Renkus-Heinz VerSys VLX3 Line Array Debuts at Buffalo Chip Music Festival

STURGIS, S.D. — The Buffalo Chip Music Festival held annually at South Dakota’s Sturgis Motorcycle Rally poses unique challenges to any sound company. “As well as thunderous applause,” says Steve Cross, Kid Rock’s FOH mixer, “the bikers will rev their engines in appreciation.” Sure Sound & Lighting, old hands with the festival, showcased the new Renkus-Heinz VerSys VLX3 line arrays for the main stage area, powered by Lab.gruppen PLM 10000Q amplifiers with built-in Dolby Lake processing.

LONDON — The ceremony for the handover of the Olympic torch from Beijing to London (2012) was amplified by Britannia Row’s Butterfly systems. The Visa London 2012 Party, a celebratory event with the participation of over 40,000 people, was transmitted live by the BBC. As far as audio was concerned, along The Mall, the road running from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square, several scaffolding towers were set up with a total of 100 Outline Butterfly CDH 483 Hi-Pack enclosures.

ASPEN, Colo. — The theme at this year’s Aspen Music Festival and School was "Once Upon a Time…" but for the faculty and students at the Edgar Stanton Audio Recording Institute (ESARI) the event was no fairytale, but rather a dream come true. ESARI, which records the annual classical music festival as part of its immersive month-long audio engineering course, regularly uses Sennheiser microphones to capture the busy performance schedule. This year, they used Sennheiser MKH 800 Twin and MKH 8000 Series microphones.

BELFAST, Ireland –– Magheralin Parish Church, located 20 miles south of Belfast, is the first installation in Ireland with Martin Audio’s new OmniLine micro-line array system. As with many rural areas in Ireland, large churches sprang up in the late 19th Century during the Ulster revival period; and although originally built in 699 AD, Magheralin was rebuilt in 1891. 

PARIS — French actor and humorist Jamel Debbouze decided to open Jamel Comedy Club in Paris to create opportunities for up-and-coming comics and to host a range of musical performances. When choosing a sound system for the new venue, the criteria included intelligibility for the jokes and full-range fidelity to accommodate musical acts, while using a system with a small profile to preserve the sightlines. Marc de Fouquières of Paris’s Best Audio implemented a Meyer Sound system based on the compact UPJunior VariO loudspeakers.

DPA Microphones has introduced the 4099 series, a new range of instrument microphones. The 4099 Guitar, 4099 Sax, 4099 Trumpet and 4099 Violin are multipurpose microphones. The mounts for the 4099’s are designed and optimized for each of the four instrument families.

LONDON — FOH Engineer Dale Hanson took time off the road to handle eight different acts at the Bedford in London, and mixed on a Soundcraft Si3 — its first public commercial gig. Along with the other Si3 beta testers covering theatre, touring and house-of-worship applications in Europe and the U.S., Hanson has taken the Si3 through its test paces, but this gig was the ultimate beta test. 

OLD LYME, Conn. — With set lists that drew on their newest hits and beloved classics, 311 and Snoop Dogg used Sennheiser personal monitors and mics on their 30-stop Unity Tour. 

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — It’s been 28 years since REM sprung out of a small Atlanta suburb, and the band is still going strong. With the release of their 14th recording, Accelerate, the band kicked off a world tour. Oxnard, Calif.-based Rat Sound Systems Inc. is serving as the sound reinforcement company for the tour, supplying six XTA DP448s for use in tandem with a Wiser Wireless System, with system engineer Lee Vaught at its helm.
 

BUENA PARK, Calif. — Headliner Judas Priest and Heaven and Hell embarked on tour together as part of the top metal concert attraction this summer, the Metal Masters Tour, which also included performances by Motorhead and Testament to delight of the metalheads everywhere. Both the monitor engineer for Heaven and Hell and monitor engineer for Judas Priest use Yamaha PM5D digital audio consoles.

BALEARIC ISLANDS, Spain — ADLIB Audio once again supplied full audio production for the Ibiza Rocks 2008 season, a new musical concept for the Balearic Islands, has quickly become one of the most popular events of the season. Ibiza Rocks 2008 was staged at two 1,500-capacity outdoor venues. The sound system was spec’d by ADLIB’s Andy Dockerty and built and commissioned onsite by engineer Declan Fyans, who stayed out for the duration of the four-month season.