News

Gordon “Gungi” Paterson, a highly respected and well-liked FOH engineer for acts as diverse as Judas Priest and Tears for Fears, died Monday, Sept. 28 after a three-year battle with  lymphoma. As per his wishes, there will be no memorial service in Seattle, where Gungi, his wife Bridget, and their children made their home.

LAS VEGAS — Voting for the 2009 Parnelli Awards has begun. Go to www.parnelliawards.com/vote and let your voice be heard. There will be a new Indispensable Technology “IT” award category for Audio, along with returning categories for Sound Company, Hometown Hero Sound Company, FOH Mixer, Monitor Mixer and System Tech of the Year and more. To purchase tickets, go to www.parnelliawards.com/reservations.

OTTAWA, KS — Although StagePro has managed to get by with analog consoles as it has supported summer festivals ranging from Lollapalooza, Country Jam, Rothbury, Langerado, All Good, as well as Austin City Limits and Rock Jam festivals, the soundco finally went digital as the 2009 summer season kicked off with its purchase of two Midas PRO6 consoles.

ARECIBO and PONCE, Puerto Rico — Ricky’s Audio Corporation provided the sound equipment and services for two recent World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) professional wrestling events here, including JBL VRX Constant Curvature line array speakers and dbx signal processing for system control.

MADISON, WI — Full Compass is commemorating its move to a new, 140,000 square foot facility with a free two-day expo and party Oct. 23-24, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.

NASHVILLE, TN — Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are currently on tour promoting their tenth album, Cowboy Town, and their monitor engineer, Kurt Springer, is using an AKG wireless system with over 30 AKG products.

KIRKLAND, WA — With a congregation of about 7,000 worshippers spread over six locations, City Church opted to connect its main Kirkland campus with its other locations via satellite, enabling live broadcasts. Designer Justin Friesen created a networked audio solution based around Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing consoles supplied by Lift AV in Renton, WA, and GC Pro in Seattle.

NEW BEDFORD, MA — Some of the costumes and set elements for the two-week run of The Producers at the New Bedford Festival Theatre this summer may have been the same as those used for the Tony-award-winning Broadway production starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, but the sound was definitely new, with Jason Choquette using DiGiCo’s SD8 console as a key part of the production’s sound system design.

LAS VEGAS — The Parnelli Board of Directors has announced that Dennis DeYoung will be hosting the Parnelli Awards Nov. 20 in Orlando. DeYoung wrote and performed “Come Sail Away,” “Babe," "Lady" and many other hits for Styx, and he also played a key role in the band’s themed albums and theatrical and visually groundbreaking shows.

NOTRE DAME, IN — Engineers from Bartlett Microphones recently ran a live comparison between their TM-125 stage-floor microphone and the PCC-160, a mic they designed several years ago for Crown. The setting for the shootout was the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame.