ORLANDO — Green Hill Church, a Korean-language Presbyterian house of worship in Orlando, has upgraded its sanctuary sound reinforcement system with the installation of an L-ACOUSTICS KIVA system. Laservision World of Los Angeles performed the system design and installation.

According to Laservision Sales and Managing Director Joshua Kim and System Integration General Manager Nathan Kim, the 450-seat worship space now benefits from left and right arrays each comprised of six KIVA enclosures flown beneath two KILO low frequency extension enclosures. A pair of SB18i subs further extends the low-frequency range of the system, and all enclosures are powered and processed by a total of three LA4 amplified controllers. more

Andover, MA––Ever since Fishman launched the Loudbox in 2003, the company’s line of acoustic amplifiers has enjoyed a steadily growing popularity based on a wealth of practical features, exceptional value, superlative sound and performance in all kinds of live performance settings.

An instant hit with working professionals, Loudbox amps have been used by artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Ian Anderson, Pete Townshend, Travis Tritt, Foo Fighters, Eric Johnson, Jorma Kaukonen, Bob Seger, Warren Haynes, Levon Helm and others over the years.

More recently, the new generation Loudbox Mini and Loudbox Artist are being used by Steve Earle, Zac Brown Band, James Valentine of Maroon 5, Jerry Douglas, Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, Wolf Marshall, Chris Funk of the Decemberists, Monte Pittman (guitarist for Madonna) and folk legend Happy Traum.

The success of the Loudbox 100 and Loudbox Performer spurred by the recent market impact of Fishman’s Loudbox Mini and Loudbox Artist have propelled the line to the position of top selling brand in the acoustic guitar amplifier category with over 25% share of the market, according to MI SalesTrak, the first retail sales tracking program for the Musical Products Industry.

The same survey also revealed that the Loudbox Mini won as top selling model in the category, with the Loudbox Performer, Loudbox 100 and Loudbox Artist all placing in the Top 20 of models sold.

Discussing Fishman’s continuing dominance in the acoustic amplifier category, Chief Operating Officer Jason Cambra said, “The Loudbox line has been a winner since its initial launch, not just in terms of sales, but widespread acceptance by artists and players at all levels.

“Each new Loudbox model demonstrates a real evolution in terms of sound, performance and new technologies that has literally redefined the category and made it a true industry leader in the best sense of the word. The possibilities for the future of Loudbox keep growing exponentially and we’re very excited about it.”

For more information about Fishman, call 978.988.9199 or click to www.fishman.com

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Christ the King Church in Bellingham, Washington recently completed an overhaul of its sound system, awarding the installation contract to Clarity Media Group of Portland. Clarity provided the best solution for the task at hand, outfitting the 1,500-seat church with a 20-box NEXO GEO S12 line array.

“The church wanted a system capable of accommodating a worship service and in addition, have rider acceptability to bring in concerts,” states John Harrel, project manager, Clarity Media Group. “The NEXO GEO S12, consisting of eight S1210 boxes per side, is configured as an LCR and was chosen based on its smooth, even coverage as well as its musicality and output. Our client wanted a center cluster rather than front fills and flown subs, so we recommended four GEO S1230s which met their requirements and are tucked away very discretely above the pastor’s podium position. The previous system was an eyesore.” The system also contains four NEXO RS18 Ray Sub cabinets flown, two per side in cardioid mode. Two NEXO NX4x4 and one NX4x1 amplifiers power the system.

“The NEXO system’s ability to maintain uniform coverage despite having a low trim height was key in choosing it for this application,” states Travis Cibolski, Clarity co-owner and designer of the system. “The net effect is that the system delivers uniform, transparent sound to all areas, and with full bandwidth!”

Christ the King Church has 6,000 members in its congregation with two campus locations. The church band consists of 6-10 musicians on average who, according to Harrel, are very discerning when it comes to good audio (one of its members is a signed recording artist).

The church previously installed a Yamaha M7CL-48 digital console at front of house, chosen for its ease of use by audio volunteers.

For more information on Clarity Media Group, visit www.claritymediagroup.net.

For more information on NEXO and Yamaha products, visit http://www.yamahaca.com.

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About Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc.:
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. (YCAS) provides a full line of integrated professional audio products offering complete systems solutions for the broadcast, sound reinforcement/installed sound, touring, commercial recording, and post production markets. With the addition of NEXO to the product line, the company remains the official U.S. and Canadian distributor for all NEXO speaker models. YCAS offers comprehensive in-house and field product training for its customers, a dedicated dealer network, and 24/7 technical support.

BEIJING — Chinese rental company LAB, the country’s first-ever L-ACOUSTICS Rental Network Agent, has purchased a K1 WST line source system from exclusive Chinese distributor Rightway Audio Consultants.

LAB’s first use of its new K1 system was for pop singer Jane Zhang at Beijing’s MasterCard Center, part of her Personal Look tour of China. A system of 12 K1s and three KARAs per side was flown, with six K1-SB subwoofers suspended behind each K1 hang in a cardioid configuration. more

HME DX210’s Flawless Communications Raise Production Value for Organizations

HIGH POINT, NC, FEBRUARY 22, 2012 ? Clear-Com®, a global leader in critical voice communication systems, is pleased to announce that the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival (NCShakes), and its affiliate, Festival Stage of Winston Salem, are utilizing a Clear-Com HME DX210 digital wireless intercom to coordinate productions. The HME DX210 gives the busy Festival Stage and NCShakes production staff members the freedom and flexibility they need to manage events without a hitch, raising their overall production value.

Clear-Com’s HME DX210 helps the Festival Stage and NCShakes staff members collaborate more effectively on a variety of duties and responsibilities. The wide coverage range of the HME DX210 enables workers to move around the backstage freely and quickly without being tied to one position. Furthermore, because it is designed with Spectrum-FriendlyTM technology, the reliable wireless system operates without any RF interference, ensuring crystal-clear audio and a secure connection for the entire production team. Not only does the HME DX210 increase accessibility and wireless mobility, but it also accelerates decision making and maximized productivity. Added flexibility comes from the fact that HME DX210 system can easily integrate with any venue’s existing Clear-Com partyline and other third party systems, offering a scalable solution for the varying demands of each classic and contemporary theater performance.

“Previously, we had a set of small hand-held two-way radios. There were several times when people had to get on their cell phones to communicate because there were so many dropouts. That’s unacceptable,” says Tim Kottyan, Technical Director at Festival Stage of Winston-Salem and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival. “We just used the Clear-Com HME DX210 along with the High Point Theatre’s Encore partyline for our annual production of A Christmas Carol and it was amazing. It was simple to get them up and running right away. With multiple communication paths available from both our wired and wireless Clear-Com systems, our lighting designer and master electrician board ops could talk on separate channels via the Encore while stage management and the backstage crew had their own dedicated talk paths on the HME DX210. The combined solution has worked flawlessly to meet our production requirements.”

Kottyan and his team installed the HME DX210 base station, beltpacks, headsets and adaptors along with a power conditioner and rack-mounted lighting unit, in a portable road case for effortless travel with it between the Festival Stage of Winston-Salem and NCShakes venues. Once at a venue, the equipment is integrated with the house system. During productions, booth positions generally used the wired intercom while the run crew backstage conversed using the wireless beltpacks.

Festival Stage of Winston-Salem and the NCShakes team members have been impressed by the portability and durability of the HME DX210 system. In fact, NCShakes is planning to use it for the Shakespeare To Go troupe, which travels throughout North Carolina and other states, to put on Shakespeare productions for school students. Roughly 25,000 students in all of North Carolina’s counties watch the plays each year, and Kottyan is confident that the rugged HME DX210 can handle the multiple productions without any problems. “It has almost bomb-proof casing,” he notes, “and I love the sealed buttons on the beltpack. The crew members like the lightweight feel of the beltpacks and how it adapts to the headsets they may already own.”

“The HME DX210 was developed with fast-paced productions such as Festival Stage of Winston-Salem and North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in mind,” says Craig Frederickson, Product Manager of the HME DX Series, Clear-Com. “As a multi-channel wireless intercom solution with a full-feature set, it’s also highly portable and easy to operate. It can also be quickly configured on the go for touring productions such as NCShakes. We’re proud that such a prestigious group of organizations has chosen our intercoms for its demanding production needs.”

NCShakes, founded in 1977, is a professional theater company dedicated to producing the world’s classics. With a mission to foster the well-being and growth of North Carolina’s people through the use of professional theater, it has put on more than 165 productions of the great classics across the state since 1977. Festival Stage of Winston-Salem is a professional theater company and affiliate of NCShakes. It currently resides at the Hanesbrands Theatre in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in downtown Winston-Salem and organizes productions, from time-tested classics to the best of new and contemporary work.

About Clear-Com
Clear-Com®, an HME company, is the global market leader in critical voice communications systems for professional productions. Since 1968, Clear-Com developed and marketed a comprehensive range of analog, digital and IP-based wired and wireless intercom technologies for party-line and point-to-point communications. Recognized for our legacy of intercom innovations, production teams around the world have come to depend on Clear-Com for clear, reliable and scalable communication solutions. More information about Clear-Com can be found at www.clearcom.com.

About HM Electronics, Inc. (HME)
A privately held company founded in 1971, HME has continued to be a leading provider of innovative technology focused on enhancing productivity and customer service for multiple markets including pro audio, sports, and restaurants. HME developed the first wireless intercom system for pro audio and continues to introduce exciting, cutting-edge wireless intercoms that enhance communications, increase productivity and facilitate creativity for virtually any application. HME’s comprehensive line of wireless intercoms – including the award winning PRO850 UHF and DX Series Digital Intercoms – are designed with the user in mind. In addition to pioneering the first wireless intercom for the pro audio industry, HME was the first to develop the wireless headset system for the drive-thru quick service restaurant market. More information can be found at www.hme.com.

Old Lyme, Conn.– February 21, 2012: Few need an introduction to Lady Antebellum, who, in the four short years since its formation, has won six Grammys, scored six number one hits on country radio, has sold over six million albums across the globe and is currently on its 2012 Own The Nightworld tour. Sennheiser is supporting the tour with equipment, such as SKM 5200-II wireless vocal microphones and ew 300 IEM G3 wireless personal monitors, along with the expertise to ensure that no glitches ever distract from Lady Antebellum’s spellbinding performance. With an agreement brokered by Tim Moore, artist relations manager for Sennheiser USA, and Kristy Jo Winkler, Sennheiser global relations manager for the Americas and Canada, reigning Country Music Awards and Academy of Country Music Awards Vocal Group of the Year Lady Antebellum is now a Sennheiser Global Relations endorsed artist.

FOH engineer Brett “Scoop” Blanden was careful to select the perfect wireless vocal mic for the tour. “The stage setup includes a forty-foot runway that extends well in front of the house PA,” he said. “I needed a microphone and a capsule that would be well-suited to all six vocalists – who might all be on that runway at the same time! By using the same capsule, with the same frequency response and polar pattern, on all six mics, I am able to tune the PA without fear of the unpredictable interactions that can occur when different capsules are open on stage.” Blanden selected the Sennheiser MD 5235 dynamic capsule, which features a floating directivity that is super-cardioid at high frequencies and cardioid at low frequencies. The Sennheiser SKM 5200-II handheld RF transmitter completes the vocal setup, and two additional SKM 5200-II/MD 5235 combinations go to the opening acts.

Monitor engineer Peter Bowman organizes the RF channels for the show. “I have had zero RF issues since we made the switch to the Sennheiser 5000 series on vocals,” he said. “In addition, I’m also very happy with how useful the Command Function is for Lady Antebellum. Whether they need the guitar turned down or a cup of tea, they can communicate with ease from any point on the stage.”

Instrument mics include the Sennheiser e 901 on kick, the e 904 on rack toms, the e 902 on the floor tom, and a small diaphragm e 614 on the ride. “I’m particularly fond of the e 904 and e 902 on the toms,” said Blanden, who is himself a drummer. “I love the tonal picture of those dynamic mics – it’s familiar and comfortable to me. The frequency response and transient response are perfect. I can run those inputs flat on my channel strip because all the right color is captured by the mic. The convenient mounting hardware on the e 904 is also nice.” For all three guitar cabinets on stage, Blanden uses the classic Sennheiser MD 421-II. “What a standard! Even in my studio days,” he said, “I was always a fan of the MD 421 on guitars. It has the perfect combination of top-end bite and low-end growl to deliver the ideal rock ‘n roll guitar sound.”

In addition to the eight Sennheiser SKM 5200-IIs for vocals (and their associated command channels), Bowman manages eight Sennheiser EK 300 IEM G3 stereo wireless personal monitors, for a total of twenty-eight wireless frequencies. “I set them myself every day,” he said. “And with the scanning options available on both the G3 and 5000 series, that process is fairly simple. I love that when the monitor system is networked together, I have the ability to set all the transmitters to new frequencies using just one bodypack. I usually scan one bodypack during the day, even before I get power to monitor world, and then use it later to synch up all the transmitters.” For antennas, Bowman uses one Sennheiser paddle antenna and one Sennheiser A 5000?CP circularly polarized antenna. “Although I know there are several valid approaches, this system works well for me,” he said. “Our RF performance has been perfect.”

Even the band’s guitars and bass benefit from Sennheiser wireless technology. To navigate the tour’s large stage with the crowd-pleasing confidence that a wire won’t allow, every fretted instrument is equipped with a Sennheiser ew 572 G3 wireless transmitter, save for one acoustic guitar which uses an ew 572 G2 unit. There are eleven units in all. “Our RF performance has been absolutely flawless,” said guitar tech Steve Castro, who formerly worked with Sugarland. “We all work together to maintain clean channels. If someone gets stepped on, it’s a simple matter to use the scan feature to dial in a new clean channel.”

“The Sennheiser team has really gone above and beyond for us,” said Blanden. “Tim Moore has been there for us during the last four years. Throughout our trips to Australia, Europe and various television performances, Sennheiser is the gear we rely on for consistency wherever we are performing.”

Winkler added, “For decades, Sennheiser has supported emerging artists as well as mega-stars. All of us on the Global Relations team welcome Lady Antebellum to this special tier of artists and congratulate them on their creativity, musicianship, performance excellence, and industry dedication.”

(Photo Credit: © 2012 Adam Boatman)

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Gand Concert Sound (GCS) of Glenview, Illinois, aka “The NEXO Guys” have added an 18-box GEO S12 system to their rental inventory. “Yamaha brought in a road rig for a demo at the Viper Alley rock club in Lincolnshire, and not only did they like the system, our own crew was knocked out,” states Gary Gand, President, Gand Concert Sound. The new Gand NEXO system includes (16) GEO S1210 cabinets, two GEO S1230s, six NEXO NX4x4 amplifiers and four RS18 subwoofers.

“Beyond our extensive inventory of world-class GEO Ts and our micro sized GEO S8 systems, we can now offer a mid-size rig for weight restricted spaces such as small theaters and lighter duty outdoor roof structures,” says Tim Swan, Vice President and General Manager at Gand. “No sooner did the rig come back to the warehouse, it was sent out for a Poi Dog Pondering show followed by an extended theatrical run of “A Chorus Line” at the Paramount Theater in Aurora.” The Paramount also upgraded their outdated 1960s cluster system to a GEO S12 system installed by Gand Installation Division in September of 2010. The 12-box LCR system is hidden behind a permanent soffit over the proscenium. “It made perfect sense to add additional matching left and right flown GEO S12 columns utilizing the Paramount’s existing points,” states sound designer Adam Rosenthal. “It gave me the ability to widen the stereo image for the musical, and take care of the hard-driving, sold-out Poi Dog Pondering show with matching NEXO cabinets and amps

Gand Concert Sound was the first company in the USA to embrace the NEXO GEO T system when it made its debuted at NSCA in 2003, ordering an arena- sized system for shows at the Georgia Dome that summer. GCS is celebrating their 35th year in the concert audio business. Gary Gand founded the company in 1977 after taking time off from his 14-year career as a professional musician. “All my band buddies started calling me to come mix their live gigs,” says Gand. Dissatisfied with the gear that was available at the time, Gand starting building his own PA cabinets in his garage. “Next thing I knew, I was on the road with Emmy Lou Harris.” Today GCS is one of the midwest’s most respected audio providers working with a who’s who of national artists coming through the “Mid-coast” including local favorites Buddy Guy, Cheap Trick, Richard Marx and Chicago.

For more information on Gand Concert Sound or the Gand Installation Division, visit www.gandconcertsound.com.

For more information on NEXO products, visit www.yamahaca.com.

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PHOTO ID: GEO S 12 rental System at the Paramount Theater adds to existing GEO S 12 system owned by the theater.

About Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc.:
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, Inc. (YCAS) provides a full line of integrated professional audio products offering complete systems solutions for the broadcast, sound reinforcement/installed sound, touring, commercial recording, and post production markets. With the addition of NEXO to the product line, the company remains the official U.S. and Canadian distributor for all NEXO speaker models. YCAS offers comprehensive in-house and field product training for its customers, a dedicated dealer network, and 24/7 technical support.

NASHVILLE, TN, FEBRUARY 21, 2012—An Aviom Pro16® personal mixing system is an essential component on the gear list at Gasoline Studios, owned and operated by producer and songwriter Joe West from his farm in Franklin, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville. With his primary focus on country music, West has hosted several renowned country artists at his studio, including Jimmy Wayne, with whom he recorded the three-week, number-one hit “Do You Believe Me Now.” West credits Aviom for offering up excellent audio monitoring on several of the number-one albums he has produced. more

Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Florida – February 2012… Recently renewed for its third season, A&E’s popular police drama The Glades is preparing to return to production. For homicide detective Jim Longworth (played by Australian actor Matt Passmore), his transition from Chicago to the seemingly sleepy town of Palm Glade, Florida proves far more difficult than expected—considering that people keep turning up murdered. The suspense never ends and capturing the location sound is no easier than solving the crimes. That’s precisely why when the going gets tough; the show’s production sound mixer gets going with his wireless equipment arsenal drawn from the catalog of Rio Rancho, NM-based Lectrosonics. more

Two longtime L-ACOUSTICS users are honored for the eighth time

LOS ANGELES — L-ACOUSTICS proudly congratulates both the Hollywood Bowl and Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival for taking top honors in the 23rd annual Pollstar Concert Industry Awards ceremony held on Friday, February 2 at Club Nokia in Los Angeles. Both the Hollywood Bowl and Coachella Festival are known for their longtime use of L-ACOUSTICS loudspeakers. more