CinequipWhite Inc. celebrated 10 years of its annual trade show, February Freeze at the new William F. White Centre on February 8, 2012.

This pre-NAB event, known for bringing together production professionals with the very latest innovations and technologies, is a great opportunity for any film, television, digital media, or audio professional to take advantage of this networking opportunity and technology showcase. Read the rest of this entry »

House Research Institute, a non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with hearing loss and related disorders, has outlined five ways musicians and music fans can preserve their hearing.

1) Know thyself: have your hearing tested.

Often, hearing loss issues are initially detected by family and friends rather than the person experiencing it. “When a person frequently has trouble understanding conversations in places where there is significant background noise, such as at parties, crowded restaurants and clubs, it might be a good time for a hearing test and an ear examination,” observes John W. House, MD, President of House Research Institute and physician at the House Clinic. Find out where you stand so you can understand and address the personal risks you may face – hearing exams take just minutes. Noise induced hearing loss begins in the higher frequencies and does not Read the rest of this entry »

The team at Dartmouth, NS’ Tour Tech East has begun its transition into its new facility at 180 Thornhill Dr., just next door to its previous (and now secondary) facility at 170. The building boasts 225,000 sq. ft. on a single level, covering 7.3 acres on an 8 acre plot.

I took a tour with President Peter Hendrickson during the company’s recent All-Access trade show, and it’s absolutely massive. The building will help the company enhance its service department and shipping processes, and also allow them to introduce a new “express counter” for smaller rentals by DJs, bands, etc. This space will also act as a showroom, which has the company’s suppliers quite excited.

Congratulations to the TTE team for the giant step forward.

Just got word of an intresting event coming up in Toronto: the Digital Media Summit, happening at the Fairmont Royal York from March 21-22, 2012. Featuring presentations from industry leaders including Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), top digital experts from Google, Facebook, the CBC, Bell Media, and more, the conference will connect you with media and brand specialists that can help fine-tune your digital media strategies.

Find out more at www.digitalmediasummit.ca. There’s a current promotion in place to save 40 per cent on registration…

Our sister publication Canadian Musician has a cool website feature called Blog Central, where we have a number of folks from the Canadian music industry – live sound and recording professionals, instrumentalists, singers, publicists, and more – hosting their own blogs, based out of one place.

Shawn Bradley, recording engineer and the man behind FaderNoise.com, recently did up a blog post reviewing new microphones that are made from discarded shotgun shells. No lie.

Take a look at Shawn’s blog: http://shawnbradley.canadianmusician.com. Let us know what you think. It’s aimed more so at budding and novice engineers, but has some great info and really cool interviews with some of Canada’s recording elite.

Check out the February 2012 issue of Professional Sound as we’ve got some really exciting Tests lined up. For the recording folk, our pal Luke Marshall gives shares an assessment of Pro Tools 10, while on the integration front, we’ve got Mulvey + Banani’s Greg Rushton giving an overview on Rane’s HAL expandable DSP platform.

This one’s been in the works for some time now, and I get the impression that quite a few folks in the industry have been quite curious to see how it measures up to some of the existing technologies. Those who’ve had a peek at Greg’s review have been quite impressed, so hopefully it paints an accurate picture of what this equipment is able to do.

Anyone within driving distance of Halifax should be considering a visit to the annual All Access Trade Show, presented by Tour Tech East. The event is taking place January 26th and 27th, and all of the info is available at www.allaccessshow.com. I’ve attended the last three years, and it’s always been a very high-calibre event, both in the sense of the exhibitors and gear on display, and the conference programming, which is always top-shelf.

Check out this year’s session schedule by clicking here.

The networking opportunities are always plentiful as well, for while TTE’s HQ is never shoulder-to-shoulder busy, the folks making the rounds are all in the industry and all open to sharing experiences and ideas.

Here’s to a great time in Halifax…

I’m curious as to how many folks in the audio industry are using LinkedIn. It gets picked on a bit, but I’ve been spending some time with the site and have discovered a few of its merits.

Professional Sound’s Publisher, Jim Norris, showed me around the various Groups and their uses, and I’ve been posting a few “discussions” in there to decent reception. They have a group for pretty much everything – including audio-centric areas like the AES, Live Sound professionals, and more…

My question to regular users is: what’s your favourite feature of the site that makes it a worthy addition to the slew of social networking accounts, logins, passwords, and all?

It was at his first show when NAMM Resource Center/Librarian Dan Del Fiorentino strolled by a booth and saw a small photograph taped to the display case. It was a sales rep for the exhibiting company who had passed away that year. As Dan read the message under the photo, a man in the booth said, “The show is not the same without him.” The feeling is shared by many who have come to realize that the NAMM Show is not just about business and pleasure—for many it is a family gathering and when a member of the family is no longer with us we want to gather together to pay our respects.   Read the rest of this entry »