2008 will have been an exceptional year for MEXPRO. This rental company, based in Lituania, recently acquired an L-ACOUSTICS inventory comprising 32 KUDO, 24 SB28, 12 15XT HiQ, all driven by LA8 amplified controllers .

During 2008, major touring acts such as Linkin Park, Def Leppard, Roger Waters, Björk, Status Quo, have collaborated with MEXPRO on the occation of their tour legs in the Baltic States.

UAE - Atlantis, The Palm - the focal point of the man-made island of Palm Jumeirah, billed as the ultimate fantasy hotel and estimated to have cost around 1.5 billion dollars - launched itself upon Dubai on 20 October with a much publicised event attended by stars from stage, film, music and sport. Audio specialist Delta Sound, which has recently expanded its Dubai office, provided the sound system.

"We were recommended by technical director Simon Ransom, and worked directly for Atlantis's owners, Kerzner International," says Andy Jackson, in charge of Delta Dubai and sound designer and project manager for the Atlantis launch. "Simon asked me to design the sound design and so it made sense for Delta to look at the whole project, including supplying equipment."

With an 11-month planning period and Delta already in a significant growth period, it gave the company both focus and sufficient time to carefully consider its scale of investment for new equipment, a decision that now stands it in good stead for future large-scale events.

L-ACOUSTICS’ Portuguese distributor Avitel has installed a dV-DOSC system into the main, 1,0000-capacity multipurpose hall at the Casino Figueira in the city of Figueira da Foz. The casino, which has recently been renovated, is more than 100 years old and features some historic frescoes on its domed ceiling.

The main front of house system consists of six L-ACOUSTICS dV-DOSC line source cabinets and two dV-SUB subwoofers per side, each hang being driven by four L-ACOUSTICS LA8 amplifed controller racks. Further sub bass reinforcement is provided by four SB118s driven by one LA8, while four 108P self powered monitors take care of front fill applications.

Additionally, six 112P self powered coaxial speakers and two 108P self powered monitors are being used as floor monitors.

“For a long time the Casino Figueira had been looking for a solution for its main room, the Salão Caffe,” says Casino Figueira’s technical director Carlos Alberto Silva. “This is a semi-circular room with a balcony all the way around, and was a challenge for the many distributors and brands we contacted in terms of coverage, headroom and system design. The project we chose would also have to meet all our criteria in terms of flexibility as the room is used for a wide variety of applications including conferences, TV broadcasts, live concerts, casino shows etc.”

Gearhouse South Africa supplied all technical production – staging, rigging, lighting, video and audio - for Lionel Richie’s hugely successful South African tour, with resources pooled from their Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban bases.

Gearhouse Audio’s team was led by Revil Baselga. The L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC rig varied in size, with Newlands in Cape Town being the largest venue for which they used 48 V-DOSC elements, 15 a side for the main hangs with two outer hangs of 10 a side plus 3 delays, 2 of dV-DOSC and one of KUDO. For the Dome, it was configured as 12 V-DOSC a side with KUDO outer hangs, and dV-DOSC downfills, infills and outfills – all driven by a networked LA8 amplifier system. Gearhouse is one of the first companies to tour this, which is proving very stable and reliable.

The only wedges onstage were a downstage line of L-ACOUSTICS 115XT HiQ to provide some air movement and sonospherics, Gearhouse also supplied a full package of mics – primarily Shures - and stands.

The tour was a huge success, and once again proved that Gearhouse’s ability to supply all aspects of technical infrastructure maximised operational efficiency and offered a really competitive deal to the client.

(Excerpt courtesy of Gearhouse South Africa)

More information on : www.gearhouse.co.za

An L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC line source array system was used by Britannia Row for the MTV Europe Music Awards featuring Beyonce, Duffy, Kid Rock, Pink, The Killers, Take That, Kanye West and The Wombats, held at the Liverpool Echo Arena.

As the show was being broadcast on MTV, the system needed to be concealed as far as possible, so it couldn’t be too large or obtrusive. Despite these constraints, it also needed to be powerful, provide good dispersion and be able to work with different types of rock and pop music.

Ten V-DOSC line source and three dV-DOSC compact line source cabinets were used per side for the main hangs, with eight SB218 subwoofers per side, 12 dV-DOSCs per side as side hangs, three dV-SUB compact subwoofer hangs per side, four SB218s per side as side sub hangs, six V-DOSC per side for rear hangs, a rear sub stack of four SB218s and 12 MTD108s around the stage for front fill. The complete system was driven by LA amplifier racks.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Kanbar Hall at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco (JCCSF), one of the city’s newer performing arts venues, recently upgraded its sound system with the installation of an L-ACOUSTICS ARCS® and dV-SUB loudspeaker setup.

The 468-seat theater now benefits from twin horizontal arrays each comprised of two ARCS enclosures flown above the left and right sides of the stage accompanied by a single dV-SUB enclosure per side down on the deck. L-ACOUSTICS LA Series amplifiers power each of the loudspeakers.

According to Michael J. “Geese” Graphix, production manager and technical director for Kanbar Hall, “We’ve wanted to upgrade our system since we opened in 2004. We present many European and Israeli performing artists, and L-ACOUSTICS equipment is usually their first request on the tech riders.”

Graphix was one of the touring development engineers in the mid-’90s using L-ACOUSTICS V-DOSC® systems with Bob Dylan, Metallica and Barry Manilow, among other artists. “Out of all the manufacturers who now feature line-array and related technologies in their product line, L-ACOUSTICS enclosures still sound the most musical, which is ultimately why we’re here,” he says. “Cohesive point-source control results in smooth, even coverage for the entire audience. And they sound fantastic at extremely low volumes, which is often the case with many of our artists, but can still ‘rock the house’ when needed.”

RED HOOK, New York -- Concert sound provider Firehouse Productions, known for its tours with Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Gabriel and other innovative artists, chose to deploy L-ACOUSTICS LA8-powered KUDO™ arrays for FOH on Sigur Rós’ recent North American tour leg.

In addition to typically flying nine boxes of KUDO per side for the four-piece ethereal Icelandic post-rock band, Firehouse positioned six dV-DOSC across the lip of the stage for front-fill and set up four SB28 subs per side in a cardioid configuration for LF reinforcement. Two ARCS® cabinets per side were also flown or ground stacked for out-fill in venues where the seating configuration wrapped around the stage. Furthermore, the tour utilized four of L-ACOUSTICS’ new LA-RAK touring racks, each featuring three LA8 amplified controllers.

L-Acoustics has appointed Jamie Gosney as Technical Manager for the UK, joining the company’s UK Sales Manager Stuart Down, and Sales Coordinator Nathalie Prade.

Gosney has three decades’ experience of working in the pro audio industry in a career that spans systems operation and design, sales, installation and even set-building.

Previous companies which Gosney has worked for include Autograph Sales, Imagination, Amber Sound, ATM Flyware and the SFL Group. He’s also worked extensively as a freelance sound engineer as well as running training seminars for aspiring sound engineers.

“I am really thrilled to be part of the L-Acoustics team in the UK,” says Gosney. “I love the products and really believe in them; they just sound lovely! I believe our customers will benefit from Stuart’s sales experience and my background in system design and installation.”

An L-Acoustics V-DOSC system has been used for the 35th anniversary show of Höhner, a German folk music band, at the 14,000-capacity Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

The concert - Wenn Nicht Jetzt Wann Dann (If Not Now Then When) - which featured special guests Guildo Horn, DJ Ötzi and the Kölner Symphonie, was televised by German broadcaster WDR and recorded for a live CD. While popular across Germany, the band are enormous in their hometown of Cologne and sing in the local dialect of that region.

Cologne-based PA rental company Event-Solution put together a large and complex L-Acoustics system to cover the stalls and lower balcony of the arena.

L-ACOUSTICS has appointed Jochen Frohn as international business development director, effective 3 November 2008.

Frohn has extensive managerial experience in the pro audio Industry, notably 14 years at US manufacturer Crest, where he served in a variety of roles including director of sales and marketing, Crest Europe, Middle East, Africa, and managing director of the company’s German subsidiary.

“It is great for me to finally work for a European company – and for one of the top leaders in the live sound industry,” says Frohn. “I am amazed by the fantastic team of talented, professional people at L-ACOUSTICS, and with the brand new K1 system on the verge of release, there are lots of opportunities for an ongoing success story. I am looking forward to being part of that!”

Frohn’s initial remit will be to take responsibility for the sales, development and coordination of L-ACOUSTICS’ business worldwide, focussing on actively building foundations for L-ACOUSTICS Germany and coordinating sales across Europe by building and piloting teams for these territories. Internally, he will work closely with other members of the executive committee led by founder and CEO Christian Heil; with marketing director Stéphane Ecalle on communication; and with international business supervisor Laure Guymont for business planning and policies.

“Things just clicked from our first meeting with Jochen,” says Heil. “Not only is he a man of charisma, he possesses an understanding of the future challenges L-ACOUSTICS faces as a company and is supportive of our group strategy. His appointment will reinforce our exisiting team and we’re very much looking forward to having him onboard.”

UK rental companies Skan PA Hire and Wigwam Hire have both added to their L-ACOUSTICS inventory, with Wigwam purchasing 32 x SB28 subwoofers and 24 x LA8 Amplified Controllers, and Skan acquiring 32 x SB28s and 60 x LA8s.

“I heard the new subs, thought they were great and bought some to replace some of our older stock, and at the same time thought we’d also dip our toes in the water with the new amps,” says Wigwam’s Chris Hill.

The company has been using the new SB28s and LA8s on tours with Radiohead, Human League and Shane Ward.

Italian sound designer Andrea Taglia has specified and designed an L-ACOUSTICS ARCS constant curvature line source system which has been installed at the Parco della Musica in Rome, in the venue’s 2,800-capacity Sala Santa Cecilia.

Acoustically, this project posed some major challenges. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the building took 20 years to construct, and by completion the function of the different rooms had changed. Originally intended to provide stunning acoustics for large orchestras, the Sala Santa Cecilia has been drafted into service as a multifunction concert/convention venue due to Rome’s lack of suitably-sized halls. However its acoustic design, with orchestral use in mind, leaves Sala Santa Cecilia with a 2.5/2.8 reverb - perfect for symphonic music but impossible in a multipurpose room.

It was this dilemma that Taglia undertook when contacted by Sonus Audio Services of Rome, a specialist in audio rental and installation for classical music and theatre, who commissioned him to design a no compromise sound system to solve the problems.

TEMPE, Arizona -- After 18 albums and more than four decades of touring, Alice Cooper certainly isn’t showing any signs of slowing. Currently out on his aptly named “Psycho-Drama” tour, the original shock rocker has among his collection of essential stage items a guillotine, electric chair, boa constrictor, plenty of fake blood and, now, ten coaxial L-ACOUSTICS 115XT HiQ stage monitors.

Along with a pair of L-ACOUSTICS ARCS and SB118 enclosures for side-fill, not to mention LA Series amplification, the 115XT HiQ wedges round out the loudspeaker complement of a monitor system package furnished by Tempe, Arizona-based Precise Corporate Staging (PCS) LLC.

OXNARD, California -- Although Nashville has long been best known as a country music Mecca, fast-rising pop-punk bands like Paramore are certainly diversifying the image of Music City USA. Recently coming off the road with its final tour in support of the band’s second album, Riot!, the group’s engineers were unanimous in their praise of Rat Sound’s L-ACOUSTICS loudspeaker rig, which the band had been carrying for the first time.

Greg Mahler served as the FOH/system tech for the six-week North American tour, which utilized a PA comprised of a dozen V-DOSC® plus three dV-DOSC down-fills hung per side. Three additional dV-DOSC were flown on the downstage lighting truss for center-fill.

Italian tenor Andreas Bocelli has completed an arena tour of New Zealand and Australia with an L-ACOUSTICS KUDO line source array system provided by Norwest Productions. The tour included a show at the Sydney Acer Arena, the largest in the southern hemisphere, where Bocelli broke his previous world box office arena record, putting $AU3.273 million through the registers.

The concerts featured a 76-piece orchestra and a 60-piece choir together with baritone Gianfranco Montresor, soprano Paola Sanguinetti and guest star Tina Arena accompanying Bocelli.

Gold Coast Australia – CON-SOL have recently boosted their audio rental inventory with the purchase of a L-ACOUSTICS KIVA ultra-compact Line Source Array system. Managing Director, Bill Karaitiana said CON-SOL had been seeking a system with flexibility and versatility to suit the corporate market.

"With the ongoing success of our existing L-ACOUSTICS range, we wanted to invest in a system that built on this reputation and guaranteed the same high level of sound quality already experienced by CON-SOL clients.

"We chose to go with the KIVA + KILO LF extension system because of its incredibly high 'power to weight ratio' without compromising audio quality. We were also sold on the new LA4 amplifier with inbuilt amp and processing power - which takes away the opportunity for curious 'little fingers'.