News

KITCHENER, ONTARIO — Waterloo Oktoberfest is North America’s largest Bavarian festival, second in the world only to the original Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany. Kitchener’s Sherwood Systems Inc. has been providing sound reinforcement to each of the festival’s 13 venues for nearly two decades.

FOOTHILL RANCH, CA — Renkus-Heinz was forced to evacuate its factory in Foothill Ranch, Calif., yesterday, October 22, as the wildfires that have devastated large areas of California in the past few days came within 250 yards of the 50,000-square-foot facility.

Meyer Sound has announced the debut of the MM-4XP miniature loudspeaker, a self-powered version of the MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeaker.  With a face measuring just four inches square, this compact product is designed for distributed systems where space is at a premium and in which a single light gauge cable can deliver both balanced audio and DC power over a long cable run of up to several hundred feet.
 

ANDOVER, MA — Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., used a new Martin Audio system during its 229th commencement. The system, provided by Balanced Input, was comprised of Martin Audio W8LM Mini Line arrays W8LMD downfill speakers and WS218X subs for the main coverage, Martin WM05s for fills and Martin LE 1200s for confidence monitors. Ashly PE Series amplifiers provided power for the speakers with onboard DSP under wireless control from a portable laptop.
 

INDEPENDENCE, MO — Attracting upward of 250,000 people, this year’s Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival featured live music performances distributed across three stages and included appearances by artists Mark Chesnutt, the Bellamy Brothers, and others. A Crest Audio Century GTX 40-channel, eight-bus console handled mixing tasks. Wireless microphone systems included MIPRO ACT-707D UHF receivers used with MIPRO ACT-707H condenser handheld transmitters as well as MIPRO MR-212 VHF true diversity receivers along with MIPRO MH-202 dynamic handheld transmitters. For monitoring, MIPRO MI-808 wireless personal systems were used.

NEW YORK — Located on the site of the historic Cafe des Artistes, the Valmont Club is a 300-capacity venue whose focus is providing an inclusive atmosphere (no VIP rooms here) and serving a menu of 60 different cocktails. The audio soundtrack includes a mixture of background music, DJ sets and live performances. To achieve the desired sound quality, audio contractor Outstanding Productions chose Turbosound loudspeakers.

OLD LYME, CT —In support of Hilary Duff’s new album, the Dignity Tour set out in late July to play thirty-two shows throughout North America, with more shows to be added in the fall. The show used Sennheiser wireless audio technology with thirty-nine RF channels, including Duff’s e 935 vocal microphone.

BUENA PARK, CA — Celebrating 40 years since the Summer of Love, Adams Entertainment and Lyric Opera San Diego presented the world premiere of Love In: A Musical Celebration of 1967 in early September at the Birch North Park Theater in San Diego. Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. provided the majority of the audio equipment for the 5.1 house system that consisted of a Yamaha DM2000 for front of house mixing, 20 NEXO GEO S805s, four GEO S 830s, three GEO S 1210s, one GEO S1230 and two PS8s speakers.

The QB363 is a modular front-loaded, arrayable bass system, for permanent and semi-portable applications. It is designed to act as scalable low-end extension of the Q-series pro-ribbon column arrays.

BILLINGS, MT — Houses of worship often represent a unique challenge for sound system designers. With a wide range of services and other events to be accommodated during a typical week, flexibility represents a key parameter. And increasingly larger contemporary choirs with onstage musicians can present a challenge to trained audio engineers. So, when Faith Chapel Foursquare Church of Billings, Mont., went shopping for a console for its 1,100-seat sanctuary, the list of requirements was long and complex.