ApexPro, in partnership with local pro-AV supplier Six Dots, successfully launches HH Electronics in Gaborone, Botswana.
ApexPro, the distribution arm of the Prosound Group of Companies, headed to Gaborone, Botswana, to launch HH Electronics’ range of audio solutions at the Town Lodge Convention Center on February 27.
ApexPro took on the distribution rights of HH Electronics, part of the UK-based Headstock Group, for the sub-Saharan region late in 2022. “HH Electronics offers a versatile range of both portable and commercial audio solutions that are ideal for the African market,” says ApexPro’s HH Electronics product specialist, Simba Mukabeta. “The company’s products are designed by a passionate team of audiophiles in the UK, and offer scalable audio solutions, robust design, and high-quality sound at an affordable price.”
Based on the positive response the HH Electronics launch received from the local market in South Africa in late 2022, ApexPro teamed up with its partner in Botswana, Six Dots, to arrange a pro-AV Expo at the Town Lodge Convention Centre in Gaborone.
“We presented HH-Electronics’ Tensor and Tessen Series at the event, which was very well received by both professional and end users,” Mukabeta explains. “In sub-Saharan Africa, clients are looking for high-quality sound that is scalable, affordable, and, most importantly, able to withstand the harsh African climate. HH-Electronics delivers on all these fronts, and it’s a privilege to offer our Botswanan clients a solution that we truly believe in,” he concludes.
While HH-Electronics is a new product in Botswana, ApexPro enjoys a long-standing relationship with pro-AV service providers in the region.
“Over the past two years, our ability to visit our partners in sub-Saharan Africa has been severely curtailed due to travel restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic,” explains ApexPro company director Justin Acres. “We have long-standing partnerships with installation and rental companies in Botswana, who have come to rely on ApexPro to deliver world-class professional audio-visual equipment on time and within budget to support their projects in the region, despite the complexities of doing business in a developing market. In addition to relying on ApexPro as a distributor, clients in the region can lean on the expertise of the Prosound team as pro-AV installations and AV solutions providers, with 50 years of experience working in the region.” Acres points out.
“One of our goals this year is to reconnect in person with our partners in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to strengthening our existing relationships in the region, we are determined to increase our already impressive African footprint in 2023. We want to ensure that Africa’s rapidly growing and underserviced pro-AV market can access the best, most fit-for-purpose AV technology through local distributors to ease the burden of doing business with overseas suppliers in the region,” Acres concludes.
ETC has introduced a new version of the Power Pack ALCR (Automatic Load Control Relay).
ETC Power Pack ALCR (Automatic Load Control Relay).
The new ALCR-PP-Mk2 model now supports emergency control of 0-10 VDC, DALI, and DMX512 directly controlled emergency luminaires in accordance with 2023 NEC section 700.24.
When used for emergency control of 0-10V luminaires, these additional relay contacts allow two separate control circuits for luminaires that require two channels of control.
The ALCR allows emergency lighting fixtures that are also used for normal illumination to be controlled under everyday non-emergency circumstances. When normal power is lost, or a fire alarm is activated, the ALCR bypasses normal control and forces the emergency lighting fixtures to an emergency state.
Luminaires that are energized to the appropriate emergency level upon loss of control connection are no longer required to be UL 924 listed because of changes to section 700.24 in the 2023 NEC. Unlike the DEBC that actively drives DMX512 channels to full, the ALCR-PP-Mk2 will disconnect 0-10V, DALI, or DMX512 control signals, driving the emergency luminaire to its data-loss state, as well as bypassing any normal line-voltage power control of the luminaire.
The ALCR is a UL 924 Listed emergency lighting device for control of a single 120/277 V circuit. The ALCR-DIN will remain unchanged from its original version and will still support a single control circuit of 0-10V or DALI. All new quotes for the ALCR-PP will switch to the Mk2 version immediately. Any existing orders for the original ALCR will continue to ship as the original product. If you want to change your order to the new version, please contact your customer service rep or project manager.
“At ETC, we understand that emergency lighting is first and foremost a matter of life safety. This new version of our Power Pack ALCR will give our customers access to control of many more emergency luminaire types that we weren’t previously able to support.”
Meyer Sound Bluehorn System Delivers World-Class Immersive Audio Post to LA Residential Studio
When choosing the monitoring system for his new Atmos dub stage in Los Angeles, Fred Paragano set forth two main criteria. First, since the home-based studio would be for his exclusive use as a Supervising Sound Editor & Re‑Recording Mixer, the loudspeakers had to satisfy his preferences for accuracy and musicality. Because many of his projects — feature films in particular — would be completed at various commercial dubbing stages, it was also critical that his pre-mixes translate seamlessly to different systems in larger rooms. On both counts, says Paragano, the Meyer Sound Bluehorn® System full bandwidth studio monitors have proven to be the ideal solution.
“The intent of building the studio was to do most of the heavy lifting on my part here, so it was critical that my mixes translate accurately when finishing elsewhere. And I’ve found that, with Bluehorn, when I go to a larger stage my mixes translate exactly as expected. I don’t have to spend any time fixing or compensating. We’re up and running right away, and we can start being creative.”
Fred Paragano
Paragano’s residential studio was completed late in 2022, a decade after relocating from the Nashville area, where he had owned and operated the highly successful Paragon Studios, a multi-room facility for music recording, mixing, and post-production. “Over the years my work had shifted predominantly to film and TV post, so it only made sense to relocate to Southern California since that’s where most of my business was coming from,” he says.
In the early months of the pandemic, Paragano decided to “bring it all back home” and invest in a world-class studio for his own use – a room that would work for anything from stereo music to full commercial cinema Atmos immersive mixes. Two spare bedrooms were gutted to open space for a main mixing room 21 feet long by 15 feet wide. The studio design was entrusted to the esteemed Russ Berger (rbdg.com), who had designed Paragano’s widely heralded Nashville facility.
“Being in Los Angeles, I have worked on many dub stages with different monitoring systems,” Paragano recalls. “Whenever I have worked on a Meyer Sound system, there was always a clear difference. So I decided that, for my own room, Meyer Sound would be the only option to consider.”
In his early discussions with Berger, Paragano had assumed loudspeakers for the main screen channels would be Meyer Sound’s Acheron® series. “But when I said I was going with Meyer Sound, Russ insisted I check out Bluehorn,” he says. “He thought that if I were going to build a facility of this caliber, I needed to complement it with monitors at the same level.”
Unique in the industry, Bluehorn System full-bandwidth monitors incorporate dedicated processing with a patented phase-correction algorithm that results in flat response from 20 Hz to 22 kHz.
Paragano had not previously heard of Bluehorn, but he made a point to audition systems at LA area facilities, including at the renowned Newman Scoring Stage at Fox Studios. What he heard cemented his decision to go follow Berger’s recommendation.
“It was a leap of faith since there are still relatively few systems out there,” Paragano admits. “However, everyone who comes in here is immediately blown away by what they hear, just as I was. The whole system just breathes. It never feels like it is working hard.’”
Currently, the room is a 7.1.4 configuration with prewiring for 9.1.6 expansion if required. The three full-range Bluehorn Systems anchor the front channels mounted over three additional X-400C™ cinema subwoofers dedicated to the LFE channel. The lateral and overhead surround channels each employ four ULTRA‑X23™ compact loudspeakers, with two USW-210P™ compact narrow subwoofers in the ceiling for surround bass management. All loudspeakers are concealed behind the acoustic fabric. The Bluehorn System has its own dedicated GALAXY processor, with a secondary Galileo® GALAXY 816 Network Platform handling all the surround processing.
“The cool thing about GALAXY is that I can have multiple setups,” notes Paragano. “I can have one for theatrical Atmos, one for home Atmos and one for music mixing. I can easily call up what I need with the touch of a button.”
The studio is reserved exclusively for Paragano’s own projects, though clients and colleagues often come in to listen to his work — and to experience the Bluehorn System monitors. “It’s fascinating to see the expressions on their faces,” Paragano says. “They immediately get excited about what they are hearing. Many times, they will sit back, close their eyes, and just listen. I feel fortunate to have worked with Russ and the team at Meyer Sound. We brought the best together and created something that I believe is truly extraordinary.”
Other equipment in the studio is also top-notch in every respect. Five computers are online, with three dedicated to Pro Tools | HD, a fourth for Atmos rendering, and a Mac Mini solely dedicated to I/O routing for the entire system. Also included are three Avid MTRX interfaces, three Avid Sync Xs synced to an Antelope OCX clock, and a Brainstorm DXD-8 multi-format reference generator.
A sampling of Paragano’s Film/TV credits includes Amsterdam, The Addams Family, Westworld, and Patsy & Loretta. His music credits include albums by Livingston Taylor, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, and Kenny Loggins.
ApexPro is the sole distributor of Meyer Sound solutions in sub-Saharan Africa. Contact us to find out how to access Meyer Sound solutions in the region.
Brand’s 4006 Omnidirectional Condenser Mic Offers Balance and Clarity for Recording Engineer Duo George and Geoff Hazelrigg.
Recording Engineer Duo George and Geoff Hazelrigg
Having grown up as musicians, it’s no wonder that George and Geoff Hazelrigg fully immersed themselves in the industry and every new opportunity it provides. Between being two-thirds of the Hazelrigg Brothers jazz trio, manufacturing the D.W. Fearn line of circuits and co-founding Hazelrigg Industries, the duo is familiar with every step of the musical process: from creation to production to performance. With 30 years of production experience and 15 years of high-definition recording knowledge under their belts, the Hazelrigg brothers are now tackling the newest force to take the music world by storm―immersive audio recording.
For these recording projects, the duo relies on DPA Microphones’ 4006A Omnidirectional Condenser Microphones and accompanying nose cones.
“These mics are just so quiet, when we record in DSD, an extremely high-detailed recording format, the DPAs are so quiet and capture the total dynamic. All the little nuances of the room are picked up without having excess noise getting in the way of anything.”
Geoff Hazelrigg
George agrees, adding, “the nose cones make the mics absolutely flat from top to bottom. There are no hotspots anywhere in any frequency range. These mics are sort of magical.”
When it comes to tackling an immersive project, George says, “the entire industry is thinking about how to remix tracks to fit an immersive format, but we start from the ground up and build tracks specifically for immersive. The 4006s are the standard of excellence for this.” The duo has implemented this concept for their recent co-production of LA-artist Tyler Smith’s new record. Produced in collaboration with Sweetwater Studios, George and Geoff worked alongside the iconic Mixing Engineer Mike Miller and Sweetwater Engineer Shawn Dealey.
“We hung six 4006s in the room ― corresponding with the right and left fronts, sides and rears ― to create a very realistic image,” George continues. “We even took the mics into different acoustic spaces and put single tracks through a speaker to capture the room reverb. This way, we weren’t relying on DSP reverb, but rather real acoustic spaces picked up by the DPAs.”
George also notes on the importance of audio quality in spatial audio as compared to in stereo. “In stereo, you can jigsaw puzzle things together if you’re working on a dense pop mix, but there’s no place to hide with spatial audio,” he explains. “The DPAs allowed us to record without phasing or sorting. They were easy and just worked. They also complement the close-source ribbon and tube mics that we use extremely well. The 4006s are just a higher quality. They’re more detailed and they offer a cleaner, quieter and better balance.”
The duo plans to continue implementing the 4006s into future immersive projects, including the Hazelrigg Brothers’ newest album, set to release this spring. “When you’re working in immersive, you can’t afford to go in and EQ or clean things up,” Geoff says. “The 4006s require absolutely no processing on the back end ― there’s no distortion, there’s head room for days and there’s no artifacts that come off it. We honestly believe that the 4006 is the best microphone for the job.”
ApexPro’s director of sales, Brendan Venter, will be attending ISE 2023 to cement existing relationships and create new opportunities to distribute world-class pro-AV products across Southern Africa.
Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) is the world’s largest exhibition for AV and systems integration professionals. Held annually, ISE attracts over 1,300 exhibitors and over 80,000 attendees from around the world.
ISE 2023 will open its doors on January 31 in Barcelona, Spain. The event will feature a wide range of technical presentations, workshops, demonstrations, and a large exhibition floor with the latest AV and systems integration products and technologies from the world’s leading technology innovators and solutions providers.
“The Southern African market is hungry for professional audio, visual, and integration solutions suitable for our unique environment. The event provides the perfect opportunity for us to find the manufacturers, solutions, and products that will fulfill the market’s diverse needs across verticals,” says ApexPro director Justin Acres.
ApexPro director Mark Malherbe concurs, stating, “With Brendan’s many years of industry experience and strong working relationships with our current suppliers, we are confident that he will use the opportunity presented at ISE 2023 to cement existing relationships and bring onboard new opportunities at this year’s event.”
Prosound, which will be celebrating 50 years in business this year, is the holding company of ApexPro. ApexPro was established in the early 2000s to serve as an independent distribution company for Southern Africa, allowing Prosound to focus on consulting and installation services to clients in the region.
“The Pro-AV market is emerging from a tumultuous time following the global Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a great opportunity to attend ISE at the start of 2023, as we see a strong surge in growth and investment from our client base in the post-pandemic economy. Business models have changed over the past two years, necessitated by the lockdowns and spurred on by the rapid expansion of connectivity infrastructure across the sub-Saharan region. People in the region are ready to adopt next-level technology, and we are excited to find and bring the products and solutions needed to drive these advancements forward,” says Brendan.
New Product Introductions and Interactive Tech Bars Highlight ISE Presence
At this year’s Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) show in Barcelona, Meyer Sound will introduce a new product expected to have a significant impact on portable touring and installed sound industries. Only a year ago, the company debuted the phenomenally successful PANTHER™ large-format linear line array loudspeaker, setting a new standard for the industry and a new direction for Meyer Sound technologies.
“At ISE, we will introduce a powerful new Milan-equipped loudspeaker that extends and complements the clear benefits that already have earned global acceptance in PANTHER.”
John McMahon, Meyer Sound Senior Vice President
Also featured at the Meyer Sound stand (Hall 5, 5F100) will be a single PANTHER cabinet, unattached and available for team lifting to demonstrate its light weight of 150 lb (68 kg) and compact size. The class-leading acoustical performance of PANTHER is already proven in the real world and backed up with the latest technology, including a Milan AVB endpoint as standard.
The always-popular Tech Bar has been doubled for ISE 2023. One tech bar will feature the Spacemap® Go spatial sound design and mixing tool using a range of compact IntelligentDC™ loudspeakers. The other Tech Bar will focus on the networked power and flexibility of new ULTRA-X20™ loudspeakers and USW-112P™ subwoofers, also with integrated Milan endpoints.
Both Tech Bars will demonstrate Meyer Sound’s new Nebra™ software platform, which provides fast and intuitive connection of Milan-based audio networks along with comprehensive system monitoring over the same network or, for backward compatibility with existing systems, via the RMServer™.
Meyer Sound also will introduce another new Nebra-compatible product that is optimized for installation applications.
“Meyer Sound experienced a record year in 2022 and we will build on that momentum in 2023 starting at ISE,” says McMahon. “Our team looks forward to meeting in person in Barcelona with customers from around the world.”
ISE 2023 will take place in Barcelona, Spain at Fira Barcelona from January 31 to February 3, 2023.
ApexPro, the sole distributor of Meyer Sound solutions and products in Southern Africa, will be represented by Brendan Venter at ISE 2023.
