Newsroom

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA — Kingston Sound, a South African provider of live event production, recently supplied stage production, lighting and sound for the Women's Day Event held at Kingsmead Cricket Stadium in Durban, located on the eastern coast of South Africa. The company used JBL VerTec VT4888 line array enclosures to provide the audio.

LAKEVILLE, MN — Completed just in time for their annual "Country Christmas" seasonal shows, the new EV sound system at Celebration Church in Lakeville, Minn, reflects the serious production needs of a large church like Celebration: more than 18,000 people attended the "Country Christmas" shows over a three-week period, hearing the country music themed event through a PA that brings EV sound to the church's 1100-seat theatre/sanctuary.

OLD LYME, CT — Sennheiser is now shipping the e 602 II cardioid microphone – successor to the e 602 – to their lineup of evolution series microphones. The e 602 II is designed especially for use with kick drums, bass guitar cabs, tubas and other low-frequency instruments. Featuring an aluminum housing – more than 40 percent lighter than its predecessor – the e 602 II provides greater stability when positioned on a long boom arm. The capsule offers a fast attack, coupled with an extended low-frequency response.

VIENNA — Vienna's newest musical production – Rebecca – recently opened at the Raimund Theatre, featuring the story of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, and the heart of the show's sound system is the VBW Raimund Theatre's resident Cadac J-Type live production console, in conjunction with two Cadac D16 digital mix matrices. Staged by Vereinigte Bühne Wien (VBW), the musical is written by Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay, directed by Francesca Zambellow and stars Uwe Kröger as Maxim de Winter, opposite Dutch-born Wietske van Tongeren as the second Mrs. de Winter. Sound design is by Hendrik Maassen, whose musical credits include a long-term association with Phantom of the Opera.

BUENA PARK, CA — Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc has announced the January 2007 retirement of legendary speaker designer Akira Nakamura. Since 1965, Mr. Nakamura has led the development of a wide variety of commercial audio speakers, the most famous being the Yamaha NS-10M studio reference monitors, which he developed in 1987.

NEW YORK — More than 300,000 people gathered around the skating rink, waiting for the switch to be pulled to turn on the Rockefeller Christmas Tree's lights, and the event was televised nationally on NBC with celebrities and politicians, using a sizable Yamaha and NEXO-based audio system.

COTO DE CAZA, CA — Corporate Image Audio (CIA), Inc, of Coto de Caza, Calif, used a Soundcraft Vi6 digital live sound console to mix Les Brown and his Band of Renown and a television production for CBS 2 (KCBS-TV) in Palm Desert. The Vi6 was the first made available in the U.S. for purchase. They also plan to use it with the upcoming Rotary International 2007 Assembly in San Diego and the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

REDDITCH, ENGLAND — SSE Audio Group has one of its four new Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles out on tour with rock band Thunder, selling out all the dates on its UK tour of academies and civic halls.

HELSINKI, FINLAND — 50 Cent performed two nights, in front of 17,000 fans, at Helsinki's largest venue, the Hartwall Arena. Since 50 Cent was not on tour, the Hartwall concerts were a one-off event, so his production used local services, calling upon Akun Tehdas, Finland's leading equipment rental provider, to supply all 50 Cent's sound requirements. "This was a typical large scale event for us," said Timo Liski of Akun Tehdas.

BERKELEY, CA — On this year's "Gigantour 2," Megadeth's tour with opening acts Lamb of God, Opeth, Overkill and Arch Enemy, the central philosophy was clear: loud is good, but louder with clarity is better, and with that in mind, tour sound providers Thunder Audio turned to Meyer Sound's MILO curvilinear array loudspeaker to do the job. Thunder vice president Paul Owen reports that, initially, not everyone realized what MILO could do. But Owen, who has mixed monitors for Metallica and worked on tours by AC/DC, Disturbed, Slipknot and Mudvayne, was quite confident about his specification.