International News

MEXICO CITY — Every year, Vive Latino in Mexico City ranks as one of most important Latin America rock "en español" festivals. Billed across the hemisphere as Festival Iberoamericano de Cultura Musical, Vive Latino's 2007 Blue Stage featured only NEXO loudspeakers including, for the first time, the GEO D Series.

KITCHENER, ON —Bowfire, the total string experience which combines step and tap dancing with virtuoso fiddle-playing, played a special show at the 2000-seat Centre in the Square theatre in Kitchener, Ontario. The entire show was run from an InnovaSON Sy80 digital console at FoH by Dennis Mortson, with an Sy48 on monitors piloted by monitor engineer/wireless tech John Smith.

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — Sound engineer Christopher Winter chose Loudness Sonorizacao of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to provide the sound reinforcement system for the April Red Bull Air Race in Rio de Janeiro’s Botafogo Bay, which drew one million spectators, making it the largest sports event in Brazilian history. The system included four towers of 16 Vertec VT4889 line array elements each (64 in total), powered by Crown I-Tech 8000 amplifiers. Low-frequency fill was provided by 64 JBL SRX728 loudspeaker subwoofers.

MONTREAL — Originally built in the late 1920s, Montreal’s landmark Olympia Theatre recently underwent a renovation project and technical facilities update that simultaneously took the “grand dame” of the city’s theatre scene both back in time and squarely into the 21st century. Mathieu Guilbault, who serves as front-of-house mixer for the theatre and codesigned the new system coordinated with local sound and lighting provider Kloda Focus to supply the venue with a new PA system, which now benefits from a Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound console feeding Crown-powered JBL Vertec arrays.

REDDITCH, ENGLAND — The three days of the Give It A Name indoor shows in late April are seen as the start of the U.K. festival season, as up-and-coming new alt-rock bands rotate through three venues in England and Scotland. With up to 12 acts a day going through each stage of the early spring festival, this was a great opportunity for an army of different front-of-house engineers to get their hands on the NEXO GEO T line array, running the newly launched NXStream management software.

BERLIN — On April 29, Linkin Park gave a Berlin audience a preview of its upcoming European and North American tours. For the preview, Kenneth “Pooch” Van Druten, Linkin Park’s FOH engineer, used Adamson Y-18s and T-21 Subs, with various Adamson Yaxis partners providing the required systems for the European dates. Jochen Sommer of Adamson assisted with the final system design, which featured eight Y10s and two T-21 Subs per side to cover the main floor plus a rear balcony measuring 9.85’ in height and 6.5’ in depth. The system was ground-stacked on 2.6’-high stage platforms. The stage right balcony, serving as the V.I.P. area, added 4’ more, so two conventional 15-1/2" GAE speakers were used to cover the area.

LONDON — Audio rental company Britannia Row tested Turbosound’s brand new NuQ loudspeakers at the Camden Crawl music festival. Featuring a host of bands, with the well-established mixing with the completely unknown, the two-day event took place in 15 venues and featured household names like Travis, The Charlatans, The Damned and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club sharing the same stages with lesser-known artists such as I Was A Cub Scout, Fear Of Flying and Vincent Vincent and the Villains.

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND — Since releasing their debut album Costello Music last autumn, the Glasgow band The Fratellis have been promoting it with live dates. Helping them on their way has been Turbosound, whose NuQ loudspeakers have played a major part in the band’s recent UK tour.

BERLIN, GERMANY — The musical Daddy Cool kicked off its European tour with a 10-week run in Berlin, which opened on April 26 in the show's 2000-seat big top tent in central Berlin. Richard Brooker designed the sound, supported by associate sound designer Tom Marshall, with the original system for the London production adapted to the requirements of the tour.

LISBON, PORTUGAL — The Hard Rock Café in Lisbon is located in the center of the city. The interior design is similar to that of others in the chain, with collector’s items of rock history hanging on the walls, such as autographed guitars, gold and platinum albums and stage clothing, but while most Hard Rock Cafés have their sound and lighting equipment installed by an American company, the Lisbon affiliate decided to have the Portuguese HK Audio distributor ALRICA Lda install its sound system.

MUMBAI, INDIA — Indian sound reinforcement company Sound.com recently provided a VerTec line array system for the annual Femina Miss India pageant. The event was held April 8, 2007 at the Bandra Kura Complex in Mumbai.