32 l October 2013
www.psneurope.com SOUNDBITES live BELGIUM
Backstage Academy CIC, the charitable arm of the backstage skills training centre in Wakefield, UK, has announced it will be offering scholarships for both its Foundation Degree in Live Events Production this November and its Ready for Work Training Programme. Applicants must be aged 18+, be from the EU and demonstrate exceptional reasons why they deserve to be awarded a scholarship.
www.backstage-academy.co.uk
POOLgroup’s Meyer Sound LEO system helped overcome the effects of strong winds at the 2013 Deichbrand Festival in Cuxhaven, Germany, which attracted around 35,000 people per day to an airfield near the ocean. Featuring 48 LEO-M line array loudspeakers, the main stage system was augmented by eight MICA loudspeakers spread across the stage lip. Low frequencies were handled by 30 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements.
www.meyersound.com
Enrique Iglesias’ FOH engineer Tim Holder uses his Metric Halo ULN-8 interface to overcome sound quality issues with the tour’s live digital console. “I send stems to my ULN-8 via AES and sum them in Metric Halo’s MIO Console,” he explained. Holder adds that Metric Halo’s SpectraFoo, ChannelStrip, Character, and HaloVerb software also play a major role in Iglesias’ live sound.
www.mhlabs.com
Solid State Logic’s new Live console, announced at Prolight + Sound in April, is now shipping. The first three were delivered to the UK’s Britannia Row for use on Peter Gabriel’s forthcoming European Back to Front tour, with another two having been shipped to SGroup in France for the imminent Amel Bent tour. Console manufacturing production for 2013 has been sold out since July, says SSL.
www.solidstatelogic.com
Forest National joins Brussels’ Sportpaleis Group, Paleis 12 opens
All change for venues in the heart of the European Union, reports Marc Maes
AS OF 1 October, the Sportpaleis Group will enter the management of Vorst Nationaal (Forest National), the famous Brussels ‘temple of rock’ built in 1971. Music Hall will retain ownership of the venue but the Sportpaleis Group will handle the day-to-day management. The two parties signed a framework agreement for the collaboration. The deal aims to strengthen
both organisations in their core business and allow them to continue to develop and become even more successful. The Sportpaleis Group now comprises the Antwerp Sportpaleis itself, Lotto Arena, Ethias Arena and now the 8,000-capacity Forest National.
UNITED KINGDOM Full Fat fires out new 4-channel amps By Erica Basnicki
UKPOWERamp manufacturer Full Fat Audio is now shipping its FFA-4004 and 6004 4-channel amplifiers with onboard digital signal processing, as featured in PSNEurope March 2013. Liverpool’s professional audio
retailer and hire facility Studiocare has already purchased 10 FFA-6004 DSP AES VCA units for its hire department. The onboard DSP with multichannel amplifier was especially attractive to Studiocare
FFA’s new DSP amp in use by Polish distributor F1 Sound Dystry
rentals manager Andrew Culshaw because of the amplifier’s “versatile combination of technology”, says Full Fat’s Dave Millard, who added that around 75 units had shipped in total so far.
The DSP hardware has two inputs that can accept AES digital or analogue signals. Unusually there are six outputs which drive the four amplifier channels within the FFA-4004 or FFA-6004 and two auxiliary XLR outputs that allows connection to an adjacent stereo bass amplifier or any other amplifier that requires a processed input signal.
The DSP is controlled using an Ethernet connection on the rear of each unit, which can also be networked together to build larger systems.
Users can design audio systems with a tool box containing the same filter, parametric EQ, limiter, delay, gain and phase options that are expected in a modern loudspeaker management system. A compressor/limiter on the inputs and outputs is also included. Each output channel features
voltage controlled amplifiers (VCAs) and can be remotely volume controlled by a simple wall-mounted potentiometer. The Class D amplifier
hardware is based on the proven FFA-4004 and -6004 amplifiers which have power outputs of 4 x 1,000W @ 4 ohms and 4 x 1,500W @ 4 ohms. n
www.fullfataudio.com
over will have only minimal effect on the audio rental business. Jan Vereecke, co-CEO of the Sportpaleis Group, told the press (24 Sept) while announcing the Night of The Proms (for which EML supplies the kit), that “for the time being, such an event will not be staged in Forest National”. In other venue news, Paleis 12 opened at the Heysel event site on Friday 13 September, co- financed by the Brussels Expo group and the city of Brussels. One of the Heysel exhibition
Vorst Nationaal (Forest National) becomes part of the Sportpaleis Group “Forest National is well loved
by the world’s leading artists: it is by far one of the most charming concert halls in Europe. Our entire team is looking forward to working together with the staff of Forest National in order to reinforce its (inter)national position,” says Jan Van Esbroeck, CEO of the Sportpaleis Group. “We have worked for 20 years to get Forest National to where it
is today. I am sure that the Sportpaleis Group is the right partner to take the venue into the future,” echoes Geert Allaert, managing director of Music Hall. As far as the pro-audio industry is concerned, the PA companies approached by PSNEurope said it was too early to comment on the news. On paper, with Forest National mainly hosting (international) tours, the management take-
halls built in 1989, Paleis 12 has been completely refurbished to host concerts, sports events and congress sessions. With a capacity of 18,000 standing, the venue sits between the Forest National and Sportpaleis (23,000 capacity) in terms of size. Paleis 12 marks the first step in the NEO-project, aiming at a total make-over of the Heysel exposition park. n
www.forestnational.be www.paleis12.com
For the latest live news
www.psneurope.com/live
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60