News

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Former Vice President and Nobel Prize Winner Al Gore brought his An Inconvenient Truth presentation to Reykjavik, as a guest of Iceland’s president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. Gore delivered his message on environmental consciousness to an audience of nearly 1,000 people who filled the University of Iceland’s Haskolabio theatre. Utmost intelligibility at the important event was entrusted to a self-powered Meyer Sound system provided by Reykjavik-based AV company, Exton.
 

When combined with a D-Show Profile system, the Digidesign Mix Rack option for its VENUE live sound systems is designed to offer a compact and affordable entry into the Venue family for small- to mid-sized venues, houses of worship, corporate A/V applications and regional tours.

MINNEAPOLIS – Minnesota-based pro audio manufacturer Electro-Voice is boosting the fundraising success of its Musicians for Minneapolis: 57 Songs for the I-35W Bridge Disaster Relief Effort CD release with a celebrity guitar auction on Ebay, running April 29 to May 9. Guitars from legendary artists including Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde and Dick Dale are available.

Boston, MA – Named after the founder of one of the country’s greatest symphony orchestras, Higginson Hall is for more modestly scaled events, shows, a cappella singers, soloists, ensembles and meetings with seating for up to 600. The goal for Boston-based integrator Matrix 1 was to convert and upgrade the PA from an Announce system tied to the rest of the building to a multifaceted audio system with multiple zones and rooms.

RASTATT, GERMANY and BRITTANY, FRANCE – German pro audio company Lawo, a company that specializes in the development of consoles and matrix systems in the broadcast market, has acquired majority ownership of French digital mixing console manufacturer Innovason, a move that marks the end of Innovason’s receivership period.

SAN FRANCISCO – Spider Ranch Productions of California recently completed an overhaul of the Gold’s Gym fitness center with a new distributed system built on the iDESIGN loudspeaker platform. Taking a 35-year-old fitness center, gutting it and turning it all back into a usable facility took a little over a year to complete.  Don Dickerson, general manager for Gold’s Gym in the San Francisco Bay area, contacted old friend Alex Moran from Spider Productions to design and install a new sound system. Moran provided a total of 29 McCauley Sound iDESIGN modules for the installation.

WASHINGTON – As the first non-Baseball event for the brand new Nationals Stadium and the initial step of a high-profile journey across the Eastern U.S., the Papal Mass in our nation’s capital presented a unique set of challenges for one of the area’s leading production companies, MHA Audio.

CHESSINGTON, England – Although it is not unknown for hugely successful bands to have their own aircraft in which to tour the globe, it is highly unusual for the band’s lead singer to be the pilot. Yet this is the case with evergreen hard rockers Iron Maiden and, as they begin another major tour, the ultra-compact size of Monitor Engineer Steve ‘Gonzo’ Smith’s DiGiCo D5 console means that there is plenty of room onboard for it to travel with him.

Offering wireless audio in an ultra-compact package that is about half the size of most standard bodypacks and weighing just three ounces with two AAA batteries, the Shure UR1M Micro-Bodypack is designed to be easily concealed and worn comfortably by actors, performers, musicians and public speakers.

 In our April issue's On the Move section, we incorrectly listed Robin Hamerlinck's job title and placed Paul Applebaum's photo in the wrong location.We regret these errors. Below is the correct press release. – ed.

NILES, IL – Shure Incorporated has appointed Robin Hamerlinck to vice president of Global Information Systems and chief information officer.  In this position, she will be responsible for the development and operation of all of the company’s information systems and infrastructure.  Previously, Hamerlinck was chief technology officer at Merisant Worldwide Inc. and before that, she worked at Monsanto, where she held various information technology management positions.

ST. MAARTEN – Home to one of the Caribbean's most exciting vacation destinations, Sint Maarten also has the distinction of being the site of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, one of the biggest sailing events of the Americas and second only to the America’s Cup. This year’s regatta was larger than ever — with over 280 ships participating in the race. For each event, D.A.S. Audio systems provided sound reinforcement—with the final night’s concert being a massive affair that featured Jamaican American reggae artist Shaggy.

WORCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND – Nu metal rap rockers Linkin Park unleashed their third studio album Minutes to Midnight in May 2007. It sold more than 600,000 copies in the first week and went straight to the top of the Billboard 200 Charts. However, as their current world tour reminds us, Linkin Park are also a phenomenal live act — and has XTA very much at the heart of their sound.