“I enjoyed this year’s staying-up-late-in- Amsterdam
competition more than most”
NEVER BEFORE, in my experience, has the difference between two trade shows been so apparent. IBC was as buoyant as it always is. In fact, I enjoyed this year’s staying-up-late-in-Amsterdam competition more than most, and that was down to three things: some decent news stories to cover; a trip to the magnificent Wisseloord Studios, courtesy of Chris Hollebone and Merging Technologies; and, unexpectedly, the joint keynote address by producer will.i.am and Intel’s Johan Jervøe – a masterstroke by the IBC, as the pair brought an entertaining vision of how technology could be, as well as some fun and glamour to the proceedings. I wish I could say the same about PLASA. The sessions and workshops were well attended and proved to be quite the success, especially the Olympics panel. Pre-show, the PLASA team couldn’t stress enough that the education section of the show was going to be strong, and they certainly delivered on that promise. But all I seemed to hear from people on the showfloor was moans about an excess of lighting and too little audio; and concerns about the move to ExCeL. Concerns that were raised usually within the first five minutes of any given conversation! Now, I support PLASA’s move to ExCeL – for any number of reasons. And I know the transport system works, plus that there are adequate facilities in Docklands to placate a hungry and thirsty rock’n’roll crowd – you just have to seek those places out. But CEO Matthew Griffiths has not got an easy task ahead of him. Read what he’s proposing to do over the page...
Dave Robinson Twitter: @psneurope
IN THIS ISSUE...
NEWS 4 PLASA CEO explains plans for 2013 5 Ken Giles retires and sells SoundField to TSL 6 Industry appointments 8 Key pro-audio events and expos
TECHNOLOGY 10 Product review: Earthworks SR40V condenser mic 12 New products
Show preview AES 2012
STUDIO 16 MPG ramps up activity ahead of Awards 18 Lewitt Audio defies the odds 20 Revealing the secrets of Osea Island 22 Feature: Cables and connectors
LIVE 37 Sennheiser launches Digital 9000 system 39 First Midas PRO1 buyers named 40 John Meyer celebrates Gottelier Award win 42 D.A.S. at Arenal Sound 46 SSE flip-flops at V Festival 48 Wilderness Festival unmasked
INSTALL 50 Be OPEN Sound Portal lands in London 52 World’s largest RTS intercom system for Bolshoi Theatre
53 First OCV install for Tannoy
BACK PAGES 65 Hither & Dither 66 Interview: Stephan Flock, DirectOut Technologies