PORTLAND, Oregon — HARMAN’s Soundcraft continues its successful “Mixing with Professionals� (MwP) series with two sessions in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday, December 11. Hosting the sessions will be James Lawrenson, front of house engineer for Foster the People and a Soundcraft Vi6 user.

Lawrenson will provide formal training on the Soundcraft Vi Series consoles while discussing his experiences working with Soundcraft equipment. Participants will be given a USB stick so they can save their settings and take them on the road for their next gig, or continue working on their settings using the Soundcraft Virtual Vi offline editor, which is available free on the Soundcraft website.

“The Vi6 has been a pleasure to work with on this year’s Foster the People tour, as the product’s top-notch performance, combined with Soundcraft’s dedicated customer support, made it a perfect fit,� Lawrenson said. “I look forward to sharing my impressions of the Soundcraft Vi Series with the attendees at this MwP session, and hope that I can also provide a valuable educational experience in the process.�

The MwP sessions will be held on December 11 at Pro Sound & Lighting on 3511 SE Belmont, Portland, OR 97214.

Two time slots will be available from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm and from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. The course is free to attend but registration is required and space is limited. Details are available at usa.soundcraft.com and participants can register via e-mail at Soundcraft-usa@harman.com.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

POTTERS BAR, United Kingdom — Having become synonymous with The Noisettes in recent years as their long-term FOH engineer and production manager, this summer Bryony October took to the road with British singer songwriter (and Chase & Status collaborator), Delilah. In so doing she became an early adopter of the new HARMAN Soundcraft Si Performer digital console—which not only builds on the successful Si platform but is the first desk to incorporate a DMX lighting interface.

Bryony knew she would need a minimum of 31 inputs and that she would also be mixing the 5-piece band’s monitor in-ears from front of house. But her chosen console also needed to be compacted into a small footprint in order to fit into a splitter van (along with IEM rack and mics).

Knowing that this tour would not warrant full production support October had earlier contacted Soundcraft to see if they had any new consoles in prospect. “The timing couldn’t have been better as the Si Performer was just being released,â€� she said.

With something of a history of mixing female vocal-led pop October quickly discovered that having worked the Soundcraft magic so successfully with Noisettes’ lead singer Shingai Shoniwa on a Vi1, the Performer also ticked all the boxes on her wish list.

Offered the role by tour manager Tim Boardman she went straight into production rehearsals and was soon mixing Delilah’s soulful voice and 5-piece band with no induction necessary.

As for features, the Si Performer’s FaderGlow and colour backlit name displays on every channel proved a godsend. “It has screens on each channel, so you can see the compressors and gates, and the FaderGlow changes colour so you never make a mistake when moving from FOH to monitor mixes,� October said. “It also turns the system EQ red so you can clearly see the graphic.�

“The touch screen is easy to get around quickly, with the one-touch easy mix with buttons across the top of the faders,� October added. “Finally I love the magnetic iPad notes pad which is very handy.�

The entire show mix is placed on the desk’s top layer, with October sub-mixing the drums to a group buss and also Delilah’s vocals and some of the drums to the Lexicon effects.

As for Delilah’s personal monitor mix, she said, “It’s all about the vocal level, reverbs [the desk contains four stereo Lexicon effects engines] and a low mix of everything else. It’s about creating an open and ambient sound so that the artist feels part of the show and can interact with the audience.�

Sonically, she believes, the desk could scarcely be improved—and although October has not had the opportunity to use the DMX interface, the sound engineer notes that “every single venue I arrived at knew that this was the desk with DMX.�

Summing up, October stated, “The Si Performer has been a pleasure to work on. It is an easy desk to navigate and has enabled me to deliver the five monitor mixes and house sound with ease.� She confirms that she would have no hesitation specifying this as her go-to console on any upcoming club venue splitter tour.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

RIGA, Latvia — UBS (Universal Baltic Sound) of Latvia has purchased the first new HARMAN Soundcraft Si Performer console in the Baltic region.

The rental company had originally been invited by Soundcraft’s Latvian distributor Audio AE to test the Si Compact 24 console on the recent tour of top local rock act Brainstorm, as the FOH mixing console for support band, The Sound Poets.

After using it on various shows they were highly impressed with the feature set. Although USB senior sound engineer Maris Liepa had never previously worked on the desk he was surprised at how easy it was to navigate. “I instinctively knew how to use it without referring to the manual,” he smiled. “The tour was a great test for a new product and we were able to run both FOH and monitors from a single Si24.”

They were all set to purchase the desk and add it to their extensive inventory of Soundcraft analogue boards…until the Si Performer hybrid desk, which is based on the same platform, was announced.

“When we learnt of the Performer 3, we were particularly impressed with the bigger channel count, the two option slots, which allow I/O expansion…and the more attractive appearance,â€� said Maris. “And so we didn’t hesitate to place the order for this instead.â€�

As touring veterans, experienced in running Soundcraft legacy consoles, they are familiar with the legendary signature audio and desk ergonomics. They have seen how easy it is to retain the feel of analogue within a digital board—a tradition that continues with the Si Performer 3.

The Si Performer is the first digital audio mixer with integrated DMX for lighting control. With a total possible capacity of 80 inputs, it takes the popular Si Compact platform as its base but provides almost twice as much DSP power and increased functionality. The Si Performer 3 itself offers 32 mic and eight line inputs, offering 14 aux/group mix busses, as well as four FX return channels; and with the aforementioned input cards it is possible to patch up to 80 inputs.

In addition, the integration of a DMX512 port offers core lighting control, with the initial release of software providing four scene masters (A-D) with associated slave channels on the ALT fader layers. This makes the desk thoroughly unique.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

NORTHRIDGE, California – Music Inc. of Louisiana is a music store in Gonzales, Louisiana that offers a complete selection of instruments, gear and services, from guitars, amps and PA systems to music lessons and more. Music Inc. owner Brandt Bourque (who purchased Music Inc. in January 2012) has had strong ties to the community going back to the store’s founding in 1969 and has seen first-hand the hardships caused by the weather and environmental disasters the Gulf Coast region has experienced. To better serve those in need, several leadership groups recently built a custom mobile kitchen, in which Music Inc. installed a pair of HARMAN’s JBL EON510 powered speakers to function as the vehicle’s mobile PA system.

“Some of the people on the project come from organizations that have helped feed victims and workers in the aftermath of the oil spills along the Gulf, after Hurricane Gustav and after the recent tornadoes in Alabama,� said Scott Duplechein, head of the Leadership Ascension Response Kitchen project. “While spending a lot of time at the ground zero points of these disaster areas the teams were faced with many challenges. Working out of the backs of trucks and cargo trailers, we found that simply preparing and serving hot meals to relief workers and victims was extremely difficult. The issues we faced led to the idea of creating a mobile disaster relief kitchen.�

The coalition pooled its resources and raised the funding to create a custom kitchen on wheels. “The kitchen is built on a 28-foot-long gooseneck trailer and is equipped with a griddle, stove, two deep fryers, a full-size refrigerator and a freezer,� Bourque noted. “It is set up to run on gas or generator power. We also decided to outfit the trailer with a pair of JBL EON510 powered PA speakers.�

The trailer was first used in the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac in flooded areas of south Louisiana’s St. John parish. “In addition to providing hot meals, the addition of the EON510 speakers allowed the trailer to serve as a central source of information and to provide important announcements,� Bourque said.

“We chose the JBL EON510 because it met some very specific requirements,� Bourque continued. “We needed speakers that were durable, portable and could be set up and operated easily. The speakers needed to be able to be set up, torn down and stored quickly. Also, the speakers needed to be able to handle the high humidity of south Louisiana and the molded shell of the EON510 make them ideal for this environment. They also had to sound good, with clear speech intelligibility over a wide area.�

“The trailer has two side cargo doors that give access to the storage above the gooseneck portion of the trailer. These doorways provide a clean and secure place to put the speakers when the trailer is stationary. We can also easily move the speakers to another location if the situation requires a portable public address system—the EON510’s built-in microphone and line level inputs and amplifier make this really easy. We also have a permanently mounted mixer and CD/iPod player inside the trailer that we can use to send audio to the speakers. The system sounds great and has been working perfectly.�

“Our area in Louisiana has a rich tradition of food and music,� said Bourque. “Some of our volunteers are world-champion chefs that have won the Jambalaya World Championships held in Gonzales. For everyone involved in the mobile disaster relief kitchen, providing a great meal and playing some great music can really brighten someone’s day and give them hope if they’ve been hit by a natural disaster.�

For more information on Music Inc., please visit www.musicinc.com

For more information on the Leadership Ascension Response Kitchen project, please visit www.ascensionchamber.com/leadership.html

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

NORTHRIDGE, California – The House of Blues Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay hotel is one of Las Vegas’ premier concert venues—and it just upped the ante with the installation of HARMAN’s JBL VTX Series line array. The House of Blues hosts major touring acts and will be home to a 2-year residency by Carlos Santana, performing his “Greatest Hits Live: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow� through 2014. Sound Image of Escondido, California, designed and installed the JBL VTX system under the direction of Jason Schmidlapp, with support from Dave Kaiser of Sound Marketing West, HARMAN Professional’s regional sales rep firm.

The system includes two 13-box hangs of 10 VTX 25 line arrays and three VERTEC® VT4880A fullsize arrayable subwoofers on each side of the stage, complemented by six ASB7128 subwoofers under the stage and six VERTEC VT4886 subcompact line array elements for upper balcony fill. In addition, a JBL AC18 compact 2-way loudspeaker and ASB6112 compact 12-inch subwoofer are installed in each of the VIP suites.

“The House of Blues Las Vegas had gotten to the point where it really needed to upgrade its sound system,� said Dan Schartoff, VP of Production for House of Blues Entertainment. “The VTX boxes were a bit larger than the previous system so the suspension points had to change, and we also had to work around the room’s upper balcony. We had to move the array stacks slightly upstage and offstage to keep the sight lines to the stage clear. As it turned out, this enabled us to give patrons a better view of the stage since previously some of the speakers were stacked on the stage underneath the flown speakers. The better, more focused coverage of the VTX line arrays enabled us to eliminate the on-stage speakers while delivering much better sound.�

The upper balcony was a large hurdle to overcome, Schartoff noted. “The two array hangs are fairly close to the balcony, so we decided to install the subwoofers in the middle of both arrays. Six VTX V25 provide balcony coverage with three VT4880A flown in the middle of the array and four V25 for floor coverage,� he said. “The 13-box arrays were carefully designed to fit the available space and the bottom V25 enclosure of the balcony section is at the same elevation as the first row of the balcony, providing excellent off-axis coverage. The subwoofers are in the middle and close to the balcony surfaces, which helps to reduce reflections while at the same time allowing for improved under-balcony penetration since the lower V25 enclosures have line of sight coverage to the back of the room.�

The loudspeakers are powered by Crown IT 12000HD and XTi Series amplifiers. Loudspeaker management is performed via dbx DriveRack® 4800 speaker management systems. A Soundcraft Vi1 digital live sound console handles some front-of-house mixing duties. “We used HARMAN HiQnet System Architect™ software to do the setup and installation,� said Schmidlapp, “which really streamlined the whole process.�

“We were eager to do an installation with the new VTX line arrays as soon as we’d heard about them, and we bid on the House of Blues job, which would give us a great setting as a showcase room,� Schmidlapp noted. “If you’re going to go big, what better place to go big than Las Vegas? At the same time we were contracted to do the install, Carlos Santana was looking for someplace with a younger, hip clientele for his upcoming residency and chose the House of Blues. The timing wound up being perfect for us.�

The installation makes Sound Image the first company to install a JBL VTX system. “What a perfect deal—now, Santana is being showcased with the newest pro rig on the market,� Schmidlapp said. “I think Santana’s pretty impressed with it. Wait until you hear it!�

“Carlos Santana performing through a VTX line array system at the House of Blues Las Vegas is a match made in heaven,� said Paul Bauman, Senior Manager, Tour Sound for JBL Professional, who was instrumental in providing onsite support during the installation. “This project was truly a team effort under the guidance of Dan Schartoff and his team at Live Nation, coupled with Sound Image’s expert design and implementation and outstanding support from Sound Marketing West.�

“I can honestly say JBL hit the nail on the head with VTX—I can’t say enough about how good this box sounds,� said Rob Mailman, Touring Operations Manager for Sound Image and FOH engineer for Santana. “It is very transparent, solid throughout all bands and does really well not leaving me fatigued at the end of a long and loud show.�

For more information on the House of Blues Las Vegas, please visit http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/lasvegas/

For more information on Sound Image, please visit www.sound-image.com

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

Suwanee, Georgia, November 9, 2012 — Hisense USA, maker of 2D, 3D and Smart TV televisions, today revealed the T770 55� class of exquisite, virtually bezel-free televisions. With standard 120 Hz SmoothMotion™ frame rate technology and 3D, Smart TV functionality, the T770 represents the epitome of Hisense’s expertise in bringing innovation and value together in a package that will complement any room.

Delivering stunning picture quality and incredible features at an affordable price, the T770 offers the perfect combination of good looks, brains and value-for-money. Offering four (4) HDMI inputs, to connect to multiple sources, the WiFi-enabled T770 brings all video content to life. Available in 42- and 55-inch screen sizes, these televisions offer real-time 2D to 3D conversion in addition to digital LED technology, ensuring exceptionally bright, true-to-life images. The USB and DLNA enabled Digital Media Player supports playback of a variety of Internet music and video formats in addition to photos and e-books. With the Hisense Smart Remote app consumers can use their smartphone as a full-function QWERTY remote.

“The elegant design of the T770 is simply stunning,� said JoAnne Foist, Director of Marketing, Hisense USA. “No other televisions in Hisense’s US lineup have such an Ultra Narrow (<7mm) bezel, making images appear to float in mid air. When people see the T770, they will be delighted with the design, the features and the price tag.�

Size / Model Key Features
55-inch / 55T770DW 3D, Smart TV, 120 Hz, e-LED, HDMI x 4, 1080p Full HD, Active-SG Glasses x 2
42-inch / 42T770DW 3D, Smart TV, 120 Hz, e-LED, HDMI x 4, 1080p Full HD, Active-SG Glasses x 2

See www.hisense-usa.com for more details.

About Hisense USA Corporation
Established in 2001, Hisense USA Corporation is a Georgia based subsidiary of the Hisense Company Ltd., headquartered in Qingdao, China. Hisense USA offers a broad range of highly affordable consumer electronics products in the North American market, including televisions, refrigerators, air-conditioners, dehumidifiers, beverage coolers and freezers. In 2010 Hisense established an R&D center in Georgia to enable localized product development and innovation.

Hisense USA sells into retailers across North America, including hhgregg, Best Buy, Walmart, Costco.com, Canadian Tire and more. Around the world, Hisense has production bases in South Africa, Algeria, Egypt and sales offices in the USA, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Hisense products are exported to over 130 countries and regions throughout the world.

Editorial contact:
JoAnne Foist (Hisense USA): +1-(678) 318-9060 ext. 210 JoAnneFoist@hisense.com
Mark Chisholm (Definition Branding & Marketing): +1-(503) 715-0990 ext. 29 mark.chisholm@definitionbam.com

CHULA VISTA, California – November 8, 2012 – Hitachi America Ltd.’s Digital Media Division today announced its fall 2012 line of beautifully designed 3D Smart TVs, UltraVision® UltraThin LED TVs and LCD High Definition Televisions (HDTVs) that display spectacular colors and sharp pictures to brighten any home. With its next generation HDTVs, Hitachi accurately recreates even the minutest of details from any content. Offering Smart 3D TVs and ROKU®-ready streaming options, Hitachi televisions are designed to meet the next generation tech-savvy lifestyle and deliver the best home entertainment experience possible.

ULTRAVISION® UltraThin LED Series
Hitachi UltraVision UltraThin LED televisions render vivid, sparkling Full HD 1080p picture quality at 120Hz/60Hz refresh rates to deliver flawless performance and exceptional clarity.

Hitachi’s UltraVision UltraThin LED TVs include the W806 Smart 3D TV series in 48- and 55-inch screen sizes, offering 120Hz refresh rates for 3D content, built-in WiFi and IPTV connectivity. Encased in an elegant, high gloss piano black bezel, the W806 models feature Full HD 1080p and come with two pairs of 3D glasses for truly immersive and realistic 3D entertainment,. With an MHL-compatible HDMI input, the S606 Series is one of the first Roku® ready*(not included) televisions on the market, allowing users to add the Roku® Streaming Stick for direct control of a wide variety of streaming content. The S606 also features a 120Hz Full HD 1080p panel and meets the government’s ENERGY STAR 5.3 standard for power consumption. The series comes in a platinum finish in 42-, 46- and 55-inch screen sizes with Hitachi’s E-LED UltraThin Bezel measuring less than an inch.

Value Series
The Value Series offers three options – the S406, H306 and H316 – all with an ultra thin bezel, surround sound and Dolby Digital. The S406 comes in a platinum finish and 32-inch screen size with 60HZ 720p. Featuring a black bezel, the 29-inch H306 delivers 720p HD resolution and a 60HZ refresh rate. The H316 offers three sizes at 29-, 32- and 39-inches with 60HZ and Full HD 1080p. All three sizes come with Long Life LED Edgelight, PicturePerfect Video Processor, PC Input via RGB and a Sleep Timer for ultimate convenience.

Accessories
Hitachi has also released the perfect complement to the HDTV viewing experience, the 32- and 40-inch class Sound Bars with CONEQ™ 3D Sound technology, delivering a natural sound stage for smooth and clear sound reproduction. The Hitachi Sound Bars feature four high efficiency full range speakers and two high frequency tweeters with state-of-the-art Class D digital amplifiers. The Sound Bars can also be used to stream music files wirelessly from compatible mobile phone or other Bluetooth® devices.

For more information on Hitachi visit www.hitachi-america.us/tv.

About Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 320,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2011 (ended March 31, 2012) consolidated revenues totaled 9,665 billion yen ($117.8 billion). Hitachi will focus more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes information and telecommunication systems, power systems, environmental, industrial and transportation systems, and social and urban systems, as well as the sophisticated materials and key devices that support them. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company’s website at http://www.hitachi.com.

REGENSDORF, Switzerland — “A return to the family” is how Robert Habersaat describes his new appointment as VP of Sales for HARMAN’s Studer team as he rejoins Studer after seven years working as Head of Broadcast Sales for Dr.W.A.Günther in Switzerland. He takes over the Studer brand sales job following Adrian Curtis’s new appointment running HARMAN Professional’s EMEA Regional Sales Office which created two vacancies, this one for Studer, the other for Soundcraft.

Robert originally joined Studer in 1996 managing sales for Switzerland and distribution in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the Nordic region. In 2001 he headed up the Studer sales team before joining Dr.W.A.Günther, the HARMAN Pro distribution partner for Switzerland.

Habersaat commented, “Studer has been the continuous thread running through my entire career; as a customer, distribution partner and as a staff member of the team. I am very proud to return and contribute to one of the best companies in the professional audio industry.”

Studer General Manager Bruno Hochstrasser added, “To have Robert return to the Studer family gives me a great deal of satisfaction. He is a wonderful individual with a lot of professional expertise in the broadcast business and most of all Robert is a loyal and very hard working team player always putting the business and our clients’ interests first. I am looking forward to working with Robert again and a bright Studer future.”

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

ELKHART, Indiana –HARMAN Professional today launched the Fall Into Big Savings rebate program that provides customers with compelling savings on a wide range of audio technologies in advance of the holiday buying season. The program—available from November 1st, 2012 at participating retailers nationwide—is uniquely versatile, rewarding customers on individual HARMAN components from JBL, Soundcraft, dbx and AKG or on HARMAN systems comprising those same brands. However they choose to apply the rebates, customers can enjoy the world’s leading audio components and great savings.

Retailers can similarly benefit from the program designed with them and their customers in mind. According to Mark Posgay, Senior Director, US Sales, HARMAN Professional, the program offers deep savings on category-leading, award-winning products like $40 mail-in rebate on the dbx DriveRack PX and $50 mail-in rebate on the dbx DriveRack PA; $50 mail-in rebate on the JBL PRX412M and $60 mail-in rebate on the JBL PRX415M; HARMAN’s stunning new AKG WMS4500 system features a $100 mail-in rebate and the program includes a remarkable $250 saving on the Soundcraft Si Compact 16, 24 or 32 digital mixing consoles. Adding to the versatility of the program, HARMAN Professional is offering $100 instant rebates on Crown XTi 4002 amplifiers and $50 instant rebate on the Crown XTi 2002 and the Crown XLS 2500 amplifiers.

“This program is an excellent opportunity for musicians, DJs, rental companies and venues to upgrade their kit with some of the most advanced audio components in the market today,� Posgay said. “We looked closely at the components with the most appeal in retail and the end-product is a program that could amount to over $600 in system-wide savings, but there’s also the liberty to pick and choose as a customer’s needs dictate�

The HARMAN Professional Fall Into Big Savings rebate program runs for a limited time only, ending December 31, 2012. Customers simply fill out a form, attach the receipt and UPC code and mail by January 31, 2013 to receive a rebate check in the mail.

“We worked with our retail partners in designing this program and as a result it’s the most inclusive and versatile that we’ve ever offered,â€� Posgay added. “The timing is engineered to provide a boost for retailers and to put more great gear in the hands of great engineers, artists and DJs and to equip more small and mid-sized venues with the same technologies used on the world’s great stagesâ€�

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,900 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.4 billion for year ended June 30, 2012.

VIENNA, Austria – Andrew Lloyd Webber was just 21 years old when he and Tim Rice collaborated to pen Jesus Christ Superstar. Now, more than 40 years later, Laurence Connor’s contemporary take on the production, which features former Spice Girl Mel C and Australian comedian Tim Minchin, is in the midst of an arena tour of the United Kingdom. Sixty of HARMAN’s AKG C544L headset mics are deployed for all vocals during the show, and according to both FOH and monitor engineers, the mic was ideally suited to this particular application.

Both engineers talked to Redditch-based SSE Audio Group’s director, Yan Stile, whose company provided the audio for the tour, and requested an organized “shootoutâ€� to find out which microphone would be best suited to the job in hand.

“I arranged for the best current offerings from all the major microphone manufacturers to be set up and tested through a smaller version of the show’s touring sound system,â€� Stile explains. “They were looking for sonic performance, stability during head movement, ease of mounting and durability; and after a full day’s testing, the unanimous choice was the AKG C544L. We also did a blind test with a number of other experienced engineers, and the result was the same.â€�

With the amount of dancing and acrobatics on this production, the cast mics needed to be in the optimum location at all times, regardless of head movement. Monitor Engineer, Seamus Fenton, says the C544L was the perfect choice.

“We did our A-B tests with about 12 different microphone models, and the C544L came out on top – none of us had ever heard one in action before, but we soon realized what an amazing mic it is,� he states. “Literally everyone is using one on this show, and the sound it puts out really suits the production too; it was certainly head and shoulders above the rest in all departments.�

“It was very much a production decision to go with the AKG mics,â€� confirms AEG’s Keith Wood, production manager for the show. “Because this is essentially an arena rock show, we realized we needed a head-worn microphone that would be more roadworthy and provide a greater output level and better off-axis rejection than some models currently favored in musical theatre.â€�

HARMAN Professional’s exclusive United Kingdom and Eire distributors, Sound Technology Ltd, supplied the AKG microphones.

Jesus Christ Superstar opened on September 21 at London’s O2 Arena and played host to several other sizeable venues including Wembley Arena and Liverpool’s Echo Arena. It closes on October 21 at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield.

For more information about AKG, please visit http://www.akg.com and http://www.youtube.com/AKGacoustics.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets – supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon and Mark Levinson. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 20 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,400 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported sales of $4.4 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012.