News

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – For the Nourse Theatre, a 1920s-era high school hall that now hosts San Francisco’s City Arts & Lectures program, BBI Engineering sought to optimize spoken-word intelligibility with a sound system upgrade that includes 16 Meyer Sound MINA array elements, seven UP-4XP 48 V loudspeakers as front fill, four 500HP subwoofers and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors.

NASHVILLE — Morris Light & Sound is supporting Kenny Chesney’s 46-date No Shoes Nation tour with a Nexo STM line array system that includes 74 M46 for mains, 74 b112 bass extensions, 48 s118 flown subs, 16 RS18 ground ray subs, 12 PS10s for front fills, 14 GEO S 1210s and two GEO S1230s, 22 NUAR amp racks and two Yamaha DME 64 digital mix engines with LAKE Mesa EQ cards for system tuning and console switching.

CLIFFSIDE, NC – Duke Energy’s Cliffside Steam Station dates back to the 1930s. It was renovated several times over the decades. One of the new projects to be fully-modernized was the office space and conference room, which incorporated a teleconferencing system that includes Symetrix’s SymNet Edge Dante network audio DSP, with four-channel AEC card providing acoustic echo cancellation and noise reduction.

ANNAPOLIS, MD — The Naval Academy Chapel, dedicated in 1908 and remodeled in 1940, underwent an extensive restoration in 2009. To improve intelligibility and coverage within the 2,500-capacity chapel, which features a 121-foot-high dome and a 268-rank pipe organ, DFX Sound Vision recommended a design incorporating Community Entasys column line arrays.

HOUSTON, TX — For the Free Press Summer Festival, which drew nearly 100,000 with 90 national and local artists performing on six stages in Eleanor Tinsley Park here June 1-2, LD Systems served as the primary audio, video and lighting provider. This year, LD Systems provided L-Acoustics K1 systems on the two largest stages, Mars and Saturn..

MILWAUKEE, WI — With an assist from Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems Inc., Clearwing Productions supported the audio needs for Summerfest 2013, which drew 840,356 to Henry Maier Festival Park here over the course of 11 days (June 26-30 and July 2-7). That support included new Yamaha CL digital consoles along with PM5D-RH consoles, M7CL and LS9 consoles for seven of the event’s 11 stages. Yamaha staff also provided support to those visiting engineers who had not yet used a CL console.

MURFREESBORO, TN — The Audio Engineering Society (AES) recently wrapped its 50th International Conference, and its first dedicated specifically to audio education, at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) here. The conference took place July 25-27, 2013. More than 140 educators and industry representatives met to exchange ideas and experiences at the event, which featured an emphasis on live sound that included an overview of the sector’s history and development by Bob McCarthy, senior education consultant at Meyer Sound (pictured here).

NASHVILLE — The Blackbird Academy was founded by recording/live sound engineer John McBride and his wife, country artist Martina McBride. The two created the Blackbird Studio complex in 2002, hosting recording artists such as Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, Kid Rock, Tim McGraw and many more. Sensing a need for quality, hand-on education for studio engineers, they founded the Blackbird Academy. Following its success, the school will expand with a Live Sound Engineering program, which kicks off in January, 2014.

CHICAGO, IL — Noted jazz flute performer Michael Mason is now using Countryman Associates’ ISOMAX 2 All-Purpose Microphone for his improvisational artistry. It continues Mason’s 30-year reliance on Countryman mics for his instruments — which now include 14K gold Muramatsu flutes outfitted with 14K gold headjoints from Miyazawa and Nagahara.

LOS ANGELES — For Icon Ultra Lounge, which had been using a rented sound system since it opened in 2011, ACI Pro Audio provided a more permanent setup with RCF gear for the venue’s lounge and rooftop. Components include HDL 20-A Line array boxes, SUB 8006-AS subwoofers and RCF’s P Series All-weather loudspeakers.