HK Speakers have once again been picked for John Peel Stage at this year’s Glastonbury festival. Great artists such as Noah and The Whale, The Coral and The Streets will be blasting their tunes out through HK Audio speakers.

EAV Pro Audio deal with the complete HK range that includes great products such as the HK Actor DX and the HK Premium Pro12MA Active monitors. In fact, we trust the brand so much we have two Actor DX systems on our hire stock.

The sound at Glastonbury is a touchy subject with artists and festival goers alike and any manufacturer putting their speakers up for show must take the rough with the smooth. In 2007 The Killers suffered a huge reduction in sound levels in order to adhere to licensing regulations. Michael Eavis, the festival organiser claimed the problem was a result of "unusual meteorological conditions" the sound levels were eventually raised to calm the crowd. Big rock stars such as Liam Gallagher has claimed in a News of The World article regarding Glastonbury "The sound is really shit and quiet." He goes on to say he wouldn’t ever play the festival again.

For a very limited time, EAV are offering you a FREE pair of speaker stands and covers with any pair of dB Opera 200, 400 and 600 series of speakers. Not just that, we have just checked all our prices on the DB Technologies Opera range to make sure we are giving you the best deal possible. Essentially, we have lowered our prices and giving you FREE stands and free covers.

There is not much to say other than check out the full range below.

Opera 208D Speaker
Opera 210D Speaker
Opera 410D Speaker
Opera 402D Speaker
Opera 405D Speaker
Opera 602D Speaker
Opera 605D Speaker
Opera 610D Speaker

This straight from an Audio Technica mailshot that we thought we would share with you.

"3000 Series Buy-Back Programme
Audio-Technica is delighted to announce the start of our 3000 Series Buy-Back Programme designed to enable users to halve the cost associated with purchasing a new wireless system.

How Does It Work?
Any E or F-Band Audio-Technica 3000 Series wireless system purchased and not registered for our Wireless Upgrade Pass within 30 days of purchase can now be traded in entitling you to a 50% discount from the RRP of a new system.

Simply register your contact and product details with us by completing the form below and a member of the Audio-Technica team will be in touch.
Once we have received and verified your old 3000 series wireless system we will be able to help you choose a brand new wireless system that best fits your requirements.

Is my 3000 series wireless system eligible for exchange?
The 3000 series Buy-Back Programme covers all 3000a and 3000b wireless systems purchased and not registered for the Audio-Technica Wireless Upgrade Pass within 30 days of purchase.

If you're not sure whether your system is eligible you can contact our team who will be happy to help you.

Do I need to use the buy-back programme?
It is important to remember that it will still be possible in 2012 to use up to four F-band Audio-Technica wireless systems together in the deregulated space of channel 70. No licence is required in this area of the spectrum.

If you currently own four or less F-band Audio-Technica 3000 Series wireless systems it may be that you do not need to purchase new wireless systems. If you would like to discuss your options, contact our team today on 0113 277 1441 or by emailing sales@audio-technica.co.uk"

Hope that all made sense. Remember, we stock the full range of Audio Technica Wireless Microphones and Audio Technica Wired Mics. Give us a call or drop an email if you want to know anymore

Well, this very short blog is just a little fun really.

I personally have just got hooked on the futuristic TV series ‘Battlestar Galactica’ (the new one, not the 70’s show) and was amazed to see that the microphone of choice for presidential board meeting in the future will be the retro style vocal mics. They may have been the Shure 55SH mics to be exact but I couldn’t quite make out a logo or model number. I am also pretty sure I saw a microphone that very much resembled the Electro Voice Raven retro style microphone also in another scene.

Now I know what you are thinking “how sad is this man to notice makes and models of Microphones when watching an entertainment program” – I must admit, I agree :)

This is just a quick follow up from the blog we posted last week entitled 'Recording a Live Band with just a Tascam DR100'

Well here is a link to video that contains the recordings made only on a Tascam DR100. You will see it is all recorded outside and with the internal mics found on the unit. I will also mention that it has had to be a little compressed to get it online. Take a read at the first post for a full break down of how and where it was recorded.

You can read more info on the Tascam DR100 digital portable recorder here

EAV had the pleasure of spec’ing and providing the Guiding Light Assembly church in London with a complete 12-way radio microphone solution and a digital desk for use in their weekly meetings. The GLA church have been very kind and sent us through some photos of the system all racked up and finished.
Everything you can see below is what we provided. Here is a list of the kit

1 x Custom Built Flight Case
1 x Tascam DM4800 Digital Mixer with Firewire recording card and Meterbridge
4 x Trantec S5.5 Dynamic Vocal Wireless systems on channel 70
1 x Antennae distribution system for Trantec microphones
8 x AKG WMS450 Dynamic Vocal Wireless systems on channel 38
2 x AKG antennae distribution systems
1 x AKG power supply
1 x Yamaha P7000s Amplifier
1 x 30m 24-way stage snake
1 x 30m 4-way speaker snake
1 x Cables/accessories/rack kits etc . .

The challenges you have to consider when building a system that contains more than four wireless systems is knowing which frequency bands to work on. As I am sure you all know, the free band of channel 70 (863MHz to 865MHz) will only allow you to run four wireless systems at once and anymore after that you need to go on to a licensed band. Now in the past the shared license band that you would have used would be right next to channel 70 on channel 69 (854MHz to 862MHz). Most pro wireless systems that run on channel 70 also include the channel 69 band. The problem that is now occurring for many wireless users is that channel 69 is being sold off to digital TV and a new frequency band, all the way down the frequency spectrum on channel 38 (606MHz to 614MHz) is being allocated to wireless systems. Because of the huge gap between channel 70 and channel 38, no one system includes the free frequencies on channel 70 and the licensed frequencies on channel 38. Essentially you now buy which you need and therefore careful planning is needed to make sure you can fit in and run all the systems you want.

Now some people will say that channel 38 can fit 12 wireless microphones running at the same time. So on the surface, we could have provided the GLA church with all 12 systems running on channel 38 however, after discussions with the AKG specialists at Sound Technology (UK distributes of AKG) they said they never spec more than 8 wireless mics on that band as 12 is a very tight fit and problems could occur as the spacing of the frequencies between each wireless system would be too small. Now, this meant we needed to find a space for the remaining four systems which luckily, as stated previously, is the max amount of systems that can fit on channel 70. Visit our 'Future of Wireless systems' page for more info on wireless frequencies past 2012

Another point you have to consider when using more than four or above wireless systems is antennae distribution. Basically, this is a unit that links four wireless systems together (some do more than four) via BNC cables and allows you to run those four systems off a single pair of antennae’s. If you are using more than four systems then you can link another antennae distribution unit (ADU) together and again just use a single pair of Antennae’s. In our case, the Trantec systems had one ADU unit and the AKG wireless systems had 2 ADUs and a PSU4000 which powered all the 8 wireless systems and the two ADUs. So in total, we had 16 units that were part of the wireless systems and only two mains plugs coming off them. I will touch on what other benefits come from ADUs in a separate article soon. If you look at the first picture you will see that the first 9U (or 9 rows) of equipment in the rack part of the flight case are all to do with the wireless systems and you will notice that there are only two pairs on antenna visible. Two for the Trantec systems (the white units at the very top) and two for the AKG systems (under the Trantec units)

The only other obstacle we had was providing the GLA church with a flight case/working cabinet for the equipment. This is where our custom made services come into play. We use a UK based company that make flightcases and provided them with everything that the customer wanted and what we thought would work and they designed and built it for us. The few images below show different sides of the case a little better. You can see it was made with usability in mind. There are access points for getting cables and multicores to the mixer and amps. We also provided removable lids and sides for protection whilst not in use. Next to the racking area you can see a cupboard that fits all their spare bits. The space on the top was specifically designed to house the Tascam DM4800 with its meterbridge and allow you to work the desk in the case and have access to all the rear connectors (see image below) . They are pro made units and offer fantastic protection. If you need something built then please give us a call, you may well be surprised with the prices we can offer.

It may also be worth mentioning that the multicore units we provided were also UK made and all had Neutrik connectors and were custom made to include a variety of different connectors the church required and also labeled to fit in with the system they required. Again, for any length or size, give us a call and we will quote what you require.

If you require more information on channel 38 wireless microphones , antennae distribution, custom flight cases or custom multicores then please don’t hesitate to give us a call on 0845 125 9409

Dolphin Music has gone into administration as of yesterday (17th May 2011). For many it may come as a surprise that a company that was in the ‘Sunday Times Fast Track 100’ in both 2006 and 2007 because its turnover peaked at about £10m could be in such trouble.

The news didn’t come as a shock to those keeping an eye on the online press over the last few days, as an earlier announcement that their last high street store in Liverpool had been closed. This itself follows on from the sale of its Huddersfield store previously to Dawsons Music. Then it was announced yesterday that Dolphin Music was placed into administration by the director Jason Travaria with the Manchester firm, Beevers and Struthers, handling affairs.

It has now been reported that PMT owner, S&T Audio, have purchased the business. According to MI Pro news, Simon Gilson, the S&T director has requested to its suppliers to allow up to 30 days for get the initial stages of the administration complete. It is the views of PMT and S&T that they can keep Dolphin Music trading and keep the business moving forward where other companies in the industry, that have gone into administration, have failed. Only time will tell if this happens.

Over the weekend my band had the pleasure of recording some live promo videos for our upcoming album. Now don’t worry this isn’t a shameless plug to get you to listen to my own music but rather to tell you about the Tascam DR-100 portable digital recorder.

The setup of the video shoot was quite simple. A single camera for the video footage and the DR-100 picking up all the sound. The band is a two piece acoustic duo consisting of two guitars and vocals but we also had a percussionist (Fellow EAV man David) helping out on a Cajon drum, shakey egg and Djembe. The recordings were being made outside and there was a little wind in the air that could have caused some problems.

Now, we debated how best to record the audio for a few weeks before. Obviously, the ideal way would have been to close mic everything, record it and mix it afterward. Another route would have been to dot a few mics around that go into a mixer and then go straight into a digital recorder. Or the final route would be to go with the cameraman’s DR100 placed in front of the band and made sure our levels were all correct on stage (or on the garden if you will). Now we didn’t want to have a completely polished sound as we really wanted to capture a live feel to the recordings and due to needing the finished product rather quickly, we opted for just the DR100 placed in front of the band.

To get a mixed sound on stage we placed David and his drums a few feet back from the guitars and the lead acoustic guitar went through a powered monitor to bring his level up to blend with my rhythm guitar. My rhythm guitar didn’t need any amplification as 1) I hit it very hard and 2) it is a large dreadnought Taylor guitar. My voice is quite powerful so I didn’t need to mic that either. Once the levels were sorted we did a few recording tests with the DR100 placed just two or three foot back from us and listened back. I was amazed at the quality of audio pickup and how detailed it was. Each instrument was clearly heard and a full stereo sound was produced from its on-built mics. There were a few changes of instruments throughout the day included a Banjo that we mic’ed up with a SM58 (not necessarily the first choice of mics to do this but it was all we had on hand) and that came out great and also an electro Ukulele that just went through the powered monitor. Both instruments were picked up great by the DR100 and we were extremely pleased with the end result.

After we recorded the live session we did a short Q&A session again using the Tascam DR100 to pick up the audio and like before, we simply placed it about 2 foot from ourselves and talked away. All was picked up clearly.

Now the Tascam DR100 has many different features but I must admit we didn’t get to see them all in action. If you want to know exactly what they are then visit our page here or go to the Tascam Audio website for downloads and extra info. A few of the features we did see were the obvious recording quality which we did as WAV files that went straight onto the SD card that was inserted into the unit. We nearly got to see how it screws onto a mic stand if one of us had bought a spare one. We saw the ease of transfer from the devise to the computer (take SD card out and insert into computer) and we saw that it was a very simple to use unit and extremely portable.

To conclude, it is obvious that we would have got a far more polished recording if we had mic'd every instrument up separately and mixed it afterward but that isn't always an option for some people as it wasn't for us this time around. What we did get is a recording that sounded great and professional but with a definite feel of it being live and on location. I would say the DR100 is a great unit for any band to have if they like recording live songs in random places and want a quality 1000 times better than a mobile phone recorder to upload to their fans.

Now as I said, this isn’t a shameless plug for my band so telling you to check out www.barricadesrise.co.uk where you can listen to all our music and see where we are playing next would be pointless. In all seriousness, the videos should be being posted on that website in a few days so go and take a listen for yourself.

The V-mixer range from Roland is getting a new flagship model in the form of the Roland M480 (Full specs here). It is taking over from the M400 (which we currently have some amazing clearance deals on see here). In a nutshell the main features of the M480 are below

EAV are pleased to have our advice center up and running. Here you will find some great tips and tricks that we have gathered together from some of the biggest manufacturers of pro audio equipment.

There's some great articles that include things like 'What is a polar patter?' by the Audio Technica team, 'The Anatomy of an Amplifier' by QSC, 'The 'PA Bible' from Electrovoice and 'Matching Speakers and Amps - How much power?' by Peavey. This section will be updated whenever we see an interesting article that might help you.

Remember, EAV are happy to help with any problem you may have and if you have a question you want answering or some simple advice then please give us a call or drop us an email.

Visit the PA Advice center here