International News

BARCELONA – After nearly seven years of planning and construction, Primera Liga opened the Estadi del RCD Espanyol Cornellá-El Prat soccer stadium. The stadium seats 40,000 and features a progressive design. It also houses a Harman Professional sound system complete with Crown amplifiers, BSS processors and JBL Loudspeakers.

FRANKFURT, Germany – The pro audio industry is shifting its focus from Winter NAMM to ProLight + Sound/Musikmesse, set for March 24-27, 2010. Some exhibitors prefer to wait until the show itself before tipping their hands, but others are making pre-show announcements of what visitors can expect to see. Here's a preview.

OVIEDO, Spain – Soundcraft's Spanish distributor, Earpro, recently installed a Vi4 at El Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo. Roberto Alonso, technical manager of the 120-year-old venue, credited ease of use as one of the reasons the venue chose the brand.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – The Zapashny Brothers Circus is touring with EAW JFL210/JFL118 loudspeakers provided by MS-Max Company, EAW's Russian distributor.

MEXICO CITY – Alejandro Sanz is using AKG gear including the DMS 700, an IVM 4 PM system and a variety of D7 and D5 microphones on his worldwide Paradise tour, in support of the album Paraiso Express. Every concert will rely on 24 different DMS 700 channels for voices and instruments and will use 16 channels of the IVM4 PM system. For vocals, the DMT 700 will be equipped with D7 and D5 handheld capsules.

LONDON – The 2010 Brit Awards was broadcast live from Earls Court with a Midas XL8 handling front of house for the first time. Sound designer and live sound coordinator Derrick Zieba, who's been working on the UK record industry's annual awards ceremony since 1994, specified the XL8 after witnessing its capabilities at December's Nobel Peace Prize concert, which featured a networked system of two XL8s and three PRO6s.

CARACAS, Venezuela – For the four-day Coca-Cola Solid Fest 2010 at Hipdromo La Rinconada, rental sound company Grupo Zonico provided an extensive audio system including JBL VerTec line arrays. The event's performers included Korn, OscarD Leon and Luis Fonsi, performing on themed event days presenting rock, urban and Latin artists.

STIGTOMTA, Sweden – Parashoot EA, recently added an Allen & Heath iLive digital system to its rental inventory and to support its growing touring business. Comprising an iDR-48 MixRack and an iLive-T112 Control Surface, the system has already been put to use on various events over the holidays and for the European tour of the Backyard Babies.

TRIANON, Mauritius – Northwind Recording, based in Durban, South Africa, chose EAW loudspeakers for the CTMI Church here. Northwind also provided the system design, analyzed the space's acoustics and performed the installation. EAW's South African distributor Surgesound supplied the equipment and managed all processing and system alignment.

TEGUCIGULPA, Honduras – Comunicaciones Mango BTL (Mango) recently added an Allen & Heath iLive digital mixing system to its rental stock, which includes Electro-Voice PA and D.A.S. PA line array gear. The AV rental company provides event management services for a client list that includes Unilever, Pepsico, Tigo, Bimbo and Cerveceria Hondureña.

AALBORG, Denmark – Ascon Trading, Alcons' Danish distributor, has equipped the Aalborg Congress & Culture Centre (AKKC) with Alcons gear, after AKKC's head of sound, Søren Hansen, was persuaded with a visiting production followed by a comparison of different systems.