According to Marcel Babazadeh, Innovason international sales director, the move is 100% positive for the brand and its customers. “It’s the best of both worlds,” he remarked. “Now that the Innovason products have become part of the range offered by Lawo in Rastatt, it means that the continuity of the brand is guaranteed. At the same time it benefits from everything that Lawo has to offer with it’s more than 40 years of experience in professional audio technology.”

“Furthermore, Lawo is committed to maintaining the heritage and history of Innovason,” continued Babazadeh. “Our focus for the future is on the continued development of the Eclipse platform. The difference is that we will be able to pursue this development with more resources available to us than ever before, which is fantastic news. It is the ideal climate in which to nurture and perpetuate the pioneering spirit that has characterized Innovason products since the beginning.”

A number of former Innovason key employees will take over responsibility within the new structure at Lawo including the ‘father’ of Eclipse, Hervé de Caro, now product manager for Eclipse; Nicolas Gozdowski who will continue in his role as service engineer; Benoit Quiniou in R&D; and of course Marcel Babazadeh who remains the international sales director.

Lawo CEO, Philipp Lawo, is pleased to have secured the future of the Innovason brand by bringing it fully into the Lawo operation. “I have believed in the brand from the beginning,” he declared. “I admire innovation – which has always been a driving force for the development of Innovason products. However, despite Lawo’s intervention in 2008, the company was still not able to realize its full potential. Now that the brand is fully integrated into the Lawo structure, I am confident that together we can achieve success. I’m also delighted to welcome the new colleagues on board, all now key members of the Lawo team responsible for Innovason. It is the end of an era for Innovason in its former structure, but the dawning of a new chapter of innovations. We’re all looking forward to a new and promising future in the live sound market together.”

Lawo integrates Innovason brand in their portfolio

The Paul Hamlyn Hall, with its magnificent barreled roof and floor to ceiling windows, served as the hub of the festival with a live stage for an eclectic mix of improvisational bands, speakers and dancers throughout the three days. For the second year running, Paul Nicholson of Midas ProSound and Red Square Audio was in charge of the audio for the festival and he chose Roland products to for both the Paul Hamlyn hall and the Linbury Theatre. The Linbury Theatre itself is a modern theatre space within the heart of the Royal Opera House

Specifying the M-480 48 Channel Live Mixing Console for the stage in the hall and the M-400 48 Channel Live Mixing Console for the stage in the theatre, both Roland digital consoles were connected to their respective FOH consoles using S-MADI.

In the main hall, Andy Reeves used the M-480 for monitors and Matt Trigg multi-tracked the whole performance using the SONAR REAC Recording System, a system which when used in conjunction with the V-Mixing System provides a comprehensive hardware and software solution to live recording, mixing, mastering and delivery.

With superb sound quality, powerful functions, expandability and intuitive operation; the M-480 and M-400 both offer 48 channels of flexible audio processing. Built in REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication) allows simple system expansion to other components of the Roland V Mixing System or to other consoles with the addition of the S-MADI bridge.

The resident engineers at the Royal Opera House also asked Paul to spot record where required and he had no hesitation in recommending the use of the Roland R-05 hand held recorder. Four R-05 recorders were used in total – one on FOH and one on the monitors in each of the two halls. After demonstrating the superior sound quality of the R-05 to the engineers by playing an orchestral pre-recording on an SD card through the line array, there was no question about using them throughout the festival.

According to Paul, ‘The Royal Opera House engineers were so impressed with the hand held recorders – they purchased the four units there and then!’

The R-05 has recently been upgraded to the R-26 hand held recorder which boasts six channels of audio recording – as well as other user benefits including onboard editing, a touch panel display and a USB audio interface for your PC.

Download press release: Roland fire up the Deloitte Ignite Festival

Roland Systems Group (RSG) products are currently touring the country with one of the most familiar faces in British rock – Toyah Willcox. Toyah kicked off the final leg of her autumn tour, ‘From Sheep Farming To Anthem 2011’ at the beginning of October in Southampton to rave reviews and the hotly-anticipated concerts will see Toyah perform a selection of material from her first three albums and a concentration of songs from her 1981 Platinum-selling album Anthem, which celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year. The concert tour has won plaudits across the internet and social media after its premier in London in June and has delighted audiences and fans throughout it’s summer route of club gigs, theatre dates and large festivals.

Paul Nicholson who runs Salisbury based Midas ProSound and Red Square Audio has toured with Toyah for almost 20 years and is in charge of specifying, supplying, and operating the sound equipment for the Toyah band and her other project The HUMANS. For the UK Toyah tour, Paul specified the Roland M-300 Live Mixing Console together with the Digital Snake and S-1608 stage unit running both FOH and monitor mixes.

The M-300 is a powerful and compact digital mixing console ideal for any event production, offering a substantial mixing capability with 32 mixing channels, L/C/R outputs, 8 AUX buses and 4 matrices. Built in REAC allows flexible system expansion and as part of the V-Mixing System including Digital Snakes, Personal Mixers and Multi Channel Recording, the M-300 provides a scalable solution for medium sized venues, which is also lightweight and transportable for mobile sound reinforcement.

With a hectic schedule of performances over a short period, the Toyah tour needed a system which could load in and out of venues quickly and easily, trying to avoid the problems commonly associated with using ‘hired in’ or venue PA systems such as lengthy EQ’ing and sound checking before the gig.

‘The M-300 and Digital Snake system fits our requirement perfectly. Because there is minimum product involved, it’s very quick to setup and the sound check time is massively reduced which saves us having to arrive early at every venue. In fact, I can fit everything plus microphones, stands, DI boxes in the back of my car without folding the rear seats down, so it couldn’t be easier,’ commented Paul.

For each performance, Paul has left and right coming either from the desk or the stage unit. All band members are on in ear monitoring – the only monitors on the stage are for Toyah herself as she has costume changes and a radio pack would be an issue. There is no backline on the stage as everyone is DI’d. Mixes from previous gigs are used so no real repeat sound check is needed. The M-300 has the capability to allow one of the XLR inputs to be used as a talkback facility to AUX mixers, matrices or LCR, in this instance, used as a talkback mic from the desk to the stage to allow communication with the musicians when necessary.

The excellent sound quality of such a simple setup has been well received by the band and audience alike with many saying it’s the best sounding show they’ve ever been to. In fact, when a new member joined the line-up she was amazed at how quickly she was ready to go. By using an additional M-300 aux output and generic mix to she was able to sound check in literally one minute.

‘The sound quality of Roland is like being in a studio on the stage – the band just love it! When I ask them if they need anything else such as ambient mics – I got a resounding NO!

I couldn’t be happier at the FoH. It’s been a great tour.’

Download press release: Roland Systems Group on tour with Toyah Willcox!

Paul, who also engineered some of the bands, selected two Eclipses for FoH in order to be able to flip-flop between acts, and a third Eclipse on stage at the monitor position. Innovason engineer, Eddy Josse, was on hand at FoH to assist visiting engineers with setting up the console and answer any questions they might have, while Andy Reeves looked after monitor world.

“The consoles did a sterling job and were incredibly well received by all of the engineers who used them, both at FoH and monitors,” confirmed Paul. “Almost everyone commented on how easy they were to use, which is so important in a festival set-up where the pressure is really on. From a sonic point of view, I truly think that Eclipse is one of the best-sounding consoles on the market today, and the combination of the Eclipse with the APG Uniline system made for jaw-droppingly great sound.”

The integrated multitrack M.A.R.S. recording system was also put to good use throughout the festival. “M.A.R.S. is just such a great tool,” enthused Paul. “It was there for any of the bands who wanted to make use of it – and many did. Just a couple of mouse clicks ensures that up to 64 tracks are recorded onto the internal (removeable) hard drive. All the engineer has to do is download it onto their PC / Mac, mix it, and put it on YouTube or whatever they or the band want. We recorded Bad Lieutenant’s set and then played it out over the main PA when we were setting up the next morning – it was exactly, but exactly as if they were there on stage again. Fabulous!”

FOM Fest was deemed a success by organizers and festival-goers alike, despite the severe weather conditions on Sunday which were such that the Big Top and Lake stages were obliged to close. However, the cheerful, family atmosphere was appreciated by all, as was the outstanding sound quality on all four stages, especially the main stage.

“It’s great to have such amazing support from the manufacturer,” commented Paul. “We were particularly pleased to have Mathieu with us on this occasion, firstly because it’s the biggest Uniline system we’ve had out in the UK to date, and secondly because we really weren’t helped by the weather that weekend – we had strong, blustery winds to contend with for most of the set up and show days, which turned into gale-force blasts with occasional hail storms on Sunday. It’s a challenge making any system sound good under those conditions, but Mathieu and the team did a great job, and the results were truly stunning.”

Paul’s comments were backed up by punk rocker Goldblade’s frontman, John Robb, who posted a review of The Fall’s performance at FOM Fest (which was engineered by Paul Nicholson, incidentally!) on his website Louder Than War, where he noted that, “It really did sound good. Rare for a festival, the PA was crystal clear and the blustering winds couldn’t ruin it.”

For FOM Fest, Paul specified L and R hangs of 9 x UL210 full range mid/hi cabinets supplemented by 2 x UL210D downfill cabinets and 8 x UL155B bass cabinets with a total of 16 x TB218S dual 18” subwoofers (four units beneath each hang and eight across the front of the stage). APG was also in evidence on stage, where bands benefitted from a combination of 16 x SMX15 wedges supplemented by 2 x DX15 drum fill monitor speakers plus 2 x TB118S subs. A pair of 3000C’s were also used for side fills. DSP throughout was handled by APG DMS26 digital loudspeaker processors.

“I think that APG proved without a doubt at FOMFest that Uniline is a system to be reckoned with and deserves its place amongst the “big names” of the industry,” remarked Paul. “Despite challenging conditions, we had nothing but compliments for the sound, both for the PA and the stage monitors. At FOMFest we were using Uniline in what APG refer to as its “complete” mode for a high power system. Our aim was to provide coherent coverage with constant directivity throughout the listening area up to a distance of 75m from the stage. We achieved that easily – in fact, we might need to rein it in a bit for next year! However, the compact modular design of the system means that it can be adapted to pretty much any sized event, large or small, so it’s a really versatile system for any rental inventory. I have to say that FOMFest was a great success and as close to perfect that I could have hoped for, and we’re all looking forward to doing it again next year.”

With its routes in Manchester’s club land, where it began as a club night for new bands and singersongwriters, FOM’s cult following has grown to such an extent that a festival was the next logical step, which has launched FOM firmly into the mainstream. Held in the beautiful grounds of stately home Capesthorne Hall, just south of Manchester, it attracted an eclectic selection of local talent including Bad Lieutenant, The Cribs, The Lightening Seeds, Buzzcocks and The Charlatans.

Audio was specified by Paul Nicholson of Red Square Audio. Paul’s company also distributes a number of well-known brands including Apex Audio, APG and Innovason, which also formed a part of FOMFest’s main stage audio system.

The decision to use Apex’s new Intelli- X2 units was made by Paul Nicholson who was audio manager for the event’s four main stages.

“The Intelli- X2 is a fantastic product, its plug and play architecture and great sound quality making it streets ahead of the competition,” says Nicholson. “We decided to use a pair of units on the main stage because that’s where all the big bands were playing and where we wanted to concentrated our efforts.

“We positioned two Innovason Eclipse consoles at main stage Front of House, flip flopping between bands, with one Intelli- X2 on one console and one on the other, linking them out through Word Clock. We utilised AES and analogue connections; you can do three layers of linking, so if one fails another takes over, which is a unique function of the unit.”

Featuring internal processing up to 192 kHz as standard, high-end studio-grade analogue circuit designs and mastering-grade compressors, the Intelli-series sets the new benchmark in system management and speaker processing design. Designed to be Plug-and-Play, the Intelli-X² is simple to configure and integrate into any network. The Intelli-series consists of two system management devices, Intelli-X² 26 (2 in, 6 out) and Intelli-X² 48 (4in, 8 out), providing all the system management tools necessary for comprehensive system alignment and EQ, through to the provision of IIR and FIR based crossovers.

Red Square Audio took the opportunity to showcase the units to visiting engineers, demonstrating the capabilities and exceptional sonic quality of the units.

“The engineers thought the units were really cool. They like the iPod style integration on the front display, which is very contemporary and stylish, and they like the fact that you don’t have to use a computer with it, so you can take it out as a standalone unit,” Nicholson continues.

“Intelli- X2 has fantastic EQ and you can balance, mix, matrix, whatever you want. It’s streets ahead of the competition and has been universally praised. The units are also very easy to understand; anyone who’s used a DSP unit before will be able to use them within just a few minutes.

British audiences are traditionally more reserved about ‘challenging’ music, but Archive’s live shows are extremely popular in continental Europe. On the band’s latest tour, Spike has been manning two digital consoles at the FOH position – a Digidesign Profile for the band and an Innovason Eclipse mixing digital microphones for an accompanying orchestra. Both are digitally linked, with the latter as the master console and an Apex Intelli-X² 48 inserted to EQ house PA systems in the tour’s venues.

“I have been using it on tour for a couple of weeks and really like it,” he says. “We’ve been using the word clock to sync the console and as the master EQ in AES mode. At the last show I used it in analogue mode and it produced great results in cleaning up the old club system sound.”

Blending the orchestra with the band’s electric instruments is invariably a challenge, but the Intelli-X² has provided considerable advantages over ‘traditional’ processors.

“The compression and notch filtering of key frequencies has been a great help in mixing Archive’s musicians with the orchestra,” Spike continues. “Compared with an old analogue graphic EQ I was using, the clean sound is so refreshing.

“It’s also been great using the control software on my Macintosh. The design and use of the unit is very user friendly and satisfying. The unit is amazing, I think it’s the best system tool

“We host a wide range of events, which often involve DJs, bands and presentations,” says Altitude audio visual manager Jonjo Glynn. “Of course, these have the capacity to create large amounts of noise, so keeping levels under control is very important to ensure that both the adjacent rooms and floors below are not disturbed by both our own and visiting PA systems.”

Frequently described as the most natural sounding and smoothest leveller available, the Apex Argos prevents audio systems from producing excessive sound levels, but without producing unwanted sound degradation.

Using a (provided) measurement microphone, line inputs, or the PA system’s amplifier inputs as a level measurement reference, the Argos unit’s unique servo loop circuit smoothly lowers the levels in an extremely natural sounding way if audio levels go above the pre-set limit.

Argos features concealed, tamper-proof set-up controls, a choice of A-weighted or C-weighted filters and also a ‘fast’ operation option, for situations where loudspeaker protection is required.

“We had previously worked with other limiting systems that physically cut out the signal when the limit is exceeded, but these were not suited to our purpose,” says Jonjo. “We were attracted to the Argos units for their reputation of maintaining audio fidelity and their flexible limitation options.”

Supplied by the Apex UK Distributor RED SQUARE AUDIO, four units were installed one in each of Altitude’s main rooms by the venue’s in-house AV team, and they have proved such a success that the venue is considering installing them in other spaces.

“We are very happy with the performance of the Argos units,” says Jonjo. “So much so that we are looking to add them to our other venues, the Millbank Media Centre and the River Room, in the near future.”

Apex Installed at Altitude London

The Apex Audio Intelli-X248 was presented first at the 2010 PLASA show in Earls Court, and takes a step further along the path of the original Intelli-series controllers launched some 10 years ago.

Guido Olischlager, FOH operator, has been a loyal user of the first Intelli- X series for many years. When he heard the X2 version was available he decided to use it in the production of a Dutch-language version of Oliver!, in order to have it tried and tested on a significant theatre piece. “Oliver!, a production organised by the Musichall group, was premiered in the Ghent Capitole venue in November, and I immediately decided to use two Intelli-X248 machines,” explained Olischlager. “A first Intelli-X248 replaced the existing BSS Soundweb processors for the Capitole’s in-house Renkus-Heinz SR 6 system as they sounded a bit ‘dusty’ and were no longer reliable. The second X2 was used with the FOH for D-A conversion and matrix while we did a submix for the subs, balconies and underbalconies with the Soundweb.” In Antwerp, where Oliver! played the 2,000-seater Stadsschouwburg, the production started at Christmas and ran until 20 February. The series was sold out but a return is scheduled for April. At press time, Oliver! had welcomed its 150,000th visitor. Like in Ghent, the production used the in-house installation, a Martin W8LM line array of 2 x 12 enclosures powered by Crest Audio Pro 8200 series amplifiers, which Olischlager completed with two Synco STS-LOW cabinets and seven Martin W8LM delay speakers serving the balconies.

The sound design for both of the Oliver! shows in Ghent and Antwerp was made by long-time FOH engineer and sound designer Marc Luyckx.

The production’s audio (main signal and monitor lines) is controlled with a DiGiCo D5 console, using 30 inputs for the orchestra and another 50 for the actors. “Prior to the shows in Ghent and Antwerp I travelled to see the London production. A first challenge was to work with the huge number of sources. In the UK, they used fewer wireless inputs urging the performers to swap beltpacks all the time. We thought this was quite stressful and opted for the full capacity of inputs, which meant less switching. Oliver! has 70 actors on stage – the 40 kids who play in the opening number (Food, Glorious Food) change over their packs to the principals after their appearance, and that was the only switch we had to do,” explains Luyckx, adding that the system employs Shure UHF-R wireless microphone systems and Audio- Technica DP 896 microphones. The AES outputs from the D5 console (left, right, centre and subs) are routed to the Intelli-X248, converting to analogue and steering the speakers, delay boxes and a recording output. In Antwerp, Olischlager decided not to use a centre speaker system because of the visibility of the stage for the audience. The operator reveals he was a very early adopter of the new controller. “I’ve been using two prototypes with brand new firmware, beta-versions but they did the job perfectly.

“In terms of software I cannot change some of the functionality – yet – but everything can be adjusted on the Intelli-X248 itself. Since Oliver! is a long-term production I’ve had plenty of time to adjust EQs, delay times and crossover points, and the routing; and once you’ve determined the parameters, they remain unchanged. But for touring purposes, the [completed] software will facilitate the job.” Olischlager plans to use the Intelli-X248 on the forthcoming Dutch-language version of Spamalot.

“We named our product a ‘system management processor’ and not a ‘crossover’, for a reason,” adds Jeroen Sierjacobs, marketing manager with Apex. “The idea is that you can now control your sound system from one single device. “With the ability to convert the digital sound with a maximum sample rate up to 192kHz, we made no compromise on sonic quality. As Olischlager experienced, we designed the user interface in a way that you don’t always need the software to program a show.”

source: www.prosoundnewseurope.com

Apex on Oliver!

“Both APG and Innovason make high end systems that, in my role as a consultant, I have no hesitation in recommending,” said Nicholson. “It’s not just because RSA distributes these brands that I recommend them either. I’m a very proactive engineer who uses different systems all the time, but I genuinely believe that they are the best on the market at the moment. It just so happens that I am lucky enough to have them in my RSA portfolio! Saying that, we had to go to considerable lengths to get hold of a Uniline system as there wasn’t one available in the UK at the time. But it was well worth the effort; the results were superb and FLC’s FoH engineer Walter Jaquiss was very impressed.”

The Uniline system comprised twelve UL210 full-range mid/hi cabinets; six UL115B 1 x 15” subs and six TB218S 2 x 18” subs. This was complemented by eight SMX15s which were used as floor monitors and listening wedges. All the processing was provided by APG DMS26 digital loudspeaker system processors. The system was flown in City Hall, Salisbury, with the subs configured in Left/Centre/Right cardioid mode, whilst in St Albans, Nicholson opted for a ground stacked configuration with a conventional L/R sub array. Nicholson reported that the system performed beautifully in both configurations “the vocal, guitar, snare and hi-hat were right there in the near-field with an exceptional degree of clarity and power, which is something I’ve not witnessed for many years.” and Walter Jaquiss commented on the high quality of the Uniline mids and highs.

On stage it was a similar story. “The SMX15s provided an impressive amount of power and clarity for all three band members,” noted Nicholson. “Huey [Morgan] and Fast each used a pair while drummer Frank had a TB118S behind him and a pair of SMX15s to each side. During the soundcheck no-one asked for any extra gain or EQ which was impressive given the heavy duty backline that was also on stage. All in all a thoroughly convincing UK debut with an internationally recognised band for APG’s Uniline system.”

APG reinforces Fun Lovin Criminals