pictures and sound, which was a
major consideration as surround
sound for the burgeoning home
cinema audience became a
priority. But satellite uplinks are
not cheap. Fibre seemed to be the
logical alternative, if not a
complete replacement,
particularly as space segments for
new satellites are in short supply
and the birds that are already up
there are nearing full capacity.
Fibre is now used widely for
TV coverage of English Premier
League football, with all the
own problems: “As modem
technology has improved so the
broadcasters’ appetite for
bandwidth has increased. What
broadcasters were happy with
five to 10 years ago is now
not good enough, especially
with the coming of HD.
These connections are very
bandwidth hungry, even with
the latest algorithms.”
A STEP ABOVE
A new viable option is the
recently introduced breed of Ka
(K above) band satellites, which
operate in the high 26.5-40GHz
frequencies above the core K
band microwave part of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
Shadbolt remarks that Ka
band has given satellite a
“new lease of life”. The problem
is, however, keeping up with
ever growing demands from
broadcasters as they squeeze
more audio and video into finite
spaces. As David Furstenberg,
chairman of the board of
satellite modulator, demodulator
and modem manufacturer
NovelSat, observes, new
technology formats are
beginning to stretch carriers
of all descriptions: “Video
consumption increases with the
different standards. HD 720
requires five times more capacity
than SD and 1080 needs 10
times. When it comes to 3D
that’s two channels of Full HD,
so it’s 20 times, and the jury is
still out on how much Super
High Definition will need.
So the requirement for television
bandwidth is not going to
subside, it is going to grow
and grow.”
Furstenberg comments that
new processes can have a “quite
significant” impact on both
sound and video, delivering
better utilisation. “These
transmissions, including sound,
are enabling service providers to
keep a better margin,” he says.
“But it is taking some time for
them to implement and have
better efficiency.”
Miranda Technologies
produces a range of switching,
monitoring and play-out
systems used in live TV. Product
manager Scott Rose observes
that audio shouldn’t be the
“poor cousin” of video in all
this, as it has been in the past,
but should be completely
July 2012 l 33
broadcastfeature
LIVE WEBCAST OF COLDPLAY CONCERT
Ponderous pop-proggers Coldplay
are in the midst of a world tour
promoting their album, Mylo Xyloto.
This kicked off at Madrid’s Plaza
de Toros Stadium last October,
accompanied by a live webcast of the
concert on YouTube.
Music mixing facilities were
provided by UK company Red TX,
with Tim Summerhayes mixing on
a Studer Vista 8 digital console in
the recently launched RED II
mobile studio.
Summerhayes says this gig was
something of a personal revelation,
proving that webcasting was a valid
way to transmit live concerts. “Thanks
to the band’s schedule we were lucky
enough to have time for a dummy
run,” he explains. “We had a highspeed internet connection coming
back into the truck and the sound and
picture quality were superb.”
All internet encoding was done
separately by other facilities and
Summerhayes says he was struck by
the difference this makes compared to
the more instantaneous world of
broadcast TV: “I wanted to see how
much I could do with the stereo mix
during the run-through and panned
something hard left. It took 25 seconds
until that had any effect on what was
coming back from the live stream.”
Daniel Green
FOH & Studio Engineer / Co-Producer
Waves live sound solutions
are used by front-of-house
and monitor engineers for
the biggest names in show
business. Now, bring Waves
studio-quality sound to
your stage.
“What broadcasters were happy
with five to 10 years ago is now
not good enough, especially with
the coming of HD. These
connections are very bandwidth
hungry, even with the latest algorithms”
Mark Shadbolt, SIS Live
Digital Plus, which, says France,
delivers quality audio at lower
bandwidths, a critical consideration for
broadcasters wanting to get more on a
carrier. Dolby, like the broadcast
companies, now has to consider a wide
range of outlets for this material,
including computers, mobile phones
and tablets as well as TVs.
NEW DELIVERY
Andrew Horbury, director of marketing
for DTS, also reflects this trend,
saying that as content is delivered to
the home over a vast number of
delivery methods there is an increasing
demand for audio in a number of
different formats.
“Multi-platform delivery requires a
flexible approach and with DTS HD we
have a scalable solution that scales from
high efficiency modes to lossless,” he
says. “So whatever the situation and
t
integrated, particularly in these days of
surround and multichannel operation
sound operations. “There’s the need for
different languages on multiple audio
channels in both Asia and Europe,” he
says, “so manufacturers like us provide
the appropriate tools for Dolby within
the transmission chain, with cards both
up and downstream but with the main
work done in the play-out server.”
Dolby Laboratories is promoting its
surround sound technologies as
“bringing the cinematic experience
into the home” for live transmission
as much as DVD and Blu-ray Disc.
Rob France, Dolby’s senior product
marketing manager, says there has
been a “growth in 7.1” with the current
focus on 3D stereoscopic transmission
by broadcasters, for both films and
live events.
The company’s key offering in both
TV and video on demand is Dolby
Find out more at waveslive.com
INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS FOR
34 l July 2012
broadcastfeature
MULTI-LANGUAGE LIVE BRIEFING FOR MICROSOFT
Red TX’s Red II features kit from Studer,
Yamaha, Focusrite and more
bandwidth restrictions there is a
solution that offers the best
possible audio whatever the
device, whether the viewer is
sitting at home or on the move.”
IP is the current buzz term in
just about all areas of life and
business these days but it is
particularly concentrating the
minds of broadcasters. In the
past five years several developers
and service companies have
appeared offering IP codecs and
processors for live broadcasting,
notably LiveU and Groovy
Gecko. Craig Moehl is chief
executive of Groovy Gecko and
a director of its associate firm
SatStream. The basis of both
businesses is converting audio
and video into IP streams for
contributions and transmission.
Moehl maintains that in IP
broadcast “audio is more
important than video”. The
reason, he explains, is that the
human brain is more forgiving
which a picture frame drops out
but when the sound cuts or is
distorted, the ear is not as
accommodating, making the
glitch much more of a problem.
“Things become problematic
when the audio stream stops so
we’ve got to ensure that the
audio stream is absolutely
consistent,” Moehl says.
“The requirement
for television
bandwidth is not
going to subside,
it is going to
grow and grow”
David Furstenberg,
NovelSat
To guarantee a more stable
audio feed technology
companies have in recent years
moved away from older
streaming protocols and media
players to established
technologies HTTP (Hypertext
Transfer Protocol), which is the
basis of the emerging MPEG
DASH (Dynamic Adaptive
Streaming over HTTP) format.
Moehl says AAC is part of this,
giving scope for Dolby Digital
AS THE original
ethos of YouTube put
it, anyone with a
camera and a fast
enough video
processor can be a
broadcaster. The web
is now also a major
platform for
television stations to
re-use programmes
and a way for
multinational
companies to get the
corporate message
out to the press and
the public without the
cost of hiring private circuits.
Computer giant Microsoft
used this outlet for its
press briefing from the E3
(Electronic Entertainment
Expo) games show in Los
Angeles during June. The
presentation was available live
on Microsoft’s website, with
a choice of seven languages
(French, Spanish, Italian,
Polish, Russian, German
and English).
UK-based satellite to web
facility SatStream worked
on the webcast, taking the
feed from LA at its premises
in south London. Seven
soundproof booths had
been set up there for the
translations, with each booth
housing two translators.
Listening to the English
language presentation from
the US on headphones, the
translators were able to go
live in their respective
languages using a touch to
talk button connected to a
Bosch DCN-NG Idesk
interpreter microphone unit.
Feeds from each booth were
sent to a six-channel DCN
mixer before being processed
through SatStream’s Smooth
Stream units to create the
primary signal, with single
bit-rate devices for back-ups.
Plus to be used, although
surround sound is not a major
consideration in the new multiplatform/device consumer world
quite yet. “There’s not a sufficient
number of people demanding
5.1 yet,” says Moehl. “And if the
devices you’re sending to can’t
handle that or 7.1 and 9.1,
what’s the point of using it?”
From the front-end
perspective, Tim Summerhayes,
music mixer and a director of
mobile studio operator Red TX,
says that even if clients don’t need
5.1 today because of broadcaster
requirements, they will in the
future, so they work in surround
as well as stereo. Red TX has
worked in the growing digital
cinema market, with live theatre
productions as well as concerts
relayed to cinemas across Europe
and even internationally.
But music TV remains the core
of the company’s business, with
AT A GLANCE
t
Miranda's iTX IT-based play-out system,
designed for both large broadcasters and
smaller facilities looking to lower costs and
streamline operations
DTS HD Master Audio was
designed to be scalable for
multi-platform delivery,
running from high efficiency
modes to lossless
t
Novelsat’s new NS3000
satellite modem
From there the streams
went to the IP Content
Distribution Network for
global distribution.
For what SatStream
director Craig Moehl
describes as “belt and braces”
security, each language
track was also recorded on
to one of six Marantz
PMD560 solid-state recorders
in case of any failure in the
digital archive.
The various Microsoft
websites across Europe
streamed the conference live
with English as the default
language, with a choice of the
other six from a menu.
the increase in demand for
facilities leading to a second Red
TX vehicle going on the road last
year and the refurbishment of
the original Red I truck earlier
this year. Summerhayes says
there is a difference in approach
for cinema and TV sound, with
the former working to a more
rigid configuration because of
the centre channel.
Internet streaming is partly
responsible for the increase in live
music ‘broadcasting’, with more
channels offering programmes,
both online to computers and
through connected TVs.
Summerhayes says he was
surprised at the sound quality
coming back and feels the web is
the future for music broadcasting.
And if it isn’t the absolute
future for live broadcasting in
general, it is certainly going to
play an ever-increasing role. n
www.dolby.com
www.dts.com
www.groovygecko.com
www.miranda.com
www.novelsat.com
www.red-tx.com
www.sislive.tv
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36 l July 2012
For the latest live news
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/live
live
SOUNDBITES
The Edinburgh Lighting and
Sound School has chosen an Allen
& Heath MixWizard3 16:2 as the
main training console on its new
Production and Technology
course. “Allen & Heath has a
reputation for high-quality
products and we are pleased to
have a relationship with a British
company which has a personal
touch,” said school director
George Tarbuck.
www.allen-heath.com
QSC Audio Productshas launched
qsctraining.com, a new website
offering free training courses,
product presentations, instructional
videos and podcasts created on the
company’s full line of products.
Users have the option to become
Q-Sys certified via online tests and
assessments, with a number of
training modules to be recognised
towards the RU requirements for
InfoComm CTS certification.
www.qsctraining.com
France-based hire company
Concept Audio has joined the
growing list of Adamson’s
Energia Beta Partners, which
includes French partners SLS and
MPM. In addition to the new E15
system, Concept Audio also
carries Y18s, Y10s, T21 Subs,
SpekTrix and M15 monitors in
their inventory. www.adamsonsystems.com
www.conceptaudio.co.uk
Francophone singer Natasha StPier recently performed in Arques,
France using an Eclipse GT digital
mixing console from Innovason.
Sound engineer Vincent Voyron
commented: “In Arques I got to
use an Eclipse for the first time
and I wasn’t disappointed.” The
tour is in support of her latest
album, Bonne Nouvelle.
www.innovason.com
Engineers at Orbital Soundare
among the first in the UK to be
certified Axient Wireless specialists,
having completed a training course
at Shure Distribution UK covering
all aspects of the Axient wireless
management network.
www.orbitalsound.com
www.shuredistribution.co.uk
Jedward:
guaranteeing a
non-win for Ireland
EUROPE
The backline in Baku
A brand new arena, unpredictable security, and no local live events infrastructure available for backup: what
could go wrong? Erica Basnicki reports on the monumental effort required to make this year’s Eurovision
Song Contest all go right…
THIS YEAR’S Eurovision Song
Contest will perhaps go down in
history as the most-talked about
event in the show’s history, though
certainly not just for the music.
Nearly 16,000 fans filled the newlybuilt Crystal Hall in Baku,
Azerbaijan to watch Engelbert
Humperdinck, an Albanian
version of Björk, and – just like last
year – some outrageously political
voting. And bloody Jedward. At
least, Sennheiser revealed, the
number of news crews using
banned wireless spectrum at
the event – always a problem
at Eurovision – dropped by
50% this year.
Production company
Brainpool deserve a trophy
for the herculean task they
had on their hands, which
went above and beyond the
average Eurovision
workload. Every single
piece of kit – from their
own forklifts right down to
rolls of gaffer tape – needed
to be shipped in from
Germany, as there is no live
events infrastructure in
Azerbaijan to speak of.
It took two entire German
Federal Railways trains, 100
containers – each 16m long – two
Boeing 747 cargo aircrafts and
110 40-ton trucks to get it all
there. “Logistical nightmare” may
have been mentioned a few times
during the technical tour, and by
several different people. Hats off
to Brainpool’s head of
production management, Xanten
Stratmann, for pulling it all off
despite some rather trying
circumstances, including an everchanging set of security measures
which occasionally even
prevented the technical crew from
gaining access to the venue.
Despite the challenges,
the 2012 event went off
without a hitch
There was Euphoria
for Sweden...
... but the Russian Grannies had to
settle for second place
Adding to the challenge of
this year’s show was that Crystal
Hall was an unknown venue to
work with; construction began
in September 2011 and was only
completed on 16 April. In
designing the show’s PA system,
Brainpool’s head of sound,
Florian Kessler, relied on
L-Acoustics’ Soundvision
package to plot the acoustics
of the arena.
In the end, Kessler opted for
an L-Acoustics KARA system,
flown in nine positions of 20
modules, with three SB18 subs
at each position. Six arrays of
KIVA line source elements were
used as nearfield monitors.
Eight Soundcraft Vi6 consoles
provided by Cologne-based rental
company Toneheads were used to
mix and monitor the contest; five
for mixing all elements of the
show, and three for backup. As
Kessler explained: “To have the
option to split MADI streams
without using external equipment
is why we chose to use them here.”
Toni Kern and Guido Preuss
engineered the FOH mix for the
main contest, while the opening
and interval acts (along with the
moderation) were mixed on a
separate desk.
More than 150 Sennheiser
wireless microphone and
monitoring links were used,
monitored on a Yamaha
DM2000. As well as the
microphones for the artists and
presenters, this included the
microphones for the opening act
and the interval show, production
microphones, microphones for the
rehearsal room and press
conferences, and wireless
monitoring systems for the artists,
presenters and technical crew.
Celebrating its 25th Eurovision
contest, Sennheiser provided
performers and presenters with
SKM 5200-II microphones fitted
with Neumann KK 104-S
capsule heads and SK 5212-II
bodypack transmitters each with
EM 3732-II dual-channel
July 2012 l 37
livenews
receivers. The IEM system
comprised SR 2050s and IE60
headphones. Additional kit was
also provided for rehearsal and
production crew, as well as press
conferences. Markus Müller of
MM Communications and a
crew of 90 people planned the
wireless system, which Müller
said required 10,000 batteries to
be shipped in from Germany.
There was also more than
enough equipment provided to
detect news crews using wireless
frequency users illegally “I had a
long list of more than 40 (illegal
frequency users) last year,” said
one of Sennheiser’s RF experts,
Klaus Willemsen. “This year,
there are only about 20.”
To distribute the live audio
signals at the event the rental
provider Cape Cross used a Riedel
RockNet digital audio network
installation. A total of four
interface cards for digital Yamaha
mixing consoles, 12 analogue
input and 17 analogue output
modules, as well as RockNet fibre
converters distributed the audio
signals between the ‘splitter
world’, FOH and the PA.
Riedel’s MediorNet handled
distribution of 40 HD and SD
video signals within the arena –
among them the broadcast feed
and the signals for the on-site
videowalls and monitors. Riedel
also provided the communications
infrastructure once again for this
year’s show.
The contest was watched on
television by over 100 million
spectators with Brainpool TV
taking on broadcast duties on
behalf of national broadcaster
Ictimai TV. Five OB trucks from
Belgium provider Alfacam were
used; four for mixing and one as
a master control room. The
trucks were equipped with Lawo
mc266 consoles and Nova 73HD
routing systems.
Despite the enormous logistical
difficulties of pulling off the event
in Baku, it was a spectacular night
without a technical glitch (or sign
or protest). In case you haven’t
heard it on the radio (have you
been away?), Sweden’s Loreen
Baku by
numbers
WORLD
2 trains
2 planes
12 consoles
100 containers
110 trucks
150 wireless channels
175 microphones
300 crew members
470 loudspeakers
14.4km of cable
Talhaoui grabbed the top spot with
Euphoria earning 372 points in
total, and the country has
confirmed it will host next year’s
show. The Russian Grannies placed
second and UK entry Engelbert
Humperdinck finished a lessthan-remarkable second to last –
only five points clear of Norway’s
seven-point humiliation. n
www.brainpool.de
www.lawo.de
MONITOR ENGINEER François Pare
has specified a DiGiCo SD7 for
American indie pop band Foster
The People’s current summer festival
tour. Pare explained that working
with Foster The People requires a lot
of flexibility from its engineers.
“In Mexico a few weeks ago, the
band saw a Mariachi band playing on
the streets one evening,” he
recalled. “The next day, when they
showed up for soundcheck an hour
before doors, they announced that
the Mariachi band was playing that
night with them, so we accounted
for that right away. As the set up
changes a lot and as I want to be
super flexible, I think the SD7 is an
obvious choice.”
www.digico.org
size + sound = ESM26
tiny size big sound exceptional quality
Compact in size, the ESM26 Stage Monitor
delivers incredible clarity and high output that
defies its small dimensions. Quite simply, the twin
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The ESM26 incorporates KV2’s unique analog
delay line technology, incorporated into the
speaker’s crossover network.
With perfect time alignment and phase correction
built-in, there is now no need for expensive
external processors and bi-amping - reducing
your amp requirements.
Through innovative engineering with realworld applications in mind, KV2 has produced a
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for more information or to find your nearest
kv2 dealer visit www.kv2audio.com
Frequency
Response: 70Hz to 16kHz -3dB
_____________________
Maximum SPL: 126dB
_____________________
Dimensions:
H340mm x W374mm x D455mm
_____________________
Weight: 15Kgs
38 l July 2012
livereport
The Dome will remain
at the Gardens for the
next three years
UNITED KINGDOM
Pleasure
for your Leisure
Noise Control Audio is supplying the PA, and more,
at the UK’s newest festival site, the London
Pleasure Gardens, writes Dave Robinson
SOMETHING WONDERFUL
is happening in Newham’s
Royal Docks. This once
overlooked area of the Thames
– just south-east of the ExCeL
exhibition halls, on the
approach to London City
Airport – has been transformed
into the London Pleasure
Gardens (LPG). The exindustrial site is now an urban
festival ground constructed to
recognise and celebrate the best
of state-of-the-art culture.
With bars, cafes, a sculpture
park, a number of onsite
venues and more, the LPG
echoes a pleasure gardens that
originally occupied the docks
in the mid-19th century. It also
makes for a quirky, unique and
strangely alluring (and – yes! –
accessible) site for any festival
organiser who doesn’t want
View across Victoria Docks to the
Millennium Mills building
to head out of London’s
city limits.
At PSNEurope press time, the
LPG has already been initiated
by the jaunty Paradise Gardens
free festival, and was about to
host the electronic supernova of
Bloc, as it moves from last year’s
home of Minehead in Somerset.
Principal venues on the site
include the Dome and the Hub.
The PA systems installed in these
– around 40 boxes in total – will
be delivered by Noise Control
Audio (NCA).
It’s been a while since Steve
Stavrinides’ NCA has featured
in PSNEurope, but this summer
the company is back with a
vengeance. Stavrinides is a
veteran of the Glastonbury
‘after hours’ scene (the festival is
‘fallow’ this year, of course). He
can be seen replete in high-vis
jacket, talking to Michael Eavis
in Julien Temple’s recent film
Glastopia for
BBC4.
“We do 13 of
the late night
areas, from
theatre shows to
DJ areas to live
bands and
backstage bars –
the Common,
Block9, the
Unfair Ground,
that’s NCA and
one of our
biggest users,
Positive Focus,”
Stavrinides tells
PSNEurope two
weeks before
Paradise
Gardens. “So
when the guys
from ShangriLa and Mutate
Britain won the tender to
construct the Pleasure Gardens,
they naturally came to us – not
just for PA, but to help with
design, the acoustic element,
noise reduction outside and so
on. So we’ve worked with them
through the design process
right the way through to supply
and setup.”
This goes beyond just NCA
boxes, he says, though this is not
the norm for the loudspeaker
company. “It’s desks, mics and
PA – we don’t want someone to
use our speakers and then a
desk or mics that ain’t up to it.
Every element we’re supplying.”
“The London Pleasure
Gardens is something different,
and quirky, which is why we are
pleased to be involved,” he adds.
The Hub will be a duplicate
of what PF Events specifies at
Glastonbury, “although we’ve
beefed it up a little”: eight stacks
of the I-Fly concert system,
powered by NCA with the Full
Frequency series of amps and
processing. Also featured will be
the new ASYM 2D2 three-way
enclosures and NCA
SM15/CX121 wedge monitors.
Of the 2D2, Stavrinides says:
“It’s a double 12, 1.5” box with
the two 12” drivers being
different… the internal box
design allows us to avoid a
passive crossover inside – the box
itself becomes a crossover
because of the acoustic design
inside the box, rather than
doing it electronically. It’s all
about chambers and shapes –
the internal shape is more
important than the external.
We’ve been working on this box
for two years, and it’s only
recently that we’ve said that it’s
ready to go out.”
NCA enclosures in the Dome
In the 1,000-capacity Dome –
half a giant golf ball – there are
six more ASYM 2D2s, four
VSB218 subs and six ASYM
2S2 delays plus 218 subs. “It’s a
difficult venue because it’s
spherical – in fact it’s the worst
venue I’ve ever had to do sound
in, but working closely with
Ryan Willmot from LPG we
have added a 4m high, 70cm
deep sand wall and 11 tons of
sound proofing to the interior
which has left us with a great
acoustic space.” The Dome PA
is a multipurpose system that
can cope with “70% of the
events they are planning,” says
Stavrinides, “including theatre,
comedy and live bands”.
The LPG project is a timely
win for NCA, reveals Stavrinides.
“The recession hit us hard,”
he admits. “We have a core of
UK customers, who are really
happy, but most of our business
has been abroad. The UK
market is a tough nut to crack
because it is full of established
brands. But we’re still here
because we’re committed to our
fantastic products that work in
all scenarios, and we have a
team of people who believe in
the product. ‘Made in Britain’
has meaning again, and it’s
working for us abroad.”
He highlights sales via Silence
electroacustica SL in Spain
(“He’s really worked NCA there,
and dropped a lot of brands to
take us on”); C Audio and Paul
Hammick in the south of
France, and Wavefarm in the
North; and Martin Mayapur in
the Czech Republic.
NCA kit will also feature in the
ambitious Tree of Light project
around Oxfordshire this summer,
and all stages at the Strummer of
Love festival in August.
“A lot of people who use our kit
say it’s easy to handle, easy to set
up and sounds great – even though
we don’t have the ‘branding’ – we
come from a touring background
so we know how to design and
build in a way that works for
roadies and engineers alike.
“This year we really want to
push forward and show people
we have gear that can work
for them.” n
www.blocweekend.com
www.londonpleasuregardens.com
www.noisecontrolaudio.com
livenews
For the latest live news
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/live
UNITED KINGDOM
Can you hear the reign?
By Erica Basnicki
LEGENDARY ARTISTS
performing in front of
Buckingham Palace, and a rainsoaked Thames River Pageant
were the highlights of this year’s
Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
The high-profile events
celebrating the Queen’s 60-year
reign attracted hundreds of
thousands of spectators and
an Outline system consisting of
96 Butterfly enclosures with 48
Subtech subwoofers.
“Our brief was to provide an
‘invisible’ PA – no towers, no
flown arrays, but of course it
had to sound perfect,” said Brit
Row MD Bryan Grant. In
addition Britannia Row also
supplied an inventory of
Sennheiser microphones and
IEMs, including SKM 5200
Over 250,000 spectators stayed dry for the Jubilee Concert in front of Buckingham Palace
millions more television viewers.
At the concert, Britannia
Row supplied a fleet of Midas
consoles. It was one of the
largest networks of Midas
desks ever built, handling a
total of over 416 channels of
audio. One PRO2C and two
PRO9 consoles were used at
front of house – with XL8,
PRO9 and PRO6 consoles on
monitors. The PA chosen was
MK II microphones with
KK 105 heads for the presenters
and 2000 series IEMs for all
on stage.
At the end of the signal chain,
capturing the entire concert was
Pyramix, used in conjunction
with a Smart AV Tango 2
controller provided by Floating
Earth. According to Merging
Technologies there are ‘no
immediate plans for a public
release of the concert’ though
the Queen did receive a gold disc
for CD sales of her Golden
Jubilee concert in 2002. Perhaps
Her Majesty will be awarded a
diamond disc next?
For the River Pageant, Delta
Sound supplied 45 individual
hangs of JBL VTX line arrays,
156 VTX V25 line array
elements and 54 JBL VerTec line
array loudspeakers, lined along
the Thames from Putney Bridge
to Tower Bridge and on down to
Greenwich. The torrential rain
had no effect on the DPA 4088,
d:vote 4099, and 4060
microphones used on the barges,
supplied by Thames Audio,
which were feeding a series of
Delta’s Yamaha LS9 consoles.
Finally, keeping the entire
show running smoothly was
Clear-Com, which provided
three Eclipse Median digital
matrix intercoms and more than
a dozen V-Series key-panels,
also supplied by Delta Sound,
to facilitate communications
between the event’s sound,
lighting, pyrotechnics, security
and stage-management
production teams. n
www.britanniarow.com
www.clearcom.com
www.deltasound.co.uk
www.dpamicrophones.com
www.floatingearth.com
www.jblpro.com
www.merging.com
www.midasconsoles.com
www.yamahacommercialaudio.com
Career Opportunity
We have an unmissable opportunity for a Product/Technology
specialist for our EMEA region, who will provide in-depth technical
knowledge, expertise and support to our internal sales team,
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You would be responsible for developing and maintaining close
relationships with key customers and industry experts throughout the
EMEA region and, as the technical face of Harman, you would work
on creating new business opportunities.
A major part of the role is providing pre and post-sale support to
customers, sales, and dealer network with special focus on projects
and large scale systems application, so a good in-depth knowledge
of systems design is important.
For further information or to apply, please visit
http://www.harman.com/Careers/Pages/Jobs.aspx
The secrets behind the Games’
Opening Ceremony will
be revealed at PLASA 2012
UNITED KINGDOM
PLASA pushes content
By Erica Basnicki
PLASA 2012 has increased its
professional development
programme this year with a
weighty 80 sessions scheduled,
including seminars on
sustainability and ‘top secret’
Olympics presentations.
Taking place immediately after
the London 2012 Olympics,
PLASA 2012 will celebrate the
audio industry’s contribution to
the Games with a series of
sessions. Included among them
will be a panel of (as yet,
undisclosed) production personnel
discussing the highs and lows of
the Games’ Opening Ceremony.
The Sustainability Programme
will explore how to reconcile the
needs of an energy-hungry
industry with responsible
environmental practices, and
how this can pay dividends for
your business.
Future Trends looks at the
current direction of technology
and where it might lead us. The
headline session ‘Are we near to
Perfect Sound?’ will be presented
by director of R&D at Martin
Audio, Jason Baird, and d&b
audiotechnik product manager,
Werner ‘Vier’ Bayer, plus a
representative from Meyer Sound.
The Emerging Technologies
programme will focus on
cutting-edge technologies –
nanotechnology, memristor
memory, LED/laser data
transmission, gesture recognition,
quantum computers, T-rays and
holograms – and how they may
be used in the events industry.
International and Major
Projects is a series of sessions
that will provide access to the
most ambitious and challenging
projects out there. Headlining
the programme are Durham
Marenghi and Tim Routledge
with their account of the Queen’s
Diamond Jubilee Concert.
Tickets are still available for
the entire four-day event for only
£10 (€12). Pre-registered visitors
will be notified when seminar
booking opens online. n
www.plasashow.com
Application Engineer
Audio Systems Design and Support
Photo: London 2012
July 2012 l 39
40 l July 2012
livereport
UNITED KINGDOM
Blue Fish puts hooks into
new distribution business
By Dave Robinson
MATTHEW MANASSE’S Blue
Fish Audio business is going
swimmingly, thanks for asking.
After more than 20 years of
touring with some of the world’s
major artists, the FOH engineer
has established an audio rental
company targeting the corporate
event market. He’s built a solid
base of regular clients,
and still finds time to mix shows
for Eric Clapton and The
Straits (that’s Dire Straits
post-Mark Knopfler).
Now Manasse has taken
on the additional challenge
of launching a distribution
company. His first line is from
Dutch loudspeaker
manufacturer Sound Projects.
Will someone take the bait?
In the past, you could have
found him mixing FOH for Katie
Melua or Rufus Wainwright.
But having put in the hours of
sardine-like living on tour buses,
it’s time for Manasse to dive into
fresh waters.
All eyes on Matt Manasse: the Blue Fish fellow, caught at the Truman Brewery
“I’ve been building my
corporate customer base by
word of mouth,” he says. “It’s a
slow process but means that my
customers come to me because
of my reputation, instead of me
having to go out and find them.
I put a very strong emphasis on
sound quality, and I make sure
the engineers I use share this
ethos. I also make sure that the
equipment is prepared in
advance for each individual job
and that the crew are properly
briefed so we can work very
efficiently on site. It makes
the whole event more relaxed
and gives us more time to
concentrate on looking after the
customer’s requirements.
“We use Sound Projects X-Act
stage monitors as part of our
rental stock and all our
customers love them. Some of
the acts we work with have said
they use us primarily because the
stage sound is always so good.
Becoming the UK distributor for
a brand that I know and trust
seems like a natural extension of
the core business.
“At the moment I’ve got the
Sound Projects stage monitors
in stock and hope to have more
of the product range later in the
year,” he says.
This 29-year-old company
should be familiar to
PSNEurope readers. Based in
the Netherlands, the original
‘Master Blaster’ brand has
gradually matured into today’s
Sound Projects marque, and
now boasts a full catalogue of
small, medium and large format
PA systems, some with quirky
names such as X-act (monitor)
and DreamLine (line array).
This time last year, PSNEurope
carried a story about the
Dubliners touring with the
SPX-65 medium format array;
recently, the company launched
the SP2-15 sub at the Antwerp
High Fashion show (see
PSNEurope April 2012).
Yet Sound Projects doesn’t
have much of a profile in the
UK. Rental house Concert
Sound was quietly involved with
the brand for some years, but its
migration into the Clair Group
in early 2009, and a subsequent
streamlining of the inventory to
Clair’s specs, gave Manasse his
opportunity. “I pounced on
[Concert Sound’s Sound Projects]
self-powered wedges, knowing
they are really good,” he says.
“Then, in January this year I was
in touch with [MD] Jan Slooter
to see where I could buy some
more, and after several chats,
here I am distributing them.”
Manasse knows he’s
swimming against the current,
bringing an unfamiliar brand
into a crowded market, but that
doesn’t discourage him. “I’m an
engineer with a solid reputation;
I bought the wedges because I
really like them, I use them
because I think they’re a great
product, so why shouldn’t I be
able to sell them? It’s cleverly
designed, well built and great
sounding equipment so I don’t
see why it shouldn’t make a
mark on the UK industry.” The
Blue Fish is hooked, certainly.
Manasse adds that he’s
A/B’d the new X-Tender wedge
against some of the best of the
competition, “and they are right
up there. I wouldn’t say they will
beat everything on the market as
different engineers and acts have
different requirements but if it’s a
loud, smooth, exceptionally clean
sound that you’re after then these
will certainly do the business.”
He reports that all of the
PA houses and engineers he’s
demonstrated the wedges to are
very impressed with the kit.
Now it’s time to wait patiently
and see whom he can reel in. n
www.bluefishlive.co.uk
July 2012 l 41
livereport
The show’s peak audience
ALTHOUGH VERONA Arena
is best known to non-Italian
audiences for its opera
programme, the Roman
amphitheatre (built in AD30) has
in recent years also become a
prestige venue for top rock stars.
It was therefore a dream come
true for the young contestants on
Amici, the popular Italian TV
talent contest conceived and
presented by Maria De Filippi
and produced by Fascino P.g.T.
for broadcaster Mediaset, to
perform there during the show’s
semi-finals and finals.
The venue is renowned for
its excellent acoustics when
unamplified events such as opera
are hosted, but Madema, the
sound contractor called in for the
event, had to cater for a totally
different situation. As well as
getting the young singers’ voices,
the 49-piece band and the opinions
of the panel of judges over loud
and clear to a packed audience of
enthusiastic fans, it also had to
ensure quality audio for viewers
at home, who voted for their
favourites and decreed the winner.
Madema fielded a 19-man
team, led by technical director
Davide Michele and audio chief
Luca Molinari, a huge array of
equipment (including Soundcraft
Vi6 and SM20 desks, a Yamaha
M7CL, five Yamaha PM1D),
and an impressive JBL VerTec
system. Alessandro Gianelli of
Sound Light & Technologies,
who was called in to design and
align the PA, explains: “Due to
camera sightline and production
requirements, delay systems were
ruled out and stageside video
screens obliged me to split the
subwoofers into two groups on
either side of the set. However,
Talent show contestants took to the Verona Arena stage
ITALY
New talent
enters the
Arena
JBL VerTec and eight audio consoles handle ancient Roman acoustics for live TV show, writesMike Clark
with AFMG’s EASE for acoustic
simulation and JBL’s VerTec Line
Array Calculator II, I established
the best array positions and
formats – the main rig consisted
of a front hang of 16 VT4888
and a side hang of 12 VT4888 on
either side of the stage, plus eight
VT4880A subs ground-stacked
four-up on either side and seven
more on the set on either side
(below the screens). The points of
emission of the low frequencies
were therefore divided but, using
a delay, I managed to get even
‘smooth’ response at the very
low frequencies.”
Confirming the venue’s
excellent acoustics, Gianelli said
very little correction was
required: “The good mechanical
alignment of the main system
enabled me to start from a very
good basis and, although the side
hangs caused reflections on the
Arena’s stone steps/seats,
‘throwing’ the sound on to the
stalls, this was solved as soon as
the venue filled up, thanks to the
absorbent bass of the audience.”
Music and vocals were mixed
by one FOH engineer and speech
microphone by another (the
former manning the Vi6 and a
PM1D, the latter the M7CL); the
SM10 and another PM1D were
on monitor chores and three
PM1D made up the broadcast
audio chain, with FOH and
broadcast providing each other a
precautionary back-up of the
final mixdown.
Recorded on two recording
systems (a dual Nuendo 4.3
set-up and a Pro Tools system),
the show had a peak audience of
over 6 million, maintaining its
great success for the 11th year. n
www.jbl.com
www.madema.it
www.soundcraft.com
Photo: Studio Brenzoni
6
million
42 l July 2012
liveinterview
UNITED KINGDOM/UNITED STATES
Less friction, more action
Mike Muench, managing director of Line 6, explains how the company is trying to make things just a little easier for everyone
“THIS MIGHT be the first time
that your readership is seeing
something from Line 6 that’s more
than just guitar products,” admits
Mike Muench from the outset.
Muench (pronounced
‘Minch’), Line 6 managing
director, is on a short visit from
the company’s California HQ
and has invited PSNEurope to
the UK office in Rugby to hear
more about Line 6’s vision to
help musicians make music
“while avoiding the friction”.
Its POD had a huge impact on
guitarists when it was launched
in 1997: amplifier modelling and
effects in a compact, manageable
package, particularly appealing
to studio musicians who wanted
to record an authentic guitar
sound but
didn’t have
the facilities,
or were
restricted by
circumstance
(budget,
location,
complaints
from
neighbours
and
families…)
While
POD put
Line 6 on
the map, its
original
The StageSource L3t designer,
enjoyed a successful Marcus
debut at NAMM
Ryle, had
already changed the recording
landscape some years before
with his ADAT digital
tape system.
At the NAMM show in
January this year, Line 6 turned
heads again with the debut of
the StageSource and StageScape
products (a compact PA speaker
and digital mixing/recording
system respectively).
The StageSource L3t was
reviewed exclusively in Europe by
PSNEurope last month.
The ‘Stage’ launches represent
the next step in Line 6’s push into
the live sound market, a shift that
began with the wireless XD system
microphone systems in 2010.
Fundamental to Muench’s –
and therefore Line 6’s – way of
PUBLISHING IN JULY
VOLUME 7
thinking is solving problems for
users, and “changing the way
people interact with the products”.
Is there a philosophy that says
you won’t go into a new sector
unless you can offer something
more than a ‘me-too’ product?
Absolutely! For a couple of
reasons. We spend more on R&D
(based in Calabasas, California)
than anything else and that’s a big
expense. So we can’t afford to go
into markets where you’re going
to be a me-too. You’ll never get
your investment back that way.
We think, where are there places
where we can go and provide some
innovation? It’s one of our company
values, and it’s good business to do
that. It’s also what motivates us.
It’s exciting to do something that
can really change how music is
made. Most of the people that
work at Line 6 are there because
they want to be part of that.
This is a philosophy that I heard
nearly 10 years ago from Tim
Ryan, creator of M-Audio… and
people such as Adam Castillo,
VP for marketing for Line 6,
used to be at M-Audio.
Yes, and that’s the kind of
person that we attract.
So your R&D department, it’s
not just Marcus Ryle sat on a
throne, throwing out commands
to his minions?
No! [Laughs] We have a lot of
talented people in the company,
Complete Industry survey covering the four
main sectors - venues, manufacturers,
sound engineers, rental and touring companies
Targeted live sound audience of over 5,000
potential customers
Brand association with Europe’s primary
source of live sound market data
Combination packages available with our
new PSNEurope-Live twice-monthly newsletter
Advertising presence in the
digital edition of PSNLive
SALES
Nick Beck +44 (0)20 7354 6000
[email protected]
EDITORIAL
Dave Robinson +44 (0)20 7226 7246
[email protected]
Joanne Ruddock +44 (0)20 7226 7246
[email protected]
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July 2012 l 43
“We can’t afford to go into markets where
you’re going to be a me-too. You’ll never get
your investment back that way”
liveinterview
and Marcus has a strong
influence: he’s grown up in the
industry, and is a key piece of
Line 6’s innovation, but it extends
far more broadly than him.
For instance, people like
Simon Jones (ex-JBL portable
PA products, including the EON
range) had a big impact on the
sound products – while engineer
Mike Paginini’s years of
experience in designing speakers
was critical to a lot of things that
went into the StageSource.
There are perhaps 90 people
involved in all the aspects of
R&D if you include the actual
engineers, the product makers, the
guys in product development,
those in FX processing and so on.
So when the dust settled after the
amazing NAMM reaction, what was
the wider opinion of the StageSource
and StageScape launches?
What we were excited about was
that it was clear we hit a nerve
with people who empathise with
the problem. There’s a lot of
musicians who saw this and said
‘Finally! I don’t have to be a sound
guy to use the kit!” These things
don’t replace an engineer – these
are for people who would never
have an engineer in the first place.
How are the sales figures of the
wireless systems?
The place we’ve gained the most
market share has been in the
guitar wireless space specifically.
That makes sense: Line 6 is most
known to guitarists. In the
wireless space there’s a wide
frequency response that the
guitarists want, but you lose that
with the companding of the
signal, and they lose a lot of the
tone. So the fact that we can give
a much more ‘cable-like’
compelling technology. X2 IP
served as the core for our wireless
products, so that was critical.
They were in Sacramento – most
of our wireless development is in
California – so it was a good
fit too.
There are different ways people
drive growth – consolidation has
been a major one in recent times.
But you have to ask, these
companies may be bigger, but are
they more successful? We never
thought the way to grow, just to
create revenue, was by acquisition.
We’re not interested in that.
Mike Muench, Line 6 managing director
experience for guitarists, to date,
that has been a much stronger
value proposition in the guitar
market than has been recognised
in the vocal market. But we’re
continuing to see our share grow
in the wireless vocal mic space.
Marcus said, when we spoke to
him two years ago, ‘We don’t
have an analogue business that
we need to protect.’ Do you think
that’s key to Line 6’s success?
It’s a lot easier to come in with
innovations when you are not
cannibalising your own product
lines, and when those innovations
represent lines of growth for the
company. It’s certainly been the
company’s track record to say, in
areas where there has been
analogue, we can apply our
knowledge of digital to those
spaces. But customers will decide
whether they like it or not. And if
we don’t do go there, someone
else will…
Traditionally, the way a business
grows is by acquisition. Other
than buying X2, this has not been
Line 6’s chosen path. However, is
acquisition in any future plans?
X2 Digital Wireless Systems was
very small at the time of the
acquisition, but it had some
One of the qualities of the
StageScape is the ‘One Touch’
approach – is that something you
brought from your time at Apple?
Yes, I think I share that
sensibility, but I’m no Steve
Jobs! I wouldn’t even attempt to
make any comparisons.
Figuring out how to use
technology to solve a problem,
that’s what I learned at Apple. I
brought that thinking with me
to the company, and it is a
sensibility that we all share.
Also, Apple was a company
that wasn’t afraid to take
product risks, and I think I
brought that characteristic too.
It’s now one of the world’s most
valuable companies, but no one
remembers that Apple took a lot
of risks with the [bug-ridden
$700 proto-PDA] Newton
MessagePad, a product well
ahead of its time. Taking risks
and thinking differently: that’s
what you learn at Apple.
The third thing: what’s
happened in the channels, on the
MI side of things, are the same
things I saw in the computer
business: the consolidation
from a lot of enthusiasts selling
out of shops to big companies
like Best Buy selling laptops and
the development of specialty
companies such as system
integrators and value-added
resellers selling on a small
scale with high service and
expertise levels.... that whole
shift has been mirrored in the
musician’s world.
Steve Jobs and Marcus Ryle –
both created companies, both had
great vision, both designed
disruptive technologies… what do
you think sets them most apart? I
mean, I couldn’t have seen myself
having a beer with Jobs, but I did
that at NAMM with Ryle…
On one level there are
similarities, and much like
people don’t necessarily fully
understand what the depth and
contribution of talent is within
Apple, probably people don’t
have that visibility within Line 6
either. iPod designer Jonathan
Ive is a great example – he was a
key contributor to Apple’s
success. Jobs was clearly a
visionary and a very methodical
product person, but I’m sure if
Jonathan was sat here he’d say,
‘Well I had a few things to do
with that too!’ Similiarly with
Marcus and engineers at Line 6,
he tends to be the public face for
Line 6’s innovation, but backed
by a strong and talented
development team.
Jobs and Ryle were/are very
different personalities. I didn’t
work closely with Jobs but his
temperament is well documented.
I thoroughly enjoy working with
Marcus and he is part of a great
management team at Line 6. And
he’s a far better musician than
Steve Jobs ever was. n
www.line6.com
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44 l July 2012
livefeature
Aspirations always
exceed budgets when
it comes to staging a
major production
Show time
WHAT, DO you imagine, is the
big must-have for today’s theatre
sound designers? The answer may
surprise you – especially if you’d
expected a flurry of mentions for
new products and technologies.
To a man, those we interviewed
began by saying ‘nothing really, at
the moment’, but as they warmed
to their subject, one must-have
came across loud and clear. Time.
And sound designers aren’t
getting enough of it because, as
we all know, time is money.
That isn’t to say that theatre is
in trouble, although there are
some worries about the effect the
London Olympics will have on
the West End (see panel, page
46). But budgets certainly aren’t
getting bigger, and that not only
impinges on the purchase of new
gear but squeezes schedules and
therefore the amount of time a
sound designer can devote to
experimentation.
“People’s aspirations always
exceed the producer’s budget,”
begins Chris Jordan, head of
sound and theatre for Blitz
Communications. “Shows are
tending to use the same sort of
kit and stick with their choices
until something revolutionary
comes along.”
And though there’s been a
revolution in audio during the
past decade or so, there doesn’t
seem to be one happening now.
That’s not to say there hasn’t
been gradual change. “We’ve
seen the end of any analogue
desks,” Jordan says, but adds
that for a real revolution you
have to look away from sound.
“Video has undergone a
revolution during the past few
years,” he believes. “Advances in
media playback and so on have
transformed things – look at Ghost
the Musical, where an illusionist
was part of the design team, even
being credited for the Tony Award.
Sound hasn’t gone through that.”
That, incidentally, isn’t
because video is creaming budget
off from the audio department –
although audio folk always do
suspect they come second when
the money’s being doled out.
Economics are a factor, but the
real squeeze is on time.
“Everything we do has greater
time constraints,” Jordan says.
“A day’s labour with 100 people
on set and venue rental on top is
serious money.”
One of the top items on the
wish list of Duncan Bell, financial
director of Autograph Sound (and
“Regional
theatre buys,
while the big
shows rent, and
will be likely to
have sound
designers who
want to use the
latest of
everything”
Tom Byrne, Orbital
an accomplished sound engineer),
is flexibility and speed of
programming. “With production
budgets under pressure, and
using busy freelancers, we need to
be able to program on the fly.
“Standards are rising at the
same time as production times
are being squeezed, so the
software needs to be quicker
and more flexible. We’re often
having to use two consoles at the
same time – one for live and one
for programming.”
That has an inevitable effect
on innovation, because the
shorter the lead time, the more
likely you are to go with tried
and tested solutions. And that in
itself reinforces the status quo.
“There are always sound
designers who are pushing,” Bell
says, “but it’s difficult for a busy
freelance to spend enough time
getting to grips with new
technology. Plus some people
think they have already invested
enough time on changing from
analogue to digital.”
And that leads to another
consideration. The big
revolution – in terms of
equipment – has pretty much
happened, and there inevitably
has to be a period of
consolidation to follow.
“I don’t like the idea of the
business plateauing – and it
won’t last forever,” says Bell,
“but it’s a cycle in business.”
And it’s not necessarily a bad
thing. With less time to spend
messing around with new toys,
designers will get to know their
current faves better and learn
how to get the most out of
them. Plus there’s a change in
the way of thinking that comes
with the changeover from
analogue to digital, and that
won’t have come easy to
traditionalists – although
there are fewer and fewer of
them around.
“There’s a generation now
getting to learn how to use
digital and get the most out of
them,” says Chris Headlam, MD
of Orbital Sound. “They’re a
generation who never knew
analogue – they’re more likely to
come from a PlayStation
background – and they see this
as a whole, a surface. And we’re
now getting very interesting
sound design ideas.
“Everyone used to chase
the naturalistic sound – but
that’s boring. Using a 3D space
is more involving, more
exciting. So I’m quite positive
about this. And because the
technology is really good, that
means now they can play with
the dynamics.”
W HAT’S HOT
Tom Byrne, sales director at
Orbital, points out an important
distinction between big
production shows and regional
theatre. “Regional theatre buys,”
he says, “while the big shows
rent, and will be likely to have
sound designers who want to
use the latest of everything.”
t
Theatre is working under tighter and tighter deadlines. And that, Gez Kahan
discovers, has a great effect on the products sound designers are choosing
46 l July 2012
livefeature
Autograph Sound worked on the
Broadway Production of Singin’ in the Rain
THE OLYMPICS – WILL THE WEST END SUFFER?
when there’s a major sporting
event in a city. But it’s only
for three weeks – so get over
it. If Broadway can survive
911, can’t we stop moaning?
Chris Jordan,
Blitz
Chris Headlam,
Orbital Sound
Duncan Bell,
Autograph Sound
Chris Jordan: I think London
will be a nightmare, for
transport and everything.
Raymond Gubbay, for
example, is not putting
anything on… But no one has
yet called to say ‘we’re closing’.
Nonetheless, the inevitable
result of production time
constraints is that sound
designers, even when they’re
renting, tend to stick with what’s
familiar. That in itself will lead
to a degree of standardisation.
And, sure enough, the same
names kept cropping up
when our interviewees talked
about products.
“When it comes to consoles,
big shows use DiGiCo,” says
Byrne. “Then it’s Yamaha.
PM1Ds are still going strong, as
are the PM5, the M7 and the
new CL series.
“Speakers? d&b all the way,”
he says. “Occasionally Meyer if
it’s a production moving across
from Broadway. For comms,
more and more it’s wireless and
more and more it comes down
to HME or ClearCom, which
are starting to become the
industry standard.”
“The regionals are also
buying more wireless,” he adds,
“especially because of the health
and safety angle – you’d rather
have someone up in the flies on
wireless than trailing 10m of
cable. Yes, wired is cheaper, but
even with a wired system, when
people come to expand it they
are tending to add wireless to it
if they have the budget.”
As for radio mics, he sees a
clear distinction. “The high-end
productions are tending to use
Shure UHF-R. They’re costeffective, and the back up is
great. For the regionals, it tends
to be Sennheiser G3s. They’re
priced right, and you can chuck
them against a wall and they
bounce back. Plus they’re small,
and size matters in theatre.”
Indeed it does. Bell wrily
observes: “If you’re the bloke
throwing himself off the
barricades in Les Mis and
landing on your transmitter a
few times a week, you’re going
to have something to say if
that transmitter suddenly
becomes larger.” But it’s not
just radio transmitters that
benefit from being small. One
of the big selling points
Yamaha pushed when it
launched the PM1D back when
grandma was a little girl, was
the footprint. It still applies.
“We recently swapped the desk
on the Lion King,” Bell says.
“Disney did a lot of numbercrunching, and I’d estimate
that freeing up extra seats has
paid the cost within a year.”
Chris Headlam: Historical
data shows theatre suffers
DEFAULT OPTIONS?
Size, though, isn’t the only reason
for DiGiCo and Yamaha’s
predominance in the theatre
market. “Manufacturers do take
input from sound designers,” says
Jordan. “But theatre is not big
enough to drive a big company.
DiGiCo is listening hard. That
isn’t and can’t be so much the
case for many others. Theatre
counts, but it isn’t a driver.”
“People used to build stuff in
their garden sheds,” adds
Headlam. “Now, when software
is a half-million pound project,
you have to be a proper
company. That’s not necessarily
a good thing. You end up with
less choice for the designer.”
In fact, he is concerned about
what he sees as “an alarming lack
of R&D taking place. There are
fewer companies than there were
10 years ago and that’s a worrying
trend. Add to that the way that
production times have got smaller
and people will opt for what is
reliable and will do the job.”
But to be fair, DiGiCo and
Yamaha have worked hard
Duncan Bell: I don’t think
theatre and the Olympics
are mutually exclusive. It
strikes me that there should
be packages including
tickets to the Olympics, a
hotel and tickets to the
theatre. But anyway, the
weather has a bigger impact –
hot weather is the biggest
turn off for theatre.
for their success, and continue
to court the theatre market
with upgrades and new
releases. “The DiGiCo SD7 is
a great product,” says Bell,
“and answers several
questions with its software.
Meanwhile, the competition
haven’t competed!”
That could change. Cadac –
which made its name in the
theatre – has just been showing
off its new CDC eight desk to
the big noises on Broadway,
complete with an updated and
integrated version of its SAM
sound design software. Expect
an assault on the European
markets imminently.
But for now, there seem to be
few wildcards in the sound
designer’s deck. DiGiCo and
Yamaha for desks. d&b, Meyer
and (particularly where it’s an
installation) L-Acoustics for
speakers. And, increasingly –
although Orbital makes some
convincing claims for the CSC
system it distributes and uses
(see box below) – QLab for
playback and control.
“QLab has been the fairly
standard playback system – and
that’s spreading to smaller
theatres,” says Jordan. “At Blitz,
we’re starting to use QLab in
corporate work. It’s easy to
see why it’s popular – not
just because it works. Who in
the audio world doesn’t like
the Apple? And it’s smart
marketing to allow two-channel
usage for free.”
But even there, Headlam sees
changes afoot. “The real musthave isn’t so much whether it’s
CSC or QLab (which we also
use). It’s a good computer-based
playback system. But even that’s
changing as consoles and
playback are now becoming one
– Yamaha has upped the ante
with its new desks.”
WHAT NEXT?
So desks have gone digital,
playback has gone digital,
desks have gone digital, and
DSP has revolutionised speaker
size and performance. What
about radio mics? Shouldn’t
they go digital too?
As Headlam says: “People
have had a chance to revisit
radio mics because of the
spectrum sale. Shure’s latest
products are a great example
of that. The Axient, for
instance, frequency-hops like
a mobile phone. That’s a major
step forward.”
Efficient usage of spectrum
is more of an issue for Bell,
who cautions that the
industry’s battle with Ofcom
over the spectrum sale is still
ongoing. When it comes to
digital radio mics, “There’s not
enough that’s radical. Plus it
would introduce extra latency.”
And that brings us back to
time, and the first item on
Bell’s must-have wish-list.
“Digital latency is a bigger
issue in a theatre than for many
others because of the proximity
of live voices to digitally
processed signals. We need to
look at the whole chain.”
“There’s still talk of a digital
revolution in radio mics,” agrees
Jordan, “but that has not yet
really happened. Can you really
say ‘I can’t do the show without
this’ when the previous
generation of products is still
pretty damn good?”
And that might be a fair
assessment of theatre sound’s
current status. There’s nothing
desperately new, because there’s
nothing desperately wrong with
the current market-leading
products. All sound designers
really need is a bit more time to
work with them. n
www.autograph.co.uk
www.blitzcommunications.co.uk
www.cadac-sound.com
www.clearcom.com
www.ctrelectronics.co.uk
www.dbaudio.com
www.digico.biz
www.hme.com
www.l-acoustics.com
www.meyersound.com
www.orbitalsound.co.uk
www.figure53.com
www.en-de.sennheiser.com
www.shure.com
CSC ON STARLIGHT TOUR
As sound designer for the UK
tour of Starlight Express Ben
Harrison is using a Yamaha
PM1D. “It’s bursting at the
seams,” he says, “but we’ve
managed to get the whole show
on the one console and, for a
touring production, that’s a
massive advantage.” The speakers
are d&b – Q1 line arrays with a
centre T-series hang to pull the
vocal image out of the
proscenium system and into the
centre, plus a host of delays and
point source fill-ins depending on
the needs of the venue.
Playback is via a CSC Show
Control system from Orbital
Sound. “When I started in
theatre, all my effects were on
1/4-inch tape and even a small
change could take a long while
to fix. With
CSC we can
instantly
choose new
start points,
set loop points
or manipulate
the effect, all
with the
director sitting
beside you.”
Working
alongside
Harrison, and
with particular input to the
effects and control concepts is
associate SD Dan Samson.
“We’re using two dualredundant CSC systems with a
specially-developed iPad
remote-control app,” says
Samson. “The system at front of
house handles the Voice of
Control cues and surround
effects, with the iPad app giving
the DSM at the prompt desk a
remote viewing and cuetriggering capability. The other,
in the pit, handles click tracks,
playback and further effects.”
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48 l July 2012
livefeature
www.l-acoustics.com
www.nexo.fr
www.turbosound.com
www.yamahacommercialaudiosystems.com
On the road
part one
For the next three months, PSNEurope will keep tabs on the
diaries of several internationally-renowned sound engineers. Meet
FOH engineer Jon Sword and systems specialist Graham Burton
who share their tales of life on the road with Paul Watson
The Feeling agreed to do this as full electric but stripped back with no bells and
whistles – no in-ears or tracks. Monitors was from FOH and I had 30 minutes to
totally strip the stage. The kit – a [Yamaha] M7CL48 driving a lovely old floodlit
ground-stacked Turbosound rig.
Now, I have a rule when walking to a digital board on a festival turn-round (if not
using my own file on my Soundcraft Vi6): if the house guy has been mixing all day,
my first point is to check how he does a few bits… hit ‘select’ on the hi-hat channel,
and if (and in this case WHEN) I see a low-end boosted on the EQs, it’s brown
trouser time! Not helped by his admission that the drum mix is actually running
post-fade. Er… why would you think that’s correct?
So that’s 15 minutes of my time wasted doing an almost reset – he hadn’t even
inserted GEQ on mixes or rung them out. Eh? How? Why? I’m bereft!
Moving on… the gig took a while to settle, but we got there, all smiles, and I made
my last train home – nuff said. And breathe.
e Feeling’s
Jon Sword (left) with Th
Richard Jones
Athlete: “Well seasoned”
19TH MAY
JON SWORD’S
MONTH
n’t
For those who do
is
d
or
know, Sw
arguably ‘the sixth
p
member’ of UK po
As
.
ng
act The Feeli
well as being their
r
FOH engineer fo
s,
the past seven year
’s
nd
ba
e
he’s also th
ich
tour manager, wh
sy
bu
a
him
s
ke
ma
his
man. Add to this
plethora of
d
freelance work an
s
me
co
be
ry
dia
his
vast and varied.
ATHLETE, LAKEFEST,
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
I probably get the call for Athlete
once a year and each time it’s an
utter pleasure. Wonderful people,
run beautifully by tour manager,
Ian Mizan. This was one of these
bespoke festival weekends that
are springing out everywhere these days – and very welcome they are too!
Any tent rammed with cider-drinking, rosy-faced music nuts gets my vote! So,
another M7… I must say how I like these desks for fast accurate use of a digital
board; I can fly round them as fast as any analogue desk. OK, I know its limitations and
audio buffs can bang on about latency and preamp sound all they want, but for me,
nothing wrong with this one, and it’s outsold any desk in history worldwide.
Back to the gig… frantic 25-minute changeover, and my boy at FOH was perfectly happy
for me to jump all over his system and ‘do my thing’ without comment (another hi-hat
booster, unfortunately). What a well-seasoned band Athlete are – hats off, fellas!
11TH MAY
THE FEELING, ROYAL ALBERT HALL, OLYMPIC CHARITY DINNER
A multi-artist affair including Gary Barlow, Noisettes, a huge house band, full choir,
and even Bear Grylls!
Our performance setup was semi-acoustic, which we’ve done hundreds of times, and
we never soundcheck. It’s second nature these days knowing what they want from
these shows. A success rate to this method – probably 80%, so they don’t need to
turn up too early, put it that way! Once I’ve line checked with the backline techs,
BOOM! Gig on!
All was good for me, but not so for the poor Brit Row lads. The desks crashed BIG
time. They dumped EVERYTHING (except my scene, strangely) so more than 20
in-ear and foldback mixes – GONE! How can a desk of this calibre do this? Panic all
round, and some very unhappy musicians.
12TH MAY
THE FEELING,
THE PARK CLUB, ACTON
A real family day out, this one: a
swimathon charity event outdoors
put on by Tim Slater providing
multiple genres of entertainment
with one headline act each year.
Funnily enough I did this with
Sophie Ellis Bextor last year…
but that’s another story…!
Dan Gillespie Sells
of The Feeling
26TH MAY
TONY HADLEY,
ASCOT, WAITROSE
CORPORATE DINNER
Held at Ascot racecourse in a huge
marquee, and decked out like a
ballroom (we have all done many
Spandau Ballet’s
shows like this, you get the picture).
John Keeble
The support act was the dog from Britain’s Got
Talent – I know I’ve reached the pinnacle of my career now. I used to mix for Tony
more than seven years ago and this made me realise how much I miss it. We all move
through different clients, but some hold special memories – this is one of those.
As usual, this one is stacked against the audio boys; a long rectangle of a tent and the
stage right in the middle on the wide side. ANOTHER M7, and I have to write a show
from scratch. Tony had a sizeable set-up: big drum kit, bass, keys, eight channels of track,
guitar, percussion, sax, backing singers, etc. Very slick band and SO good to see everyone
again, especially my old mate John Keeble (also Spandau Ballet) on drums.
The band gave me two belters, then off for dinner. Er, did that really happen? Anyway, I use
a [BSS] 901 EQ linked to [dbx] 160a inline for Tony’s voice and it purrs so beautifully. It’s
nice to know my old tricks still work; if anything, Tony’s voice has become so much
stronger over the years and his gentlemanly conduct remains impeccable. His vocal mic
these days is the stunning Sennheiser 500 series radio with the MD5235 head. After lots of
hanging around (and five episodes of 24 later), he did a 30-minute set of banging tunes
and even a Killers cover (didn’t see that coming!) Back in the hotel by midnight – lovely.
July 2012 l 49
Graham Burton
1ST JUNE
ON’S MONTH
GRAHAM BURT
s
Graham Burton wa
ld,
s-o
ar
At just 16-ye
n
Bo
th
wi
ur
to
to
pond
whisked across the
avier
er, and six stone he
Jovi. Six months lat
ists),
ins
ll
sti
he
,
u”
at to yo
(“the US will do th
H sound
FO
in
r
ree
ca
al
ion
he began a profess
rably
sporting a conside
engineering. Now,
his
of
ch
mu
ds
en
n sp
lighter frame, Burto
m tech – a
ste
sy
a
as
ing
rk
time on the road wo
often underrated…
role that he feels is
livefeature
9TH JUNE
BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY SUMMER BALL
On tour with Billy Ocean
I was working as assistant sound manager for this gig, which basically meant I got
lumbered with overseeing four stages, most of which were DJ stages, but we did have
Feeder headlining – they’re a really solid band, and it was a great night.
BILLY OCEAN
OK, so at the start of the month I
was working with Billy Ocean on his
UK tour as a FOH system tech,
where we were using L-Acoustics
dV-DOSC, dV subs and SB28 subs;
and we had an Avid Profile system at
both ends of the multi. Then, bizarrely, I went in to the Mayflower Theatre in
Southampton to do The Gruffalo… not sure why… that really isn’t my kind of thing. In
fact, why did I mention it? Anyway, moving on…
8TH JUNE
22ND JUNE
HOT CHOCOLATE, WESTON SUPER MARE
I have been FOH engineer and tour manager for these guys for 10 years, however this
was NOT a good gig. For a start, it was in an amusement arcade and it was on the pier in
Weston-Super-Mare. Add to that the severe lack of PA equipment – just one stack per
side of EV X-Array. This kind of kit would have been fine for sidefills, maybe, but not for
a main system! Oh, and I was given a Yamaha LS9 32, which I hate. Sorry, but I just do.
24TH JUNE
GOODWOOD RACES
GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED
OK, it’s the first night at the Goodwood Races DJ night with Groove Armada’s
Andy Cato – we’ve got a good sized set-up consisting of 18 L-Acoustics
dV-DOSC and eight L-Acoustics SB28 subs; also, four dV subs, six Nexo PS15s
and four Nexo PS10s. Everything was going perfectly until two minutes before
showtime when we had a massive power-cut, and the night got completely
cancelled. Ridiculous. Thankfully though, on 15 June, we came back to do
another DJ night at Goodwood with Dermot O’Leary, which went really well.
I’m currently in the midst of this festival, coated
Goodw
in mud most of the time, to be honest. Basically, I Spo ood Action
rts Arena
am the system tech for the Goodwood Action
Sports Arena. For this venue, we have deployed
seven stacks of dV-subs and dV-DOSC, all running on LA8 amps and contorted with
Lakes in Mesa EQ mode. And actually I’ve been able to relax in my hammock for most
of the day. In fact, I am writing this from my iPad, from my hammock! n
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50 l July 2012
For the latest installation news
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/installation
installation
SOUNDBITES
Russian systems integrators and
APG integration partner Doka
Centre recently celebrated its
25th anniversary with a two-day
event featuring a number of
presentations, workshops and
demos on APG products.
“Doka ran the whole thing
completely professionally,” said
APG’s Xavier Pion. “Then in true
Russian style, everyone let their
hair down (helped by many,
many litres of Russian vodka of
course!) at the gala dinner.”
www.apg.tm.fr
A sizeable Peavey MediaMatrix
system was chosen for Phase II
of the massive AV installation at
the Qatar National Convention
Centre. Some 82 Peavey
MediaMatrix NION n3s and 91
Cab 4n units with Crestron
RoomView have been deployed,
providing a massive 2,760
channels of audio, all run over
CobraNet. The system was
designed by integrator Techno Q.
www.peavey.com
Apart-Audio, the main brand of
Belgian manufacturer Audioprof,
marked its 20th anniversary
inJune with a distributor meeting
at its HQ in Schoten near Antwerp,
at which it unveiled its new logo
and a range of new products. The
OVO5P active speaker set and
OVO8P single active speaker; the
VINCI1215 audiophile amplifier;
and the VINCI5 and VINCI7
reference bookshelf speakers
were all showcased.
www.apart-audio.com
Mayfair’s Novikov Restaurant &
Bar has been fitted with an
extensive new sound system
courtesy of London integrators
Sound Division. The company
opted for six JBL Control 67
Pendant speakers discretely
suspended above a floating
wooden slatted raft ceiling in the
Asian Restaurant. In the Italian
restaurant are eight DS40SE
speakers from Bose. These are
installed in pairs on pillars and on
a ledge on the veranda, which
features a further pair of Bose
FreeSpace DS40F flush-mount
ceiling speakers.
www.sounddivision.com
UNITED STATES
VUE looking confident with
triple speaker offering
Three series of loudspeakers, featuring beryllium
compression drivers, marked the official product
debut of VUE Audiotechnik, writes James McGrath
VUE AUDIOTECHNIK,
founded in March of this year,
introduced its first loudspeaker
families at InfoComm in Las
Vegas in June. The new H, A and
I Classes all incorporate purposedesigned transducers, enclosures
and system electronics.
VUE was launched by Ken
Berger (of EAW and LOUD
Technologies) and Jim Sides (of
Nexo and Meyer Sound) at
Prolight + Sound earlier this
year, but InfoComm marked the
first showing of any product.
The new H Class full-range
system is based around VUE’s
proprietary Truextent beryllium
HF compression drivers. Kyle
Ritland, marketing manager at
Vue (and ex-LOUD, ex-Avid),
reveals: “Aluminium has always
been considered better sounding
than titanium, but is significantly
less durable. Looking at all three,
beryllium offers better sonic
performance than aluminium with
higher stiffness and durability per
weight than titanium.”
The H Class family comprises
12” and 15” two-way models as
well as the HS-28 subwoofer,
which is a dual 18” active design
that debuts VUE’s patent
pending Active Compliance
Management (ACM)
technology. ACM utilises a
unique hybrid configuration in
which two 18” woofers, each
with inbuilt amplifier and
DSP control share a common
vented chamber.
Active onboard electronics
include system-optimised
amplification and DSP for each
driver and cabinet combination.
Network control and monitoring
capabilities are available via
standard Ethernet-based
protocols and accessible through
an intuitive software interface.
The A Class range has the
same design principles and similar
voicing characteristics that are
behind the flagship H Class. The
range includes passive systems in
8”, 10”, 12” and 15” two-way
configurations, as well as a
UNITED KINGDOM
SSE eats up ETA
By Erica Basnicki
SSE AUDIO Group has
acquired Welsh sound hire and
sales company ETA Sound,
which has moved its operations
to SSE’s Redditch headquarters.
SSE’s John Penn explains the
decision to buy ETA from
owner Eddie Thomas:
“Following our merger with
Melpomen France in 2001 we
observed how their hire business
was shielded from the curse
of seasonality by their
complementary install business,
which seemed to be busiest in
the slower hire periods.”
VUE design chief Mike Adams and Mark Engebretson
selection of three powerful
subwoofers. I Class is said to offer
AV contractors an alternative to
the plastic-boxed systems on the
market. The range includes
surface-mount, full-range systems
as well as three powered and
passive subwoofer options,
allowing contractors and
system designers to address
applications ranging from
compact PA to ancillary fills for
larger distributed systems.
Ken Berger, CEO of VUE,
comments: “We’ve worked hard
to ensure that each of our classes
brings something truly unique to
their respective markets – from
cutting-edge technologies and
innovative designs
The A-10
in the flagship H
atop an
Class, to a very
as-115
compelling
subwoofer
price/performance
equation in
our I Class
systems.”
Shortly after
InfoComm, the
company
announced that
Mark Engebretson, former VP
of R&D and chief design
architect for QSC Audio, had
joined the team. His role will
include overseeing development
and patent products. n
www.vueaudio.com
SSE went on to acquire two
more installation companies –
Tarsin Entertainments in 2006 and
Green-I – to target larger format
installations, especially in light of
London’s winning Olympic bid.
“We sniffed around but in the
event were not invited to tender
for any of the fixed installations,”
said Penn. “This led us to
discover that this market operates
in an entirely different way, with
the builders subcontracting down
the supply chain, with audio
frequently being a part of the
security and emergency systems.”
“Then Eddie Thomas at ETA
Sound was introduced to us. He
felt he needed the backup and
support of a larger organisation
behind him – he was active in a lot
of the London projects, and had
more prospects on the go, but
didn’t have enough time in the day
to do it all.”
Thomas concludes: “With
the extensive backup and
support offered by SSE, we are
now offering a 360º service to
our clients.” n
www.etasound.co.uk
www.sseaudiogroup.com
July 2012 l 51
installationnews
For the latest installation news
www.prosoundnewseurope.com/installation
More VENUEs for O2 venues
UNITED KINGDOM
By Erica Basnicki
ACADEMY MUSIC Group
(AMG), owner and operator of
O2 Academy venues nationwide,
purchased five Avid VENUE
SC48 consoles from Adlib
Solutions as part of its latest
round of technical upgrades.
The consoles will be installed
at O2 Academy venues in
Glasgow, Liverpool,
Birmingham, Oxford and
Newcastle. These are in addition
to the VENUE Profile Systems
already installed at O2 Academy
venues in Bristol, Islington
(London) and Oxford.
“In some venues where space
is limited, or when we have to
provide a full console set-up
alongside a touring desk,
they fit in the space required,”
(L-R): Simon King, O2 Academy Oxford, assistant technical manager; Ed Jackson, Academy Music Group, group technical
manager; James Baker, sales account manager, live sound, Avid; Ian Simpson, O2 Academy Oxford, technical manager
commented AMG group
technical manager, Ed Jackson.
“The boards were chosen so
they can be used in both front of
house and monitor positions.
Their small footprint means that
they can be moved around and
used in our venues of varying
capacities. Visiting engineers
touring on larger shows are often
able to bring their own boards,
but the smaller tours and
support bands don’t and we need
to be able to provide for them.”
Jackson added that having the
ability to record 32 channels over
FireWire to a laptop running Pro
Tools was “something that we
wanted to achieve in-house for a
considerable length of time”.
“We were able to get the SC48s
set up before sending them out
to the venues so that they were
able to use them straight away,”
Jackson concluded. “They
opened the cases, plugged them
in and off they went. Since
they’ve used the extra features on
the SC48s, all of the feedback
has been positive.” n
www.academy-music-group.co.uk
www.avid.com
52 l July 2012
installationreport
Each of the main hall’s four control rooms
has a Lawo mc 266 audio console
GERMANY
Meeting convention
requirements
A wide variety of events take place in the halls adjoining ICS Stuttgart’s
exhibition grounds. Paddy Baker went to look at the equipment used to
deliver these events – including the audio distribution backbone
BUILT ON the site of cabbage
fields, Stuttgart’s current trade
fair building opened in October
2007. It has enviable transport
links – it is right next to
Stuttgart airport, it’s on the
local railway network and its car
park straddles the A8 autobahn.
Over 1.1 million visitors to 53
events passed through its doors
last year, helping to generate an
income of €99 million.
Aside from the nine
exhibition halls, the
International Congresscenter
Stuttgart (ICS) consists of three
main parts: the great hall
(known as C1), which occupies
an area of 2,669sqm and is used
for special events and
conferences; a 5,000sqm hall
that generally houses
exhibitions, although it can be
used for conferences; and a set
of smaller meeting rooms, the
largest of which can
accommodate up to 440 people.
Audio and video installation
at the ICS was carried out by
Thomann Audio Professionell of
Burgebrach in Bavaria. Around
165km of signal, control and
power cabling was required,
with over 400 junction boxes
and floor ducts connected to 31
patch panels.
C1 can be split into as many
as four parts, using mobile
dividing walls. Accordingly, in
addition to the main control
room, there are three further
control rooms. These can be
allocated to a different part of
the room when it is split, or can
all be used to control events in
the great hall.
Audio and control signals are
sent around the building via a
fibre optic network – there are a
total of 1,824 inputs and 1,712
outputs. Each of C1’s four
control rooms has its own Lawo
mc266 console. The two largest
have 40 faders (arranged in
modules of 16, 8 and 16),
while the other two have 32 (168-8) and 24 (8-8-8). Each is
connected to its own Lawo Core,
which looks after routing,
DSP and power requirements.
Further routing, plus input/
output rights management, is
handled by a higher-level Lawo
Nova73 HD router.
“There weren’t too many
systems that you could use for
this task,” explains Jörn Michel,
technical supervisor at
Landesmesse Stuttgart. “We are
connecting to the same
stageboxes, to the same input
boxes, the same connectors
even, from different desks,
without using analogue
methods like using splitters. We
have a direct digital connection,
even on different consoles.” This
set-up also provides useful
redundancy for large events: “If
something breaks down, we can
change seamlessly to the next
control room and use the other
desk – in seconds.”
The mc266 consoles are
popular with engineers who
come in for events at the Messe.
In part this is because many of
them have experience of Lawo in
OB vans; but it’s also because
the consoles are designed to be
easy to use. “When I first saw
this console, my first impression
was: many buttons, easy to use!”
says Michel. “A near-analogue
feel makes the desk fast to use –
you don’t have to step through
many menus. Here you just
touch what you like, and it gets
on the screen instantly.”
The venue hosts “every kind of
event you can imagine”, according
to Michel, from congresses and
company events to cover rock and
classical music concerts. Most of
the audio comes from
microphones – and the highest
channel requirement comes when
a full orchestra is playing.
The main hall features d&b
audiotechnik speakers and
amplifiers: flown clusters of
C4-TOP mid/high speakers and
C4-SUBs, with MAX monitors
for downfill, powered by D12
amplifiers. These clusters can be
moved around two or three
metres forwards or backwards,
depending on whether or not the
state elements in the floor below
are being used.
“If we have to connect to
different locations, we have the
DALLIS – I/O connection boxes
– and we have three racks of
stageboxes, which we can place
in the exhibition halls and
elsewhere as needed,” continues
Michel. An example of this
approach happened two years
ago, when a jazz festival was
held in the 25,000sqm Hall 1,
the largest of the exhibition
halls. “We made connections all
over the area to take sound from
that hall and play it out in other
halls, VIP areas, over the whole
exhibition centre.”
There is a Bosch voice alarm
system, which runs over a
separate network from the main
audio system, for reasons of
security. However, there is a
connection between the two
networks. For company annual
general meetings, audio from the
hall needs to be relayed over
common areas such as corridors
and toilets, so that delegates
hear as much of what is said as
possible. This is done by routing
the audio through the voice
alarm speakers. “We built an
additional connection to the
evacuation system to use
with special events, so that all
the speakers can be used,”
he explains.
Is there anything that the
Lawo system can’t do? “It can’t
make coffee!” laughs Michel.
“No, I don’t think there’s
anything that a mixing desk
should do which the system
can’t do. You have all
possibilities of inputs and
outputs in digital and analogue
ways; we have more inputs than
we could ever use. Most pieces
are redundant, so if one
controller card gets an error you
can swap it, or you just get an
attention marker on the display
and everything keeps on
working.”
Although the Messe opened
nearly five years ago, the
installation doesn’t feel that old.
Part of the reason is that the
Lawo mc266 desks are regularly
updated with the latest software.
To those in the know, the only
thing that betrays their age is
their legs – they are the earlier
Mark I design, not the current
Mark II. Fortunately, that’s one
element that has no effect
whatsoever on the quality of the
delivered sound. n
www.audioprof.thomann.de
www.dbaudio.com
www.lawo.de
www.messe-stuttgart.de
www.riedel.net
Over 1.1 million visitors attended the 53 events that took
place at Stuttgart Messe last year
July 2012 l 53
£46.5
million
installationnews
Cost of Plymouth Life Centre
UNITED KINGDOM
Stage Electrics pools resources
Plymouth Life Centre
upgrades audio for
summer Games
synchronised
swimming training
THE NEW £46.5 million (€58
million) Plymouth Life Centre,
designed to be one of the
country’s leading centres of
sporting excellence, has been
hosting training sessions for
Olympics 2012 synchronised
swimming teams. It is aided by a
substantial audio installation
from Stage Electrics that takes
the company’s expertise
underwater as well as around
the pool and other facilities.
Plymouth’s largest ever
investment in leisure facilities
includes a leisure pool, 50m
Olympic size competition pool
and a professional diving pool.
A distributed system around
the main pool areas is based on
K-array KK200 line arrays,
each matched with a KN10SW
10” subwoofer, both powered
by K-array KA10-10 DSPequipped amplification.
K-array KK200 modules cover
the main pool areas: two apiece
for the diving and leisure pools,
with two KN10SW-P passive 2 x
The system in the main pool is based
around a K-array KK200 setup
10” steel skin subwoofers, finished
in white, for the leisure pool and
a further four KN10SW-Ps for
the diving pool. Four KK200s
cover the competition pool where
banks of seating accommodate
400 spectators.
The competition and diving
offices’ show relay systems feature
Bose Freespace DS 40F speakers,
again in white, while show relay in
the stairwells is handled by Bose
Freespace DS 16SE speakers, all
powered by Cloud VTX4120
amplifiers. All components near
to water are appropriately IP
rated, mount fittings are in
stainless steel and facility panels
are also moisture sealed.
For the underwater action,
Stage Electrics specified
specialised loudspeakers from
the North Canton, Ohio-based
O.E. Enterprises, two of
whose Oceanears DRS-8 units
have been fixed to the pool’s
walls, powered by Crown
CTS3000 amplifiers.
The reflective effect of the
air/water boundary at the pool
surface means sound from
above barely reaches the
swimmers. Added to which is
the speed of sound in water,
some 4.4 times that of sound
in air. An Allen & Heath
IDR8 DSP system, via which
audio is zoned over seven areas
in the main facility hall
including one zone for the
underwater system, provides
the delay to sync the underwater
system, providing matching
audio when swimmers’ heads
emerge from the water as part
of their routines.
Stage Electrics’ Anne Pengelly
says the company provided a
“simple, user-operable” portable
Ecler mixer and playback rack
and Sennheiser G3 radio mic
systems, and that “our team
spent 75% of their time pulling
cables under the hydraulically
raised pool floor at night”. n
www.stage-electrics.co.uk
UNITED KINGDOM
Polar Audio perks up Parc Eirias training ground
MARTIN DAWES Solutions and
Polar Audio have installed a public
address and background music
system for Parc Eirias, a newly
developed £6.5 million (€8.1 million)
venue in Colwyn Bay, north Wales.
Opened in November 2011,
Parc Eirias includes conference
and classroom facilities, an
indoor training ground, gym,
high-performance sports analysis
facilities, a swimming pool, tennis
courts and an international
standard pitch. It has also been
earmarked as the likely home
for fledgling rugby union side
RGC 1404.
Three Biamp AudiaFLEX
mainframe DSPs with Cobranet
are at the heart of the public
address and background music
system, one situated in the plant
room, a second in one of the two
commentator boxes and the third
in the TV broadcast room. Biamp
RED-1 remote wall panel controls
are situated around the site to
control the source and volume, one
in each of the multipurpose units,
the gym, bar area, TV comms
rooms and home changing rooms. The system is powered by six
Australian Monitor AMIS-250P
units, six AMIS-480P power
amplifiers power the 100V line
speakers and 10 Australian
Monitor XA-1400 power amplifiers
run the 12” two-way speakers in the
Parc Eirias boasts a host
of top-class facilities
grandstand and indoor training
facility. Over 70 Australian Monitor
AM20 CS 100V ceiling speakers are
situated around the stadium
providing background music and
sound for announcements.
“As the site is a brand new
facility hosting new events, the
main challenge on this project
(apart from the short installation
timescale) was to create a flexible
and powerful system that is easy to
use, can be quickly adapted to meet
the fluid operational requirements
of a new facility, and allows
expansion for the future,” said
Paul Berry, audio visual solutions
architect at Martin Dawes. n
www.polaraudio.co.uk
54 l July 2012
installationnews
POLAND
All-Dynacord system
for Karol Szymanowski
By Erica Basnicki
THE KAROL Szymanowski
University in Katowice,
Poland, recently upgraded its
audio equipment, opting for
an all-Dynacord system
including loudspeakers,
monitors, mixing consoles,
digital loudspeaker controllers
and remote amps.
“Karol Szymanowski is
where Poland’s sound elite have
always learnt their trade. They
are doing so now with systems
from Dynacord, and their
positive experiences are bound
not only to inspire and
encourage but also to guide and
influence them in the choices
they make later in their
professional lives,” said Piotr
Wosiek of Tommex Zebrowscy,
who installed the system.
In the school’s auditorium,
four Dynacord CXM 15
stage monitors, two VL62
The Karol Szymanowski University is one of the oldest and most highly respected
educational institutions in Poland
cabinets and two Sub18
enclosures were installed, in
addition to a Dynacord CMS
1000 mixing console. Two
H2500 and two H5000 power
amplifiers, equipped with
RCM-26 remote control
modules, power the speakers.
“With this installation, we
are offering our students a
studying and training
environment far superior to any
they have encountered before,”
said Tomasz Tamborski, the
academy’s technical director.
“They are learning how to
configure a professional sound
system, how to mix the signals,
and how to control and
supervise the performance of
the components involved –
and all this with the finest
available equipment.” n
www.dynacord.com
ITALY
A FLOOD warning audio system
based around specially designed
Community R.5 loudspeakers has
been installed in the city of Venice. It
replaces an old siren-based audio
system, which had become
increasingly less reliable due to
mechanical deterioration. Located in
15 bell-towers in central Venice and
at a further 15 locations on outlying
islands, the loudspeakers play a
series of alert and musical tones that
inform residents of the coming tidal
levels, so that they can plan
accordingly. The system, supplied by
Prase Engineering, was specified by
audio consultant Ing. Umberto
Nicolao and installed by Veronabased S.T.A.S.
www.communitypro.com
July 2012 l 55
installationnews
SPAIN
Barcelona’s Club Astoria
revamps
with D.A.S.
Two hangs of Aero 8As have been
installed either side of the stage
BARCELONA NIGHTSPOT
Club Astoria has been equipped
with a D.A.S. sound system
centred around the Aero Series 2. The newly renovated venue in
the upscale Eixample
neighbourhood, which previously
housed the landmark Opium
Cinema, includes two completely
differentiated remodelled areas –
an exclusive ampitheatre and a
more accessible space located in
the old cinema’s bar. Design and installation of the
project was carried out by VilaSana-based professional sound
and lighting company Fokum,
who selected the self-powered
line array systems from D.A.S.’s
Aero Series 2.
At the project’s helm was
director Josep María Aldomá
who opted to set up two
formations of linear Aero 8A self-
powered compact line array
systems, each made up of four
units either side of the main stage.
The units were configured with
the necessary curving angles
between them to ensure optimal
coverage for the listening zone
situated in front of the stage. Fokum technical professionals
opted for D.A.S. LX-215A selfpowered subwoofer systems with
double 15” speakers to provide
low-frequency reinforcement.
The set of subwoofers used are
located in front of and beneath
the stage, guaranteeing the widest
possible subwoofer coverage for
the listening/dance area. The installation is rounded
out by a D.A.S. DSP-2060A
digital processor system, which
functions as the control centre
for the entire system. n
www.dasaudio.com
NETHERLANDS
A SERIES of Genelec loudspeakers
have been installed across the
hospitality zones at the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Dutch distributor Iemke Roos Audio
was called in to evaluate the space at
the café and product manager Frank de
Roy specified a series of 4030A
Genelec loudspeakers. Five in total
were arranged in the dining and bar
area to provide balanced coverage
without imposing on the setting.
In addition, the newly renovated
royal reception room also opted for
Genelec. A pair of 6010A speakers
were selected to extend sound to the
room, which is used to welcome Dutch
royalty when visiting the venue.
“The 6010As were the perfect
solution for the reception,” said de Roy.
“They were small enough to reduce any
physical impact on the décor, and they
were more than capable of filling the
area with sound.”
www.genelec.com
www.iemkeroos.nl
Export Account Manager
MARTIN AUDIO LIMITED is a premier manufacturer of professional
sound systems for the music industry comprising a small, lively and
close-knit team. Due to expansion this new exciting sales position has
become available.
DUTIES
As Export Account Manager you will be responsible for maintaining
relationships with a number of existing overseas distributors, looking
after day to day business, providing support and helping to generate
growth opportunities. You will be required to seek fresh distribution in
new territories and creatively promote sales of Martin Audio products.
THE PERSON
The successful applicant will have a background in international
sales, experience in the professional audio market, some technical
understanding of professional audio systems and must be available
for regular overseas travel. We are looking for a creative individual
with excellent communication skills who takes a pro-active approach
to the task at hand, works well independently and as part of a team.
You will need to be positive, upbeat, self-motivated and have a ‘can
do’ attitude. You will also have excellent I.T. skills including Microsoft
Office, Excel and PPT.
Salary will be commensurate with knowledge and experience.
In the first instance, please telephone Tiffany Green at Martin Audio
Limited, High Wycombe on 01494 535312.
Contact Nick Beck
email: [email protected]
Tel: +44 (0)20 7354 6000
directory
APPOINTMENTS
STUDIO FURNITURE & DESIGN
Interfacio
+44 (0)20 89865002
AUDIO SHOW CONTROL
AKA Design
+44 (0)20 8829 9100
STUDIO DESIGN
Outboard
The Studio People
+44 (0)1223 871015
01763 885244
CONTACTS
July 2012 l 57
Editor
Dave Robinson
[email protected]
hither&dither
Staff Writer
Erica Basnicki
[email protected]
Managing Editor
Joanne Ruddock
[email protected]
Sales Manager
Nick Beck
[email protected]
Head of Design and Production
Adam Butler
[email protected]
Editorial Production Manager
Dawn Boultwood
[email protected]
Senior Production Executive
Alistair Taylor
[email protected]
Digital Content Manager
Tim Frost
[email protected]
Office Manager
Lianne Davey
[email protected]
Publisher
Steve Connolly
[email protected]
Hither & Ida
Four cute iPod speakers. Four cute girls. One ugly bloke in a dress
Markus Schmittinger,
product marketing
manager (pro sound
EMEA), handles the
silverware at the Big
Day Out organised by
Bosch's ProSound
Team UK in May.
(Perhaps the only
German to lift a
European trophy this
year... OOOOOH!)
Drag act Ida
Barr on stage
at Paradise
Gardens, the
initial event at
the London
Pleasure
Gardens – and
a rather dusty
Noise Control
Audio wedge
(makes a
change from
festival mud)
Managing Director
Stuart Dinsey
[email protected]
Correspondents: Mike Clark (Italy),
Marc Maes (Belgium/Holland), Phil Ward (UK),
Mel Lambert (USA)
Contributors: David Davies, Jim Evans, Kevin
Hilton, Nigel Lord, Russ Hepworth-Sawyer
PSNEurope
Intent Media London,
1st Floor, Suncourt House,
18-26 Essex Road, London, N1 8LN.
Editorial: +44 20 7226 7246
Sales: +44 20 7354 6000
Nissan and Ministry of Sound turned
to Martin Audio to create a totally
self-sufficient 18,900W sound system
for this Juke Box. It’s capable of 150dB
SPL, reportedly. Lord help us...
Press releases to:
[email protected]
Subscribe online at:
www.subscription.co.uk/cc/pm/mag1
PSNEurope is published 12 times a year by Intent Media
London, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18-26 Essex Road, London
N1 8LN, England.
You’ve got to love these ‘Zoo Tunes’ portable speakers from Impeccausa.com.
Well, the bear and the panda certainly: the rabbit looks somewhat evil and the
kitten appears to have been chowing down on ‘Hare and Hashish’ Whiskas
© Intent Media, 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means without the prior permission of the copyright
owners. The contents of PSNEurope are subject to
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Intent Media is now the Data Controller under the Data
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Media London will only use your data for the purposes originally
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CIRCULATION AND SUBSCRIPTION
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Refunds on cancelled subscriptions will only be provided at the
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Printing by The MANSON Group Limited, 8 Porters Wood,
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Hang on, this is a real story: Lectrosonics
WirelessR kit is being used on new US travel show
Shop Angels. Those mics are well hidden, though
Please send all contributions for possible publication to [email protected]
58 l July 2012
industrytalk
“When I was out in Europe recently on a JBL job, I
was looking at the FOH guy and thought to myself:
‘I really don’t envy his job!’”
Gert Sanner, Harman Pro
GERT SANNER has been one of
the most renowned FOH and
system engineers in the business
for more than a decade. He
worked with major acts including
Slipknot, Alice Cooper, and
Alison Moyet, until agreeing to
work FOH permanently for
legendary British rock band Deep
Purple – a position he held for
more than six years. Just a couple
of months ago, however, Sanner
pulled back his faders after being
offered a shot at corporate life,
courtesy of Harman Pro, and is
based out of its UK headquarters.
I guess your experience on the road
makes it easier for an end user to
come to you with any issues, too?
Yes, although nine out of 10
times there is no issue with the
kit; and quite often I can answer
those questions there and then.
For example, the other day
someone asked me: ‘Why can you
not insert eight of the Lexicons
into each channel of the Vi6?’
Typically in the past that would
have involved an email chain to
many people to find out the
answer, but I just said: ‘Because it
makes no sense!’ Job done!
What’s it like having a real job?
A little different and probably a
little harder than I thought, but
also quite nice in a way – you get
your weekends back. My last tour
with [Deep] Purple was great, but I
knew it wouldn’t get any better
than that, and the idea of that part
of my life coming to an end at
some point got me thinking that
an opportunity like this, working
for a company like Harman,
doesn’t come every day. Oh, and
not having to do a tax return
anymore is quite nice too!
Do you miss the live touring?
I was actually quite scared the
other day how much I don’t miss
it! When I was out in Europe
recently on a JBL job, I was
looking at the FOH guy and
thought to myself, I really don’t
envy his job!
You must have quite a few stories
from your time on the road with
Purple – care to share one?
Plenty! We were in South
America doing a show, and it
didn’t go well for me – at all.
First, the resident technician did
nothing when I informed him
that the desk was literally
burning; then, when the encore
came, I thought ‘I’ll have a beer’,
because the heat was so intense
and I’d been totally stressed out,
so I reached into the coolbox and
found that they had all gone. I
turned around and saw the
technician drinking one; he’d half
finished it, and he quickly put it
down… right on my laptop!
Well, I threw the drink away and
got security to kick him out.
After the show, I needed to chill
out; I found this fold-up chair.
Unfortunately, when I sat down, it
collapsed. I was so mad that I
threw one of the broken chair legs
out of the room. Sadly, this flew
some distance and collided with
the main table in the catering
department opposite, causing that
Really Deep
Paul Watson finds out how
life is going off the road for
new Harman hire Gert Sanner
to immediately collapse too. Man,
that was a bad day…
I know you worked on the Mixing
with Professionals master classes
with Soundcraft, where you
taught groups of engineers the
workings of the Vi consoles, but
how did you end up landing your
new role with Harman?
I was at Frankfurt in 2011 doing
Mixing with Professionals, and
Paul Bauman (senior manager,
tour sound, JBL) showed up
with his new JBL VTX – Scott
Robins (VP sales, Harman
ADVERTISER INDEX
18 Sound ................................23
AES Pro Audio........................22
AKG ........................................16
AllDSP .....................................8
Cadac .....................................54
Canford Audio ........................26
Celestion ................................27
Clear-Com ..............................22
Crown Audio...........................24
DAS Audio................................7
DELEC Audio..........................28
Direct Cable Systems...............19
thoughts
Professional) was there too. We
all got together in the hotel bar,
and they said: ‘Wouldn’t it be
fun if you were working for us?’
And what was your initial
response?
‘Absolutely no chance!’ But
things progressed and I agreed to
do the VTX training, then Paul
suggested I could teach the
training on a freelance basis. I
realised that if I could do that on
a freelance basis and my work for
Soundcraft, then I’d be spending
a lot of time at Harman Pro…
Now you’re EMEA tour sound
market manager, working across
all of the brands. What do you
think you’ll be able to offer each
of them respectively?
At the moment it’s very much
Soundcraft and JBL, but I’m due
to meet with the AKG guys soon.
One thing that was important was
that I was a fan of all the brands.
My role in Harman will include
product and end-user training
and, in return, user feedback; I’ll
filter down what users say to the
relevant persons rather than
randomly emailing it off.
Full Fat Audio .........................57
Hand Held Audio .....................31
HHB Communcations ...............11
HK Audio ...............................49
IBC .........................................29
JoeCo .....................................43
K-array...................................47
Kv2 Audio ..........................37,51
Martin Audio ..........................55
Microtech Gefell ......................18
Midas ..................................OBC
MIPRO...................................40
Noise Control Audio..................6
PLASA ....................................13
Primacoustic.............................3
Prism......................................10
This year’s Frankfurt was all
about new PA systems, and the
two that seemed to really shine
were JBL’s VTX and Nexo’s
STM; does this spell a new
approach to loudspeaker design?
Yes. Traditionally, PA systems were
built to be specialist tools, so rental
companies have always needed a
vast amount of systems in their
inventory to cater for different
applications. I think the new trend
is to get the individual cabinet to
do more work, because the
margins for the rental companies
are not getting any bigger. The
VTX system is a lot smaller, and
has loads of horse power; it can
do a lot more jobs individually:
theatres, stadiums, and pretty
much anything in between.
Finally, I know you’re a bit of an
ideas man in terms of new
products; how long before we see
one of those Gert Sanner light
bulb moments come to fruition?
Well you’re right, I do have a few
ideas – for example, I still think
there are vast improvements to be
made in loudspeaker control; and
I have some ideas about what I
think a PA controller should look
like. Hopefully someone will build
it one day; we’re already talking
about it, so you never know… n
www.harmanpro.com
Radial Systems Engineering...IBC
Riedel Communications .........IFC
Roland ....................................21
Sennheiser ...............................9
Soundcraft .............................39
Waves Audio ..........................33
XTA .........................................4
Yamaha Commercial Audio .....FC
ONE more reason
to get excited
PRO1 expands the ever increasing
possibilities within the exciting world
of truly creative digital audio.
24 mic / line inputs on the surface
Expandable to 40 input channels
27 sample-synchronous phase-coherent busses
Up to 12 multi-channel FX units
Up to 28 KLARK TEKNIK DN370 31-band EQs
6 POPulation groups
8 VCA groups
Daylight-viewable full colour TFT display screen
MIDAS Latency compensation system
iPad remote control
Light weight, compact aluminium frame
midasconsoles.com
© 2012 MUSIC Group IP Ltd. Technical specifications and appearances are subject to change without notice and accuracy is not guaranteed.
MIDAS and KLARK TEKNIK are part of the MUSIC Group (music-group.com).

July 2012 - PSNEurope

Transcription

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