SXSW Music and Media Conference, celebrating its 18th edition, will showcase hundreds of musical acts from around the globe each evening for five nights on 50 stages in downtown Austin, Texas. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers. For developments, visit www.sxsw.com.

Representatives from the House Ear Institute and Shure will provide free hearing screenings to attendees and exhibitors at the 2004 NAMM Winter Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. The hearing screenings are located at the rear of Hall E and available January 15-18 during regular show hours, beginning 30 minutes before the show opens to accommodate exhibitors. MORE.

Allen & Heath Expands IDR DSP System Product Range, Xone:92, Xone:V6, PA Series Stereo Live Mixing Consoles

Aviom Digital Snake Technology

Crest Performance New Gear

EARS Audio Distribution Redesigned Ultrasone Headphones

Peavey JSX Guitar Amp

Radian Audio Adds 8-Inch Floor Monitor to Microwedge Line

Rane G4 Quad Gate, C4 Quad Compressor/Limiter, MM 42 Personal Monitor Processor, DEQ 60L

Shure Microflex Wireless Boundary Mic

Yorkville Sound Micro P.A. Packages

New Company Joins the Leasing Business
Doug Kocsis, a 15-year veteran of the leasing business, has formed DK Capital Inc. (Okemos, Mich.), a new leasing company primarily dedicated to serving the pro audio, lighting, A/V presentation and staging industries. MORE

QSC Hires Loudspeaker Product Planner
QSC Audio Products has appointed Dennis Goettsch to the position of loudspeaker product planner. Prior to joining QSC, Goettsch was director of engineering for Radian Audio Engineering. In his new position, Goettsch will oversee all aspects of QSC's loudspeaker development programs. MORE

NTI Makes Minstruments Evaluation Systems Available
NTI's recently launched Minstruments evaluation company allows interested parties to request a free 30-day evaluation kit from a local NTI sales rep. A complete test set comprises a signal generator providing all required test tones, a signal analyzer covering the complete range of measurement functions including spectral analysis, a measurement microphone and associated PC software; the software can run on Macs that have "Virtual PC" emulation. MORE

Syn-Aud-Con Seminar Update
The "Sound System Optimization and System Design" seminar with instructor Pat Brown will be held February 16-20, 2004, in Phoenix; March 1-5, 2004, in Memphis; and April 26-30, 2004, in Grand Rapids, Mich. MORE

ICIA Launches Job Board
ICIA has launched a new electronic recruitment service on its Website (www.infocomm.org) that is geared specifically for the A/V industry. The site offers a cost-effective method of employee recruitment, where employers pay a small fee to post jobs and job seekers submit their resumes at no cost. ICIA has teamed up with Brainhunter.com Ltd. to provide this service. MORE

'CATS' Musical Purrs With Cadac Console
Cadac's recently appointed Korean distributor, Dream Sound, has provided an F-Type console for the current production of the musical CATS! The show's home in Seoul is a 1,700-seat tent in the Big Top Theater at the Jamsil Sports Complex, where it returned this past December after a three-month sell-out tour of the country. September's typhoon caused substantial damage to the tent while on tour, and the console was shipped back to the UK for a thorough check. It has been given a clean bill of health and was shipped back to Korea for the show's new season. MORE

Rat Pack Lives Again With Turbosound
The Rat Pack at the Strand Theatre (London), showcasing the voices, music and lifestyles of legendary performers Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, is delivered via 30 Turbosound Qlight™ enclosures in a sound system designed and installed by WE Audio (UK) and supplied through Marquee Audio (UK). MORE

Manhattan Center Productions Records for Country Music Television
New York City-based Manhattan Center Productions (MCP) provided the live audio recording services for the taping of Country Music Television's performance program CMT Crossroads in the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom. The program paired singer/songwriters Dave Matthews and Emmylou Harris for an episode that will air in early January. MORE

Aurateq Systems, Martin Audio Power DJ/Dance/Concert
Ensuring a total audio club experience outdoors, Colombia's Mission Productions, owner of close to 400 assorted Martin Line Arrays and W8 variants, provided sound for the DJ/dance/concert event starring DJ Carl Cox in a ranch outside of Cali, ColombiaMission came up with new ways to manipulate sound with the TiMax ImageMaker16 audio imaging matrix, which is essentially a surround processor that doesn't require program information to be pre-programmed on a disk. MORE