News

NORTHRIDGE, CA – The Valley Performing Arts Center at California State University, Northridge opened Jan. 30, with performance spaces including a 1,700-seat Great Hall, a 178-seat experimental theatre, a 232-seat lecture hall, plus rehearsal, shop and other supporting spaces within its 166,000-square-foot interior.

COLUMBUS, OH – Curt Taipale with Taipale Media Systems provided Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers for the new 1,200-seat sanctuary at Cypress Wesleyan Church (CWC).

LOS ANGELES – The celebrity owners LA Live's Conga Room – including Jimmy Smits, Jennifer Lopez, Paul Rodriguez and will.i.am – turned to Sound Image and AVS Production Group for an audio system upgrade. The newly-installed JBL loudspeakers include VP (Venue Performance), VerTec and VRX Series units.

PEARL RIVER, China – The new the Guangzhou Opera House includes an 1,800-seat and a 400-seat theatre, both of which have been installed with Midas digital systems and analog consoles, and also with Klark Teknik signal processing.

ANAHEIM, CA – NAMM's Wanna Play? Stage outside the Anaheim Convention Center at the John Lennon Plaza once again drew crowds with well-known and up-and-coming artists during Winter NAMM's four day run. The stage is named for NAMM's "Wanna Play?" campaign, a public awareness initiative designed to encourage more people to play musical instruments.

MERIDIAN, MS – The First Baptist Church here recently upgraded its sound system with dual Iconyx IC24-R systems, acting on the recommendation made by William Roland, principal at Gracenote Consulting.

NEW YORK – For Marc Anthony's recently-completed U.S. leg of his Iconos tour, which began in New York City at Madison Square Garden and wrapped up in Chicago at the Allstate Arena, AVS Production Group provided a Yamaha PM5D-EX digital mixing system for monitors.

LOS ANGELES – 2010 was a busy year for Kings Of Leon, who have been touring since summer in support of their new album, Come Around Sundown, with Midas XL8 live performance systems at FOH and monitors. The tour continues into 2011 with dates in Australia and South Africa before returning to Europe later in the year for more festival dates.

DEATH VALLEY, CA – Legendary sound pioneer and Parnelli Audio Innovator Award honoree Bruce Jackson was killed after his Mooney M020 single engine piston prop engine plane crashed Jan. 29 near Furnace Creek, CA, in Death Valley National Park. The Federal Aviation Association is investigating the cause of the crash and currently lists it as "unknown circumstances." Jackson was alone, flying at 11 p.m. He was 62.

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WI – Two older churches here – St. Gabriel's and St. John's – shared a common problem. They both had large, reverberant spaces, which caused intelligibility issues, and both hired Lifeline Audio Video Technologies for a solution, which came in the form of SLS Audio's LS6593V2 column line arrays.