The recent Long Beach One Lovereggae festival saw Harmony Event Productions providing sound reinforcement for three days of music from 50 acts, including headliners Slightly Stoopid, Dirty Heads and Rebelution, as well as 311, Shwayze, SOJA, Iration, Steel Pulse, J Boog and Tha Dogg Pound. Handling the primary mix was an Allen & Heath dLive S5000 Surface and DM64 MixRack.

Los Angeles-based Harmony has a range of Allen & Heath equipment in its hire stock, including Qu Series mixers, and GLD-80 and dLive S Class systems. The company provides sound, lighting, video and event production for festivals like One Love along with concerts, weddings and corporate events.

‘After trying dLive, most engineers will fall in love with its ease of set-up and sonic quality,’ says Harmony Founder, Shawn Ellis. ‘In addition, the support in the field I have received has been invaluable. There are a lot of console flavours in the industry but for ease of use, quality plug-ins, expandability, and durability, dLive is my cherry.’

More: www.allen-heath.com

An Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system was called in for monitor and live recording duties at the recent anniversary concert of Ecuador star, Paulina Tamayo.

Held at the Ruminahui Colluseum in Quit, the concert celebrated the singer’s 45-year career, and was attended by 14,000 people. Ronny Lopez from rental company, Maxi Audio, selected the dLive system to manage monitors and the multitrack recording feed for a live DVD production. The system comprised an S7000 Surface with a DM64 MixRack fitted with a Dante network card.

The technical specifications for the console included 52 input channels, 26 outputs for wedges and in-ears, and the possibility to record everything on multitrack. ‘I started looking at the options and dLive won hands down,’ explains the show’s monitor and recording engineer, Ronny Lopez.

‘This was the first time I have used dLive, and I was very impressed,’ he reports. ‘For me, the stand out features are the 96kHz processing and 26 softkeys, which provide immediate hands-on control. dLive is simple to configure for live or multitrack recording and is very easy to use – it’s incredibly intuitive for live sound. From the first note, you feel confident and you have everything within sight.’

‘The clubs aren’t concert venues,’ says Media Director Dean Laber, from US live music bar chain, Howl at the Moon. ‘We encourage the audience to get close to the stage, interact with the players and have a good time.’

With locations across the US, Howl at the Moon uses duelling pianists to provide an interactive audience experience. The audio system has recently been standardised using an Allen & Heath Qu-Pac rackmount mixer and AR-2412 Audio Rack to serve each location.

‘Since the players move around a lot and the stage is relatively small, we were challenged by having wedge monitors,’ Laber  explains. ‘Now, we’ve upgraded the clubs to the Qu-Pac mixers and converted to in-ear monitoring systems. That brought improved clarity of sound and reduced the stage volume.’

Howl at the Moon performers control both their own house feed and their own monitor mix using Allen & Heath’s Qu-Pad iPad App or Qu-You iPhone App.

‘We do requests and Top 40 tunes so, if the song calls for an echo or a chorus effect or a doubler, some of the players will use the app to add that to their mix,’ Laber says. ‘And, I use the Qu-Pac’s graphic EQs to adjust the system to the room and to each performer. I’m a huge fan of the [AR-2412] dSnake. It’s made everything easier – cabling and routing problems have just gone away.

‘I think we’ve come to a great point in the quality of our sound. The Qu-Pac’s preamps have a nice warmth to them and the mixer has lots of headroom,’ he adds. ‘I’m really impressed with the equalisation section as well. It doesn’t have the harshness I expect from a digital mixer, so the quality of sound is there along with the ease of use and functionality. It’s also great to have recallable setups, so no matter what kind of adjustments might be changed during the performance, we can always recover the original set-up.

‘The iPad integration has been huge for us and the Qu-Pac and the other things we’ve invested in have really made the players more comfortable – and our sound is exponentially better than it was before.’

More: www.allen-heath.com

R&B artist and songwriter Musiq Soulchild (aka Taalib Johnson) is currently engaged in a US tour in support of his seventh album, Life on Earth, with audio production provided by Digital World Live. The Atlanta-based live sound training company is using an Allen & Heath dLive S7000 Surface and DM48 MixRack for FOH, and a dLive S5000 Surface with DM64 MixRack for monitors.

Prior to the tour, Musiq had advised Digital World Live’s Harry Timothee – also Musiq’s Production Manager – that he wanted a ‘new sound’, one that would bring a ‘prestige’ quality to his performances. ‘So we researched new gear starting with the dLive,’ Timothee recalls. ‘After a few days of rehearsal, everyone was blown away.’

Digital World Live also added a Shure wireless microphone system with Dante output. ‘Now, with the dLive’s Dante card, we’ve got a digital signal throughout tjhe entire system.’

Tonderick Watkins mixes Musiq’s FOH on the S7000 Surface, noting that, as an R&B singer, Musiq’s ballads often feature softer, falsetto vocals requiring a higher gain setting with an accompanying increase in hiss noise: ‘With the dLive, we’re running at 96/24 and we didn’t get the noise.’

Timothee mixes in-ear and side-fill monitors on the S5000 Surface. He uses several dLive creative tools on vocals including ADT and a tube preamp emulator, and also a multi-band compressor on drums. He uses an Allen & Heath ME-1 Personal Mixer to for Musiq and the band useseveral talk-back mics for ques.

Both engineers use scenes to set up the dLive for different songs – Timothee regards the dLive’s scenes as more flexible and intuitive than the ‘snapshots’ on their previous digital mixer. Both engineers also use dLive layers to manage the show’s 48 mics, direct feeds and prerecorded tracks. They record Musiq’s performances to Tracks Live and Studio One set-ups and play them back during rehearsals using dLive’s virtual soundcheck. Musiq’s musicians also use the recordings to update their show files during free time.

‘We’ve always wanted Musiq’s sound to be in the same class as a pop or rock artist,’ Timothee  says. ‘And after our first show with the dLive at Wolf Creek in Atlanta, Musiq sais, ‘Hey, man, this is the sound I want. It’s crispy, clear and pristine. That is the board I want to go with’.’

Carrying an Allen & Heath dLive S Class digital mixing system comprising a dLive S5000 Surface and DM48 MixRack, Belgian sound engineer, Jan De Rycke, has completed the second leg of the In the Shadow of Toon Hermans tour.

This covered 34 cities in Belgium and The Netherlands, marking the centenary of the birth of Dutch comedian, singer and writer, Toon Hermans. The tour saw his friend and manager, Herman Van Hove, collaborate with singer, Lissa Meyvis.

‘dLive sounds great and has a huge amount of processing power, flexibility and useful plug-ins,’ De Rycke reports. ‘Details like the selectable and steep HPF – the most underestimated parameter on any sound desk – and the gain reduction spectrograph, show Allen & Heath has got it right. Another benefit for me is full redundancy throughout the system – which is essential in high-end live sound.

‘Working on dLive is fast and the touchscreens are very responsive but at the same time it offers enough buttons, faders and rotaries so you are not forced into an “ipad-touch-style” of mixing,’ he adds. ‘If you want to change EQ on the screen, it’s there. But personally, I prefer the 12 dedicated EQ buttons, just like when I started out 17 years ago. Running at 96kHz with 0.7ms latency while being bus aligned at the same time is another strong point. And then there’s the expandability with five 128-channel slots, tie lines, IP controllers and ME1s – dLive is amazing.’

The dLive system was supplied by local Allen & Heath distributor, XLR.

Sound duties for the opening ceremony of the World Games 2017 fell to Polish rental firm GMB Pro Sound, with two Allen & Heath dLive S Class systems in the mix.

The 10^th World Games was hosted in Wrocław, commencing with an opening ceremony involving 400 artists – including a symphony orchestra, dance groups and music stars, such as Radzimir ‘Jimek’ Dębski, Steve Nash & Turntable Orchestra, Dawid Kwiatkowski, Kamil Bednarek, Igor Herbut, and BeMy – held in the recently refurbished Wrocław Stadium

GMB used a dLive S7000 Surface with DM64 MixRack to manage monitors for the performance of the Jacek Piskorz band, with two daisy-chained ME-U hubs and 19 ME-1 mini mixers for the musicians’ personal monitoring. A second S7000 Surface with DM64 MixRack was used to manage monitors during the concert of modern music composer/producer, Jimek, and the Steve Nash & Turntable Orchestra.

‘The World Games is a hugely prestigious, complex and ambitious event, in front of an audience of thousands,’ says GMB Pro Sound Production Manager, Remigiusz Kasztelnik. ‘It is essential that our equipment is compatible with other systems, intuitive and fast, and reliable. dLive fulfilled its duties perfectly.’

More: www.allen-heath.com

Mainline Show Productions has added an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system to its hire stock.

‘We were early adopters of Allen & Heath’s iLive T series, recognising its power and features were unbeatable for the price at that time,’ Mainline’s Rob Lorton says. ‘Clearly, dLive has been built and developed from those principles – it’s a great mixing system with a top sound and flexibility. Again, this system is superb for the price.’

Supplied by Wigwam (Audio-Technica’ network dLive specialist reseller), to the Manchester-based event supply company, the system comprises a dLive S5000 surface with DM48 MixRack and DX32 Expander fitted with analogue and digital inputs and outputs.

‘We love the doubling of features since iLive – such as 64 mix channels, 16 rack effects, more responsive, granular level metering on channel strips and so on,’ Lorton  says. ‘The user interface is excellent, particularly the touchscreens and I/O matrix. Being able to zoom in and click to set things is great - I also like to be able to zoom right out to see an overview of settings easily – it saves delving through menus to check individual I/O numbers.

The system has already proved itself on first outings with Mainline clients, and the company is set to also take delivery of a further S3000 surface and DM32 MixRack:

Commenting on Mainline’s first dLive S5000 and DM48 hire outing – for a theatre show with Pink Floyd tribute act Manc Floyd – Lorton says: ‘We spent a good few days in a pre-production virtual soundcheck to get familiar with the desk. We used multitrack recordings from a previous gig on a Dante playback. By the time we arrived at the venue, we’d built up a reasonable mix and good confidence with the desk. 32 input channels were used, including playback at FOH. Six monitor mixes were also controlled from FOH. All vocal channels were “digitally split” onto separate inputs for monitors. Compression could then be used on the main mix vocals without affecting monitors, avoiding feedback pitfalls.

‘This was band sound engineer Craig Adams’ first digital desk experience, but he took to dLive very quickly at handover. Mainline were on hand throughout for any desk queries. dLive was rock solid throughout and the band were really happy.

‘We believe dLive will be a game-changer in UK live sound and the investment in the systems should future-proof our sound desk stock for several years,’ he adds. ‘We’re also looking forward to how dLive will evolve with new feature releases, as iLive did.’

A combination Allen & Heath dLive and ME system was used on the 20^th anniversary tour of El Gusto es Nuestro, acollaborative albumby renowned Spanish artists, Ana Belén, Joan Manuel Serrat, Miguel Ríos and Víctor Manuel.

Supplied by Sorter Sound Professional, a dLive digital mixing system – comprising a S7000 Surface with DM64 MixRack – and a set of 16 ME-1 personal mixers with a ME-U hub, managed the complex monitoring requirements of the four main artists and additional 14 musicians on stage.

A regular dLive user, José María Rosillo is a sound engineer and producer, winner of two Latin Grammy Awards, and sound design for the Benicàssim Festival. He requested dLive for the tour to provide 128 channels and 64 mix buses.

‘dLive offers exceptional configuration possibilities, and at the same time, is very reliable. This is a very solid system,’ he says. ‘During the planning stages, I realised there was only a handful of consoles on the market that would be able to manage the number of buses and capacity of the tour. dLive is a very practical system to deal with large projects, packaged in a compact format, and it is easy to use.’

The tour visited 33 venues across the country, entertaining 500,000 fans.

More: www.allen-heath.com

Staged at Naples’ Teatro Delle Palme theatre, the recent Noi Per Napolifeatured waltzes, classic folks songs and operetta performed by members of Naples’ San Carlo Opera House. The full concert sound was managed by an Allen & Heath Qu-SB ultra compact digital rackmount mixer.

Audio requirements were handled by PA company Megaride, who were responsible for the chorus of 40 people, a piano, harp, two violins and a cello, as well as principal singers, two tenors, a baritone and a soprano. The faderless Qu-SB with additional AB168 IO rack provided FOH and monitor mixes, which were set up and controlled via the Qu-Pad app.

‘Qu-SB is a fantastically flexible, fast mixer,’ sound engineer Luigi Esposito reports. ‘Simply plug in your inputs on stage, and then enjoy the freedom to set up your channels and change your settings from anywhere in the venue using the Qu-Pad app. The app controls everything, and runs without any problems or interference.

‘With AB168, you have 32 input channels available for all patching and routing. The ability to configure a custom fader strip provides the possibility to assign channels in DCA and Groups and work with only one screen for the entire performance.’

More: www.allen-heath.com

ABC Professional Sound & Light has purchased an Allen & Heath S Class dLive digital mixing system, adding a S7000 Surface with DM48 MixRack to its extensive hire stock.

A top Slovenia PA company, ABC’s new system has already been used on a number  of events, invluding the Triskel Festival in Italy, Idrija Lace festival, concerts for Pinko Tomažič choir and the Komen wind orchestra, and tour dates with well-known Slovenian bands including Big Foot Mama, Vlado Kreslin and Kingston.

‘dLive has a simple interface, and is equipped with Allen & Heath sound and build quality,’ says ABC owner, Bojan Dolgan. ‘The preamps sound natural, and the FX section is simply great with fabulous reverb, delays and compressors. We are planning to buy the smaller S3000 system for the other events. We love it.’

UK distributor Audio-Technica has welcomed the Audio Sales Division of AC Entertainment Technologies Limited (AC-ET) to its network of Allen & Heath dLive specialist resellers.

AC-ET operates across the live/touring, installation, A/V and rental markets, from offices in High Wycombe and Leeds, providing services ranging from simple supply to system design and specification. A long-standing Allen & Heath supplier, AC-ET’s Audio Sales Division adds the dLive range of consoles and MixRacks from both the S Class and new C Class series to its line-up.

As a specialist dLive reseller, it is able to offer comprehensive advice, training and support to customers looking to invest in the digital mixing system.

‘We are extremely pleased to add the dLive range of digital consoles to our product portfolio,’ says AC-ET Audio Sales Division Senior Audio Sales Executive, Steve Eaton. ‘dLive offers a stunningly original and very intuitive user interface, world class audio quality and attractive pricing, providing our customers with class-leading consoles and a great return on their investment.’

AC Entertainment Technologies Ltd (AC-ET) and Leeds City College have agreed a partnership commencing with the distributor supplying a full range of production technologies to the institution’s new £60m Quarry Hill Campus.

Leeds City College is one of the UK’s largest further education providers, with more than 20,000 students attending its courses. The new campus, which includes the college’s School of Creative Arts, is located in Leeds’ cultural quarter close to institutions such as Leeds Playhouse, Leeds College of Music and Northern Ballet, and the BBC.

To create learning environments where students can achieve their full potential, there is a significant programme of investment in the college’s campuses. This includes offering facilities that allow students to fully develop the skills and experience needed to work in their chosen sector. With the School of Creative Arts’ Media & Performance Production department offering backstage arts courses in technical theatre, TV and film production, it was therefore vital to equip the purpose-built facilities with technologies from some of the most innovative and popular brands.

Having a history supporting the college in various ways for a number of years, AC-ET’s Northern sales office was approached to tender for the supply of technical facilities equipment for Quarry Hill’s 200-seat theatre, dance studios, TV newsroom gallery, film studio, and media suites. AC-ET External Sales Executive, Benjamin Taylor. worked with Jonathan Walters, the company’s UK Sales & Purchasing Director, Neil Vann, AC-ET’s Brand Development Manager and colleagues in the Rigging, Audio and Video sales divisions to compile an extensive equipment list which would meet the college’s detailed technical specification and budgetary requirements.

AC-ET also won the tender for the supply, which included over 80 Chroma-Q and ProLights LED lighting fixtures; Sixty82 truss; Columbus McKinnon chain hoists; Panasonic projectors; Draper screens; HDAnywhere transmission; an Allen & Heath audio control and mixing rack; Martin Audio speakers and Shure digital wireless systems. To connect together the equipment infrastructure, AC-ET supplied Luminex networking products and 2.5km of cable made up of almost 430 units, assembled by the Tourflex Cabling service.

The college opted for a dLive C3500 control surface and CDM48 MixRack, fitted with a Dante 64x64 networking card, for the campus’ soon-to-open theatre. For use by both Theatre Design & Production and Music Production students, the system will also be employed for public performances by theatre companies and community groups during holiday periods and outside of college hours. As such, the new system needed to meet a variety of criteria.

‘We looked at several models from different manufacturers when trying to find a mixing solution to meet the demands of the theatre,’ says Chief Theatre Technician and teacher, Paul Graham-Bell. ‘The Theatre Design and Production students are taught sound design for dance and musical theatre, while Music Production courses cover both live sound and recording, so flexibility was very important. The control surface also needed to be simple enough to learn the basics of mixing, but also sufficiently powerful for students to explore advanced features and techniques. We also wanted to invest in something that was popular within the industry, to allow for meaningful hands-on experience that students can take with them when they qualify.

‘We’ve been delighted with the dLive system,’ he adds. ‘Everything from the ease of integration into our Dante network, to the simplicity of the user interface has confirmed it was the right choice for us. We’re really looking forward to using it in our first season of production in 2020.’

Owing to AC-ET’s strong links to numerous brands at the cutting edge of creative productions, and position as a major international supplier to the performance and broadcast sectors, it will continue to support and assist with the development of the college’s backstage arts courses in the coming years.

‘It’s been fantastic to work with industry specialists with a strong community ethos over the past few years and we’re looking forward to a promising future with AC Entertainment Technologies, nurturing the next generation of backstage artists,’ says Richard Lee, Head of Media & Performance Production at Leeds City College. ‘‘As a college, we pride ourselves on forging relationships with regional businesses to boost the local economy, and this partnership further consolidates our links with the creative arts industry. This equipment is vital to providing a real environment for our students to get the best possible head-start in their career and will provide them with the necessary skills to become industry-ready.’

Initiatives being planned include training days at the Quarry Hill campus hosted by AC-ET’s in-house industry professionals. It will also be looking to provide work experience opportunities, and potentially recruit students for suitable roles in its Leeds office.

‘We are delighted to partner with Leeds City College to help to foster tomorrow’s backstage talent,’ says Jonathan Walters, who also heads AC-ET’s Leeds office. ‘The production industry is driven by creativity and innovation. However, an essential ingredient of this is the people working backstage who possess the technical knowledge and experience needed to deliver it. By ensuring that students are given access to the latest industry-standard equipment, it’s a winning outcome for everyone that will help to meet the needs of employers in our industry.’

Adamson Systems Engineering has appointed Warehouse Sound Services as its latest UK sales partner.

Among the largest suppliers of pro audio equipment in Scotland and the North of England, The Warehouse has added an office Lancashire to its HQ in Edinburgh and branch office in Glasgow in order to support the partnership. The company has also recruited former Bose National Sales Manager Craig Buckley as Brand & Division Manager, alongside Paul Atherton as Business Development Manager.

‘This is an excellent opportunity for both companies,’ says Adamson European Sales Manager, Jasper Ravesteijn. ‘The Warehouse is highly regarded in the industry. To add them as a dealer for our products is a feather in our cap. I am looking forward to working with them and seeing them continue to grow the Adamson brand in the UK.’

‘Adamson is a long established high-end loudspeaker brand that is appearing on many international artist technical riders,’ says The Warehouse Director, Janet Murray. ‘It is gaining wide acclaim in American and mainland Europe among all sizes of rental company and installation. In particular, the E15, E12 and S10 line array loudspeaker systems offer a range of features that – in our opinion – are more advanced than the competition.

‘The live industry is moving forward at pace and it is critical that, as sound professionals, we implement the most advanced systems possible,’ she adds. ‘Adamson is a world leader in the loudspeaker field and we are thrilled to be the comany’s UK sales partner.’

Among Europe’s most prominent production companies, UK-based Adlib serves both rental and installation clients with professional sound, lighting and A/V solutions for almost any requirement.

Reviewing its inventory of multichannel amplifiers, Adlib’s Rob Crossland approached Linea Research: ‘We were looking for a high-powered, four-channel amp to drive our proprietary AA loudspeakers, and we contacted Linea Research to see if we could test one of their new models,’ he explains. ‘We have a well-established preset library for our speaker systems, so onboard DSP with front panel recall was a must, along with network control to keep inventory management in the warehouse straightforward.’

Linea Research provided an 44M20 four-channel amplifier for evaluation. The 44M20 offers 4x 5kW at 2Ω with 96kHz DSP and networked control as standard along with an optional Dante interface.

‘Sonically we were impressed,’ Crossland reports. ‘The 44M20 beat the competition hands down, even when compared to much more expensive alternatives. On subwoofers, the ability to deliver sustained and not just burst power made these amps really stand out. With the 44M20 amplifiers we’re now able to power our smaller systems from a single 8u rack driving four monitor mixes and two FOH stacks compared to the previous 12U-high solution – invaluable when everything has to go in one van with minimal crew. They’re also making an appearance on our larger shows, including powering some of our side fills at the V-Festival.’

‘We have a long standing history with the guys at Linea Research’ adds Adlib Director, Dave Kay. ‘The new processing and amplification platform are testament to a great team of people who can mix cutting edge technologies with core audio values.’

Following three years of innovative design and rigorous beta testing, Linea Research now offers products under its own marque, the first being the M Series of multichannel DSP amplifiers. Aimed at the touring and production markets, the M Series has been rapidly adopted by rental companies worldwide, gaining acclaim for sound quality, efficiency and power delivery. This range include signal processors and installation amplifiers.

UK event specialist Adlib has updated its mixing console inventory, replacing two Midas XL8 desks with new Pro X systems, which provide 168 input channels, 99 buses and support 96kHz audio.

Headquartered in Liverpool, Adlib recently completed a £1m expansion of its UK operation with the opening of a warehouse and office space on the outskirts of Glasgow. ‘We upgraded our inventory so that we can continue to deliver the best mixing experience for our customers UK-wide,’ says Hires Manager, Dave Jones.

‘We’ve had work with major touring acts who would mix only on Midas consoles, such as Foals, who required an A and B monitor rig. Both the new Pro X desks have had a good introductory run with them along with four of our Midas Pro2 consoles.’

As well as high input channel count, the Pro X offers AES50 digital audio connectivity for scalability of up to 288 inputs and 294 outputs, making the console one of the most powerful Midas desks produced.

Operating in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK, AED Rent has joined the uptake of Yamaha’s recently-launched Rivage PM7 mixing system.

Established in 1985 as a Belgian lighting and sound dry hire company, AED Rent is now part of the AED Group and handles production equipment for 60,000 shows and events annually. After many years of success with Yamaha PM, CL and QL series consoles, the company has invested in Yamaha’s new flagship Rivage system, with the addition of the PM7 to its inventory. Rivage PM7 is part of a new generation of PM systems for large-scale live sound applications.

‘AED Rent and Yamaha have had a strong relationship for a long time,’ says AED Rent Audio Account Manager. Piet Verstraete. ‘We already have more than 20 Yamaha consoles in our rental inventory, which are used by customers all over the world.

‘Our motivation to keep investing in Yamaha is based on the reliability of its products, which never let us down,’ Verstraete adds. ‘The Rivage PM7 system is also fully compatible with the R-series I/O units, which are already available in our inventory. We have every confidence that it will fulfil all of the high expectations that we and our customers have of a Yamaha product.’

More: www.yamahaproaudio.com

Leading Italian production company Agorà Rental has added 12 Avid Venue S6L live sound consoles to its inventory, as it expands its event roster across Europe.

Agorà Rentals has more than 25 years of experience, supplying lighting, audio, video graphics, and rigging for a events ranging from tours for Andrea Bocelli, Ennio Morricone, Laura Pausini, Eros Ramazzotti, Zucchero ‘Sugar’ Fornaciari to sports events like the Turin 2006, Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. As the company’s profile grows in Italy and beyond, it needed to update its live sound consoles for the European rental market.

Building on an extensive live sound inventory, the S6L consoles promise decreased downtime, greater efficiency and advanced operational tools. Italian pro audio technology distributor, Audiosales and owner, Stefano Rocchi’s involvement was key to the integration process. ‘The Avid Venue S6L has redefined the standard for live sound rental,’ he says. ‘It offers next-level reliability, performance and innovation so companies like Agorà Rentals can excel and handle the most challenging productions.’

‘The Venue S6L consoles give us a significant edge to meet the complex configuration requirements we’re seeing today,’ say Vittorio De Amicis and Wolfango De Amicis, Agorà Rentals’ founders. ‘Thanks to its modular design and innovative features, we can configure to each show’s unique needs and demands, and provide clients with the most cutting-edge live sound technology.’

Venue S6L family features the same Venue software and workflows across every model, presenting engineers with an identical user experience and total familiarity regardless of system configuration. This ‘learn once, use everywhere’ design eliminates complexity, enabling engineers to focus on helping their artist to deliver the best performance possible.

‘Live events are becoming increasingly demanding and ambitious in terms of scale, technology and creativity,’ says Avid Director of Live System Product Management, Al McKinna,. ‘As part of our commitment to our preeminent live sound customer community, Avid Venue S6L consoles ensure that companies like Agorà Rentals hit all the right notes, with impeccable sound quality, advanced system design and seamless set-up.’

Ajda Pekkan has completed a series of special concerts in prestigious venues across his home country of Turkey, with a 30-strong band and Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing.

The shows took place at the renowned venues Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Amphitheatre in Istanbul, Bodrum Amphitheatre and Izmir International Arena – with two A&H S7000 Surfaces and DM64 MixRacks, used for FOH, monitors and recording the shows.

Ajda Pekkan’s Production Manager and FOH engineer, Inanc Yenidogan, specified dLive for the tour. The band used stereo IEMs plus side fills and mono sub monitor mixes for the drummer and bass player, requiring up to 60 mono auxes. Additional auxes were routed over Dante to the FOH DM64 MixRack as an output expander. All the shows were recorded via M-Dante on a Mac DVS.

‘We made the most of the interlinking possibilities of dLive,’ says monitor engineer Wayne Nigel Gittens. ‘With 30 musicians on stage with high monitor requirements, the FOH rack was partly used as an output expander via Dante.’

More: www.allen-heath.com

AKG has released AKG P5i high-performance dynamic vocal microphone – the first designed to automatically configure with the new Harman Connected PA ecosystem for integrated set-up, and recall of performer and presets.

‘AKG P5i is the ideal microphone for musicians who want to spend less time setting up and more time focusing on their music,’ says Harman Professional Solutions Product Line Manager, Erich Gaertner. ‘Unlike ordinary handheld live mics, P5i automatically recognises and configures with the Connected PA ecosystem of products to take the guesswork out of setting up and getting consistently great sound. And with legendary AKG engineering and sound quality at its core, P5i brings out the best in any performance.’ 

Based on the AKG P5 dynamic vocal microphone, the P5i has a supercardioid polar pattern for high gain before feedback and suppression of ambient noise, even in loud use. The heavy-duty metal body construction is designed to withstand tough stage performances, and an integrated windscreen efficiently eliminates pop and wind noise.

AKG P5i is part of the Harman Connected PA family of products, and offers full compatibility with the new Harman Connected PA app. Connected PA eliminates the need for multiple apps or GUIs, and delivers seamless plug-and-play operation with a variety of Harman equipment so users can control their entire live sound system with one app. Products within the Connected PA ecosystem self-identify with the new app for effortless set up, and setup wizards help customers to quickly optimise volume, configuration settings and sound quality.

The Connected PA product ecosystem is enabled via Harman’s ioSYS technology and initially includes equipment from Soundcraft, JBL, dbx and AKG, allowing systems to suit specific needs. Additional Harman equipment can be added to extend flexibility and provide for future expansion. At launch, compatible products include the Soundcraft Ui12, Ui16, and Ui24R digital mixers; JBL PRX800W Series loudspeakers; and dbx DI1 Active DI Box Box.

Harman Professional Solutions plans to add many new products to the Connected PA ecosystem to provide musicians with greater versatility and adaptable performance. 

The AKG P5i microphone will be available in Q1 2017.

More: www.akg.com/pro

Alcons Audio has announced a wide-dispersion version of the LR28 Larger Format Line Array. The 110º horizontal dispersion LR28/110 is designed as an extension of the existing three-way, 80º dispersion LR28/80.

Featuring the same faceprint down fill and components (two 14-inch woofers, four 6.5-inch midrange and a RBN1402rsr pro-ribbon driver) on a 110º waveguide, the LR28/110 is powered and controlled by four channels of the Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controller. Like the LR28/80, it has a rigging system that enables angle setting on the cabinets without lifting the array, resulting in safer and faster set-up with minimal handling.

More: www.alconsaudio.com