PSNE March 2015 Digital Edition

PSNEUROPE MARCH 2015

www.psneurope.com

THE BUSINESS OF PROFESSIONAL AUDIO

Piste of the action!

Supplying the kit for Kitzbühel and Hajfell p40 & p53

Powering up

Tape heads

10 amplifier technologies for 2015

10 years of British Grove Studios

Epic Epworth! p48

Paul bags MPG and Brit producer gongs again!

p18

p24

March 2015 l 03

www.psneurope.com

welcome Photo: Jake Young

EDITOR’S COMMENT

It was all a bit ‘Frankfurt’ of a few years ago, to be honest

Front cover image: c/o Kitzbüheler Ski Club (KSC)

MOST SUCCESSFUL ISE show ever, then. It was certainly a very busy Tuesday and Wednesday for me.

I could have done with being there for the duration.

Back in the UK, I had time to reflect on what has become, and I mean this in a complimentary way, a monster of a show. Mike Blackman and his team have done a fantastic job in building Integrated Systems Europe into a phenomenal, must-attend event. We already know of the plan for next year: it’s going go expand to a fourth day. But – dare I posit the question – does anyone really want to be there an extra 24 hours? Do we need that additional day at the RAI? What I found, as a journalist wanting to visit ONLY the pro-audio contingent, was the need to trek all over the shop – from Hall 7, to Hall 2, back to 7, to 5, return to 7, then over to 11, and so on. (Why not organise your day better, David?, you ask. Appointments made on behalf, that’s why, I say). It was all a bit like the ‘Frankfurt’ of a few years ago, to be honest.

Time then, ISE, as you move into your second decade, to realign the halls. Gather all the audio guys in one place – like they do at IBC and PL+S. I know that’s easier said than done, because of the points/ loyalty system, but, really, if you made Hall 7 the audio hall, you’d make a lot of people happier.

And if that kind of realignment took place across the show, across the technology sectors, visitors could access the brands they want to see more quickly, they’d save a lot of time,and no one would need to be there four days. Saving everyone time, money and resource. And their sanity, perhaps.

I fully expect to be shot down over this suggestion.

But I, for one, don’t think it’s that far-fetched...

Dave Robinson

IN THIS ISSUE...

BUSINESS 4 David McKinney trades the Orient for Potters Bar 5 Win a Focusrite RedNet at PSNPresents!

6 Exclusive post-IPO interview with Focusrite’s Phil Dudderidge 8 Industry appointments 10 Events and expos 12 PSNTraining 14 New products 16 Show review: ISE 18 MPG Awards: Three cheers for Paul Epworth STUDIO 22 British Grove Studios at 10 26 Steve Helm launches Red Chilli Audio BROADCAST 28 BEIRG ‘uncomfortable’ over OK of white space devices 30 New Sky/Gearhouse ‘OBPod’ revs up for Melbourne 32 DPA eyes education and and ‘everyday broadcast’ 34 Feature: AoIP users look to an interconnected future 38 Show preview: NAB LIVE 40 42 44 46 48

Sounding out ‘the Super Bowl of skiing’ On the three-drummer frontline with King Crimson mkVIII Counting beans (and channels) at WCOA New frequencies for Raycom Feature: 10 ways power amps are facing the future

INSTALLATION 52 53 54

L-Acoustics on board as AVnu Alliance seeks new chair Symetrix solution for all-new Hafjell Interview: Roscoe Anthony’s new regime at Renkus-Heinz

BACK PAGES 57 58

Hither & dither Industry talk: Gineke van Urk, Iemke Roos Audio

4 l March 2015

www.psneurope.com

business UNITED KINGDOM

Full of Eastern promise David McKinney has returned from postings in Shanghai and India to helm the Soundcraft/Studer operations, write Frank Wells and Dave Robinson HARMAN Professional announced in mid-January that David McKinney had been appointed vice-president and GM of Harman’s mixer business unit, where he will lead the global operations of the Soundcraft and Studer brands.

McKinney relocated from Shanghai to Potters Bar in the UK in late December 2014. In all, he has worked for Harman Pro for 11 years in four different country offices, including the position of senior director, India operations, and, most recently, serving as senior director and general manager of China operations.

Various strategic staff reassignments and new hires have been initiated over the past few months of transition, McKinney revealed during the recent NAMM convention.

R&D and marketing will work together across Studer and Soundcraft brands where it makes sense, but both brands will also maintain their own identity and own emphasis on specific vertical markets such as broadcast, touring, fixed install and portable PA. Each brand will have a global sales director; whether distribution is joint or separate will vary by country.

“The guys are all in their roles because they love what we do in the industry, they love the product side, they love the customers,” McKinney says.

New products from the Harman mixer team at NAMM included the Soundcraft Signature series of analogue consoles, which McKinney says “is being exceptionally well received”, adding that analogue remains important “in some geographical regions more than others”. On the digital side, the Soundcraft Ui series, previewed at NAMM, is a very visible foray into the nascent virtually controlled console market, so far dominated by Mackie’s DL devices. The Ui package of console and companion

The reaction of visitors to the products on the Harman booth at NAMM had been very positive indeed, he notes.

“I think the young [sound] engineers coming through will jump on [Ui] in a heartbeat… and you will see this technology spinning off to other brands.

“We’re going to be spending a lot of time with users, with engineers, to make sure that we can we can take what they really require and put it into future technology,” he adds.

Surely, though, the pace of life in the offices in Potters Bar and Regensdorf, Switzerland (where Studer has a base), must be a lot slower than where he has just come back from?

“It’s a different experience compared to India and China,” smiles McKinney, “but the hunger and passion are the same everywhere across Harman.” Q www.harmanpro.com

Signature MT22 analogue desk

I/O builds on technology developed

by Australian company SM Pro, which Harman has now purchased.

“We’ve managed to work with these guys in the background for about two or three months,” McKinney revealed. SM Pro’s R&D team is now working with compatriots from across Harman Pro and is an official part of the Studer/Soundcraft mixer team. (Incidentally, former head of ‘Mixer’ in the UK for 12 years, the popular Andy Trott, has moved into the Harman corporate technology group, where he will drive technology strategy, fuelled by his “love for R&D”, notes McKinney.)

The new GM was particularly effusive about the Ui launch at NAMM, saying it was one product that “redefined the portable PA market and [indicates] where we are driving the business”. Ui is undoubtedly an attractive proposition: effectively, it’s a stagebox-cumwireless interface, controlled by mixing software on the user’s tablet or smartphone. “The software is not ‘app’-driven; it’s written in HTML,” says McKinney. “Open up your web browser, connect to the Ui’s WiFi, and you’re there.”

Effectively, he suggests, you can have 10 different users connected to the box – someone

at FOH, someone at monitors, musicians with iPhones controlling their own monitor speakers and so on.

Core SM Pro technology has been “Harmanised” (yes, they use that word, too) with the addition of DigiTech guitar amp modelling, Lexicon effects and dbx feedback suppressors on the Ui’s outputs.

Then there’s the somewhat remarkable price: Ui12, with eight mic preamps, will retail for $399 (£375/€350). A product roadmap, with future boxes bigger than the current flagship Ui16 (12 mic pres), isn’t difficult to draw here.

Now he’s back in Europe and has had a little time to reflect, what has Asian/Pacific Rim culture taught the Northern Irishman?

“I’ve worked in countries that were driving growth, where things change quickly. My last 18 months in China saw drastic change – we were shifting the business models every three months. That’s one of the things I bring to Mixer: how to drive the business and get a lot more growth out of it, with a dynamic team that can really bring us to where we need to be on the technology side.”

New Mixer Business Unit GM David McKinney with the Ui12 at NAMM

March 2015 l 5

www.psneurope.com

presents...

In association with

business

Network in style at PSNPresents

Chicky Reeves

Win a RedNet 6 worth £1600 at this month’s Pre Roll-inspired event CHARLES ‘CHICKY’ REEVES, who surprised guests with tales of life on the road with Grace Jones and Prince during The Pre-Roll section of the Pro Sound Awards last September, is back to appear on the live sound panel at the inaugural PSNPresents.

The producer and recording, mastering and live sound engineer will be joining Massive Attack’s Robb Allan on a panel to discuss the highs and lows of working in the live sound scene.

“Really, I’m very pleased to taking part in this,” he says. “To think – someone is crazy enough to put a mic in front of me… It’s like giving a termite a chainsaw!”

While the live sound panel represents the second half of the evening’s entertainment, the first half will find Baftanominated Scott Talbott, craft manager at BBC Studios and Post Production, Strictly Come Dancing sound supervisor Andy Tapley and the National Theatre’s head of sound and video Jonathan Suffolk in a lively Q&A session about the challenges of live sound in the broadcast and theatre environments.

PSNPresents, sponsored by

Focsusrite, will centre around a sequence of on-stage interviews and panels with leading lights from the pro-audio spectrum.

“We had such a good time at The Pre-Roll part of the Pro Sound Awards – first with Phil Ward’s interviews with producers Andre Jacquemin, Ben Hillier and Stephen Street, then with my somewhat raucous panel of live sound engineers – that we thought we should spin the idea out into something equally as fun for the New Year,” says PSNEurope editor Dave Robinson.

New for 2014, The Pre-Roll comprised two sessions of talk and Q&A ahead of the awards ceremony at the Pro Sound Awards awards ceremony.

Up first was the Producer Sessions, which saw former PSNEurope editor Phil Ward do a Parky as he welcomed Monty Python’s go-to soundtrack man Andre Jacquemin, Depeche Mode collaborator Ben Hillier and Smiths and Blur producer Stephen Street to the stage for an incredible line-up of studio talent.

Next on the agenda was the Live Sound Sessions, which featured Reeves, Dave Swallow (Amy Winehouse, La Roux),

Jon Burton (The Prodigy, Stereophonics) and Matt Kanaris (Lana Del Rey, Goldfrapp) trading tales of life on the road.

“At last year’s Pro Sound Jonathan Suffolk, National Theatre Awards, we really enjoyed the Pre-Roll – the relaxed conversational format allowed an honest and insightful portrayal of the studio and live industries, and is exactly the type of event we would be keen to support,” says Focusrite. “As such, when PSNEurope told us about their PSNPresents event, we signed up Scott Talbott, BBC S&PP immediately.”

PSNPresents will take place at the Ham Yard Hotel, London, on Event partner Focusrite Thursday 12 March from 6.45pm, will offer all PSNPresents with a 7.30pm start. Tickets attendees the chance to win a are £35 and can be purchased RedNet 6 MADI bridge (RRP from the PSNEurope website €2,249). Simply register your (hover over ‘Events’ and click on details in person on the day to ‘PSNPresents’) or www.intententer the raffle! events.com/events/event_details/49.

RedNet is Focusrite’s A variety of sponsorship flagship range of modular packages are still available for the Ethernet-networked audio event – contact Ryan O’Donnell interfaces which bring studio(rodonnell@nbmedia.com), Darrell Carter (dcarter@nbmedia. com) or Rian Zoll-Khan (rzollkhan@nbmedia.com) for more information. Q www.psneurope.com www.focusrite.com

Andy Tapley, BBC S&PP

Robb Allan quality sound to any modern audio application. RedNet is an extremely scalable nearzero-latency audio distribution system that can be used to expand I/O channel count, interface digital components, and/or bridge between Pro Tools HD or MADI and a Dante audio network. www.focusrite.com

6 l March 2015

www.psneurope.com

business UNITED KINGDOM

After the corks have popped…

Phil Dudderidge, founder of Focusrite and Novation, talks exclusively to PSNEurope immediately following a successful NAMM launch – and an even more successful IPO in December 2014. Interview: Dave Robinson

How are you feeling, sir?

I’m feeling great! I’m really pleased that we achieved the initial public offering; it was not something that was a guaranteed outcome – we had to sell the proposition – and now we have some great investors.

And these are not people who are in for a quick profit; they are institutions who are in for the long haul.

(Focusrite floated on AIM in mid-December, with a placing of 126p. Shares immediately rose to a maximum of 139p on the first day of trading. At press time, they were sitting pretty at 144p.)

Explain how the IPO worked for you and your staff.

I, and the senior management team – all of whom had shares – sold about a quarter of our holdings, so that gave us a bit of a payday…

For the workforce, we have an employee share option scheme. The company has grown leaps of bounds over the last few years and it was my way of rewarding the staff by setting aside – and I mean before the IPO, so it didn’t dilute the value of the company from the investors’ point of view – 10 per cent of the value of the company as shares into an employee benefit trust.

That trust holds the shares that the employees will receive when their options vest; for staff who’ve been with us over three

years, this will commence in a year’s time.

Will this add to the reputation you’ve already built up as being a great employer? (Focusrite has appeared in The Sunday Times’ ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ list several times.)

I certainly hope so. I think Focusrite is the best place to work! If we keep doing the right things for the employees, great results will continue to come. I suffer from the burden of being born into a socialist family and so I do think that the workforce should share in the value that they create….

The obvious thing for you to do would be to retire with your cash and leave them to it.

I’m too old to learn too many new tricks. I’m very much committed to the business, but I have an enhanced management team with people including Dave Froker as CEO, and new CFO Jeremy Wilson. He’s a great asset to the business – he knows so much about music over the last 40 years – and he’s an accountant; he’s not supposed to know that stuff!

[Laughs].

Jeremy and Dave were key to the success of the IPO not forgetting the rest of the team for creating the successful performance that got us there.

We haven’t got rid of you yet, then.

No! I do have a couple of ambitions – one of them is to own a recording studio, which means throwing money down a black hole… but the problem with recording studios is, you have to have money you don’t expect to get a return on – but if you can get an artistic return, that’s great. This is my fantasy – and if anyone can help me realise it I’d be delighted. If I could marry the studio to a really progressive independent label…

Maybe with my last few decades it would be fun to enable musicians – starting with my son, Joe, but not limited to him… It’s almost going back to the days of Island Studios or whatever – having the availability of a recording facility for their artists made so much possible.

Giles Orford, Focusrite’s marketing director, suggested that you are giving away the Red software plug-ins (see box) because of the IPO. It’s very kind of Giles to give me the credit, but it’s something that’s been in the works for a while.

You could say it’s extremely magnanimous of us, or you could say it’s a smart business decision because it makes the value of our interfaces so much greater, especially for the Pro Tools customer who is buying PT software [...] and is looking for the right interface to go with it. We believe Focusrite is the perfect partner for Pro Tools.

Since PT9, Focusrite has become the leading audio interface brand for PT users and other DAWs, which is something we’re very proud of.

When someone buys a Focusrite product for the first time, we hope it is just the first time, not the last time: that they will look to buy another Focusrite interface – a larger one or a higher spec one – as their needs change. And we want to keep them loyal to Focusrite. Q www.focusrite.com

Dudderidge had already spent 25 years in the pro audio business back in 1995, as this Audio Media article shows!

Focusrite made two major product announcements at the NAMM Show in Anaheim in January.

The first, the Clarett Range, is a line of audio interfaces that combine a new preamp design with the latest in Thunderbolt technology, offering an “unparalleled interface latency” of under 1ms.

“It’s taken us a while to make sure that when we came in, our interfaces really were the best sounding and fastest available,” said Focusrite marketing director Giles Orford at the launch.

Also making their debut were the Red 2 and Red 3 Plug-in Suites, featuring 64-bit AAX, AU and VST compatibility. The plug-ins are the first from Focusrite to include AAX support, making them compatible with Pro Tools 10 and above. Red and

3 will be bundled free with all Focusrite Scarlett, Saffire, Forte and Clarett audio interfaces.

Technical director Rob Jenkins is seen here with the Clarett 2Pre at the NAMM launch.

8 l March 2015

www.psneurope.com

industrymovers Timothy Thompson weighs anchor at Argosy Former VP takes over at US studio furniture-maker

Timothy Thompson has been appointed president of studio/technical equipment furniture manufacturer Argosy Console.

In his new role, the former vice-president will oversee day-to-day operations at Argosy and focus on its expansion into new markets, including aerospace, education, finance, government, law enforcement and transportation.

“I could not be more pleased for Tim to become my successor as company

president,” says Argosy’s founder and director of design, David Atkins. “We’ve worked together for 20 years and there is no one more capable to lead the company.

Tim is not only a talented leader and visionary; he’s a really good guy and a great friend.”

Thompson has been with Argosy Console since 1995, during which time he has “interfaced with clients ranging from major film studios and Fortune 500 companies to private installations [by] recording artists and producers”.

“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to build upon the great Argosy brand legacy that has been built by David Atkins and the amazing team of people who work here,” he says. “We are anticipating a tremendous year ahead, and the introduction of several new products featuring advanced ergonomics and, of course, innovative designs.” www.argosyconsole.com

dock10, a provider of post and TV studio services at MediaCityUK in Salford, UK, has made two new hires.

Nicola Spanou, post producer (top), joins from the now-defunct Sumner’s MediaCity, while post coordinator Emma Ruston was previously at fellow MediaCityUK facility 3sixtymedia. Both will report to Paul Austin, dock10’s head of post-production and vontent.

Austin says: “I am really pleased to welcome Nicola and Emma to the dock10 family. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience and are great assets to the team. These new additions also highlight our confidence in the future of the post-production market in the region.” www.dock10.co.uk

German loudspeaker company Fohhn Audio has added to its international sales and distribution staff with a new head of international business development, Gauthier Dalle.

“Mr Dalle is a very dynamic and creative business developer with a profound experience and deep understanding of the audio industry,” says Uli Haug of Fohhn Audio’s executive board of marketing and distribution. “We are very happy to welcome him to the Fohhn family.” www.fohhn.com

Former PreSonus COO Stephen Fraser (right) has been appointed to the position of chief executive officer as of 10 February, following the departure of CEO Jim Mack. The PreSonus board of directors has also announced that company founder and former chief

strategy officer, Jim Odom (left), will become president.

Having begun his career in the world of corporate banking, Fraser joined Behringer in 2004, where he was president of the North America subsidiary, before moving to Singapore as Behringer Group COO and then chief of staff. He joined PreSonus in January 2010.

Kevin Couhig, board chairman, said, “We believe Stephen is ideally suited to lead PreSonus forward as chief executive.

In his five years as PreSonus COO, he has developed highly effective strategies backed by strong operating skills and relentless execution. Outgoing CEO Jim Mack will be a ‘tough act to follow’, but we’re confident that Stephen will continue a great track record as CEO.” www.presonus.com

iZotope has hired Michael Bayer as its chief financial officer. Bayer brings to the role over 20 years’ of expertise in finance, operations, technology and business development for technology companies.

“As iZotope continues its rapid growth, it’s critical to have experienced leaders in place to help guide the way,” comments Mark Ethier, CEO and co-founder of the audio software developer. “Michael brings skill and talent that complements our team and will help us continue to build great things.” www.izotope.com

Brandi Loyd has been appointed marketing project manager at Sound Devices.

Loyd brings 20 years’ marketing and technical-writing experience to the manufacturer of pro-audio products for film production and broadcast, where she will oversee and manage a range of marketing initiatives. www.sounddevices.com

10 l March 2015

www.psneurope.com

expos&events

For the latest events news www.psneurope.com/events

EDITORIAL PLANNER

SPOTLIGHT PROLIGHT+SOUND 15–18 April Frankfurt, Germany pls.messefrankfurt.com THE DADDY OF pro-audio trade shows turns 20 next month when it returns to the Frankfurt Exhibition Centre for another showcase of the latest in events, installation and production technology.

The 20th PL+S, running concurrently with sister event Musikmesse, will focus especially on theatre sound and technology, with the ‘Theatre and Film Colloquium’ offering an extensive programme of seminars and “exclusive benefits” for theatre planners.

At press time, pre-show news was unusually thin on the ground – VoiceAcoustic’s new HDSP multichannel amplifier series representing the only

APRIL Training As easy as PSNT Networking update Gonna get ourselves connected Prolight + Sound review Did it get Messe-y?

MAY Focus on Germany Drivers AES preview major launch announcement – but, as is the nature of print media, by the time you’ read this you’ll no doubt be so sick of Frankfurt you’ll swear never to eat a sausage again.

Prolight + Sound 2014 attracted 898 exhibitors and 42,267 visitors. pls.messefrankfurt.com

JUNE Houses of worship Business feature: Consolidations and mergers ABTT Theatre Show preview InfoComm preview

EVENTS Your complete calendar of expos and conferences for the months ahead ISCE 3–4 March Binley, UK www.isce.org.uk Event Buyers Live 4–5 March Luton, UK www.eventbuyerslive.com PSNPresents 12 March London, UK www.psneurope.com LLB 17–19 March Stockholm, Sweden www.llb.se

presents...

PSNPresents 12 March London, UK www.psneurope.com Prolight + Sound 15–18 April Frankfurt, Germany www.pls.messefrankfurt.com PALME Middle East 11–13 May Dubai, UAE www.palme-middleeast.com

PLASA Focus 12–13 May Leeds, UK www.plasafocus.com

Rock im Park 6–9 June Nuremberg, Germany www.rock-am-ring.com

Pinkpop 12–14 June Landgraaf, Netherlands www.pinkpop.nl

The Great Escape 14–16 May Brighton, UK www.greatescapefestival.com

MIDEM 5–8 June Cannes, France www.midem.com

InfoComm 13–19 June Orlando, US www.infocommshow.org

Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final 23 May Vienna, Austria www.eurovision.tv

Isle of Wight Festival 11–14 June Isle of Wight, UK www.isleofwightfestival.com

ABTT Theatre Show 24–25 June London, UK www.abtttheatreshow.co.uk

Rock am Ring 5–7 June Nürburg, Germany www.rock-im-park.com

Download Festival 12–14 June Donington Park, UK www.downloadfestival.co.uk

Glastonbury Festival 24–28 June Pilton, UK www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

12 l March 2015

www.psneurope.com

PSNTraining IoA gets its kicks in Gloucestershire for heated Reproduced Sound 2015

By Jon Chapple THE INSTITUTE OF Acoustics (IoS) has announced the dates for the 31st Reproduced Sound conference, subtitled Playing with Fire: Sound for art, entertainment and emergency purposes.

Taking place from 10–12 November at the Fire Service College, in Moretonin-Marsh, Gloucestershire, UK, this year’s conference, organised by the IoS’s Electroacoustic Group in association with the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), Audio Engineering Society (AES), Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS) and Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers (ISCE), will concentrate on all aspects of electroacoustics for live events, including music, theatres and sports in auditoria, festivals and stadia.

A call for papers is now underway, accepting offers on topics related to: • Live sound • Intelligibility

DIARY 3 March LMC Audio: Wireless Mastered Where: Shure Academy, Waltham Abbey, UK www.lmcaudio.co.uk

4 March Stagetec: HighTecDay Where: Buttenheim, Germany www.stagetec.com

12 March Yamaha Music Europe Ibérica: Yamaha Commercial Audio Training Seminar Where: Merida, Spain www.yamaha.com

18–19 March • • • • • • •

Venue safety and crowd management Measurement and valuation Audio system design Loudspeakers and microphones Case studies Acoustics of venues Environmental noise control of events

Abstracts for papers, plus a short biography of up to 150 words, should be sent to linda.canty@ ioa.org.uk by Friday 22 May, with final written papers for the proceedings submitted by Friday 25 September. Q www.reproducedsound.co.uk

Solid State Logic: SSL Live Certified Training Programme Where: Oxford, UK www.solidstatelogic.com

LMC Audio partners with Shure Learn how to record acoustic Academy for Wireless Mastered The proper order of elements guitar in new

The Essentials:

By Jon Chapple

SoundReason.org’s Josh Srago tries a gate, compressor and equaliser in three different configurations... but which sounds best?

One of the great advantages of current technology is that we get to start with a blank slate when it comes to how we want to process our audio signals. We can add as few elements as we would like; sticking to the basics of gate, compressor and EQ, or adding in an automixer, grouping, phase, flange, echo cancellation and a multitude of other options until we hit the maximum DSP possible in the given hardware. The issue that we face as audio professionals is that if you don’t fully understand what each of the signal processing elements is doing, how can

you understand why that element is necessary? This leads us to the biggest concern involved with an open architecture audio system: what is the optimal order to insert the given signal processors for a specific application? Q

Read the full article at www.psneurope.com/training

A range of commercial packages are available Contact advertising manager Ryan O’Donnell on +44 (0) 20 7354 6000 or rodonnell@nbmedia.com

SDUK’s Tuomo Tolonen

BRITISH PRO-AUDIO dealer LMC Audio Systems recently announced the launch of its first Wireless Mastered seminar, to be held at the Shure Academy Centre in Waltham Abbey, Essex, on 3 March.

Presented by Shure Distribution UK pro-audio group manager and RF specialist Tuomo Tolonen, the free event, held in conjunction with the Shure Academy European Audio Network, is aimed at “all LMC customers and live sound users, including FOH and monitor engineers, production staff, venue technicians, installers and anyone that regularly uses wireless technology”.

The session will provide an in-depth look into all aspects of RF technology and wireless microphone operation, including RF coordination and frequency planning.

Discussions will also cover RF spectrum changes, availability of RF spectrum use for live events and the effects of the changes on live sound users. Attendees will have the opportunity to gain hands-on training using Shure wireless technology, including PSM900 and PSM1000 in-ear monitoring, UHF-R, ULX-D, Axient and new QLX-D wireless microphone systems and Wireless

Soulsound video

Workbench 6 and ShurePlus Channels software.

JP Cavaco, LMC’s London sales manager, James Lawford, Birmingham sales manager, and the rest of LMC team will be on-hand throughout the day to discuss Shure wireless products. The event will take place in the LiveRoom at the Shure Academy Centre between 10.00 and 15.30 with a break for light refreshments.

The “biggest and best Wireless Mastered yet” took place in August at the Emirates Stadium in north London (see Shure wireless workshop finds good reception). “Very, very good. Very in-depth description and explanation of the RF wilderness!” commented Amber Sound’s Tom Oakes at the time. Ian Barnard of Stage Sound Services added: “It’s excellent. Everyone should do it!”

To register for free, visit the LMC Audio website. Q www.lmcaudio.co.uk

By Jon Chapple PRO-AUDIO RESOURCE centre Soulsound has debuted Recording Acoustic Guitar, a new two-part video series hosted by audio engineer Marcel van Limbeek (Tori Amos, Pet, The Devlins).

In part one, van Limbeek highlights microphone choice for acoustic guitar, taking the viewer through the thought process that led to him choosing an omni condenser mic. He also explores microphone design, explaining how polar patterns are created, why diaphragm size is an important consideration and the proximity effect. Q Watch Recording Acoustic Guitar part one at www.psneurope.com/mvl

14 l March 2015

www.psneurope.com

technologynew products Jon Chapple compiles this month’s list of hot new products

VDC TRADING

TOURLIGHT

DAS AUDIO

EVENT M210A

What is it? The industry established cable by Van Damme is now available terminated with two- and four-channel HMA connectors.

Details: HMA assemblies connect freely with other utilising a hermaphroditic interconnection, meaning alignment is no longer crucial.

What is it? A new three-way stage monitor in a double 10” dual-band configuration.

And another thing: Designed for use in the field, including military applications, HMA connectors are ruggedly designed and quickly field-repairable. www.vdctrading.com

Details: The Event M210A’s dual-band configuration permits the twin 10” loudspeakers to work in tandem for maximum power at low frequencies, while above the low frequency range its DSP allows the speakers to operate independently in specific frequency ranges, eliminating off-axis interference between the drivers.

And another thing: The M210A’s enclosure is manufactured using Baltic plywood and finished with a durable Iso-Flex protective coating. www.dasaudio.com

JBL PROFESSIONAL

INTELLIVOX HP-DS370 What is it? A modern update of the classic Intellivox DS1608 – the world’s first commercially available beam-shaping highpower loudspeaker array.

Details: The 3.7m-high HP-DS370 has an output capability of 105dB at 30m and a frequency response to 18kHz. Horizontal dispersion is 100° and typical throw 50m, which means an area of approximately 2,150m2 can be covered by a single device.

Send your New Product news to jchapple@nbmedia.com CYMATIC AUDIO

UTRACK 24 What is it? A new firmware update for the universal live recorder, player and interface.

Details: With the new firmware, the uTrack 24 now supports instant play and autoplay, in addition to its existing pre-recording function.

And another thing: “The Intellivox HP-DS370 combines sonic excellence, unmatched directivity control, even SPL coverage and low lifetime costs, making it a great option in terms of sound quality and overall system cost,” says Intellivox sales director Nick Screen. www.jblpro.com

SOUNDIZERS

STEREOMONOIZER What is it? A Mac application which analyses audio files and discovers their stereo content, allowing users to convert to true single-channel mono before importing into a DAW. Details: StereoMonoizer – coming soon to Windows – is “a huge timesaver for mix assistants or engineers working without an assistant”, says Soundizers.

And another thing: The program also features pan-depth compensation, which automatically adjusts the level of the converted mono files. www.soundizers.com

And another thing: Also updated are the LP-16 and LR-16, the latter of which benefits from an almost completely new audio engine. www.cymaticaudio.com

showreview

More visitors than ever attended the show last month

Incredibly Successful Edition!

A quick overview of some of the more colourful highlights from Integrated Systems Europe in Amsterdam FOLLOWING THE December 2014 announcement that ISE 2015 would be the last threeday event before a move to four days in 2016, attendance at this year’s show “comprehensively demonstrated why ISE has made the move to expand the duration of the exhibition”, says the organiser.

The visitor audit indicates that it was Europe’s largest ever AV and systems integration exhibition: 59,350 registered attendees passed through the doors of the RAI between 10–12 February, an increase of 8,347 registered attendees (16.4 per cent) on ISE 2014.

“The volume of attendance confirmed ISE’s position as the destination of choice for anyone involved in professional AV and systems integration,” said Mike Blackman, ISE managing director.

Here are just a few of PSNEurope’s highlights of the event…

AudioLan, a completely integrated hardware and software system for professional-grade audio through an AES67 network, was showcase by Archwave at the show.

The suite comprises a family of off-the-shelf hardware modules which are AES67 compliant and also support the RAVENNA protocol for audio networking. Currently, Archwave has the exclusive licence to CopperLan technology, which provides the command and control network management system for the AudioLan system. Available from four to 128 channels, the modules also offer optional support for Ember+.

The uNet Standard module offers up to 32 audio channels and uses a standard 40-pin Molex connector, while the uNet Centre is capable of 64 x 64 audio channels, with a GbE Interface.The modules offer an

easy GUI configuration via a web browser on laptop, tablet or smartphone. Arie van den Broek, Archwave CEO, says: “Simply put, it’s ‘MIDI 3.0 on steroids.’”

Community Professional launched its I Series of high-power, high-output loudspeakers at a special event at the Peoples Place club during the ISE 2015 event.

The I Series includes pointsource, high-directivity, compact and floor-monitor models in multiple performance levels, providing modular scalability for any application requirement.

It’s available at two price points: the Point Source 800 range, featuring neodymium drivers, and the more competitivelty priced Point Source 600 range, feauring ceramic drivers. The 600 range will be a direct replacement for Community’s current iBOX range, new CEO Steve Johnson confirmed in Amsterdam: 600s are smaller,

Community’s Steve Johnson with the new I Series lighter and have a deeper bass characteristic than iBOX, at a lower price point.

“What stands out [about I

Joan Parrilla and the ‘UK superstore’, represented by these trays of bananas Series] is the bracket system,” Johnson told PSNEurope. “It is designed to make arrays of the I Series boxes in neat clusters…

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showreview

JBL Professional won PSNEurope’s first ISE 2015 Best of Show award for its new Control HST loudspeaker. The award was presented to JBL’s senior marketing manager for commercial sound, Rick Kamlet, at Integrated Systems Europe.

“We’re very pleased to have gotten the Best of Show award from PSNEurope for our Control HST speaker,” Kamlet said. “It’s a new technology that was developed about 18 months ago and is

just coming out of the pipeline here at ISE for its first public showing anywhere. “We think that it’s going to be a real benefit to the industry – first of all, in the elimination of the primary wall reflection, and, second, with the very wide wall-to-wall coverage.”

The indoor/outdoor Control HST features JBL’s patent-pending Hemispherical Soundfield Technology (HST), which enables it to achieve an extremely wide horizontal coverage of almost 180°. www.jblpro.com

Johan Wadsten of Merging showed Ovation 6 with 3D panning, in partnership with the TC Group. “Demands for more immersive soundscapes have increased and Merging has risen to the challenge, further enhancing Ovation’s position as the audio server of choice,” says the company

Steve Collin (left), group sales director, and Chris Edwards, marketing director, celebrate 50 years of CIE-Group at the show

Hacousto International director Albert Van der Hout: “We’re very excited about presenting 4EVAC LoopDrive at ISE!”

“Our system designer said, can we do something to allow us to point all these speakers in different directions, but have it rigged with it one uniform lifting and bracket device – so you can point them where it’s acoustically useful, not just where its convenient to make a flat piece of metal. So now you can lift the whole thing, with subwoofers flown with the array, all through one point called the ‘balance point fly rail’.

“We wanted to drive the aesthetic home here,” continued Johnson, “We want the boxes to be so beautiful you don’t even notice them. No logos on

the front, just on the side. A distinctive clean look.”

Product manager Joan Parrilla turned greengrocer on the Barix booth to demonstrate the new SoundScape Portal application at ISE2015.

With the software, content providers can now manage all the Barix SoundScape audio players on their network, no matter where they are in the world. (SoundScape, Barix’s solution to managing and distributing branded audio over IP networks, was introduced last year.)

With the Portal, and the recently launched Exstreamer

IP audio players, Zurichbased Barix now has a fully integrated solution for content management, device status monitoring, scheduling and so on.

In a suitably eye-catching – if not somewhat obtuse – publicity move at ISE, Barix chose to represent ‘a superstore in London’ on its Soundscape network with this large display of bananas. An Exstreamer player can be seen amid the fruit. Q www.iseurope.org www.archwave.net www.barix.com www.communitypro.com

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studio SOUNDBITES

The production of ADAM Audio studio monitors and subwoofers has returned to normal levels following the German manufacturer’s postbankruptcy restructuring late last year. The first A5X and A7X monitors were sent from ADAM’s Berlin production facility to its distributors and dealers in early February. “There is still much work ahead of us as our order books are full,” says Sven Schmöle, ADAM Audio’s MD, “[but,] of course, we are very pleased about this because it shows us that the demand for our monitors remains unabated.” www.adam-audio.com Yamaha Music London, the flagship store of the music and technology giant, has expanded in both size and scope. After an extensive refit, the shop reopened in late January following an evening event for dealers, VIPs and press.

The business – owned by Yamaha since 1980 but known as ‘Chappell of Bond Street’ until late 2013 – now sports a professional music basement featuring a music stage, pro-audio equipment and musical instruments for stage, studio and stadiums and, reportedly, the largest display of Yamaha guitars in Europe. www.yamahamusiclondon.com Coinciding with the recent launch of its new website, Metropolis Studios is relaunching its flagship ‘iMastering’ service. The relaunched iMastering allows users a greater choice of engineers and a greater degree of customisation; users can select from the mastering team at Metropolis, with full biographies for each engineer. “This means you’re not getting your music mastered by just anyone, but by a proven specialist with industry expertise and experience, getting the most out of your sound,” says Metropolis. www.thisismetropolis.com/ imastering

The Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) has bestowed its second award for excellence in sound to Craig Mann, Ben Wilkins and Thomas Curley for their work on Whiplash. The nominees also included the leading sound crew members (production sound, rerecording and sound editing) for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Into the Woods, The Imitation Game and Exodus: Gods and Kings. www.amps.net

For the latest studio news www.psneurope.com/studio

UNITED KINGDOM

Epworth makes it a triple at MPG Awards The producer’s reputation knows no bounds at the 7th annual gongfest, as he picked up the top accolade from the Music Producer’s Guild, and therefore bagged the Brit award, too. Dave Robinson reports JUST AS he did in 2010 and in 2013, Paul Epworth walked away with the big trophy of the night as he was named Producer of the Year at the annual Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards last month. As recipient of the accolade at the Riverbank Plaza Hotel in London, Epworth automatically received the 2015 Brit Award for Best Producer, which this year has been designed by artist Tracey Emin.

The producer, who has recorded with Adele, Sir Paul McCartney, Florence and the Machine and Coldplay, was presented with the gong by Mark Stewart of the Pop Group.

(Epworth is working on a new Pop Group album at his studio in Crouch End; the first album the band have made in 35 years.) The 40-year-old told guests: ”A good producer is nothing without a great artist.”

Now established as an annual must-attend music industry event, the 2015 MPG Awards, in association with G-Technology, also honoured multimedia entrepreneur and former Eurythmic Dave Stewart with the MPG’s Outstanding Contribution to UK Music Award, sponsored

by PPL. In a sometimes rambling acceptance speech following his receiving of the award from Paul Epworth, Stewart noted that, “I never thought of myself as a record producer: I just stumbled around bumping into people.”

He later took to the stage to entertain guests with a live performance by a band assembled from artists he is, or has been, working with.

Introduced in 2009 to recognise the enormous contribution made by recording professionals to the success of the UK’s music

industry, the MPG Awards regularly attracts a high turnout of music industry VIPs and celebrities.

This year’s awards saw a total of 15 gongs presented (see full list of winners, over). These included the MPG Award for Inspiration, won by Damon Albarn, and the MPG Award for Innovation, won

by Giorgio Moroder.

“We are delighted to honour both of these incredible talents with the two awards that are chosen by MPG,” says producer and MPG Awards Committee member, Tony Platt.

Other highlights of the evening included Boy George’s appearance on stage to present a slightly overcome Mandy Parnell with Mastering Engineer of the Year for the second time; and producer Flood handing the UK Album of the Year award to Goldfrapp’s Will and Alison for Tales of Us. James Rutledge received Re-Mixer of the Year from Jeremy Pritchard and Jonathan Higgs of (former MPG Award winners) Everything Everything and acknowledging the accolade with the words: “Thank you for giving me this prism through which I can refract my creative urges”.

Bond composer David Arnold received International Producer of the Year on behalf of Dan Auerbach. “It’s nice to pick up an award that wasn’t being won

by Eddie fucking Redmayne,” Arnold said drily, ahead of reading a letter of thanks from Auerbach.

Finally: Royal Blood’s Ben Thatcher gave the Breakthrough Producer of the Year award to Tom Dalgety with the colourful “I can’t believe this c*nt has wont this award!” Q www.mpg.org.uk

Full list of winners over the page…

Paul Epworth took the MPG Award and the Brit Award for the third time

Dave Stewart and his band supplied the entertainment, after the producer/musician and songwriter accepted the Outstanding Contribution award

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studio The 2015 Music Producers Guild Awards in full…

(L-R): Mix engineer Craig Silvey, Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory: Album of the Year

Mandy Parnell received Mastering Engineer of the Year from Boy George

The MPG Award for Innovation Giorgio Moroder

Recording Engineer of the Year (sponsored by RØDE) Mark Rankin

UK Single Song Release of the Year (sponsored by Shure) Sam Smith – Stay With Me

International Producer of the Year (sponsored by Lewitt Audio and JHS) Dan Auerbach

Mix Engineer of the Year (sponsored by Solid State Logic) Mark ‘Spike’ Stent

Re-mixer of the Year (sponsored by G-Technology) James Rutledge

Studio of the Year (sponsored by KMR Audio) RAK Studios

Mastering Engineer of the Year (sponsored by Apollo/Transco Blanx) Mandy Parnell

Breakthrough Producer of the Year (sponsored by Musicguard Insurance) Tom Dalgety

The A&R Award (sponsored by Prism Sound) Korda Marshall

UK Album of the Year (sponsored by Universal Audio) Goldfrapp – Tales of Us

Breakthrough Engineer of the Year (sponsored by Alchemea College) Robbie Nelson

The MPG Award for Inspiration Damon Albarn UK Producer of the Year (sponsored by The Brit Awards 2015) Paul Epworth Outstanding Contribution to UK Music (sponsored by PPL) Dave Stewart

Ben Thatcher of Royal Blood (left) with Breakthrough Producer winner Tom Dalgety

Korda Marshall, A&R Award winner (centre) with Toby Dundas (left) and Dougy Mandagi of Temper Trap

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studio

Analogue days are here again A studio combining the best of old and new technology was Mark Knopfler’s stated ambition for British Grove – and, 10 years from hosting its first commercial sessions, the London studio complex is going from strength to strength, as David Davies discovers LOCATED discreetly down a nondescript street in Chiswick, west London, British Grove has quietly but assuredly become one of the capital’s most highly respected studios. Opening for its first full-album sessions in January 2005 – specifically, the eponymously-titled second longplayer by Razorlight – the twostudio facility has also remained consistently busy during a decade of decidedly mixed fortunes for the commercial recording sector.

Of course, its progress has hardly been hindered by the fact that its instigator and owner – singer/guitarist/songwriter Mark Knopfler – has regularly occupied one or other of the

rooms with his own projects.

Bucking the general way of things, the former Dire Straits frontman has actually become more prolific with the passage of time, and this month releases his latest solo album to be recorded and mixed at British Grove, Tracker.

In interviews given at the time of the studios’ launch, Knopfler repeatedly spoke of a desire to mesh the best elements of old and new technology – and a spec that finds room for two vintage EMI consoles alongside a Neve 88R desk and Pro Tools 11 rigs might reasonably be said to fit that brief. But the same might be said of the personnel, with studio manager David

Restored Studer tape machines

British Grove’s studio 1

“The REDD.51 was found by Jon Jacobs in Italy and hadn’t been switched on for about 30 years!”

David Stewart Stewart and consultant David Harries – both mainstays of the London studio scene – working alongside young engineers trained primarily in-house.

“We have grown very slowly and without making a great deal of fuss about it, but I think we have established our own particular niche. It’s served us well,” remarks Harries as he sits down with Stewart and PSNEurope to recall selected highlights from British Grove’s first ten years.

LOW-KEY LAUNCH A minimum of fuss – and, more to the point, publicity – is indeed characteristic of the British Grove story. Instead, word of the studios’ formidable inventory and distinguished staff has been allowed to spread incrementally – resulting in an

increasingly diverse workload spanning ‘traditional’ band sessions, orchestral recording and film scores.

But fundamental to the studios’ initial development was Knopfler’s own vision of his (increasingly sizeable) band “to be able to record together. That meant that we had to have a double-height space and plenty of booths to be able to achieve isolation for all the musicians,” says Stewart.

Identifying the right location, however, was easier said than done, and multiple spaces – including several existing studios – were considered before work got underway at the current site in 2002.

Renovation and construction took two years rather than the initially predicted one, although a stretched timescale is hardly

uncommon in “a building of this remarkable level of technical complexity”, notes Stewart.

British Grove looked to the past for one of its earliest and most successful projects – a 5.1 reissue of Dire Straits’ 1985 classic Brothers In Arms that subsequently won a Grammy Award. But ‘fresh’ work wasn’t slow in coming, and over the last few years Eric Clapton, Ellie Goulding, Tori Amos, Kasabian and Mumford & Sons have been among the major acts to make one or more visits.

VINTAGE VOLTE-FACE This isn’t hard to explain when to venture into either of the studios is to be surrounded by cutting-edge digital and vintage analogue equipment in abundance. Multiple acquisitions from the then-

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studio

An early project at the studios

David Stewart (left) and David Harries

Graham Meek in the rack room

recently closed Master Rock in Kilburn represented “a decent starter-pack”, but were swiftly augmented by significant quantities of vintage outboard and – in particular – two classic EMI desks rescued from what might most kindly be described as ‘neglect’.

“The REDD.51 was found by Jon Jacobs in Italy and hadn’t been switched on for about 30 years,” says Harries, “whilst the TG formerly resided at EMI’s studio in Lagos and was used to record [Wings’] Band on the Run. Both of them required very extensive restoration, overseen by our chief technician, Graham Meek.”

Back then it wasn’t unknown for such vintage equipment to be directed towards the nearest

Studio 1 from the Neve 88R

skip, and it won’t have hurt British Grove’s prospects that the last ten years have witnessed a dramatic volte-face when it comes to all things retro. “No one wanted all that ‘old crap’ back then,” laughs Harries.

“Now it is worth ten times the value of what it was.”

Occupying pride of place in Studio 1 is a custom-made Neve 88R, about which Harries remarks: “We looked at other desks, but Mark was a great fan of the 88R and had used it extensively at AIR when I was working there.” An API Legacy resides in Studio 2, while monitoring in both rooms is ATC in 5.1 configuration – although as Stewart reveals, an upgrade to 7.1 is currently in the works.

Multiple Studer A880 multi-track tape recorders and CLASPs (Closed Loop Analogue Signal Processors) – which put most simply, smooth the integration of analogue tape recordings into DAW signals and workflows – round out the picture of British Grove’s authentically vintage recording capabilities.

GRAVITY’S PULL Although the few years have seen Knopfler himself in the studios for an extended period to record Tracker – the eighth in a series of increasingly roots music-driven solo albums – there have also been several notable film projects, including award-winning science fiction thriller Gravity.

“They had something like 400 channels going, most of them in the digital domain,” marvels Stewart. “We had to hire in six MADI boxes to cope with that one. There were at least three Pro Tools rigs all satellite-linked and locked together, and ultimately something like thirty-odd 7.1 stems. The amount of printing going on was frankly unbelievable!”

The principal cast of newlyreleased fantasy movie Into the Woods were among other recent visitors. “Meryl Streep was in here laughing and drinking tea,” says Harries. “She was delightful.”

Although Harries and Stewart are unsure of exactly how the tenth anniversary is going to be marked – “a cake, maybe?”

– they seem considerably more certain when it comes to explaining why the studio has managed to secure an enduring foothold in a declining market.

“Every time we get a project we look at what we had to do and think carefully about whether the infrastructure is there; the aim being to ensure that on the next occasion we have the bones in place and only need to do a bit of adaptation,” says Harries.

Stewart admits that “we could always have more work” and there is wider market pressure to lower rates. But he believes that British Grove’s quiet resistance to this trend in favour of an emphasis on quality has stood it in good stead.

“We have our price list that we stick to, and we don’t go out to undercut anybody. That is a rocky road and one that had led so many studios to close,” he concludes. “You can never be sure how requirements will change in the future, but we have our own position in the market and will continue to serve it.” Q www.britishgrovestudios.com

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studio UNITED KINGDOM

Red Chilli banking on new business Sonic8 creator is hot for the next challenge at his unusual HQ, learns Dave Robinson Red Chilli is based in an old Nat West bank building

DISTRIBUTION entrepreneur Steve Helm – formerly of Sonic8 and before that, SCV London – has launched his latest venture, Red Chilli Audio, “so I could finally be in charge of my own destiny,” he says. Basing himself in an old bank building in Caverley, Leeds, Helm will distribute mainly MI brands in the UK, but he is looking at professional product lines in the realm of the studio too.

Helm stepped down as MD of Sonic8 a couple of years ago, “as I was not seeing my son grow up and needed to be home more to not miss out on this experience”, but stayed on as a freelance sales person, with 20 key accounts in Scotland and northern England.

After working behind the scenes with several sales and distribution strands, Helm cut ties with potential conflicts of business and formed Red Chilli Audio last month, “so I could have 100 per cent control on the sales,

Steve Helm: fired up with Red Chilli

A studio and demo room is already in place

marketing and financial running of a company, driven in a way that I wanted to drive it, right or wrong,” he says.

His official limited company is called ‘Steve Helm Limited’ and runs two types of business.

One is a sales rep/agency for brands needing a solution in the marketplace, working only on paid results and without the cost of a wage and overheads. Clients include microphone developer Sontronics, cajon manufacturer Ruach, acoustic tiling and treatments outfit EQ Acoustics and his own original creation, Sonic8, in which he is still the majority shareholder.

Red Chilli Audio, meanwhile, has been created to deliver several key brands direct to the dealer as a traditional distribution company.

“We aim to do product training, marketing, visit stores and give brand focus to complementary brands that fit within the general MI market (for instance, Richter guitar straps and Kahuna ukeleles) but also touching into education and studio markets, such as Prodipe with studio accessories from France.

The Leeds native has been working in sales and distribution for over 25 years, so there’s real

weight to his mission statement: “We understand the product, work with our dealers on training, how to actually make a profit with a brand and be supportive as well as try and be flexible and understood the needs of both the retailer and the manufacturer.”

“Distribution is a little like being a bank,” continues Helm, “and so it is quite apt that we actually bought a bank!” Helm purchased a decommissioned NatWest as a secure facility for his new venture. “We actually have a bank vault,” he says. “and all the rooms have steel reinforced doors and have installed the latest alarm systems and infrastructure to ensure we are ready for the future.” A studio and vocal room enable testing and equipment demos without leaving the building.

“The aim of Red Chilli Audio is quite simply to bring a little professionalism along with fun to the industry, offer a superb service and ensure people can make great margins with a great products,” Helm concludes. “Watch this space for an exciting line of studio and live sound products, to be announced in May.” Q www.redchilliaudio.com www.eqacoustics.com

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For the latest broadcast news www.psneurope.com/broadcast

broadcast SOUNDBITES

To mark the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir Winston Churchill, BBC Studios and Post Production’s (S&PP) Digital Media Services division has digitally restored historic footage of the British wartime leader’s state funeral for the BBC Parliament channel. For the 50th anniversary edition of the film, Digital Media Services reduced a high-pitched whistle which occurred throughout much of the material.

The S&PP team also had to resync the new audio with the restored picture – the original reels did not match so required a time-consuming resyncing on every reel changeover. www.bbcstudios andpostproduction.com As anticipated by AVnu Alliance chairman Rick Kreifeldt in the autumn of last year, digital developer AudioScience has revealed its first official contribution to the AVB-ready equipment portfolio.

The Delaware-based company announced in late January that its Hono AVB Mini range of DSPdriven I/O units have been certified by the AVnu Alliance, bringing the total number of product lines with certification since the AVnu process began to four. www.audioscience.com RT UK, the new British TV channel from Kremlin-backed news network Russia Today, has installed a Calrec Audio Summa digital audio console in its London bureau to manage audio signals for its live news operation. The sale marks Calrec’s first Summa installation in the UK. “With the number and complexity of news programmes we produce each week, and the number of audio sources required to do it, we needed a console that would keep pace with our dynamic operation, with comprehensive channel processing and bus facilities that could cater to every clean-feed scenario,” says Eric Wisby, RT UK sound supervisor.

“The Summa console meets our every requirement.” www.calrec.com BBC Northern Ireland (BBC NI), the province’s local public service broadcaster, has invested in a 4HM MADI-MON unit. The monitor, supplied by Aspen Media, provides BBC NI with a simple way of auditioning embedded MADI channels. www.4hmaudio.com www.4hmaudio.com

EUROPE

WSD go-ahead raises PMSE doubts Ofcom’s recent decision to green-light the use of ‘white space devices’ should be treated with caution, BEIRG’s Tuomo Tolonen tells Kevin Hilton THE UK broadcasting and production sector knew it was coming but there was still some annoyance at Ofcom approving plans for white space devices to share radio spectrum with digital terrestrial television (DTT) and wireless microphone users.

In its announcement of 12 February the regulator views this as “offering new wireless applications to benefit consumers and businesses” and follows what it calls a series of successful industry trials.

Provision for white space devices (WSD) was proposed in the Digital Dividend consultation of 2006, which led to the 800MHz band being cleared and the auction of analogue TV spectrum for 4G and other mobile telecom use.

As a result PMSE (Programme Makers and Special Events) users were moved to new frequencies, with the nationwide channel 69 being replaced by channel 38. Industry bodies lobbied successfully for Ofcom to recognise the need to provide enough spectrum for wireless microphones, in-ear monitors (IEMs) and general communications but there is still the concern that there are now not enough frequencies to cover large productions.

The thought of possible interference from unlicensed devices operating in close proximity has added to these concerns. In the document Implementing TV White Spaces, Ofcom makes a point of responding to comments received from the PMSE and broadcast sectors during the consulation period by incorporating stricter operational guideslines to prevent the new technology interfering with transmissions or productions.

Ofcom says giving the go-ahead for WSD is a response to the increasing number of

Tuomo Tolonen of BEIRG and Shure Distribution UK at ISE 2015

wireless devices being used, which has placed greater demand on radio spectrum. Because of this the decision was taken to give access to unused portions of spectrum in the 470-790MHz range – those not being used by either DTT or PMSE – through “dynamic sharing controlled by a spectrum database”. These TV White Spaces (TVWS) will be available without the need for a licence to devices that meet a minimum technical specification.

Part of this includes the ability for units to recognise where they are. This capability will be used in conjunction with a database to identify existing services, thereby ensuring different devices can run simultaneously.

Tests of WSDs began in June 2014 and were completed in November, with coexistence testing from January to December that year. Among the applications are internet connectivity for ships in the Orkney Islands, streamed video coverage of meerkats and otters at London Zoo and a ‘machineto-machine’ flood defence network in Oxfordshire.

The white spaces are in the

UHF TV band and are made possible by gaps between DTT multiplexes to prevent close proximity of high power transmissions. Ofcom says the rules for coexistence are “sufficiently conservative” to make for a low probablity of disruptive interference but that “tools and processes” are available to deal with problems; furthermore, “a number of coincidences” would have to occur for PSME users of channel 38 to experience a siutation similar to its “stress tests”.

The regulator has been seen as in favour of rolling out WSD and its acting chief executive, Steve Unger, commented on giving the go-ahead, “This decision helps ensure the UK takes a leading role in the development of innovative new wireless technology. It is also an important step in helping the UK’s wireless infrastructure evolve effectively and efficiently.”

The PMSE community is less enthusiastic. Tuomo Tolonen, manager of the Pro Audio Group at Shure Distribution UK and a member of the steering

committee of lobby organisation BEIRG (British Entertainment Industry Radio Group), says although the move was expected it is still not welcome. “It highlights the importance of the UHF band but the negative is that RF is already congested since we lost 800MHz,” he comments. “On the plus side the position of PMSE was recognised but even with the database there is the potential for devices to be hacked, so you won’t know where they are. The thought of unlicensed systems leaves me feeling a little uncomfortable.”

At the ISE show last month, Tolonen spearheaded Shure Distribution UK’s ‘Losing Your Voice’ campaign, which aims to better inform both professional and semi-professional users of RF technology about the challenges to the unhindered use of wireless microphone systems as a result of continued UHF spectrum allocation to the mobile communications and data industries. Q www.beirg.co.uk www.ofcom.org.uk www.losingyourvoice.co.uk

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broadcast UNITED KINGDOM

Gearhouse and Sky: OBs in a pod On the eve of the 2015 Formula 1 season, Jon Chapple previewed Sky Sports F1’s OBPod, a bespoke, streamlined flyaway solution supplied by Gearhouse Broadcast “TO BE HONEST, it only really works in F1,” Ryan Campbell, Gearhouse Broadcast’s Australian-born senior projects engineer and resident expert on the selfstyled pinnacle of motorsport, explains. He’s talking PSNEurope through the OBPod – the lightweight, expandable five-piece flyaway solution the British company will supply to Sky Sports for the 2015 Formula 1 season, which kicks off this month. “I think the only reason it works in Formula 1 at the minute is because of the amount that people make from showing F1 on their TV stations. A subscription-based network can support it, and the BBC can support it because they have subscribers [the licence fee]… [but] I don’t think you can budget for flying this weight of equipment around the world unless you’ve got a pay-TV system or you’re a government [-funded] broadcaster...”

As an evolution of the series of interconnecting Gearhouse flyaway pods used by Sky for the UK broadcast of F1 since 2012, the new OBPod is designed to be lighter and cheaper to ship – a necessity when all the sport’s broadcast equipment is air-freighted at what Campbell calls a “huge” cost – and substantially quicker to rig. The solution, comprising an audio pod, edit pod, EVS pod, production gallery and master control room housing the broadcast infrastructure, will follow Simon Lazenby, Ted Kravitz, Natalie Pinkham, Martin Brundle and the Sky Sports F1 team to 20 grands prix on five continents, accompanied by Campbell and a small team of Gearhouse engineers and riggers.

“We’re aiming for 18 tonnes,” explains Campbell, who was gearing up (pun intended) to present the finished OBPod to Sky when PSNEurope visited Gearhouse’s Watford HQ in late January. (We last spoke to Campbell for our feature on broadcast audio in motorsport,

The OBPod is designed to a standard rectangular air-freight AMP container footprint ‘Fast masters’, in the November 2014 PSNEurope.) “Whereas before we had eight containers, we’ve now got six big pods and two amp containers. So, we’ve taken the equipment that was in the amp containers and installed it in the triple-expanding pods.”

Savings in weight come in the form of a lighter aluminium casing and the replacement of heavy copper cable with a fibre-optic infrastructure.

“In the previous incarnation, we’d run all of the RF remote receive points – there were six – over SMPTE fibre, which is quite heavy because it has copper hairs inside it,” explains Campbell, “and we had our six SPMTE cables going out into the field, which could be anywhere up to 2km away.

What we’ve gone for now is 24-core [fibre cable] from Huber+Suhner, which should do three RF camera hotspots/ receive points, but it’s also going to be doing the RF video TX, RF audio dual-points and the IEM point […], so, instead of having 10 cables all going into the same direction, we’re going to have one cable to the pits,

one cable to the paddock, one cable to the commentary – so, three or four cables…

“We’ve what we’ve learnt over the last three years of [it being] two in the morning [us] and still winding in SMPTE cable going, ‘There’s got to be a better way!’, and applied it to the next four-year period.”

In addition to being lighter than its predecessor, the OBPod is also more compact, designed to a standard rectangular air-freight AMP container footprint. Coachbuilding partner A Smith Great Bentley – last seen, largest OB trailer ever in tow, in PSNEurope in January 2015 (‘MADI confidence in “largest OB trailer ever”’) – collaborated with Gearhouse on the build. “This is the first time, as far as I know, that [we’ve] ever had expandable pods,” comments Campbell.

“It’s been quite a challenge for Smiths to come up with a system of cantilevered engineering which means that the floor folds up and the sides cantilever in and the whole thing slides in and pushes in to an old PMC pallet base.”

As with the previous setup, the OBPod’s audio pod is centred around a custom-built 80-fader Lawo mc256 console.

Campbell comments: “The Lawo system has just been incredibly reliable. We had a few teething problems to start with, but once it was settled down, it has literally been the backbone to this operation…”

On the subject of its huge fader count, Campbell says the one-of-a-kind desk has been “integral to the facility”, pointing to the OBPod’s “absolutely massive” I/O. “We use Wisycom radio mics, and they’re actually supplying us with an RF-over-fibre system,” he expands, “so you’ve got a pair of antennae in four locations – they go to a filter, then a light module and then over a fibre system, and then the BNC outputs plug into […] a bunch of receivers to the pits and a bunch to the paddock.”

“We have 48 guys with backpacks and Sound Devices 664 mixers, and they receive the main presentation on Wisycom receivers, so you have up to six handhelds talking to each other.

Their microphones come in to a sound guy, who is watching the guys in the field talking […] and he’s got two antennae on a highpower backpack.

“Using one-watt amps, he mixes down the guests – he’s got one antenna mixing the guests, while other antenna is the main host, Simon Lazenby.

He just sends the pre straight out, so what he gets back here are two faders – one is Simon, one is the guest. So, he mixes the two signals together, but at any point he might throw to another backpack who has a similar thing… it might be [pit lane reporter] Ted Kravitz, and he’s got four guests.

“So, on four faders, you’ve suddenly got two lots of presentation able to be covered very simply and very easily. “[One scenario] is when, for instance, the main presentation walks from the pits to the paddock. Now, generally speaking, you’ve got a big garage building in between the pits and the paddock, so there’s quite a lot of RF separation between the two areas. If [the presenters] walk through a

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broadcast

Lawo’s Digital Audio Line-Level Interface System (DALLIS) with Wisycom MRK960 receivers and (far left) Riedel Artist digital matrix

The one-of-a-kind 80-fader Lawo mc²56 console in the audio pod garage, you can literally fade between the pits and the paddock – that’s how we cover those two big strips of land.”

Gearhouse has a long working relationship was Lawo, and Campbell says the mc256 was a natural choice for the company’s F1 operation: “[With] all the analogue [I/O], all the AES, two full DALLIS frames and a whole lot of Dolby kit all plugged in via AES, [another manufacturer] probably could deliver what we needed – but in such a small, compact footprint? I doubt it.” The OBPod’s communications matrix is based around a Riedel Artist 128, while monitoring throughout is provided by Genelec 8020As, 8030As and 8040As. In terms of differentiating the OBPod from other similar flyaway concepts, Campbell points to “having stuff built into racks, so that the system is done. You close that door, you put a cover over it, you put a net over it, and it’s an air pallet. And you get to the other end, you take the cover off, you take the net off, you plug some power in and it’s up and running in a day – whereas a normal flyaway, traditionally, would be a whole lot of dry-hire box equipment, a trunk full of cable, four or five engineers and a

couple of riggers to hump all the boxes, to get the covers off and to get it all working.”

It’s clear Campbell and his team are proud of the OBPod – and, crucially, initial feedback from Sky Sports has also been extremely positive.

Keith Lane, Sky Sports’ director of operations, says: “Reducing transportation costs has been central to our thinking in terms of the production infrastructure we will take on the road for the next Formula 1 season.

Gearhouse Broadcast has taken everything within our current flyaway pod and refined it to deliver a lighter, yet more flexible and futureproof solution.”

Kevin Moorhouse, COO at Gearhouse Broadcast, concludes: “We know rising shipping costs are something broadcasters have to deal, with and OBPod is designed to tackle just that. We’ve cut any excess weight and have made sure we are providing value in the solutions we deliver to Sky Sports without compromising functionality.”

The OBPod will make its debut at the Australian grand prix in Melbourne on 15 March. Q www.gearhousebroadcast.com

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broadcast DENMARK

Expand and educate Danish microphone manufacturer DPA has been a respected leader in the world of high quality concert and performance microphones, but the CEO tells Neal Romanek he sees an expanded future not with elite performances, but with everyday broadcast IN DECEMBER 2014, Denmark’s DPA Microphones received an influx of cash from global private equity firm Riverside Company. Riverside was also an investor in German loudspeaker company Teufel and American audio company Blue Microphones.

CEO Christian Poulsen stated at the time: “DPA is based on strong innovation and new product development, and enjoys a good reputation in the market. With Riverside as our partner, we are convinced that DPA will be able to reach its full potential.”

A TV presenter models a DPA d:fine headset mic (below)

In an increasingly competitive marketplace, and one in which budgets sometimes prohibit the use of high-end technology, DPA is using the investment to adapt and improve its products – and messaging – and to do what DPA does best: experiment.

DPA, first founded in 1992, has reorganised the way it presents its product lines – and the marketing around them – to target different areas of customer use. Products are being divided into three main groups: the vocals and performance market (lead by

DPA Microphones CEO Christian Poulsen DPA’s d:facto vocal mic); bodyworn microphones; and a line of microphones for the installation market.

The body-worn range is getting special attention, especially given its applications for broadcasting, which Poulsen believes is a major area of future growth for the company .

“Whether a newscaster is using a lavalier in the studio or its a body mic worn by an actor on location, they fulfil similar needs and they’re all connected to wireless systems,” he says.

Last year, DPA developed a new d:screet necklace microphone, which began with a conversation with the team behind the Danish version of Big Brother. How do you get good sound from a cast of unpredictable, everyday amateurs – sometimes without clothes, sometimes with – isolated from technical assistance? The show’s engineer came up with the idea for a necklace microphone, which DPA subsequently put into production.

“It turned out to be much

more than a Big Brother microphone. Even the new CEO of Microsoft doing his Steve Jobs-style keynote speech wore the microphone under his sweater and it sounded perfect.”

To promote the d:screet necklace, DPA came up with an ad campaign offering the mic for free to the best 100 ideas for using it.

“There are so many ideas, you can’t imagine some of them,” laughs Poulsen. “One of them was to put it on a dog going hunting. It’s been the most successful campaign we’ve run ever, because it was so involving and inspiring for people.”

DPA has just released a new microphone from its d:fine line which features in-ear monitors.

The new headset microphone, launched at the end of February, is targeted at broadcast hosts and guests and is already shipping.

“We did it with one of the Danish television stations, because they wanted earpieces to get sound from the producer,” says Poulsen, “Not high-quality sound, but able

to hear what the producer is saying. They had been using some other earphones with a transparent tube, so you look like an FBI agent. But with these new d:fine headsets you can’t see that they’re wearing an earpiece, because all the cabling is going together with the microphone as well.”

ADAPTING TO CHANGE DPA has also found itself in the installation market, supplying microphones for translators for the EU Commission. Last year, the translators refused to go back to work unless they had new microphones and, after much trial and error, ended up going with DPA’s d:vote instrument mics.

“So now we have made a complete line of installations microphones,” says Poulsen, “It’s not an area that we originally wanted to go into, but it’s a super-profitable, nice market. But it is very different selling microphones there than in other markets.”

The company has always aimed to remain adaptable.

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March 2015 l 33

broadcast Kate Bush in a publicity photo from the 2014 Before the Dawn tour, which DPA supplied a custom microphone for

One of the DPA’s strengths has been its readiness to work with artists and engineers to develop and optimise gear: the d:facto condenser mic, for instance, created from a collaboration with the engineers of The Voice of Denmark, who discovered that television vocals required a higher frequency base than live performance. Engineers had been adjusting EQ to compensate for it – DPA decided they could do it all in the microphone.

Last year, DPA was asked to do a custom microphone for Kate Bush’s tour, which incorporated the 4018 d:facto capsule into a headset. The process of creating a headset mic for the perfectionist Bush was laborious – and expensive – but Poulsen believes it is this kind of ongoing experimentation that drives the company forward.

“I don’t even know if we’re going to put that headset microphone into production or not, but we always learn something. You want to do some projects because they’re fun and educational.”

Indeed, education for the audio industry has become an important in initiative for Poulsen: to that end, DPA has created a ‘Microphone University’ on its website. The company is in the process of expanding that content in an attempt to turn it into a premiere audio knowledge resource.

“We have found that beside direct searches on a certain product, our Microphone University has by far been the most sought after part of our website,” says Poulsen, Professors from sound recording schools in the US and Europe and have incorporated their feedback and knowledge into the upgraded education site. The revamped Microphone University will also have video of DPA technical presentations and demos which, until now, have only been available only as in-person

presentations by DPA staff. Poulsen hopes the new site will be available before spring.

WHERE’S THAT SOUND COMING FROM? “We’re seeing a very interesting trend in recording right now,” continues Poulsen. “Even big symphony orchestras are moving toward putting microphones on each individual instrument. And it’s amazing when you listen to it: just adding 10 per cent of the sound from those close mics makes such a big difference to sound quality.”

This trend is of particular interest to DPA, whose d:vote microphones have been designed for close, high-quality instrument recording. As part of its ongoing education campaign, DPA will instruct users in the best use of the d:vote mic in relation to their particular instrument.

“We’re trying to take each instrument at a time and find out where exactly the sound comes out and how do you capture each individual aspect of the sound,” says Poulsen.

“If you use an omnidirectional microphone, it picks up the entire sound of the instrument. When you switch to a directional microphone, you need to know exactly where to put it.

“One of the places we are exceeding the competition is the off-axis response of our microphones. All of a sudden, the off-axis response means much more than you think when you discover that sound doesn’t come out of a violin or guitar from just one place. Sounds come from the strings, from the body, from the opening in the instrument.”

With the completion of DPA’s education site, we’ll all be able to predict where the sound will come out of any instrument. Predicting DPA’s next innovation might be more of a challenge. Q www.dpamicrophones.com

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broadcastfeature WORLD

Brought in from the edge by AES67 Audio over IP has played a major role in radio broadcasting and production over the last 10 years. That part now looks set to grow as once peripheral equipment gets fully interconnected, writes Kevin Hilton

THE INFLUENCE of computer-based technology has redefined many things in broadcasting and professional audio. Among them is the place of accessory and peripheral equipment, although the degree of change is different in music recording and live sound than radio broadcasting.

In music studios and concert venues, outboard processors and even recorders have been substantially absorbed into the digital, computerconnected mixing console. In good old steam wireless, on the other hand, peripherals and accessories are playing a higher profile role than before thanks to audio over IP (AoIP) technologies and the potential for greater interconnection thanks to AES67.

Studer D21m Dante I/O card

This is partly because so-called accessories or peripherals in radio, such as reporters’ equipment, codecs and telephone hybrids have always played an important part in radio production. The coming of AoIP and the possibilities that greater interconnectivity and operability bring are potentially making them on a par with those long-time pillars of the studio centre, the on-air desk and routing switcher. The console is the more obvious hub and over the last ten-plus years has come increasingly under the control and influence of IP. Most notable in the early days of this shift were Wheatstone and Axia, each of which developed a proprietary networking protocol WheatNet-IP and Livewire

respectively - to provide connectivity and distribution for the desks. But even the late Steve Church, founder of the Telos Alliance, of which Axia is a part, foresaw the dominance of the desk coming to an end.

“He said the console would cease to be the centrepoint of the studio,” comments Marty Sacks, vice president of sales, support and marketing at the Telos Alliance.

Church’s opinion was informed by observing the growth of IP in radio but also

his background as both an engineer and a talk show host.

Telos’ first product in 1985 was a DSP-based telephone interface, leading to a range of POTS, ISDN and then IP codecs. The telephone hybrid is still an important peripheral in radio, challenged but not fully replaced by the codec. “A lot of people out there are using AoIP to interconnect small and large facilities, not just audio router sources to the consoles but via other manufacturers’ products, such as STLs [studio

to transmitter links], codecs and processors,” says Sacks. “This saves a lot of time and money [because networks are easier and quicker to set up].”

In the last few years Ravenna, conceived by Philipp Lawo and developed under the ALC NetworX banner in conjunction with several industry partners, has been presented as an AoIP system tailored to the needs of broadcasting. The open approach for Ravenna contrasts with the proprietary nature of LiveWire but Sacks

Media Networking Alliance Formed in October 2014 to highlight the benefits of AES67 for connecting different IP networks in broadcasting and pro audio, the Media Networking Alliance (MNA) lists Riedel, Focusrite, Shure and Atterotech among its members. Its steering committee comprises Bill Scott of Bosch, Rich Zweibel (QSC), Stefan Ledergerber (Lawo) Terry Holton (Yamaha) and Marty Sacks from the Telos Alliance.

Sacks says the membership covers both the consumer and broadcast sectors, with the aim being to “specifically promote” the AES67 standard

for interoperability. While the role of the MNA is to encourage take-up of the standard, Sacks is aware it has shortcomings right now - such as not supporting GPIO (general purpose input/ output) for allowing integrated circuits to be configured for specific purposes and used as needed – which do not exploit the full potential of AoIP for peripherals and accessories. “It doesn’t support GPIO and the way the standard is currently written has just the bare minimum needed for broadcast networking but it is still a huge step forward.”

This, he adds, is particularly

true for the peripheral equipment that needs to be connected to the consoles and router. “Being able to connect data is a game changer because you can go from a codec or SIP [Session Initiation Protocol]enabled telephone hybrid to an IP network to the routing device,” Sacks comments.

“We’re seeing AES67 interfaces becoming available, so it doesn’t matter whose network is being used Livewire, Ravenna, WheatNetIP - they can link up and take advantage of the connections.” www.medianetworking alliance.com

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broadcastfeature says the advent of AES67 as an interoperability standard means that the large user base for Axia/Telos’ audio over Ethernet system can continue using existing setups and connect beyond those confines. “The only reason Livewire was proprietary was that the Ethernet standard did not support time sync, so we developed our own

Logitech to some extent, who have been trying to produce fully integrated systems, is that AES67 adds to our functionality and allows people to get in and out of a network that might also be using MADI or other formats.”

Owens adds that there is now the opportunity to go from such a WheatNet-IP set-up through AES67 to a Ravenna connection, which in turn links “peripherals that have signed up to Ravenna”. With what Owens calls “the major building blocks” – consoles and routers – in place, peripherals can be added “to make life easier in installing and maintaining” an installation. “It’s now a whole lot simpler to install something like a talk studio because instead of lots of wire there is a single Cat-6 connection with a software program,” he says.

“This way people are able to build a complete, integrated network based on our consoles

Digigram’s LX-IP RAVENNA PCIe sound card

patented protocol,” explains Sacks. “Everything we do now is open standard, with Fraunhofer codecs and off-theshelf protocols.” Sacks sees a Livewire/AES67 configuration as being no different to a Ravenna/AES67 one and is on the steering committee of the Media Networking Alliance (MNA), set up last year to promote the use of the interoperability standard in pro audio (see box).

While acknowledging the potential of AES67, Phil Owens, head of Eastern US sales at Wheatstone, does not see an instantaneous move to wider interconnectivity through the standard. “We’ve been scouting around for hardware that will send and receive streams but we haven’t found anything yet for peripherals,” he says. “But what it means for us and other manufacturers of networking systems, such as Axia and

and then add the peripherals we offer, which integrate into a system.”

Wheatstone’s peripherals include GP Panels for connecting headphones, mics and clock/timer equipment (see main pic), as well as switching between network cross points, and Talent Stations, which allow the presenter to control mic and headphone levels and select sources. “Common units like that allow the host to do some things for him or herself, like controlling guest mics and choosing a source for them to listen to, with talkback to different places,” Owens says.

Owens observes that a common interchange standard for AoIP is furthering networking capabilities, with the opportunity to use off-the-shelf IT-based switchers and set the parameters for a system so that they are the same at either end.

“AES67 is what it is,” he says,

AES-X210 and greater control for AES67 At last year’s Audio Networking Forum in London, Claude Cellier, president of Merging Technologies, said the next steps for networking were “control, control and control”.

AES standards manager Mark Yonge, who was chairing the event, commented that the Society was already working a new standard to offer common remote control and a monitoring protocol.

The OCA Alliance (Open Control Architecture) is involved with this and announced at ISE during February that the new standard, currently known as the AES-X210 project, would be ratified by spring. “a protocol for standardising audio streams. It will aid control and discovery of devices and allow parameters to be changed, as well as creating an entire chain if someone uses a suitably equipped mic pre-amp, such as Neumann is developing.”

Neumann was one of several manufacturers showing networked products with AES67 extensions at the PlugFest organised by the AES Standards Committee in conjunction with the EBU at the IRT (Institut für Rundfunktechnik) in Munich during October. Other companies demonstrating interconnectivity using the standard included ALC NetworX, DirectOut, Lawo, Merging Technologies, Axia Audio, SOUND4 (Omnia) and Telos Systems, along with Digigram.

“The success of the PlugFest tests not only confirms the practical value and promise of AES67 and AES67-compatible open technology standards such as Ravenna but also validates our decision to implement these technologies in our IQOYA product line and sound card offering,” commented Nicolas Sturmel, head of research at Digigram. The French company also used the recent Salon de la Radio show to demonstrate its implementation of Ravenna and AES67.

The addition of AES67

The project is split into 3 component parts: AES-X210A, Open Control Architecture - Framework; AES-X210B, Open Control Architecture Class Tree; and AES-X210C, Open Control Architecture - TCP/IP communications protocol.

As PSNE went to press the AES’s set goal for X210A was the end of February, with goals for X210B and X210C at the beginning of this month. Marty Sacks of the Telos Alliance says that new standards should allow peripherals to be identified by name, rather than IP addresses, while Wheatstone’s Phil Owens observes that AES67 running

Pascal Malgouyard, Digigram

capability to the IQOYA range of AoIP codecs follows Digigram’s launch of the LX-IP RAVENNA PCIe sound card in March 2014. The company’s head of product marketing, Pascal Malgouyard, says Digigram has “been in radio for some time”, initially catering for applications “outside the studio”, such as STLs, as well as inter-studio connections.

“Now there is the opportunity of IP interconnecting at the source level with AES67,” he comments. “With a number of different IP standards it is important that AES67 is able to connect all that.”

Among the crucial features radio broadcasters are looking for with IP is the ability to

in conjunction with whatever X210 comes to be called should allow streams to be identified. + At press time, Dante developer Audinate announced it had published a white paper, conducted by RH Consulting on the networking technology company’s behalf but written as objectively as possible, titled ‘The Death of Analogue and The Rise of Audio Networking’. The paper takes a detailed look at the number of audio networking products presently available, the growth rate for various protocols, and the market forces affecting their adoption. www.audinate.com/rise-ofaudio-networking

Ingo Hahn, Studer

multi-cast, a high channel count, good synchronisation and low latency. “We will be able to help broadcasters move from specific devices to non-specific ones that are equipped with broadcast applications; something that even router manufacturers and companies like Lawo are moving towards,” Malgouyard says.

The Digigram LX-IP AES67 PCIe card has been adopted

by Studer for the Infinity Core used on the Vista X and Vista V digital audio consoles. The company has also implemented LiveWire AoIP for its OnAir radio desks, as well as the Vistas. Ingo Hahn, product manager for the OnAir range, says Audinate’s Dante is also supported, with mostly

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broadcastfeature Axia’s xSwitch Ethernet switch

Phil Owens, Wheatstone

customer needs driving that choice, in addition to Livewire.

“We need to be able to support customers and we will use the best fitting technology,” he comments. “We look forward to supporting AES67 as well.”

Potentially, IP-based radio peripherals and accessories connected to a network or

networks could divide into two distinct groups: ‘passive’ sources, notably microphones, linked through a pre-amp; and more active units such as codecs and iPhones with Luci Live or other recording-editingdistribution software that give the possibility for controlling consoles and routers from remote locations.

Among the companies promoting such an approach is UK specialist supplier Broadcast Bionics, which represents both Axia and Lawo, in addition to producing its the PhoneBox range of call systems. “The Axia approach is that all

mixing is done in software, so the equipment on the edges, the peripherals, would be able to control the hardware by remote control,” explains product manager Simeon Johnson. “Latency is an issue in the studio but the delay on Luci Live is not so great on voice transmission that it will blow minds. So we can connect to the Axia router from the edges and distribute signals, which is an elegant solution. You need software to make it look like a traditional router so it masks the cleverness that’s going on underneath.”

Peripherals and accessories taking over radio

operations completely and ousting the old ruling class of consoles and routers is perhaps a long shot. It’s probably more a case of going for what works best for specific broadcasts and situations. As Phil Owens at Wheatstone concludes, AoIP of whatever kind – Ravenna, WheatNet-IP, Livewire, even Dante – through AES67 is “another M&M in the bag.” Q www.aes.org www.bionics.co.uk www.digigram.com www.merging.com www.studer.ch www.telosalliance.com www.wheatstone.com

“A lot of people out there are using AoIP to interconnect small and large facilities, not just audio router sources to the consoles but via other manufacturers” Marty Sacks, Telos Alliance

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showpreview

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NAB Show

UNITED STATES

What happens in Vegas… … gets reported in the trade press, as the saying doesn’t go. Like in this preview of next month’s NAB Show by Jon Chapple

When? 11–16 April AFTER A 2014 show which saw attendance rocket from 93,850 to over 98,000, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) will once again return to the Las Vegas Convention Center this April for its annual showcase of the latest broadcast, post, communications and media technologies. As if you needed any excuse to make the trip to Vegas next month, here’s round-up of what you can expect to see (aside from a sea of bleary-eyed attendees who’ve spent all night in clockless casinos, that is)…

Making their US debut at the NAB Show – following a UK launch at BVE last month – are a new 4U console core and single-slot modular MADI card for the Hydra2 box from Calrec Audio.

The core (pictured below),

used for the Summa and Artemis Light consoles, offers a number of benefits over its predecessor, including faster and more efficient processors and a five-per-cent lower power consumption.

The MADI card fits into the 3U modular Hydra2 box, offering 64 bidirectional channels and a sample-rate converter.

“Calrec continues to design and develop new products that meet the changing needs of broadcasters,” says Jim Green, Calrec’s UK sales manager. “We have made these improvements to our console core and designed the MADI card to meet the high standards of quality and innovation that our customers expect from us.”

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of its founding in 2015, Digigram will spotlight product enhancements and new product releases for its range of IP audio and video solutions.

Showcased for the first time at NAB is the addition of RAVENNA/AES67 connectivity to the company’s IQOYA range of audio-overIP codecs (pictured is the IQOYA *LINK transmitter), which now

allow users to receive audio programmes directly from an in-studio RAVENNA network and encode and stream them over IP to transmitter sites via a WAN. New from Joseph Electronics are the Kick Box series of fibre breakouts and Shadow Box fibre-optic interfaces. Yohay Hahamy, president of Joseph Electronics, explains: “These new additions to our Caddie series of products are ideally suited for the quick set-up and strike of hybrid-cabled camera systems and are completely plug-and-play. Also see our established DFT Series fibre transport solutions, as well as some innovative new products from our partners at DirectOut Technologies and Bluebell.”

Riedel will introduce a new MediorNet device, promising “increased flexibility and convenience” for its flagship real-time network. Also making their North American debuts are the AVB- and AES67-compatible Tango platform, launched at IBC, and RSP-2318 Smartpanel interface.

“The 2015 NAB Show gives us the opportunity to showcase major enhancements to our file-based solutions, including new products based on our RadiantGrid Intelligent Media Transformation Platform and the newly updated version of the Tachyon Wormhole media retiming solution,” says Carl Dempsey, CEO and president of Wohler, “and to highlight some unique, game-changing additions to our world-class audio monitoring and MPEG solutions. We will demonstrate how the power and flexibility

of these products combine to bring greater efficiency to critical broadcast and production workflows.”

Among the new Wohler products on show are the AMP1-16M audio monitor, which provides highperformance monitoring of embedded audio in two 3G/HD/SD-SDI streams, the AMP2-E16V audio/ video processing monitor (pictured above) and v9 of the RadiantGrid platform. Q www.nabshow.com www.calrec.com www.digigram.com www.josephelectronics.com www.riedel.net www.wohler.com

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live SOUNDBITES

The Super Bowl on 1 February grabbed headlines around the world, more for the glitz of its money-noobject entertainment segments than the game of (American) football itself. While Katy Perry wowed on the back of a huge puppet beast, Lenny Kravitz managed to squeeze in an appearance during half time too – performing with an AudioTechnica Artist Elite 5000-series wireless microphone with AEWT6100a hypercardioid dynamic handheld microphone/transmitter.

Who played? Who won? Who cares? www.audio-technica.com Radial Engineering has added a new pre-compliance testing facility to its R&D department in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. “With a test chamber, sniffing probes, reception antenna and monitoring equipment at hand, we can quickly walk over to the chamber with various types of shielding materials to try design variations without having to prebook a laboratory weeks in advance in order to get things done,” says Radial’s Donald Carmichael. “The side benefit is speed to market.” www.radialeng.com Audinate on 10 February announced that its audio-overIP networking solution, Dante, has been adopted by 200 manufacturers. Dante’s 200th licensee is AD Systems, a German manufacturer of amplifiers and loudspeakers. The company, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, unveiled its 150th licensee, Kramer Electronics, in June, adding 50 new adopters in just under seven months. www.audinate.com www.ad-systems.com Five Arrows Leasing, the Rothschild-owned parent company of Fineline Media Finance, Five Arrows Leasing and Capital Professions Finance, has been rebranded as Five Arrows Media Finance. The move sees the three divisions merged into one single, identifiable brand. MD Gareth Wilding explains: “In everyday terms, nothing will change for our clients except the logo on our paperwork. We will continue to be the preeminent funder of media, broadcast and AV equipment in the UK and northern Europe. www.famf.com

The Hahnemkamm’s Streif, the steepest ski slope in the world

AUSTRIA

All white now The Hahnenkamm races – ‘the Super Bowl of skiing’ – turned 75 this year, with a little help from Electro-Voice speakers, discovers Jon Chapple This January marked 75 years of the Hahnenkamm ski races, held since 1931 in the Kitzbühel Alps of Austria. The most prestigious date in the international skiing circuit – comparisons are usually made to Wimbledon, Monte Carlo, the Indy 500 or the Super Bowl – the five-day event see up to 90,000 spectators pack around the 5,617ft (1,712m) mountain to witness skiers plunge down the steepest ski slope in the world, the near-vertical Streif, at over 85mph.

Since 2002, sound reinforcement for the fiveday event has been provided

by Tyrol-based production company Murdock Event & Media Group, which for the 75th Hahnenkamm races fielded an Electro-Voice (EV) set-up incorporating XLD- and XLCseries line arrays, CP3000-series amplifiers and Dx46 controllers.

The main system – hung either side of the finish line – comprised two towers equipped with eight XLC 80s, 12 XLC 120s, three subs, three CP3000 amps and Dx46 controllers, while, for the stands, two smaller trusses were each

outfitted with three XLDs. Two smaller systems comprising four XLD line-array elements, one XLC 215 subwoofer, one CP3000 amp rack and one Dx46 processor flanked the track on both sides.

“The system needed to be robust, able to deal with snow and easy to handle,” comments Stefan Gieringer, CEO of Murdock Event & Media, which also specified ElectroVoice microphones and an EV NetMax N8000 digital matrix.

“Additionally, from [only a] few acoustic points the greatest possible distance and a large area needed to be covered.”

As Gieringer emphasises, throw and portability are the key concerns when considering how to cover the vast alpine terrain of a location like the Hahnenkamm. “[Our biggest challenge is] to be able to fly a functional line array on the steep slopes,” he explains.

“There is little space for the constructions, and, with snow and sub-zero temperatures, the equipment [must be] transported using snow groomers.”

Murdock’s relationship with EV dates back to its

“After more than 10 years [of the Hahnenkamm], the system hasn’t lost a bit of its quality,” says Murdock’s Stefan Gieringer

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The trackside EV set-up, perched atop the frauentoiletten

The Firenze series is surrounded by spectators at the slalom finish line

“The system needed to be robust, able to deal with snow and easy to handle… [and] from only a few acoustic points, the greatest possible distance needed to be covered”

BAPTISM OF ICE FOR K-ARRAY FIRENZE

Stefan Gieringer, Murdock Event & Media Group first Hahnenkamm races, in 2002. “At the time, ElectroVoice’s line array system was groundbreaking,” Gieringer recalls. “It was the only line array which […] was as suitable for outdoor use for sporting events as for concert sound.”

However, he emphasises that “after more than 10 years, the system hasn’t lost a bit of its quality”.

In those 14 years since 2002’s first Electro-Voice-supported races, has the event changed noticeably? “Yes, completely!” says Gieringer. “Each year, the requirements change – they grow more complex and, through the change of the order of events, more difficult. These include alterations between the races, radio/TV and live presenters, live music acts,

awards ceremonies, fan TV, fireworks, the Red Bull air show…” However, Gieringer maintains that it’s still a “unique [experience]” being part of “the world’s greatest and most spectacular race”. “It’s the Super Bowl for the international alpine ski circus,” he concludes.

“One hell of a ride!” Q www.electrovoice.com www.murdock.at

For the slalom race on 24 January, the main Electro-Voice system was complemented by K-array’s new Firenze-series line array.

Comprising six KH8 units and three KS8 subs (with four KH15s for side fill) the Firenze arrays – set up in the finishing area – functioned as an extreme-weather test for the Italian manufacturer’s new touring system, launched in October 2014. PSNEurope first saw the Firenze series in action in London earlier this year (PSNEurope February 2014, ‘Florence and the lean’).

An all-EV system continued

to be used in the upper part of the track and along the slopes, as well as in all areas during the downhill and super-G races.

“The system was ultrareliable, even during the blizzards we encountered at the event,” says Stefan Gieringer.

“With the steering of the new Firenze series we can keep the audio system out of sight, making more room for the fans. We loved the KH15s used for side fill – [they] supported the Firenze system to give it more than we have ever heard before at this event.” www.k-array.com

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live WORLD

How many drummers…

King Crimson mark VIII (L–R): bassist Tony Levin, drummer Gavin Harrison, flautist/saxophonist Mel Collins, drummer/ keyboardist Bill Rieflin, guitarist Robert Fripp, drummer Pat Mastelotto, vocalist/guitarist Jakko Jakszyk

… does it take to put the reconstituted King Crimson into ‘go’ mode? David Davies speaks to sound engineer Ian Bond about achieving an effective audio mix from the iconic prog rock band’s three-drummer frontline KING CRIMSON FOUNDER and guitarist Robert Fripp’s apparent retreat from music several years ago to concentrate his energies on a long-running legal dispute meant that the prospect of another Crimson tour seemed highly unlikely.

But with the case approaching resolution last year, Fripp felt able to set the wheels in motion on a new incarnation of the celebrated progressive group that reversed the traditional backline/frontline equation, casting no fewer than three drummers as the undoubted stars of the show.

Longtime Crimson sound engineer Ian Bond had about

four weeks of rehearsals ahead of last autumn’s US tour to obtain the best possible mix for the highly complex parts played by returning drummers Pat Mastelotto and Gavin Harrison and newcomer Bill Rieflin. “Getting good sound off the drums itself is easy, as all three of them can tune and play brilliantly,” he says. “But getting that across and not killing everyone in the process is a different story!”

Despite the line-up numbering a total of seven players, Bond recalls that Fripp’s original brief for the concerts was for “a jazz quartet feel similar to that which existed when the band started.

“The Point of Crim-Seeing was of a conventional backline […] reconfigured as the frontline, with Mel Collins, Jakko Jakszyk and myself as backline,” said Robert Fripp in a pre-tour diary entry

“Getting good sound off the drums itself is easy, as all three of them can tune and play brilliantly.

But getting that across and not killing everyone in the process is a different story!”

Ian Bond This meant that there had to be an emphasis on ensuring the mix wasn’t overpowering. Hence I did a lot of panning so that, as much as possible, the audience member looking at the stage would feel as though the sound was coming from the sources, not the PA. The three drummers shared out the parts so well it worked very effectively.”

Backline fills were placed either side of Rieflin’s kit with a mix of just the backline to sit correctly with the drums. The microphone configuration was different for each drummer, but the overall spec included Shure Beta 91As for kick drums, Neumann KM 184s on hi-hats, Electro-Voice ND468s and Audix MicroDs on toms and Shure KSM32s for overheads.

Although the rehearsal period was unusually extensive, Bond admits that his ideas had to change somewhat when the band hit the road and was confronted by some less-thanideal in-house PAs. “I am a

d&b man, and, courtesy of Canadian production company Apex, we took some d&bs to provide quad elements and all monitoring,” he notes. “The rear sound elements were mainly limited to effects returns and some weird vocal effects; I had to be very careful because you have three drummers who are never doing evens, so the last thing you want is to put something 100ms out of time into the building! For the main PA we did try to use in-house systems, but these, frankly, worked better in some places than in others – so we did have to hire in equipment at several venues.”

A long-time Midas console user, Bond mixed both FOH (with an input count totalling 86) and monitors from a PRO9 hired from none other than Leonard Cohen. “I love the fact that it sounds like an analogue Midas,” says Bond.

“Apart from a couple of Lake processors to drive the various

house systems, I didn’t use any outboard gear at all.”

Thunderously intricate new versions of Crimson classics like One More Red Nightmare and Larks’ Tongues in Aspic made the tour one of the best received in the band’s history.

A selection of highlights can be found on the newly released album Live at the Orpheum, while there are hopes for further concerts later this year.

In the meantime, Bond will be touring with another longterm client, Steven Wilson, and mixing sound from his own Midas PRO2C. “Like Crimson, working with Steven is refreshingly straightforward,” he says. “He knows what he wants and he gets on with it.

There is no faffing around!” Q www.dgmlive.com www.apexsound.com www.audixusa.com www.dbaudio.com www.electrovoice.com www.midasconsoles.com www.neumann.com www.shure.eu

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live SAN MARINO

Taking everything into account Yu Weiping, assistant finance minister of the People’s Republic of China, speaks at WCOA 2014 at the Parco della Musica

Sammarinese rental firm Planet Service fielded Riedel’s MediorNet for a major international congress, reports Mike Clark ALMOST FOUR THOUSAND delegates from over 120 countries attended the latest World Congress of Accountants (WCOA), held in

Rome’s Renzo Piano-designed Auditorium Parco della Musica in November.

In just over 10 years, the biggest multifunctional complex

Planet Service’s Alessandro Giangi, Alessandro Saudelli and Andrea Borelli (L–R)

in Europe – and one of the 10 largest in the world – has not only become the number-one cultural structure in Europe and second only to New York’s

Lincoln Center at world level (as far as the number of events staged is concerned) but also hosts more than 300 high-profile business events every year.

Commissioned to provide the network interconnecting all the rooms with audio, video, data and intercom facilities, as well as simultaneous translation, video projection and control equipment and lighting, Planet Service is the largest and most important rental company in the Republic of San Marino (the second-smallest republic in the world and thirdsmallest independent state in Europe). With a portfolio of corporate clients including Ferrari, Herbalife and Pfizer, Planet Service also provides AV facilities for live events and consultation, design and installation of multimedia systems in theme parks, spas, and more.

The areas hosting attendees were the Santa Cecilia, Sinopoli and Petrassi Halls, the Theatre Studio and the Chorus Room.

The press room was also connected, enabling the media to follow proceedings in the

various locations. Used by the organisers for announcements and publicity, AV systems connected to the network were also installed in the entrance foyers. The impressive system was controlled from a main control room, installed backstage in the Santa Cecilia auditorium.

The company’s 32-strong team on site was led by Alessandro Giangi (production and technical manager), Alessandro Saudelli (network designer/manager and sound chief) and Andrea Borelli (network designer/manager and video chief). Other members included five FOH engineers (who manned the venue’s resident Midas XL8, two Digidesign D-Show, DiGiCo SD8 and Yamaha LS9 consoles) and three microphone technicians.

Since time was at a premium at the event, prior to going to Rome Saudelli, Borelli, Federico Boscherini and Riedel specialist Alessandro Bertoni cabled, configured and tested the entire system for four days in Planet Service’s warehouse.

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Photo: Luca Campigotto/Contrasto

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“In order to [be able to] rapidly change the routing of a quantity of signals only finalised at the venue, traditional systems would have required twice the amount of set-up time and a very complex infrastructure,” says Bertoni. “We therefore decided to transport all the signals involved via a fibreoptic ring connecting a realtime MediorNet audio, video and data and communication network. The versatility of this redundant infrastructure was decisive since, as well as doing everything Planet Service required, it was also used to integrate the broadcast service company’s set-up.”

The intercom system was controlled by a Performer matrix 32+16 mainframe with two Cat-5 client cards and an analogue client card, connected with a series of hardwired control panels (six DCP-5108, three RCP-1112, a DCP1116 and an RCP-1028E/O) and an Acrobat CC-8 main frame and used with 12 WB-2 wireless digital beltpack/headset stations. Six Acrobat CA-6 cell antennas were installed.

Saudelli adds: “The two main intercom matrices were in the main control room, along with one of the MediorNet Compact PRO frames (the other frames were at the Sinopoli, Petrassi, Studio Theatre and Chorus Room FOH platforms, as well as in the press room). Each of the network’s seven MediorNet Compact PRO frames was fitted with an SDI 4IN 4OUT card and a WDM QuadCon module. Four Riedel RockNet 302 output modules were also integrated in the network.

“The fibre-optic ring connecting all the frames and ensuring 100 per cent redundancy was assembled with nine reels of Riedel PURECS-Q-300 ruggerised fibre cable.”

Bosch simultaneous translation facilities were

The exterior of the Auditorium Parco della Musica

connected to the MediorNet network in the main auditorium and, from there, with the Sinopoli and Petrassi rooms, with a total of twenty IR transmitters and 1100 IR headset receivers providing Italian, English and Chinese translations.

“Satisfaction was expressed all round by our clients after the event,” says Alessandro Giangi. “Although we use Riedel products regularly,

live this was our first outing with MediorNet, so winning this challenge with flying colours will without doubt open up new horizons for our work.

I’m going abroad soon for a bid for tenders for another large event, and the Rome congress will be the perfect visiting card!” Q www.auditorium.com www.bosch.com www.planetservicesm.eu www.riedel.net

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live UNITED KINGDOM

Raycom broadens its horizons

WisyCom MPR30 IEM receiver

Raycom is adding live sound frequencies to its business bandwidth, discovers Phil Ward UK DISTRIBUTOR and allround wireless expert Raycom was, remarkably, a show debutante at last October’s PLASA. Well established and highly regarded in film and broadcast production, the company’s booth was festooned with wireless microphones, IEM, transmitters and receivers in a concerted act of businessto-business exploration, diversification and expansion.

The brands on display included Wisycom (Raycom is a major supplier), Lectrosonics, Phonak and more, all of which, according to Raycom MD Pyers Easton, offer unique solutions to the ever-converging worlds of live sound production and broadcast.

“We feel that, when it comes to our in-ear monitoring and radio mic products, the same benefits and unique features that have given us the success we’ve enjoyed in the broadcast industry will be just as applicable in the live sound industry,” he confirms, “so PLASA was our first toe in that particular water. We made some good contacts, and a couple of very good ones.”

It’s still a little early to say exactly where those very good contacts have been made, suffice to say that the top end of rental and install across the UK – and beyond – is now firmly on Raycom’s

Wisycom MTK952 dual transmitter

Christmas card list.

Business development manager Andy Clements, who spent much of that show demonstrating Wisycom’s MPR30 IEM receiver, recalls how it made a vivid impression on one live sound engineer: “We had a guitarist playing on the stand with a beltpack transmitter, and I walked the engineer through the hall wearing the receiver. It was only transmitting at 10 milliwatts, but we got right through all the background RF and EMC present with no dropouts whatsoever. He literally thought I had a transmitter on me! That led to a direct sales lead.”

As well as a supplier, Raycom is a full service centre for back-up and support. To move into live sound, very little changes are needed to Raycom’s business model.

“We’re already a modernstyle, value-added distributor,” says Clements. “We can translate knowledge of the products into hands-on support and planning, and we know the background to the technology inside out. We already offer what the live industry needs. The one thing we are considering is expansion of our sales and support staff to handle the

extra workload of live sound.

As we go forward, somebody to concentrate fully on this market would clearly be an asset.”

Several product lines present themselves with live sound potential. Swiss-based Phonak makes a small IEM solution referred to as ‘a contact lens for the ear’: the Invisity in-ear prompter. Used by TV presenters, for example, it has obvious potential in theatre and corporate presentation.

Raycom’s own-brand RTB6211D talkback base station is a shoo-in for live production comms – “a unique high performance ‘base station’ for talkback”, as Clements puts it – offering both zero-latency analogue and DSP-friendly digital transmission from a single 1U rackmount unit. More products in this mould can be expected.

Meanwhile, MFL is Wisycom’s fibre-optic wideband link, carrying four RF channels along a single fibre. Any combination of up to four laser optical transmitters and/or opticalreceivers can be configured via plug-in boards, and this is a solution – forged in the pits of Formula 1 broadcast – that lends itself especially to

festival sites. “It has the capacity to detect any changes in cable status and optimise the signal accordingly,” Clements points out, “which adds to its stability in challenging environments. It’s just one of many benefits it can offer the live industry and is the first truly plug-and-play fibre system on the market.” One of many benefits that Raycom as a whole can offer, indeed. It doesn’t stop at traditional touring, either: with further expansion of related product lines, a whole world awaits of everyday applications that, with ever increasing exactitude, demand that F1 touch of class.

“2015 will see further development of our range,” reflects Clements. “We’ve got the skill set: a deep knowledge of the technical application of wireless equipment in the sound environment, we need to consider the whole spectrum of products required by live sound customers, including those involved in the wider markets of budget installation. What is certain is that any new lines we introduce will always be married to the highly professional service that’s assisted our phenomenal growth in the broadcast and film industries.” Q

“We can translate knowledge of the products into hands-on support and planning, and we know the background to the technology inside out. We already offer what the live industry needs” Andy Clements, Raycom

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Italian rapper Caparezza tours with Powersoft’s M-Force subwoofer driver and M-Sub enclosure

livefeature

Power amps: 10 new chapters The current popularity of powered loudspeakers might lead some observers to predict a long-term decline for standalone amplifiers.

But by nominating ten exciting new developments in independent amps, David Davies thinks he has proven that any such claims are extremely wide of the mark…

MORE POWER, reduced rackspace, lower cost. If one was pushed to identify the three defining trends of the standalone amplifier segment in recent years, one might well arrive at this particular triumvirate. But such an overview would be to sell manufacturers short during a period in which their R&D activity has arguably reached new heights.

As ever, to some extent this is a case of necessity being the mother of invention. In the case of live touring, rising overheads and a need for artists to maximise revenue as much as possible in the face of declining income from recorded work has had a direct influence on product design, with smaller, lighter, more cost-effective amplifiers being very much the order of the day. To a lesser degree, the same factors also impact amplifiers destined for the install environment, although the need for features that smooth the integration process is perhaps of greater importance here.

Increasingly sophisticated onboard processing is a particular characteristic of this new wave of products, whose continual arrival over the past few years underlines an R&D cycle that has had to accelerate to satisfy changing demands.

“With so many manufacturers going down the ‘closed system’

Stack of QSC GXD amps route, one might assume that the days for standalone amplifiers might be numbered, or at least force them to be relegated to the lower end of the market,” says XTA’s Waring Hayes. “We don’t believe this is the case, and there is a reason why speaker companies turn to OEMs for their processing and amplifiers… we can do it better!”

1. QSC GOES CLASS D FOR GXD The arrival of QSC’s latest innovation – the new GXD Series Processing Amplifiers, which were introduced at Winter NAMM – has been accompanied by a refreshingly direct admission of a past failing. Senior product manager Dale Sandberg acknowledges that QSC has “sometimes been the latecomer to technology

trends. This is especially obvious in amplifiers where our topselling models for years have relied on traditional Class AB and Class H designs.”

In fact, Class D topologies – now increasingly ubiquitous due to their high efficiency – have found their way into select QSC products, including the PL380 amplifier and the PLX/ CXD platform, which blended Class D amplifier technology with DSP. And now comes an evolution of the GX amplifier series in the form of the small event-friendly GXD. “The GXD started as a response to customers primarily in the musician and entertainer segment who liked the GX amplifiers, but wanted more control over their system,” explains Sandberg. “Specifically they wanted DSP so that they could maximise the performance

of their passive loudspeakers.

And while the GX amps are not that heavy we realised that if we went to Class D technology, we could reduce the weight of the

XTA has created a facility for training users of its APA devices

amps, making them even more attractive to this segment who often carry their own PA.” The results of their labours are the GXD 4 (400W per channel at 8 ohms and 600W per channel at 4 ohms, with a max total peak power of 1,600W) and the GXD 8 (800W per channel at 8 ohms and 1,200W per channel at 4 ohms, with a max total peak power of 4,500W). Complete loudspeaker processing capability, 20 preset ‘starting points’ for selected typical systems, a digital limiter to prevent destructive clipping, and smart loudspeaker protection are among the other components of the two-product range.

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livefeature 2. XTA RECKON IT’S ALL ABOUT FLEXIBILITY WITH APA Efficient Class D topologies and sophisticated DSP also collide in XTA’s APA (short for ‘Adaptive Processing Amplifier’) series. Introduced at InfoComm 2014, the first model – the APA-4E8 – incorporates four channels of power totalling 20kW peak output into 4 ohms, and continuous power available of 3,400W per channel into 4 ohms. An extensive suite of XTA DSP is part of the package. “‘Adaptive’ is the key here,” confirms Waring Hayes, who is XTA and MC2’s technical brand manager. “It covers a whole host of areas and allows the amplifier to modify signal processing (as well as other tricks we can’t divulge here!) to increase efficiency, reduce distortion, and protect drivers better than pure voltage limiters ever could. On top of thinking about the adaptive side of the technology as being something ‘automatic’ that happens without user intervention, there is the adaptive side of the amp that means flexibility; being able to process audio through the amplifier’s extensive DSP tools, and send this back out onto the network is very useful.”

Given this feature-set, Hayes thinks that APA is just as applicable to fixed installation as live and touring sound projects.

3. MC2 FILLS LIGHT-INWEIGHT AMP LINE-UP WITH E60 Meanwhile, on the MC2 side of the combined XTA/MX2 business, the forthcoming E60 is set to join the E Series lightin-weight touring amp line-up, “filling a gap in the four-channel models at the widely used power level of about 1,200-1,500W per channel. The E-475 sits at

Waring Hayes: “E Series fills a gap”

about 750W x 4 and the beast that is the E100 is way above that at 2.5k x 4 so we needed to cater for this middle ground.

Using the APA power stage technology will mean it is set to be the best-sounding and most efficient amp in the range, and early listening tests would so far confirm this,” says Hayes.

Luca Giorgi, Powersoft

4. LAB.GRUPPEN AND THE HIGH EFFICIENCY PLM+ Following the same lines as the successful 20000Q, but with “twice the processing power, twice the throughput, and a whole host of additional features and improvements,”

Network Series amplifier range has grown once again in recent weeks with the announcement of two new models – the DCi 4|2400N, DCi 2|2400N and the DCi 2|1250N. Both models deliver 1900W into 8 ohms, 2400W into 4 ohms and 2100W into 2 ohms, and as with other DCi models they offer networked monitoring and control capabilities via their primary and secondary Ethernet ports.

In a possibly more unexpected DriveCore-related development, Crown has announced a new embedded amplifier initiative to provide third-party active

insufficient levels of activity for its own range. “That’s certainly not the case,” he said.

“Crown is extraordinarily healthy, but Harman is a public company and you’ll see that all of us are under a target of double digit growth every year – so expanding our reach and entering new segments is one of the ways we make that happen.”

7. L-ACOUSTICS ‘RENEWS’ AMPLIFIED CONTROLLER RANGE WITH LA4X Explaining the ethos behind one

L-Acoustics’ Marc Bénard

Mixed stack of Lab.gruppen PLM+ units

the PLM+ range features two models: the PLM20K44 and the PLM12K44. Each model sports four analogue inputs, four AES inputs, four power outputs, four Lake Contour modules, an 8×8 Dante I/O, a 2-port 1GB network switch, dual redundancy and more.

While the PLM+ products are primarily geared towards the touring market, a more installfriendly equivalent, the D Series, is also available. “You have here the great advantages of Class D amplification coupled with extensive reliability and protection features, so it’s a real win-win,” says Martin Andersson, who is product manager for Lab.gruppen.

5. POWERSOFT HAS THE POWER (GUARANTEED) WITH NEW X SERIES Guaranteeing reliability and consistency of power supply is an obvious priority for many new amplifier R&D efforts, and Powersoft’s X Series – which was introduced to the market in 2014 – is no exception. A primary objective at all times is “to improve as much as possible the power supply since it is

this part that is most exposed to external elements, and also the most important part of the power amplifier,” says sales and marketing director Luca Giorgi.

Hence, then, Powersoft’s emphasis on a “truly universal power supply which is capable of running in any situation, even in the event of a neutral line loss or one of the phases.

Meanwhile, the integration of a very powerful DSP with mixing capabilities, together with a wide input signal acceptance (Dante, AES3, analogue) is simplifying the job of tour sound professionals,” he adds.

The current X Series range comprises two models: the larger X8, offering eight channels in a 2RU chassis, and the X4 with four channels in a single rack unit. Both models share the same power density and are capable of delivering up to 5,200W at 2 ohms per channel.

6. CROWN AUDIO SETS THE CONTROLS FOR DRIVECORE EXPANSION Already a successful component of the Crown range, the DriveCore Install (DCi)

Marc Kellom: “Crown is extraordinarily healthy”

loudspeaker manufacturers of CE and CI finished product with access to the Crown Audio portfolio of amplifier technology. The first amplifiers to be made available through the Empowered by Crown series offer power points from 75W to 2 x 750W continuous and 2 x 1,000W burst @ 2 ohms.

Speaking to PSNEurope at ISE, Crown senior director engineering and marketing Marc Kellom refuted the suggestion that the programme could be a reaction to

of the most significant recent additions to the L-Acoustics range, the LA4X amplified controller, applications engineer electronics Marc Bénard explains that L-Acoustics “had been manufacturing amplified controllers for some time and working closely with our users to gain their feedback. We wanted to renew our range and our users were telling us that a 4X4 configuration – something that could manage four input channels and four output channels – would be useful to them, so that was our starting point,” he explains.

In addition – and for the first time – L-Acoustics has incorporated power factor correction into the LA4X “and that translates directly into the LA4X drawing less power from the grid. Plus, it’s a Class D amplifier, something that we used successfully with the LA8, and which allows LA4X to dissipate less heat. So the LA4X takes in less power and generates less heat than its predecessor, for the same amount of output power.”

8. NEXO BRINGS NXAMP PROCESSING CAPABILITY TO NEW CONTROLLERS Industry observers will be aware that Nexo’s NXAMP4x4 is one of the most powerful amplifiers

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livefeature on the market with delivery of 4 x 4,000W into 2 ohms. Now the French company has sought to bring “the sound quality and processing capacity of our highend NXAMPs” to the DTD Digital TD Controllers for Nexo PS Speakers and LS Subs.

“The challenge was to match the popular PS15/LS18 speaker combination with a low-cost controller, when most of our users expected the highresolution digital processing of our NXAMP range,” says Joseph Carcopino, a senior R&D engineer at Nexo. “I think we’ve done that, and while we were at it, we’ve revived some features from Nexo legacy products (eg. connectors on the front panels) which makes this DTD unique on the market.

“Anecdotally, we added a USB port for programme change and a small but nice OLED display to show the current preset selected. Looking at the USB port, it occurred to us: Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to stream audio directly from any computer

or smartphone directly to this digital controller, for easy soundcheck or background music playback?”

9. YAMAHA CONSOLIDATES CI PRESENCE WITH XMV SERIES Whilst the touring range continues to grow, Yamaha is also expanding its CI-oriented offer with series including XMV. “The multi-channel XMV series has become a feature in hotels, cinemas, bars, theatres and other leisure venues, and has recently been joined by the MA2030 digital mixer amplifier and the PA2030 power amplifier,” says Yamaha Commercial Audio sales & marketing manager Karl Christmas.

Incorporating interfaces designed to allow fast set-up and straightforward daily operation, the two models feature a Class D amplifier circuit, delivering 30W into two channels at 3 or 4 ohms selectable, or 60W into one channel at 70V/100V

“For production [the standalone amp] is a declining market, but I don’t think it will ever completely disappear; there are just too many applications where having the amps separate for accessibility, for modularity or for simplicity makes sense” Dale Sandberg, senior product manager, QSC line. The fanless design keeps noise and power consumption to a minimum and the units are designed to precisely match Yamaha’s CIS series loudspeakers. In addition, the MA2030 features DSP functions geared towards background music applications, including a feedback canceller, ducker and auto leveller.

10. CODA AUDIO ACHIEVES INTEGRATED AMPLIFICATION WITH LINUS10 Recently introduced by Coda Audio, the LINUS10 is billed as an integrated DSP, network, comparator and amplifier solution delivering two channels of 5,100W into 2 ohms. Features include a pair of dynamic comparators for use with the company’s sensor-controlled subwoofers, a new integrated 96kHz SHARC floating point

DSP with advanced IIR and linear phase FIR filters, and Coda LiNET technology to allow eight freely configurable digital audio signals to be transmitted over a CAT5 cable.

In addition, the LINUS Live Remote Software means the amplifiers can be monitored and controlled over Ethernet.

Integrated into two Coda touring racks – the LINUS RACK20 (2 x LINUS10) and LINUS RACK40 (4 x LINUS10) – the amplifiers “have already been a feature of a number of high profile events, including the UK’s Creamfields Festival, Germany’s Wilhemlstal Open Air Festival, and Contact Festival in Munich,” says Coda’s Matt Marcel Pitann.

FULLY AMPED Despite the obvious high level of creativity, there is a general feeling that the market share of

standalone amps will contract further over time. But more powerful onboard processing and other features that ease touring or install deployment – not least among operators with variable skillsets – should ensure that they retain a credible longterm foothold.

Sandberg provides a neat summation: “As with most other manufacturers, we have seen a reduction in standalone amp sales in the portable PA market, which can be directly tied to an increase in powered loudspeaker systems. However, this is offset by an increase in amps sold into integrated or installed systems.

For production it is a declining market, but I don’t think it will ever completely disappear; there are just too many applications where having the amps separate for accessibility, for modularity or for simplicity makes sense.” Q

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For the latest install news www.psneurope.com/installation

Q

installation WORLD

SOUNDBITES Bled Festival Hall, in Bled, Slovenia, has become the home of Europe’s first Nexo GEO M6 installation. The GEO M6 line array, which made its debut at PL+S 2014, marks the first foray into the corporate AV sector for the French manufacturer, which has traditionally leant towards live sound reinforcement.

PSNEurope saw the GEO M6 in action at a Sound of Music demo day in September (www.psneurope.com/geom6). www.nexo-sa.com

New president sought for AVnu Alliance as L-Acoustics signs up of electronics companies collaborating to establish and certify the interoperability of emerging Audio Video Bridging (AVB) standards. At ISE 2015, it was revealed that French loudspeaker giant L-Acoustics has signed up as the Alliance’s 85th member.

In related news, AudioScience’s Hono AVB Mini range of DSP-driven I/O units became the latest range of products to receive AVnu Alliance certification. The Hono range brings the total number of product lines with certification since the AVnu process began to still only four (joining Extreme Networks’ Summit X440 Series switches, the Crown DCi Network Display series amplifier and Meyer Sound’s CAL column array speaker). Q www.avnu.org

A new addition to Tannoy’s VX Series range of premium-grade passive sound reinforcement loudspeakers debuted at ISE. The VX 8M is a full-range dual-concentric loudspeaker the TC Group brand says provides a “compact, yet punchy and sonically vibrant solution” for small-to-mediumscale performance sound reinforcement. With a tightly controlled 90° dispersion for optimum coverage and forward gain, the VX 8M has a peak output of 119dB and a recommended amplifier power of 260W. www.tcgroup.tc The recently launched System 10 PRO wireless solution formed the centrepiece of the Audio-Technica stand at ISE, where it was shown alongside the new ATND971 condenser boundary microphone and ATND8677 mic desk stand.

System 10 PRO offers a half-rack chassis designed to house one or two receiver units which can be operated either within the chassis or removed, mounted remotely and connected via ethernet cable. Receivers can be placed up to 300ft (90m) away, and up to five chassis can be linked with an included RJ12 cable to build a multichannel system, enabling simultaneous use of up to 10 channels. www.audio-technica.com Yamaha Music Europe launched two brand-new lowprofile ceiling loudspeakers at ISE. The VXC-F speakers mark the latest addition to Yamaha’s Commercial Installation Solutions (CIS) range. www.yamaha.com

AVnu Alliansce spokesman Andy Gothard at the ISE show

Somewhat ambiguous messaging on the AVB booth, it could be argued…

AVNU Alliance is preparing to elect a new president and marketing workgroup (MWG) chairman following the departure of Rick Kreifeldt from both roles last month.

Kreifeldt is reported to have left founding alliance member Harman in January after 20 years’ service – and therefore, under AVnu’s rules, can no longer serve in any position with the organisation.

Andy Gothard, spokesman

for AVnu at the ISE show in Amsterdam, confirmed that Greg Schlechter of Intel is now serving as pro tem AVnu MWG chair; Yong Kim, senior director, CTO office, networking, for Broadcom, is filling the presidential role until elections are complete.

This will be conducted by the membership “in due course”, said Gothard.

Founded in 2009, the AVnu Alliance is a consortium

HUNGARY A VOID Acoustics sound system is the centrepiece of Budapest’s newest nightclub, the 700-capacity Tesla, which opened on the site of a former electrical transformer in December. The system, which incorporates the first ever installation of white Nexus speakers, was designed and installed by Void’s Hungarian

distributor, Erlatech Stage.

“The owners, Neon Groupm, wanted a loudspeaker system with a prominent design [that would] make the club really individual [...] and be able to easily handle anything from live bands to electronic music,” says Erlatech’s Atilla Tompó. www.voidacoustics.com

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installation NORWAY

Symetrix is the solution for all-new Hajfell Future expansion capability and Dante support were among the factors that influenced system designer Bjørn Fjeld for his upgrade of the famous ski slope IN 1994, the Hafjell ski resort, near Lillehammer, fell under the global media spotlight when Norway hosted the Winter Olympic Games.

Two decades on and Hafjell is preparing to stage events as part of the 2016 Youth Olympic Games and, more imminently, the FIS Alpine Junior World Championships – a hectic programme that has understandably prompted a review of the national slalom slope’s technological capabilities.

Financed by the Norwegian government, the project leaders enlisted Drobak-based audio distributor and systems designer Norsk Lydteknikk to devise the revamped sound set-up.

Company principal Bjørn Fjeld confirms that forthcoming sports events and the need to accommodate future expansion were at the top of the priority list as he set about designing the new system.

“The new equipment had to be of the best possible quality to deliver both speech and music, and capable of being adapted to future requirements,” says Fjeld.

“In line with these expectations, the Symetrix SymNet Radius 12x8 DSP was selected because of its ‘studio sound quality’ and powerful support for Dante media networking.”

The Symetrix device takes its place amongst a notably high-end spec that also includes Community R.5-66 and R2-474 loudspeakers (located in a total of six zones), Ecler DPA 2000

The cold doesn’t bother Community’s R.5-66

and DPA 1400 amplifiers and microphones from Clock Audio.

Although Fjeld and his team undertook all design work and constructed the racks, the actual on-site installation was carried out by Lillehammer-based firm Østbye og Sletmoen.

Fjeld highlights the “robustness and easy-touse nature” of the SymNet Radius 12x8 DSP, adding that the combination of Community loudspeakers and the Symetrix unit “also gives us the opportunity to utilise Community’s digital FIR filters (1024 taps) in the Radius’s speaker-management module to help deliver optimal performance of the whole system.” It should also be noted that deployment occupies significantly less rack-space than the previous system.

It’s an exciting time for Norsk Lydteknik, which added Symetrix to its burgeoning distribution portfolio a little under 12 months ago. “It’s early days, of course, but we are already seeing some great sales for the SymNet Radius line and the Jupiter app-based DSPs,” he reports. “We are looking forward to communicating the advantages of selecting Symetrix equipment to an even broader base of users in 2015.” Q www.clockaudio.com www.communitypro.com www.ecler.com www.symetrix.com www.hafjell.no www.norsklydteknikk.com www.oogs.no

“Isn’t it lovely, darling?”

“Rather! Thanks, Symetrix!”

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installation UNITED STATES

The Roscoe rationale

The new president of Renkus-Heinz is laying a solid foundation for growth, says Frank Wells With twin BA degrees topped with an MBA, Roscoe Anthony is the new man at the helm of loudspeaker specialist Renkus-Heinz. His previous achievements include taking over a Los Angeles advertising agency, where he was named one of Advertising Age magazine’s top 100 people in advertising, his team winning over 50 creative awards while he built the agency from eight associates to over 30, with an 10-fold sales increase in his 14-year tenure.

“From there, I moved into pro audio,” says Anthony, “working at JBL Pro during the development and introduction of their EON line. After JBL I had the opportunity to work at Tascam for five years, and then at Califone, where I was president for 12 years.” From the education technology-focused Califone, Anthony returned to more mainstream professional audio pursuits seven months ago. “Early last year I began discussions with Harro Heinz,” he elaborates, “who offered me the incredible opportunity to become president at RenkusHeinz. I started in September 2014 and have been running as fast as I can to keep up with this team.”

Through hard-won experience from his history of senior management positions within the audio industry, Anthony says he’s gained a “deep understanding of the business model” (that is, sourcing, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, sales and administration).

“The breadth of products my previous companies manufactured and distributed have brought me in contact with the key players in the global ecosystem of this industry. This background of success helps to define our direction as we move through product development, both organically as well as acquired.”

Southern California-based professional loudspeaker maker Renkus-Heinz operates with a “traditional” organisational structure, Anthony reveals.

“We have 12 people involved in worldwide sales and marketing

implementation, and nine people managing product development.

Overall we have 90 associates working on everything from manufacturing to management.

Besides manufacturing here in SoCal, we also have a factory in China.”

Engineer and entrepreneur Harro Heinz founded RenkusHeinz in 1979. “His vision still permeates the facility and the culture,” says Anthony.

“Harro has focussed on highly engineered products to fit specific needs that end users demanded. We consciously concentrate our attention on markets that demand highly engineered, reliable solutions.

A great example of that culture/ philosophy at work is our ICONYX line of steerable arrays. We developed the ICONYX line to focus on very specific markets. If you take an end user through an ICONYX product demonstration, there isn’t a question they’ll select ours. They’re simply the world’s best steerable systems, and they deliver on every promise one expects from steerable systems.

The customer doesn’t have to compromise on a RenkusHeinz product. No trade-offs.

We’ve reached that through scientific product development and end-user demand.” To perpetuate and build on that success, Anthony says his focus as president is “to help us as a group to prioritise our energies, to deliver for those end users who require the type of product that only Renkus-Heinz can deliver.”

Renkus-Heinz has become a global leader in providing loudspeaker systems for fixed installations. “We’re very successful in houses of worship, transportation terminals and stadiums,” Anthony explains.

“Obviously, because we can customise both colour and weather resistance to a job’s requirements, we’re called upon to fill large and small orders to meet those custom demands.

Essentially we’re in every fixed install market and – quite nicely – sales are spread evenly across the globe.” For the future, Anthony suggests portable

Roscoe Anthony: “We’re a unique company with unique products, so we never really compare ourselves to the competition”

“We never really compare ourselves to the competition.

If we did, we’d be building me-too products like everyone else.

We’re just not that company” Roscoe Anthony, president, Renkus-Heinz systems as an area of potential growth suited to Renkus-Heinz’s particular expertise.

While Anthony says the company pays due attention to its competition, he adds that Renkus-Heinz spends “far more of our time and energies on getting to know our markets, talking with end users, and using that information to drive our business. We’re a unique company with unique products, so we never really compare

ourselves to the competition. If we did, we’d be building me-too products like everyone else.

We’re just not that company.”

To poise Renkus-Heinz for growth, they are investing in intellectual property, “bringing on new loudspeaker talent as well as engineers who will round out a group of talented mechanical, firmware and software associates,” says Anthony. “These additions are laying a solid foundation for

the growth we’ve got planned for the next three years.”

Just six months into his presidency, Anthony says he’d “be lying if I said that I’ve just seamlessly reintegrated into the loudspeaker segment,” though he’s relishing his role and is enthusiastic about the potential he’s discovering in the market sector. “It’s a sector that has changed dramatically, and I’m thoroughly enjoying that sense of attacking something new. I sense a major change in our industry overall, as industry veterans, entrepreneurial founders, and others begin to cede their companies and positions to the next generation. I anticipate that the very foundations we’re all so comfortable with will change dramatically in the next few years, and I’m thrilled to be taking part in that change.” Q www.renkus-heinz.com

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CONTACTS

March 2015 l 57

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Editor Dave Robinson drobinson@nbmedia.com

hither&dither

Deputy Editor Jon Chapple jchapple@nbmedia.com Managing Editor Jo Ruddock jruddock@nbmedia.com Advertising Manager Ryan O’Donnell rodonnell@nbmedia.com Commercial Manager Darrell Carter dcarter@nbmedia.com Sales Executive Rian Zoll-Khan rzoll-khan@nbmedia.com Head of Design Jat Garcha jgarcha@nbmedia.com Production Executive Jason Dowie jdowie@nbmedia.com Digital Content Manager Tim Frost tfrost@nbmedia.com

Hither and sofa The NAMM show never fails to disappoint with its ‘Did I really just see that?’ merry-go-round Swoon! Yes, that’s right, ladies: it’s the one and only Chesney Hawkes, helping Sennheiser to launch its chucklesome D1 And Only song cover campaign at NAMM. More details at www.sennheiser-d1.com

Office Manager Lianne Davey ldavey@nbmedia.com Correspondents: Mike Clark (Italy), Marc Maes (Belgium/ Netherlands), Phil Ward (UK) Contributors: David Davies, Kevin Hilton, Frank Wells, Neal Romanek, Josh Srago

PSNEurope NewBay Media, 1st Floor, Suncourt House, 18–26 Essex Road, London N1 8LN. Editorial: +44 20 7354 6002 Sales: +44 20 7354 6000

According to its creator (Peter Janis of Radial Engineering), this screw with a ‘grabbable’ head was “the highlight of the NAMM Show”

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Nice touch for snack fans on the QSC booth. Inside each fortune cookie it reads: “Your patience has been rewarded. Learn more about the new GXD Series at qsc.com”

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While you might not be able to locate, let along afford, an original Minimoog, you could always plump for this sofa… courtesy of the Bob Moog Foundation

Please send all contributions for possible publication to drobinson@nbmedia.com

And a quick ISE interloper... It’s all about digital signage, this show, right?

58 l March 2015

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industrytalk

Going Dutch Gineke van Urk has been managing director of one of the Netherlands’ oldest pro-audio companies – Amsterdam-based distributor Iemke Roos Audio – since 2003. Jon Chapple drank her coffee and ate her sandwiches at Integrated Systems Europe last month As MD of Iemke Roos Audio – Dutch distributor of Active Audio, Audio-Technica, Vicoustic, Nexo, Symetrix, Genelec and DAS Audio – Gineke van Urk is one of the Netherlands’ most prominent pro-audio personalities. Working under Iemke Roos until his death in 1988, van Urk has since steered the company through acquisitions, bankruptcy, the euro and the Great Recession – and lived to tell the tale…

For those unfamiliar with Iemke Roos, tell us a bit about the history of the company…

Our company was founded in 1969 by a guy called Iemke Roos, and it was actually one of the first pro-audio companies in the Netherlands. The first brands we had were ElectroVoice and Crown, which came from the US – and that was kind of special, because nobody [else] had that. Slowly but surely, [we signed up] more brands – mostly American brands, because in Europe there was not that much produced – and Iemke was [also] very successful as a manufacturer of DJ mixers at that time.

In ’88, Iemke passed away at the age of 43. About a day before his passing, he sold the company to a French firm called SCV Audio. In 1992, the borders in Europe opened – there was free traffic of people and products – and they had a vision that they would have companies in several European countries, so they bought us first and then bought a company in London and one in Belgium.

Finally, they sold the whole group to a large company involved in audio but also in all kinds of other stuff, which went bankrupt in 2002.

That was a problem for us because we were strong within the group of companies – we were making money, we had some money in the bank – but, all of a sudden, because we were

part of this group we couldn’t get any supplies unless we paid beforehand. So that made it a bit difficult…

So, I made a plan and I bought Iemke Roos from the group. That was in 2003. And [at first] it seemed to go all well, but [before long] there were brands leaving us and a crisis set in… But, finally, we’re here.

When would you say things started to get back on track?

I would say that 2008 to 2012 were very bad years for us— Obviously exacerbated by the world economy at the time…

Yeah, yeah. And in 2013, it got a bit better – we saw the light at the end of the tunnel. We had been a rich company in terms of not too many debts and a building in the company that we’d already paid for, so that’s how we managed to survive.

And in 2014, it went much better… and this year it’s going really well.

How healthy is the Dutch market in 2015? What’s the view from inside the country?

It’s getting much better in the country and in our main markets.

We used to do a lot of business in MI – music stores – but that is almost gone; the traditional MI stores can hardly survive because of the competition from the large internet retailers. So, we’ve lost a serious part of our marketshare there – we have some […], but it’s not our main business.

What we’re doing more and more of are complete projects.

We don’t do it ourselves because we only sell through dealers or contractors, but we’re seeing that most of the contractors we do business with are getting into a much better shape.

We recently started selling a brand called Vicoustic. Since we took them on board, that

business has been unbelievable.

(PSNEurope visited Vicoustic’s headquarters in Oporto last summer [PSNEurope July 2014, ‘Veni, vidi, vici’].)

They make some great products.

It’s amazing how much difference acoustic panelling can make…

I haven’t been there, but some of the guys from our company went there last year […] and were impressed by the demonstration Vicoustic made.

We have one customer who is very much into the hardcore DJ business – he’s actually working on the studio of DJ Hardwell right now – and he says it’s a great product.

And it doesn’t have any software! It doesn’t have a power cord! Just stick it to the wall, and if you don’t like it you can pull it off and buy something new.

How long ago did you take them on?

I think it’s now, what – fourand-a-half years ago? I wasn’t too keen […] but the guy that does all the studios had found

the product and had found a distributor in Holland to do it for him. But it was a difficult relationship because the distributor didn’t have anything in stock, so he came to me and said, “Why don’t you take it on?” And I said, “Oh, man, it’s bulky and my warehouse will be full and I don’t know what to stock”, and he said, “I’ll help you.”

So now when we order, we call him first!

It’s been doing very well for us. Better than expected.

And Nexo seems to be going from strength to strength…

Yes, it’s wonderful product and company that we love to do business with. But it’s not always easy: There is a lot of competition, and The Netherlands is not a huge market where we see that some of the major rental companies have their own distribution companies, too, so they won’t buy from me!

You’re a female managing director in a male-dominated

sector. Is that something you often think about? Do you see yourself as carrying the torch for women in pro audio?

In the beginning, when Iemke got ill and I started to do part of his job, at the first international meeting I went to somebody opened the door and said, “Good morning, gentlemen!”.

And I was like, “Ahem!” [laughs].

So, in the beginning it was strange – I was quite young; I was 28 when [Roos died] – but, fortunately, Iemke made many friends internationally and they all sort of took care of me in the beginning. And, nowadays, I’m in pro audio but I’m not a technician […] but I still feel totally accepted.

My team has been with me for many years, but during the time when I was hiring people I would ask them how they’d feel about working in this business and having a woman as a boss… but it doesn’t matter to most people.

You become one of the guys! Q www.iemkeroos.nl