International News

MANCHESTER, U.K. – The final show in a tour for former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown took place at the Manchester Evening News (MEN) Arena, and rental companies Metro Audio, STS and Viking Sound collaborated with a sound system featuring Turbosound's Flex Array PA system.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Outline loudspeakers were used at the 2010 Global Competitiveness Forum, a meeting featuring appearances by world leaders and CEOs including Tony Blair and Michael Dell.

BELFAST – Built in 1844, St. Malachy's church needed extensive work on its interior and exterior. When in reopened after 15 months, parishioners marveled at the restored brickwork, plasterwork, marble altar, mosaic floor, "wedding cake" fan-vaulted ceiling, and new sound system featuring a pair of QSC AcousticDesign AD-S282H 2-way loudspeakers.

PARIS – At We Want Miles: Jazz Face to Face With Its Legend, an exhibition dedicated to Miles Davis at the Musée de la Musique, curator Vincent Bessière and sound designers Philippe Wojtowicz and Mathias Abherve used a compact Meyer Sound system for the two levels of the exhibit hall. The exhibit will move to Montreal in April, 2010.

BRNO, Czech Republic – Janacek Theatre, the second largest theater in the Czech Republic, updated its old communications system with a comprehensive installation from Riedel Communications. MusicData, Riedel's Czech distribution partner for Theater and ProAV, handled the installation.

COLOGNE, Germany – Padco supplied a Midas PRO6 for the recent European tour by Queen Esther Marrow and the Harlem Gospel Singers. The tour, which moved through Denmark, France, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, ended in Belgium at the end of January.

HONG KONG – This past winter, the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre performed 20 shows of Leslie Bricusse's Scrooge, a musical based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, at the Hong Kong City Hall's 463-seat proscenium theatre, putting HKRep's new Meyer Sound system to use.

MEXICO CITY – Two rental companies collaborated on providing sound gear for a concert with 35,000 attendees staged at the Foro Sol stadium for Mexico City featuring ballad singer Emmanuel.

CHIOS, Greece – Focus Studio, based on this Greek isle, recently purchased two iLive digital mixing systems for PA services during the summer, and also for studio work.

LONDON – Adlib Audio's Richy Nicholson served as FOH engineer for the New York-based Emo band, Brand New, for both the band's last two U.K. and European tours and for a recent one-off show at Wembley Arena. Adlib also supplied gear and additional crew for the show.

FUZHOU, Fujian, China – L-Acoustics' Chinese distributor Rightway Audio has supplied the Fujian Broadcasting and TV Center with a dV-DOSC sound reinforcement system for its multi-functional studio theatre. The theatre, which measures close to 10,000 square feet and seats 1,069, hosts large-scale drama and musical TV productions, both live and recorded, as well as conferences and parties.

HELSINKI, Finland – Depeche Mode's Tour of the Universe is now back in Europe, having travelled the globe since last April with a dual Midas XL8 live performance system for front of house and monitors, playing to audiences of up to 85,000.