FRANKFURT – For the 12th year over 100 international pro audio and music industry magazines voted to award the Musikmesse International Press Awards (MIPA) for the past year's best audio equipment, presented to the winners at a ceremony held during the recent Musikmesse Prolight + Sound expo in Frankfurt, Germany.
HK Audio's Elements won in the Portable Sound category, edging out Dynacord's PowerMate3 mixers and Electro-Voice's Tour X series of speakers. In the PA System category, Martin Audio's MLA steerable line array system won over NEXO's 45N-12 defined-coverage arrayable floor monitor and JBL's VerTec VT4886 sub-compact three-way line array. Neumann's KMS 104 Plus microphone carried the Live Mic/IEM category over Shure's PSM-900 personal monitor system and Lectrosonics' Quadra digital IEM. Meyer Sound's LCS Constellation won Sound System Technology over Lab.gruppen's PLM20000Q Lake-processed high-power quad amp and Riedel's MediorNet fiber-optic digital transport network. Soundcraft's Si Compact digital console squeaked by Midas' VeniceF and DiGiCo's SD9.
Meyer Sound founders John & Helen Meyer received the MIPA Lifetime Achievement Award. Meyer Sound has garnered 40 U.S. and international patents and won numerous industry awards, including five previous MIPA Awards for MILO line array (2004), MICA line array (2005), M'elodie line array (2007) and the UPQ loudspeaker (2009).
Winners in the recording categories included Sennheiser's MK4 large format condenser mic, Genelec's 8260A near-field monitors, Avid's Pro Tools 9 native recording software, RME's Fireface UFX FireWire recording interface and Presonus' StudioLive 24.4.2 studio mixing desk.
