Presidential Debates Look to HME for Needed Change

GERMANY — Audio rental company BLL-Veranstaltungstechnik, based in the city of Krefeld, Germany, has undertaken a number of summer events with its Flex Array system complementing its large inventory of Turbosound Aspect and NuQ loudspeakers.

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Comprised of professional surfing, BMX, skateboarding, freestyle motocross demos, live music and a fashion show, Go211 Live’s recently completed U.S. Open of Surfing offered something for everyone. The event included a fashion show and three days of music that included performances by a wide range of artists — including teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney. Held on the beach, sound reinforcement was a massive undertaking that was handled by Torrance, Calif.-based Broadcast Support and a sizeable collection of loudspeakers from DAS Audio. 

INDIANOLA, Miss. — The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center opened Sept. 13 with a three-day celebration and a historic, Peavey-powered concert that paired the blues legend with several of the marquee artists he has inspired.

PERU — Allen & Heath’s iLive digital mixing system recently made its debut in Peru when it was employed in Lima’s Exhibition Park amphitheatre for the concert of Christian pop/rock band ROJO.

BUENA PARK, Calif. — For one of their largest annual fundraising events, the San Diego Zoo tapped Special Event Audio Services of Oceanside, Calif. to handle audio production. There were special concerns about the volume level coming out of the world-renowned Zoo special events area since the famous Old Globe Theatre is just a few hundred yards away. For this event in prior years, the previous production company actually went to the trouble of installing a small speaker under every table.

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.