News

SAN FRANCISCO — Sound On Stage leaned on L-Acoustics to provide the P.A. for all seven of the stages at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (HSB) festival, which took place Sept. 30-Oct. 2 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. With more than 100 bands of widely differing genres beyond bluegrass performing over the festival’s three days, the need for a single audio solution to best accommodate them all was paramount.

SAUGATUCK, MI – Shannon Stewart of Stewart Independent Production was seeking a better solution than conventional rigging allows when flying a line array on a lift tower. He found the solution with the Polar Focus Spine Frame Adapter. “The Spine Frame design is flawless in its ease of attachment, pan and tilt capability and control,” Stewart explains. “The mounting bracket goes on the tower in seconds securely and with redundant safety chains.”

LONDON — DiGiCo was encouraged by strong demand among users of its SD series consoles for its Stealth Core 2 software upgrade to the company’s Stealth Digital Processing software. Citing “a massive number” of upgrades purchased in the first few weeks of the Stealth Core 2 release in July, DiGiCo is earning high marks from users for the software’s new graphic interface, enhanced processing, full Dynamic EQ, DiGiTuBes and MB Dynamics on every channel and buss.

OAKLAND, CA — The official death toll from a fire that engulfed an EDM rave event on Dec. 2 within an artists’ studio collective rose to 36 by Dec. 5, and although recovery efforts were 90 percent complete, the toll could rise further. The fast-moving fire began around 11:30 p.m. during the late night EDM dance party, which was initially expected to continue to 4 a.m. Dec. 3. Because the fire was accompanied by a loss of power, authorities believe it may have been electrical in nature, although the exact cause has not been conclusively determined.

PITTSBURGH— The City of Pittsburgh recently installed a Dante-networked Engineered Sound conference microphone system from Audio-Technica for the city council chambers. The council members had been using the same XLR-connected microphones for 30-plus years and needed the newer technology. According to David Finer, Pittsburgh’s communication technology manager, the single biggest selling point of Audio-Technica was the programmable mute button.

SANTA CLARITA, CA – Kelvin Flores, director of instrumental music at Arroyo Seco Junior High School in Santa Clarita, CA,  arranged for parents to purchase Alpine’s MusicSafe Classic and MusicSafe Pro musicians’ ear plugs for his students. Flores has high frequenty hearing loss and wanted to protect his students’ hearing with a solution that he himself uses. 

LOS ANGELES – Clair Global has been supplying DiGiCo consoles to Andy Grammer’s range of gigs this past year, which included a co-headlining trek with Gavin McGraw and as the opening act for Train. The Stealth Core 2-equipped SD9 for monitors and SD10 for FOH gives the tour increased functionality but with a smaller footprint in the truck, helping save on transportation costs.

KNOXVILLE, TN — When the Knoxville Urban League needed a corporate event house to support its annual gala this year, they turned to Mike Brown, president of M&M Productions, for a turnkey event. Brown knew he needed a versatile system that would provide clarity and intelligibility for the many spoken presentations during the popular social event – while still being dynamic enough to support the powerhouse band, Tower of Power, for the concert portion of the evening. He turned to FBT for his FOH audio rig for the event.

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT – Justin Bieber’s “Purpose World Tour” is carrying Telefunken microphones for vocals and all of the live instruments in the show. “After trying several manufacturers’ capsules we found that the Telefunken M80 was the best capsule for vocals,” says FOH engineer Ken “Pooch” Van Druten (pictured here, right) with monitor engineer Alex Macleod.

SAN DIEGO – Univision and Fusion Media Group assembled RiseUp As One as a concert to celebrate music, diversity and unity on the US-Mexico border in San Diego. 3G Productions provided five DiGiCo consoles to make sure the sound never missed a beat. Howard “Howie” Lindeman and Ron Reaves manned the two SD7s at the FOH, while the two monitor consoles were similarly assigned and manned by Michael Bove and Stan George.

SAN FRANCISCO — Olivier Rochette, 42, was killed during setup for Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia in San Francisco Nov. 29. The accident, involving a telescopic lift, was first reported to emergency responders at about 6:45 pm, according to reports. Rochette, son of Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles Ste-Croix, was rushed to a hospital with a head injury but died at 10:37 p.m. He had been working as a technician on the show at the time of the accident.

ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO  – With the Abba Pater Church’s move to a larger structure came the need for a new sound system. Caribbean Broadcast Suppliers provided a system comprised of Martin Audio CDD speakers and CSX subwoofers. Pastor Jose Montijo Soler says, “Once the system was installed and configured, the sound in our church was spectacular––the instruments and vocals have a unique definition and the coverage is exceptional throughout the space.”