International News

IPSWICH, U.K. —Celestion announced a 50 percent increase in sales for its professional audio products. Separately, the company announced the appointment of Miami Parts Imports Inc. as the company’s distributor for Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Suriname, Uruguay and the Caribbean.

SEOUL — The Bethel Independent Church has chosen an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system for its ability to cater for a diverse range of events, including services, gospel singing and rock concerts. The iLive system includes an iDR10 MixRack loaded with 48 inputs and 24 outputs and iLive-144 Control Surface with 16 inputs and 8 outputs.

PUNE, India — Wyclef Jean made an appearance on stage at the Venkestshawara Farm House in Pune, Maharashtra, Western India, where Mumbai-based Rich Audio had provided EAW’s KF760 Line Array Speaker Systems. “For FOH, we flew two KF760 line array modules, plus two KF761 line array modules per site with optimal angles of boxes,” said Lee Braganza, Rich Audio FOH and system engineer.

BERLIN — IT Audio, founded last fall by Til Schwartz and Ivo König, recently installed a Meyer Sound system in the O2 Blueroom, a VIP reception room in Berlin’s O2 World arena. Designed by architects Schmidhuber+Partner, the O2 Blueroom primarily serves O2 World’s main sponsor, Telefónica O2 Germany, which is the German subsidiary of European telecommunications company Telefónica Europe.

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnamese PA company Fantasies Show & Light selected Allen & Heath’s iLive digital mixing system for a recent tour visiting 10 cities in Vietnam called Rock Storm. Masaaki Azuma, the tour’s show sound director, has also handled sound control for Madonna, Oasis, Under World, Metallica, and Fuji Rock Festival.

SHENZHEN, China — Shure Inc. said it had worked closely with Chinese authorities on its bust last month of a wholesale supply of more than 8,500 counterfeit earphones. An investigation initiated by Shure led to a raid by the Shenzhen Administration for Industry and Commerce (AIC) on a wholesale shop, Sanze Electronics, and another at an associated warehouse.

OSLO, Norway — A network of two Midas XL8s and three PRO6 consoles linked via AES50 (SuperMAC) reinforced the technical harmony of the Nobel Peace Prize concert at the Spektrum in Oslo. The Midas digital setup was implemented to handle 10 artists including Diana Ross, Il Divo, The Script and Robyn — each accompanied by a large orchestra — and to broadcast the event worldwide.

The Netherlands — DiGiCo’s latest console, the SD8, is touring the Netherlands with a version of The Who’s rock opera, Tommy, being performed by a Dutch four-piece band called Di-rect and supported by soundco The Purple Group. Pictured here, L-R, is Di-rect lead singer Tim Akkerman and David Hol, FOH engineer.

MACAO, China — Zaia,the latest from Cirque du Soleil, is using speakers and digital audio tools from Meyer Sound for the 90-minute production in an 1,800-seat theater at the Venetian in Macao, Cirque du Soleil’s first resident show in Asia. Zaia melds acrobatics and visuals with otherworldly sonic landscapes to create a multisensory experience.

GRENOBLE, France — Digigram named Hervé Odini international sales director. Odini will be responsible for all three of Digigram’s international sales offices: Grenoble, which handles the EMEA region; Singapore, for Asia and the Pacific; and Arlington, Va., for the Americas. He will also head up the field marketing department based at company headquarters in Montbonnot, France.

OSLO, Norway — For AC/DC’s Black Ice tour, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist and co-songwriter Malcolm Young, pictured here, relies on Lectronics for its wireless mobility, which lets him roam about the stage. “Malcolm was using a wireless system, then went back to a cabled setup,” said the performer’s guitar tech, Geoff “Bison” Banks. “All the other wireless systems that we tried—and we’ve tried them all—colored his sound.”