James Lawford has returned to LMC Audio following a period in UK Sales at DiGiCo. He joins the team in LMC’s Birmingham office in his new role as Sales Manager.

Commenting on his return to LMC, James says, “I am very pleased to be re-joining LMC where I originally launched my career in professional audio. I enjoyed my time with DiGiCo immensely and it has been enlightening to carry out business from the manufacturer side of the table. In my new role as Sales Manager I plan to work with my team to continue our overall objective: bringing the best service and the best products to the professional audio market."

James and the Birmingham team continue to serve all Northern regions of the UK, including the Midlands, Scotland and Wales.
If you are a Pro Audio user and you have a question about equipment, contact James and the team on +44 (0) 121 359 4535 or email jlawford@lmcaudio.co.uk.

Above: (L-R) Rylan Machin, Project Manager at W E Audio; Paul Hinkly, MD at LMC Audio; Wayne Barker, MD at W E Audio.

W E Audio, based in North Oxfordshire, have just received delivery of the first of two Midas PRO2 consoles they have purchased from LMC Audio.
With a pair of always-in-demand Heritage H3000’s already in stock, which have been used on all of the festivals they have supplied this year, Wayne Barker, MD of W E Audio, and his team are familiar with the audio quality of Midas products.
“We have always loved what Midas put into their consoles, especially the XL3 & XL4 and of course the H3000”, explains Rylan Machin, Project Manager at W E Audio, “so when we saw what Midas had done with the PRO2, bringing out a console with a small footprint, a respectable channel count, and the same Midas quality and attention to detail, we knew there would be high demand for hire on this console again.”
Wayne and Rylan made the decision to invest in PRO2 at this year’s PLASA Show, where they took full advantage of the PRO2 demo sessions available on the Midas stand throughout the show. Rob Hughes, UK Customer Support Manager at Midas & Klark Teknik comments,
“It’s great to see long standing Midas customers like W E Audio making the move over to Midas digital, and I am sure the Pro 2 consoles will be a huge success for them. The demand for the Pro 2 and Pro 2C consoles has been fantastic, and is set to become one of the fastest selling Midas consoles of all time. It’s set to be a very high demand console in 2012 and beyond.”
Tim Bamber, Technical Sales for LMC Birmingham, who advised W E on their acquisition, comments, “W E Audio have been looking into new Midas consoles for some time now, so when PRO2 was launched it made perfect sense for them. Coming with such a recognised “Midas Sound”, in a small format and with a great price tag, plus its intuitive way of working and exceptional monitor features such as MCA’s and GEQ/FX features, it was a no brainer.”
As well as adding the desk to their hire stock for touring and events, Rylan informs us that W E will be offering what they call “The Bus Package” aimed, in particular, at those tours requiring a small footprint console with the quality of a Midas on a tour bus with a trailer. “The Bus Package will include our fully patchable stage box that we are very proud to have incorporated into the Midas DL251 with satellite boxes and breakouts, so that the console can be put into house systems and local supply.” He adds there will then be an option to take out a microphone package with all the necessary cable and microphone stands. “We hope that this package will offer a quick ‘get-in’ and ‘get-out’ option to engineers who are touring through different venues with a limited amount of space in a trailer.”

W E Audio and LMC Audio’s relationship goes a long way back, and once again, Rylan and the team were impressed with the service from LMC. “LMC pay great attention to detail; the staff at LMC are like no other, and having the salesman-client relationship, especially when on the road, is imperative.
When we decided we were interested in purchasing the Midas PRO2 we knew we wanted to do it with LMC. Tim Bamber made the decision easy for us with a pristine demo back in October, keeping us up to date all the way down the line.”

Rylan has worked with W E Audio for almost three years. Starting out as a student of Jim Parsons’, previously of Tiger hire, at Deep Blue Sound in Plymouth, he met Wayne Barker, MD of W E Audio Ltd, during one of his modules and they hit it off straight away. Wayne offered Rylan a Summer of work and soon afterwards a full time job. Since becoming Project Manager, Rylan has headed up a number of W E ‘s accounts including Alex James Harvest & the Tall Ships Races, and has taken on various other tasks including designing systems and looking after front of house and client/artist liaison.

To book a demonstration of the Midas PRO2, and for pricing details, contact LMC Sales on: London +44 (0) 20 8743 4680, Birmingham +44 (0) 121 359 4535 or email Sales. For further information about the Midas PRO Series range visit the Midas website.

Harry Bishop, freelance live sound engineer, is incredibly impressed with the XTA DP548 he recently purchased from LMC Audio. Currently using the processor with Beardyman, he describes the difference it has made to the shows:

“It’s absolutely brilliant, it’s revolutionised the show!” he exclaims. “I’ve trained my deps on how to use it to its full potential with specific application to this show and they’re complete converts, even the analogue junkies. The house technicians think it’s a genius application of the right technology and Beardyman loves it. Feedback has been a massive issue with Beard’s set-up up until now but with the DP548 he no longer needs to worry about it. In really extreme scenarios I have made use of the phase related filters in order to move bass nodes around the room and prevent localised coupling on stage which would otherwise be a show stopper.”

JP Cavaco, Sales manager at LMC, comments, “The XTA DP548 is a formidable tool in any engineer’s arsenal. For Harry in particular, the SiDD derived dynamic EQ has allowed even greater levels of audio control and manipulation when working with Beardyman. Add AudioCore on a wireless tablet and you have an incredibly easy and intuitive interface from which to make adjustments, be it from FOH or indeed anywhere in the venue.”
“My first plan was to buy an XTA SiDD”, explains Harry, “I only have a stereo pair to work with and I wanted some very precise control. When looking into it I found that the SiDD had been discontinued and that you couldn't use it wirelessly anyway. XTA is known for its sound quality and reliability so when I saw the 548 it seemed like an obvious option; wireless control, incredibly powerful EQ and dynamic EQ on every channel with full matrices between all ins and outs. To top it all off, I received excellent service from LMC; the trouble they went to getting my wireless kit working was no less than life saving!”
JP adds, “The DP548 marries together the very best elements from XTA- D2 dynamic EQ, C2 compression and 4 series loudspeaker management - and still finds room to squeeze in a new matrix mixing function. All of this alongside XTA’s legendary audio quality makes for a unique and exciting addition to the XTA family.”

Harry got involved in live sound through DJing and “hating rubbish sound”. He elaborates: “At Uni my friends and I used to promote gigs in London and we did pretty well for a few years. I mixed all the bands and that’s how I learnt the basics. Sitting in the back of a transit van with friends in the holidays, driving up and down the country doing toilet venues also taught me a lot. I then got a job running a big night club in Brixton called 'Mass'. I ran four rooms on my own for three years and did a couple of installs in the process. When I left there I went straight into touring and haven't looked back. A few years ago I was introduced to Mark Hornsby, company name Hark, who has been a bit of a mentor and helped me a great deal in my pursuit of excellence.”
Harry’s upcoming projects include work with Chai Wallahs and further work with Hark.
To contact Harry, email harry.bishop.uk@googlemail.com and for details of upcoming Beardyman shows visit the website: http://www.beardyman.co.uk/. To book a demonstration of XTA DP 548 and for pricing info contact LMC Sales on +44 (0) 20 8743 4680 or email sales@lmcaudio.co.uk. For further information about the DP 548 and other products from XTA visit the Polar Audio website.

Capital Pleasure Boats have recently upgraded their on-board sound systems with Martin Audio, supplied by LMC Audio.

CPBS runs 4 ‘club boats’ for private hire operating on the River Thames in London. Earlier this year, Scott Neicho, a partner at CPBS, began to consider updating one of the boat’s systems and decided to contact JP Cavaco, LMC Sales Manager at LMC with whom he has “always been more than happy with the service”.
Scott explains, “This March we will have been operating for nearly 10 years and with the type of club work that we are attracting, including Ministry of Sound & Pacha, we need to keep on top of our game in terms of what we have to offer our clients. Having run the same system on the boats for nearly 4 years we decided it was time to re-new.”

“Our relationship with CPBS goes back a number of years”, says JP, who advised CPBS on the upgrade, “during which time we’ve supplied them with spares and maintained the previous system they had installed. When Scott expressed his desire to upgrade we proposed Martin Audio as a strong option for consideration.”
“We’ve always used fairly standard club audio gear”, adds Scott, “but with LMC’s professional advice we are now running on Yamaha amps and Martin Audio Speakers and are so impressed with the difference in quality. So far we’ve upgraded 3 boats with the 4th due in the new year.”
The system upgrades now include various Blackline+ series speakers and controllers partnered with Yamaha P series amplification.
CPBS is owned and run by four partners, Scott and Nina Neicho, and Matt and Judy Spanswick, bringing different aspects of experience to the work that they do.
CPBS’s luxury pleasure boats have a capacity of between 40 and 240 passengers and make ideal party venues, suitable for a wide range of riverboat trips including birthdays, disco cruises, club nights, office parties, student events, sightseeing cruises, corporate charters and weddings.
For more information visit the CPBS website.

To book a demonstration of Martin Audio Blackline and for pricing enquiries please contact LMC Audio Sales in London: +44 (0) 20 8743 4680 or Birmingham: +44 (0) 121 359 4535, or email sales@lmcaudio.co.uk. For further information about the Martin Audio product range visit the Martin Audio website.

LMC has joined the Facebook community!

'Like us' to stay up to date with the latest news from LMC London and LMC Birmingham, including new product updates and details of the latest promotions and offers from LMC.

Check out our Facebook page for more details!

2012 marks the 25th anniversary of Yamaha’s digital mixers. To celebrate the occasion, Yamaha Commercial Audio Europe is running a unique photo competition with 25 superb prizes to be won, including an LS9-32 digital mixing console. For more information & a chance to win, visit the Yamaha website, or the Yamaha Facebook page.

Read Paul Hinkly, Managing Director at LMC's, comments about the Pro Audio Industry in London in this month's Audio Pro International article: Regional Focus: London.

New live music venue, Empire, has invested in an Allen & Heath iLive T80 & iDR32, purchased from LMC Audio Birmingham.

Based in the heart of Leeds, Empire has a ground floor feeder bar (capacity 150) and a basement live music venue (capacity 265) with a purpose built stage/green room/DJ booth. Chris Walton, Empire’s owner, explains “We met the team from LMC at the PLASA Focus show who introduced us to Allen & Heath iLive and we went from there.” He adds, “We’re fairly new to this, my background being selling fancy dress to students through our Leeds shop, but I am in a band and have been in bands for years, and I’ve also set up a recording studio in my garage which I love spending time in.”
Meeting Chris and his colleagues, Tim Bamber, Technical Sales at LMC Birmingham, knew that iLive would be the perfect solution for Empire: “Being such a versatile desk with a compact surface packed with loads of great features and such ease of use, the console is the perfect choice for a venue like Empire, which has many guest engineers and a demand for quick changes between set-ups. On top of all of that it’s superb value for money. iLive ticks all the boxes!

Asked why the venue chose iLive Chris replies, “We wanted to open our venue with the best equipment – I was impressed by the T80’s compact size – but it was our PA installer and sound engineer Jonny Ridout who really persuaded us to buy. Everyone who has used the desk has commented on the great sound quality, particularly engineers who get especially excited!”

Martin Daley, UK Sales Manager at Allen & Heath visited the bar to take shots of their Battle of the Bands final in July and was very impressed by the set up. “I was blown away by the attention to detail & level of care taken over the install. The iDR32 is housed in a bay to the side of the stage left area and the Cat 5 Multicore has been run as a fixed install to the front of house position and terminated to a very pro wall plate; a very neat install!” Martin was similarly impressed by their engineer Jonny who he describes as “a great asset”. He adds, “On the night, Jonny mixed the four competing bands with creative calmness, achieving a great sound that made everyone happy. Personally, I will be going back to see some more bands!”

Chris and his team, including Ali his business partner and Jonny, will be using the desk across a range of applications from booked artists to events such as Battle of the Bands and Sunday afternoon acoustic performances. Following the final of their weekly Battle of the Bands night they are looking forward to Metal Fringe Festival on 19th August. Chris adds, “We’re planning a few special acts from September onwards. Check out our website for more details!”

To find out more and to follow Empire on Facebook and Twitter visit their website:
www.empireleeds.co.uk

To request a demonstration and for more information about Allen & Heath iLive contact Sales at LMC London: (0) 20 8743 4680 or Birmingham: (0) 121 359 4535 or visit the Allen & Heath website.

Midas has launched the latest additions to its PRO Series of digital consoles; the PRO2 and PRO2C live audio systems, at PLASA 2011.
LMC are taking orders for the consoles at the show and have an exclusive offer.

Click here to find out more.


PLASA 2011 is at Earls Court, London from Sunday 11th to Wednesday the 14th of September.
Visit us on Stand G19 to find out more.

Audio Worx, based in Yorkshire, have purchased an Allen & Heath iLive T112 console and iDR48 mix rack from LMC Audio in Birmingham.
Offering Sound system installation, Rental, Dry hire, System maintenance and repair, Audioworx will be using this latest addition across their applications, from touring through to corporate event work.

Asked what made them choose iLive, Rik Ellis, owner of Audioworx explained, “Sound quality and ease of use, coupled with features and price made it a very easy choice. We have a long standing relationship with LMC and having been sent the iLive on demo for a couple of months, along with A1 customer support from Allen and Heath , Martin [Daley] especially, we couldn’t say no. We’ve had no complaints so far, just lots of very happy engineers.”
Martin Daley, UK Sales Manager at Allen & Heath comments, “It’s been a pleasure dealing with a highly professional company like Audioworx who have a great ethos, and who, after thoughtful consideration whilst using the desk on demo, have chosen iLive."
Tim Bamber, Technical Sales at LMC Birmingham notes, “Being so user friendly and with superb audibility it was easy to see that this desk was the right solution for Rik and the team at Audioworx.”

For more information about Audioworx please visit their website www.audioworxonline.co.uk. For further product information regarding iLive T-Series please visit the Allen & Heath website, and to book a demonstration or to request a quotation please contact the Sales teams at LMC London: (0) 20 8743 4680 or Birmingham: (0) 121 359 4535.

Visit us on the LMC stand at PLASA Focus to get your first chance to see products from Radian Audio in the UK this year.
See the latest APEX NEO XD wedges from Radian, including the Apex NEO 1200XD & 1500XD. These two-way monitors use Radian high-powered Neodymium coaxial 12” & 15” speakers respectively, with 3”diaphragms and 2” exit compression drivers. Including new XD technology, they yield a very high quality frequency response.
Apex NEO XD monitors are the ideal choice for live and install sound applications that require a high performance, portable monitor system solution.

In addition, a selection of Radian Audio diaphragms will be on display. Designed and manufactured to have equivalent or better performance than the original, these diaphragms are available for a wide variety of JBL compression drivers.

For more information visit the Radian website or contact our Sales teams in London +44 (0) 20 8743 4680 and Birmingham +44 (0) 121 359 4535, sales@lmcaudio.co.uk.

Sitone PA Systems Hire have invested in a combination of new and used Pro audio equipment from LMC Audio Systems Ltd.

Recent additions to their hire stock include a Martin Audio Wavefront system, and a NEXO PS-R2 Series speaker system, both driven by Yamaha amplifiers and using NEXO and XTA processing.

Sitone PA is a professional audio systems hire company supplying to venues & live events ranging from small conferences to large-scale outdoor productions.
Michael ‘Mikey’ Jones, Director of Sitone, comments, “The equipment we have invested in is built around sound quality which we want to pass on to our customers. When purchasing from LMC we decided to go for some of the best on the market.”

In Summer of last year they got their first chance to really road-test the equipment, taking the Martin Audio Wavefront system, including 4 x WSX and 4 x W8C, to the Oaklands Grove Street party in Shepherd’s Bush, an outdoor event (pictured above.) Simon Smith (Director) & Mikey were very pleased with the performance of the system, noting the “effortless sound quality” that the system produced.

Their most recent purchase includes NEXO PS10 series speakers with LS600 subs which they have used at a number of events already. These have proven popular, Mikey noting the ‘dumb struck’ look on people’s faces when he turns them on!
Which, as Mikey notes, are not much to look at when they are first wheeled into a venue, but leave people looking “dumb struck” when he turns them on! “When we first wheel them into a venue in their cases you can tell people are looking at them and thinking ‘is that it?’ but as soon as we turn them on their opinion quickly changes!”
All in all, Sitone are very pleased with their investments, going on to say, “our customers have nothing but good things to say about the systems, in particular the NEXO which we chose for their compact size and clean, high output.”

In addition to these systems, Sitone have invested in a selection of Shure mics and PROEL speaker stands. They strive to invest in the best equipment to give their customers the best sound quality as a result, and as Mikey points out, “making our customers happy is what’s important to us.”

With future 2011 dates to be finalised Sitone look forward to a busy year ahead!

For more information about Sitone PA please visit their website, or Facebook page and for further information about any of the brands mentioned above please see the LMC Audio website or call Sales at LMC London on +44 (0) 20 8743 4680 or LMC Birmingham on +44 (0) 121 359 4535.