International News

LONDON, UK – Tour manager Tim Boardman and sound engineer Bryony October have been providing smaller-scale tours for Moya and other artists in Europe with big-production sound with Soundcraft Si Performer 3 and Si Expression consoles. Along with ease of use, which helped Boardman learn and use the Performer 3 to rescue a show when October had to visit the hospital recently in Dortmund, Germany, the duo credited Soundcraft’s ViSi Remote app for iPad.

MOSCOW — The Central Academic Theatre of the Russian Army (CATRA)’s recent audio system upgrade included Alcons Audio gear, chosen in part for its ability to be heard but not seen. LTM Music Company provided and installed the gear for the 1,420-seat auditorium. The L-R 14m high mid/high columns each contain QR36, QM36, QR18 and QM18 units, with 12m high bass columns featuring QB363 subs. In total the system includes 28x 18” pro-ribbon drivers, 84x 6.5” M/F drivers and 26x 12” bass drivers.

LONDON — For the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace, which took place on the palatial grounds and gardens from July 11-14, the event’s main technical production company, Hawthorns, sub-contracted with RG Jones, which provided W8LC and W8LM systems from Martin Audio. RG Jones’ project manager Ben Milton relished the challenge of project managing the large-scale event.

OSLO, Norway — Karl Johans gate, a popular pedestrian thoroughfare, is the site of Sommerservering, or Summer Dining. The 2013 outdoor festivities, which kicked off on June 15, included jazz from The Real Thing. The band’s performance was heard via K-array’s KR402 with Python tops. First Audio AS, K-array’s distributor in Norway, worked with Dinbestefest.no AS to provide the gear.

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic – For Simon Mansion and Supper Club, part of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino here, Audio Diseño designed and installed a custom, high-SPL sound system that includes Symetrix’ Zone Mix 761 digital signal processor. The audio system is usuall used for background music, but on occasion, the system may be driven up to 96dB.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — Waves Audio is seeing a growing number of live engineers who are making the move to the next-generation workflow with Waves plugins and WavesLive SoundGrid. They include FOH engineer Vincent Casamatta (OK GO, They Might Be Giants), who is currently on the road with AWOLNation.

PARIS, France — Every year on the Summer Solstice, hundreds of thousands of revelers enjoy music at stages set around picturesque Paris locations at the free “Fete de la Musique” event. Amadeus — French manufacturer of high-end live sound systems — outfitted the EDM stage with live sound. The system featured the company’s DIVA XL arrays, with its PMX 15 coaxial speakers used as stage monitors/front-fills, as well as the new prototype Amadeus Maestro subwoofer.

SYDNEY – Coda Audio Services recently traded up from their Shure PSM 600 to Shure PSM 1000 personal monitor systems, including 10 transmitting devices and 14 receivers. Managing director Michael Wilkie welcomed the expanded flexibility that the new gear provides, along with an even stronger safeguard against dropouts.

MUMBAI, India – Harman India recently announced that it has signed vocalist and performer Sunitha Sarathy as an AKG endorsee. Based in southern India, Sarathy is noted for her prowess performing Indian contemporary music, western classical music and other western styles and in church choirs as a gospel singer.

LONDON – Singer songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ellie Goulding has switched to a DPA d:facto Vocal Microphone after trying it for the first time at the Chime for Change concert, which took place in London in June. Currently touring in the U.S. to promote her second album, Halcyon, Goulding is now using a wireless version of the microphone for all of her concerts.

SAN DIEGO – As die-hard comic fans flooded the San Diego Convention Center, Comic-Con 2013 hosted more than 100,000 visitors as well as hundreds of celebrity guests discussing their latest movie roles and ideas surrounding the comic universe. During numerous panels, stars such as Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford addressed questions from the audience through Harman’s AKG D5 microphones.

WEST LONDON, U.K. — Entec, based here, continued its 20 year working relationship with British band Blur, supplying sound equipment for the band’s 30-plus performances in 2013. The shows have included dates across Asia, Europe, South America, as well as a headline slot at Coachella; the photo is of the band performing in Hyde Park after the London 2012 Olympics.