We were truly humbled when the Calgary Choice Awards contacted us and informed us we had been nominated for this award. Imagine our surprise on March 3^rd, 2012 when they announced we had won!  Shortly after we received a shiny gold star trophy, this was enough to have us grinning from ear to ear.

We think it’s appropriate to first thank all of the people who have supported us over the years since without all of you we would not have such opportunities. AND, we need to thank everyone who voted for us online, it means a lot to all of people would actually take the time to go online and vote.

PK has always believed in Calgary arts and culture and one of our core values is to nurture our growing arts community.  Many of PK’s founders are musicians and artists turned engineers and professionals, and we have truly entered this industry with passion and love for music and the arts.

Thank you very much Calgary!

Official Press Release…

 And the Winners are…….

Calgary - The 4^th Annual Calgary Choice Awards, brought to you by Kahane Law Office, was an evening of celebration for not only 20 lucky award recipients but also for all of the nominees who attended last night. Calgary’s thriving entrepreneurial, small business and media community was bussing last night at the Awards Gala held at BMO Centre Palomino Ballroom.  Dressed to the nines, nominees and guests walked the red carpet to the vintage Hollywood sounds of Heather Blush and the Uppercuts, and browsed the exclusive silent auction tables while mixing and mingling with fellow nominees and media celebrities.

Some of the guests present included: title sponsor, Jeff Kahane, Kahane Law Office, celebrity emcee CTV’s Jocelyn Laidlaw, acting as Deputy Mayor, Mr. Jim Stevenson, Jeff Wilkie of Modern Socialite, Darlene and gang at DK Envy Salon & Spa, Randy Williams from Tourism Calgary, Pete Graves and Kathy Randle of Red Point Media Group, Derek Costea of Petro-Tech Printing, Brandon and Lailani Smith from She Apparel, Omar Abbas of CIBC Wood Gundy, Michelle and Greg Benson of Stir Crazy Family Fun Centre, Alexandra Olsen from Stir Films and Corkscrew Media, Allison Grafton and Grainger Nimmo of Rockwood Custom Homes and Francesca & Bernard Callebaut of Papa Chocolat, Scott Hillier of Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta to name a few.

Calgary’s unbridled entrepreneurial spirit by recognizing them for distinction in twenty different categories.

The Winners of the coveted Calgary Choice Awards, in each of the 20 categories are:,

Best Employer (over 30 employees) – Calgary Co-op

Best Employer (under 30 employees) – Rockwood Custom Homes

Best Real Estate Agent – Matt Verity

Best Technology Service Provider – Nucleus Information Service

Best Home Builder – Rockwood Custom Homes

Best Independently Owned Business – Stir Crazy Family Fun Centre

Best New Business (under 2 years) – Flip Factory

Best Media Personality – Mookie Wilson, Lite 95.9 FM

Best Medical and Health Care – Natural Way Chiropractic

Best Restaurant – River Café

Best Transportation Provider – DREAMS Transportation

Best Venue/Tourist Attraction – Heritage Park Historical Society

Best Arts and Culture – PK Sound

Best Auto Service – Precision Alignment & Brakes

Best Children’s Retail – Stir Crazy Family Fun Centre

Best Eco-Friendly Product or Service – Sunnyside Natural Market

Best Fitness – MOJO Fitness

Best Hotel/Inn – The Fairmont Palliser Hotel

Best Retail Experience – Vine Arts

Best Spa/Beauty – DK Envy Salon & Spa

Public online nominations were held in September 2012 followed by a four month long online public voting period. Voting was limited to one vote per person in each of the 20 categories. This year 467 nominations were received and 22,428 votes were cast online at www.calgarychoiceawards.ca.

Every year, Calgary Choice Awards donates a portion of the proceeds to a children’s charitable organization. This year’s benefiting charity is Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta. Calgary Choice Awards will be supporting the Youth Business Mentorship Program as well as the 2013 Student Awards Gala.

For more than 50 years Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta has been engaging local business and community leaders in its mission to help students develop an entrepreneurial attitude, a solid and practical understanding of business and finance and a commitment to community. Junior Achievement of Southern Alberta reaches nearly 20,000 students annually with 1,400 dedicated business volunteers. Junior Achievement is the link between education and the world of work by giving youth the confidence and knowledge they need to define personal success, enhance their workforce readiness and pursue their dreams.

Plans are already underway for the 2013 Calgary Choice Awards. Nominations will open in September 2013. Stay tuned to the Calgary Choice Awards website for ongoing updates

For more information about the Calgary Choice Awards, visit www.calgarychoiceawards.ca or call         403-245-6693.

Media Contact:

Shannyn de Kruyff, Producer & CEO

Calgary Choice Awards

Direct: 403.245.6693

This is only possible because of some very special artists and sponsors:

FREQ NASTY

Freq Nasty

Freq Nasty has been a staple name in big room high energy electronic dance music environments for over a decade and his new releases have expanded his legendary innovations in EDM. With origins forged in four separate nations (Fiji, New Zealand, The UK and the West Coast of America), Freq Nasty has leveraged his multicultural background to straddle and often buck the trends in electronic music culture. An innovator in the UK’s nu school breaks’ movement in the early 2000’s, and an early importer of dubstep to the us in 2006, his current productions range from peak time bass heavy gut crunchers to deep and melodic dubwise vibes. After his early success leading to a cover story in UK EDM BIBLE ‘DJ Magazine” he has collaborated with Bassnectar, Santigold & Switch, and done official remixes for artist including hihop legend KRS One, Professor Green, Kelis and Fatboy Slim. Today Freq Nasty continues to push the boundaries of the dance floor forward in his music production while sharing stages with Bassnectar, Beats Antique, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, and Tipper. Also look for him touring the festival circuit performing with his live band Dub Kirtan All Stars, and also giving his lecture series “The Yoga Of Bass” with partner Claire Thompson.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

http://freqnasty.com/

SOCIAL MEDIA
https://www.facebook.com/DjFreQNasty
https://soundcloud.com/freqnasty
https://twitter.com/freqnasty
http://www.youtube.com/user/FreQNastyUK

RECENT PRESS:
http://www.djmag.com/node/8084
http://www.skintentertainment.com/news/skint/freq-nastys-return-to-the-skint-table
http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2012/11/09/236270_entertainment.html
http://societeperrier.com/los-angeles/articles/my-5-favorite-things-freq-nasty/#.USVlGB3Whcz
http://en.calameo.com/read/000390171eb7f462a1212

NEW MUSIC:
Die Antwoord – “I Fink U Freeky” (Freq Nasty remix)
Killaflow – “Milk and Whiskey” (Freq Nasty)
Freq Nasty – “Not Givin In” Feat. Tippa Irie & Solar Lion
Marty Party & Freq Nasty – “Beethoven’s Filth”

AN-TEN-NAE

An-Ten-Nae is one of San Francisco’s most sought after DJs and live performers. He has taken the art of live remixing to new heights with his own customized setup that bends genres in ways seldom heard. This sound is called Acid Crunk, and there are no rules, no restraints in its quest for pure sound that is not homogenized.

An-Ten-Nae is an entity possessing the human mind of one Adam Ohana, giving him the ability to transcend above the constraints of music rigidity and transmit bass heavy, crunked out beats of the highest order. His bar raising Live mix mash up compilations, “Punk Rock Country Hop” and “Acid Crunk Vol. 1” have set the standard and has defined an era with over 500,000 downloads to date. Picking up steam in 2009 Acid Crunk Vol. 2 & 3 maintained the # 1 seller in Dubstep, Breakbeat, Electronica and Chill out genres simultaneously while also having all 14 tracks in their respective genre top 10, as well as rocking the charts on iTunes, Juno Digital and a host of other sites. With an album in the works and the ever growing Acid Crunk series running at full steam, we see no end in site for the ever changing chameleon known as An*Ten*Nae.

Besides DJ’ing and producing electronic music for over 10 years on a wide collection of esteemed labels, Adam Ohana has also been an instrumental part of the underground music culture in SF. From being the Music director at of San Francisco’s largest Club venue 1015 Folsom, to his production company called An-Ten-Nae Presents. An-Ten-Nae presents events helped break a lot of artists in Electronic music on the west coast. His events have helped catalyze what is now a thriving music scene that spans the west coast and increasingly proliferating dance music culture as a whole. He also produces and performs with DJ Laura as The LowRIDERz, this dynamic duo are leaving a path of destruction wherever they go.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
http://an-ten-nae.net/live

SOCIAL MEDIA
http://www.facebook.com/antennaepresents
http://www.youtube.com/user/antennaepresents
https://soundcloud.com/an-ten-nae
https://twitter.com/antennaemusic
http://www.myspace.com/antennae

LATEST RELEASES
http://an-ten-nae.net/live/music

SUBVERT

(PK Sound / Rottun Recordings  / Muti Music / Shambhala Music Festival)

Subvert hails from Calgary, Alberta and has been winding his path through music since 1996. One of the founders and lead design engineer at PK Sound he is also director of Village Stage at the world renowned Shambhala Music Festival. He started DJing in 2000 and combined with his extensive work on sound systems and attention to precision sound, he was ultimately & naturally led down the path to creating his own music and once again the low frequencies consumed him. Subvert’s sound is a combination of throbbing,  relentless basslines, melodic strings and haunting synths singing through drumstep, midtempo glitch, drum and bass  and dubstep. His attention to detail and the ability to tune into ‘bass that works’ can be felt in all of his music productions.

It’s all about the bass…..

www.facebook.com/subvertsounds

www.rottunrecordings.com

www.pksound.ca

www.shambhalamusicfestival.com

http://www.mutimusic.com

MARK INSTINCT

Mark is a 25 year old Bass music producer from Canada who is signed to Rottun Records and Sub.Human Recordings. Mark destroys anything put in his way. Nuff Siad.

MARK INSTINCT FAN MAIL: MarkInstinctMilitia@gmail.com

LINKS:
http://www.beatport.com/artist/mark-instinct/111822http://www.soundcloud.com/Mark_Instinct
http://www.twitter.com/Mark_Instinct

MOUSAI

Mousai performers aim to co-exist within the atmospheric element of any event or festival. This moving art production uses elaborate theatrical costumes and professional grade airbrush artistry by the one of kind Jenny Jenn. Cross-pollinated with a wide spectrum of trained performers from different technical backgrounds. Prop manipulation, acrobatics, contortion, clowning and dancers of all sorts make up the roots of a Mousai performance. We aspire to make your festival unforgettable for all.

Going into their third festival season, Mousai has already been blessed in magical opportunities. Working alongside massive productions featuring artists such as Bassnectar, Diesal Boy, Antennae, DJG (Basscoast 2011♥), T ipper (twice ), Ed Rush and Optical, Noisai, Dirty Phonix, Diplo, Grimes, Subvert, LongWalk Short Dock, AC Slater, TaalMalA,. Kryptic Minds and Ill gates. After Dialing in 8 EDM festivals in summer 2012,one of the biggest accomplishments to date is holding down space at The Village Stage at Shambhala Music Festival ♥, and our Canadian Tour Dates with Skrillex and the FullFlex Express.

Links
http://www.youtube.com/user/MousaiEnterainment
http://www.facebook.com/Mousai.ent?ref=tn_tnmn
https://twitter.com/#!/ArtistEntrtnmnt
http://mousaiarts.tumblr.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2jfL1XJN30
http://vimeo.com/59817254

LA GOGUE

La Gogue Inc. has been on fire since its inception in 2010. La Gogue is an ancient French word meaning “Joy, Happiness”, it also stems from the root word for à gogo, meaning “in abundance, galore”. With this in mind, the company was created to aim the real purpose back into Go-Go, and take it to the next level; performance free style dance. Since its inception, La Gogue has spread its wings and lead to the addition of male dancers, breakdancers and prop artists.
Feeding off the energy of the crowd is their specialty. It feeds a primal need to move and that energy gets pushed right back at the audience when they dance. The company wants nothing more than to share their love and energy at every opportunity. This common goal creates a unique and strong bond among the performers. It is more than a company, it is a family united by their love and passion of the arts. Their high energy performances have left audiences wanting more across western Canada.

www.lagogueinc.com

https://www.facebook.com/LaGogueInc

http://www.youtube.com/user/LaGogueInc

HERO ME UP

Heromeup.com is the site for fantasy portraiture. Our creations are not the usual caricatures, our in-house artist will turn you and your loved ones into DIGITAL HEROES!! From action to sci-fi, martial arts to movie monsters, there’s sure to be a character that inspires you, or peruse the gallery for the perfect fit, and gift, for a loved one.

It’s super easy to get started, just select a Digital Hero from our gallery, upload a good quality picture of the face of whomever you want turned into that hero and your Digital Hero will be delivered directly to your e-mail. Please read the FAQ section for details of how to submit the best photos.

http://www.heromeup.com/

- PK Sound

More event details

Let’s take a look at the charities that will benefit from the event proceeds….

KhanSengSchool

When Jeremy & Eroca, two of PK’s founders visited Cambodia they had an opportunity to tour the countryside and visit the village “KhanSengSchool”.  They were astounded to find that that government provided no support what so ever to the school of over 450 students.  Learning conditions were rough at best with classrooms that were over crowded.

What little support the school did have came in the form of the extraordinary commitment of our ex-monk turned tour guide, Koch Seiha, and three of his friends who are  tour guides as well. In 2008-2009 the tourism industry suffered and they were forced to sell personal possessions in order to keep the school operating. Seiha personally donates more than 75% of his wage to the honorable task of rebuilding his home village’s school so that others may have the opportunity of education as he did in the monastery at Angkor Wat.

In Cambodia families have to pay monthly enrollment fees at the school that they send their child to. A lot of children do not get sent to school at all because their parents can’t afford the monthly fees. This school is free for the children to go to, and lots of children come from neighboring villages to attend. However, because the school is so small and they have so many children they have to run multiple sessions per day which is very taxing on the teachers, of whom there are too few.

“It was such a humbling experience”, Jeremy recalls. “We take so many simple things for granted, education being just one of them. I’ve always felt education to be one of the most important things for the future of any person or country.  It moulds and shapes the future and is especially important for countries like Cambodia to develop a strong tomorrow.”

After donating what they could personally, Jeremy & Eroca proposed to the rest of their team mates that more could be done and that PK could really make a difference in the lives of many children.  Immediately the team grouped together for the new challenge and came up with the idea of throwing a community fundraiser.

The superhero theme just seemed to fit, since by giving a little we can accomplish great feats together.  Dressing up gives everyone a bit more of an excuse to come out and have fun while supporting a great cause.  Since we have been focusing more and more on being a sound provider & manufacturer, we stopped throwing most of our own events but a lot of us still love to do it.  It’s a perfect excuse to get back to our roots doing something we love for a good cause.

All of the proceeds, and we mean ALL, are going to the two charities.  PK along with some great partners are all donating our time, gear and commitment into raising as much money as we can.

If this fund raiser goes as well as we expect we will make this an annual event, making it bigger and bigger.  We really believe in supporting our community and it’s been a core value of PK since the beginning.  We all take what we have for granted and we want to continue to help those in need.

Inside one of four classrooms

The kitchen that feeds over 450 students per day

One of two School houses to teach over 450 students

The only bathroom for all the students and the teachers.

Antyx Community Arts

Antyx provides much needed programs very near and ear to our hearts. Their outreach programs included some influential local artists and truly reach more of Calgary’s youth than we ever imagined. We all personally know people involved in the delivery of these programs and are incredibly excited to contribute in any way we can.

Here is a little info from these fine folks:

Antyx Community Arts Vision: Creative, vibrant communities fostering inclusion, participation, and potential.

Antyx Community Arts Mission: Community Arts: engaging, empowering, transforming.

We are enthusiastically committed to:

• Integrity
• Diversity
• Inclusivity
• Creativity
• Empowerment

Over 80% of our work has a focus on engaging youth in their communities.

Antyx uses the arts to engage youth and spark their curiosity and commitment.

Antyx Staff are skilled in developing and implementing inclusive community arts projects. We work with artists from a variety of backgrounds and are committed to supporting artists who have a strong desire to work with community groups and organizations. We believe that this supportive approach allows artists to develop knowledge and skills they can use to continue to develop their own community arts practice.

Community, Culture, Collaboration: Antyx works in communities across Calgary. Antyx community arts projects can have a neighborhood focus or they may be focused on addressing community identified issues. Arts are used in development processes to build community capacity and to creatively and critically engage people in processes that address important community issues.

Community arts projects provide opportunities for youth to make tangible contributions to their community and be recognized for those contributions. The arts open the door to self-reflection and self-expression, allowing youth to explore who they are and their place in the world.

Collaboration is central to our work. Antyx is well placed as a community resource that provides creative support through community arts processes to a wide variety of community groups and organizations that are working on many different issues. We currently work with numerous community groups and organizations including: The Centre for Newcomers, Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary, Urban Society for Aboriginal Youth and many Calgary schools.

For all the latest info check out their blog at http://www.antyx.org/blog/ 

Hard to believe it’s almost been a year! It’s been a life-changing experience for Stephanie and me, packing up and moving with 8-month-old Imogen to California. After wrapping up Snowblower 2012 in Calgary and packing the PKSF inventory (and our home) into a semi, our US shows started the day after our arrival in the Bay Area. The Skrillex LA Take Over was already in full swing, and PJ (one of our lead techs) had already worked two of the five LA shows that were taking place that week. Meanwhile, Big B, Travis and I unloaded our personal gear and repacked the semi with even more sound for the last Skrillex LA Takeover show on a massive tented rooftop at LA Live, an entertainment complex in downtown Los Angeles. We were also just starting the Excision X-Vision tour, and had sent a sub wall with the 12^th Planet crew for a couple of months as well. On top of all that we had sent out yet another sub wall that week for Skrillex’s NYC five-show Take Over. What a welcome to the states!

After a brief couple of days at our new home in South San Francisco, I flew to the UK to work FoH for Skrillex’s Grey Daze Tour—17 shows in 21 days, rocking mostly O2 venues in the UK, plus six additional days touring Germany on the tail end. It was a great experience, but I was ready to get back home to settle in with the family and get things moving with the company’s new expansion. After a few renovations and a few bits of carpentry our new 5000 square-foot facility was up and operational, and ready for an action-packed spring. With the X-Vision tour still raging across North America, we also provided audio for a stage at Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland, and Paul Magnuson and I went to Miami for the Ultra Music Festival, where I worked FoH for Skrillex on his Main Stage set. The spring also saw us through our first big installation gig in the states— the Monarch Theater, a new club in Phoenix, is now home to a 30,000W PK sound system.

The Do Lab’s Lightning in a Bottle 2012 initiated festival season for us, and PK was fortunate to be able to provide audio production for the main stage. I heard some amazing music over the weekend including some of my favs: Eoto, Tipper, Apparat and the Glitch Mob. I’m always blown away by the level of creative production the Do Lab offers, and LIB is their crème de la crème. Presenting an unmatched diversity of music, art, programmed and impromptu performances, workshops, food and people so unique and inspiring, it was great to see so many individuals and groups of people coming together to offer their talents.

We spent most of our summer in Canada, as much of our American inventory was used north of the border for a few weeks. I worked as a monitor/stage tech for the two-week Full Flex Express Train tour, which featured Skrillex, Pretty Lights and Diplo. After a bit of down-time, the Shambhala Music Festival was next, with four stages of PK audio keeping a 24-person audio crew very busy. Over 225 PK speakers we are that festival. Shambhala is always a special event and this year was no different. It was really nice to come home and see the Alberta and BC communities all in one place.

After another drive back down the beautiful west coast we scrambled to get ready for Burning Man while adding one more show and a new tour into the mix. Mad Decent had us come down to SoCal to do sound for their Block party in LA—the day before gates opened at BurningMan. After a mad rush to prep and ship a tour package for the 14-week Datsik Firepower tour, we drove to LA for the free outdoor street party. We had Zeds Dead, Paper Diamond, Bon De Role and a pile of other Mad Decent artists bang it out on our sound system before we packed it up, rushed north to SF, stopped at the shop for a quick truck shuffle and hit the road to the desert. Providing sound for the playa’s best bass music stage, CampQuestion Mark, was well worth the hours of cleaning playa off the speakers after the burn.

Upon returning home it felt great to spend some time off the road and at my desk to catch up on things. We had a good fall run with some great artists including the continuation of the Datsik dates, a good pile of Caspa shows, VibeSquad w/ Opiou, and  ill.Gates.

All in all it has been a great year and a great move. I have been able to reconnect with family and friends down here in the Bay while expanding PK’s scope to one of the most culturally significant areas of North America. I feel lucky to be able to do the work I do with so many great people and projects in my life, and I’m looking forward to a killer 2013, which is already shaping up to be another one for the books!

Arlen Cormack

“2012 was a year full of tours for PK Sound. With top artists such as DATSIK, Skrillex, Excision, 12th Planet, Caspa and many others hiring us to provide some proper sound reinforcement. Amongst the group of successful North American tours was DATSIK’s Firepower Records Tour, covering 60 cities across Canada and the U.S.A.. The Firepower Records Tour was DATSIK’s first full production tour as the headlining act, as well as the first tour to promote his new record label; Firepower Records. To make it an unmatched audio-visual experience he hired on one of the industry leaders to help create and customize his unique vision. V Squared Labs (creator of Amon Tobin’s “Isam”) was chosen to design the Vortex, a completely unique stage design conceived by DATSIK himself which can be described as a massive three dimensional worm-hole, with all the visuals spiraling inward towards, around, and past the DJ booth within the structure, creating a one of a kind visual effect…not to be missed!

To complete the audio-visual experience DATSIK envisioned for both his tour and his fans, and to best replicate his own style of dark yet smooth Dubstep he chose us, PK Sound, to provide an extra 50,000watts of sound reinforcement. We were pleased to work alongside VSquared Labs again having previously both worked on Skrillex’s Mothership Tour. This time for the Firepower Tour we brought along a total of 12 CX800 Subs, 8 VX10 Compact Line-Array boxes, and 4 CX215s, with the intention to be combined with larger venue’s in-house sound-systems or used as a standalone system when necessary.  The 12 CX800 subs were more than enough to replicate the ultra-low frequencies that DATSIK and the other Firepower Artists originally produced in their music, and the kids attending the shows, most of which from cities which had only heard PK sound a handful of times before on other tours past were going wild experiencing DATSIK’s and the other artist’s music on a PK Sound system!   There were even a couple nights in Texas which were shut-down early by police due to “Excessive Noise”. Even though not a single person inside the venue was complaining, nearby residents were not accustomed to the bass. They say “everything” is bigger in Texas, everything except their sound-systems!!

To complete the Firepower Records Tour, and to make it a completely unforgettable night for fans, DATSIK brought along some of Dubstep’s current “heavy hitters” in the scene, as well as a few highly talented young up-and-comers as opening acts (all of which are producing tracks under Firepower Records, among others). With so many talented artists currently signed to Firepower Records it was impossible to fit everyone in one night, or on one tour bus for that matter. Therefore DATSIK chose to have a different group of openers for each half of the tour. The first half of the tour featured “Delta Heavy” & “Bare Noize”, both producing/DJing duos from the UK, as well as “AFK” from Dallas, Texas. The Second half of the Firepower Tour featured “Terravita”  a trio of music producers from Boston who perform as 2 DJ’s and a Live MC, as well as “xKore” (UK), “Getter” & “The FRIM” (USA).  If you want to get to know all the artists a bit more and see tons of live footage of DATSIK’s Vortex and the shows, check out the Firepower Journals on youtube. Filmed by Teaghan Mcginnis, a close friend of DATSIK’s since the age of 4, on tour full time as a videographer/photographer he caught some pretty outrageous moments.

With DATSIK being one of the last people to have a PK Sound rig on the road in 2012, he is also going to be one of the first back out in 2013! With the Firepower Records Tour being so successful, DATSIK and Firepower are “Reloading” with a few new Firepower  Records artists and bringing back their arsenal of PK Sound and V2 Labs and doing another stint in early 2013! The first Firepower Reloaded date will take place @ Flames Central in Calgary, AB on Dec. 30, 2012 with a one time Firepower Tour appearance of SUBVERT and CAOSPHERE before the tour heads east to Ontario and down the East coast in January.”

The team headed out again on Tuesday for a short run through East Canada and the Easter US seaboard, so don’t miss out if you’re in those regions.

Other production companies have installed systems for shows like this in the past, so it’s been done. We knew producing a show in the pool was entirely possible, but is it possible to produce a “PK style” show in a wave pool? We’re up against a few challenges:

• Proximity to crowd;
• Natural reverb and reflective surfaces;
• Limited power;
• Limited set up time;
• Proper coverage;
• We can not interrupt regular pool operation

BUT, this is the kind of thing our techs get off on, especially when it’s in our own backyard. I’m sure every crew member here has wanted to drop a huge system in the pool at some point…now thanks to Monster, Aqua and Connected, we can! We’re making a mass exodus to Edmonton on January 5^th, in order to bring the best we have. See you on the dance floor…er, pool.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand, don’t forget to check out the after party here:  http://www.facebook.com/events/363686007060548/

What

Four years ago the Habitat family came to PK looking for an audio partner. Obviously we were thrilled they were interested in our products, especially with so many options in Calgary for audio installers. Cary, Mikey and John were, and still are, staples in Calgary’s dance music community, and since we all grew up in this scene together we all knew it was a good fit. We now had the ability to help them turn a dream into a reality, and this became a very special mission for all of us at PK.

The club was looking for a system that could accommodate a wide variety of music. Initially the plan was to have the system work for three different DJ locations. Using our latest products at the time, we began to devise placements that made sense both acoustically and aesthetically. Our goal was to install a system that was versatile enough to accommodate any act, with the qualities our clients look for when choosing PK over the competition; namely our full-bodied low end and high end clarity. However, we quickly realized the best acoustic placement wasn’t necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing, considering changing DJ position. Being the audiophiles that we are, we opted for a design in which sound was a priority, and this was in line with the club’s mission to keep music at the forefront of everything they do. The chosen system works well for this micro-club atmosphere; we went with a 15,000 watt system consisting of our first generation double 18” subwoofers CS218 and our single 15” + 1.5” horn MF115 tops. The system has been perfectly tuned for the room and the music that frequents it. We proudly showcase it to prospective clients. In addition we had the pleasure of designing a tight disco ball cluster and light show to further compliment the unique new club feel that Habitat created.

We are planning to help Habitat make a few key changes to the current sound system, and to add some new lighting FX in the New Year. We are very proud to call the Habitat crew clients, friends and family. Happy Birthday Habitat!

Official Press Release Below:

December 10, 2012

For Immediate Release

Habitat Living Sound Turns 4 Years Old

Calgary, Alberta – Habitat Living Sound is pleased to announce a week of events in celebration of their 4th anniversary.

Four years ago Cary Chang, Mikey Da Roza, and John Liwag changed the face of Calgary’s nightlife. When they opened Habitat Living Sound in the historic Radio Block in the heart of Calgary’s fashion district they hoped that they would become a fixture in Calgary’s music and dance scene. The vision was to be a place where music was always on the forefront. With hard work, determination and perseverance, this goal has become a reality.

Four years later, Habitat Living Sound is Calgary’s top venue for DJs from across Canada and the world. Habitat maintains its popularity by bringing in the best, but also promoting the best local talent there is to find. For their 4th anniversary they have arranged 4 nights that are sure to not only prove that they still have what it takes to lead the crowd in Calgary, but also that they are here to make their mark for another 4 years.

Check out their line-up of events running for 4 days December 12 – 15:

Wednesday December 12 – Body Work with Sonny Cheeba and guests

Thursday December 13 – Pezzner (Freerange/ OM Records)

Friday December 14 – Blueprint: A night of Classics with Nathan Hedley & Wes Straub

Saturday December 15– MC Flipside with Mikey Da Roza

Habitat Living Sound

1217 1st St Sw, Calgary Alberta

403 263 5447

Check out Habitat Living Sound’s official webpage for more info

These posts are usually reserved for new technologies, upcoming shows, tours, and more industry-relevant news – but every once in a while we help a crew of people who’s story needs to be heard. The group of people I’m referring to is the friendly faces of the Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers. If you don’t know who I’m talking about, take some time and visit the site http://www.soupsisters.org/. Sharon Hapton and her team perform simple, but incredible, feats 5 times a month when they head to a local restaurant kitchen and prepare thousands of bowls of soup for various shelters around Calgary. I say simple, because there motto is powerfully simple – “warming hearts…one bowl at a time”. By definition Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers is a non-profit charitable social enterprise dedicated to providing comfort to women, children and youth through the making, sharing and donating of soup. So, when we discovered they were planning a major fundraising event, The Big Stir, we jumped on board as a vendor and sponsor.

The first ever city-wide Calgary event – hosted by Dave Kelly – that enlists support from previous Soup Sisters/Broth Brothers participants and the community at large to take part in a one night extravaganza of soup-making that will yield over 1000 servings of soup for several local shelters. During the month of November in a show of Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers solidarity, community team events will take place in at least 9 other cities across the country. This year’s “The Big Stir Calgary” event will become the template for a national The Big Stir event in 2013.
Event Objectives:

• To raise funds in support of Soup Sisters to ensure continued growth and support of shelters.
• To raise awareness of domestic abuse and family violence prevention.
• To encourage national book sales of the just-launched Soup Sisters Cookbook.
• To generate media coverage on a local and national scale.
• To engage the community and the public.
• To create a unique and memorable guest experience that inspires continued volunteerism and support.

http://www.soupsisters.org/bigstir/index.php

The event was an absolute success and this was a one-of-a-kind experience for our crew. To be involved with such a passionate group helps us remember why people do the things they do – because it has meaning. We treat our company the same way, which is why we have started to work closely with a few charities in Calgary and beyond, to give back to those people who commit to causes beyond their own interests. Congratulations to the team at Soup Sisters and Broth Brothers on an amazing event and for inspiring others to do more for their community.

When we first heard Calvin Harris was coming back to Calgary, we knew it was destiny. It was a chance for PK to team up with Aqua Audio and Connected Entertainment in order to produce a show worth talking about. This is our city, our backyard, our home office and the birthplace of our speaker brand. Now it’s time to show an experienced international crew, and the world, Calgary can produce a show that will wow even the biggest stars of the EDM world.

Friday October 12^th Calvin Harris, international dj and producer, will rock Calgary for one night only. To make this night extra special PK is teaming up with a few local partners, including Christie Lites and ColossVision, to bring you one of the biggest productions of the year at the Big Four. You can expect over 120,000 watts of PK audio, a giant 24’ video screen and over 60 intelligent lights with an FX show to match. The whole crew is excited to showcase our system with one of the world’s biggest EDM artists. But more importantly, we want to show Calvin Harris why we love Calgary and why he should too. Join us for an unforgettable night of big tunes pumping through a big system.

PK

The summer is officially over. Festival season has wrapped up, and the leaves are falling off the trees. Now that the craziness is behind us, we can all take a breath and reflect on some of the epic shows and good times of the summer while we pack away our coolers and sleeping bags for another year. Summer 2012 was especially busy for the PK crew, with shows and festivals of all types filling our calendars. Among these events was the Full Flex Express Tour, a cross-Canada train tour, including some of the biggest names in EDM. Full Flex was inspired by the Festival Express, a train tour across Canada in 1970 which featured some of the biggest artists of the time, including Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead. It was legendary to a lot of our moms and dads, as you can see in Bob Smeaton’s 2003 film Festival Express. Our generation’s Festival Express, the Full Flex Express tour, also featured some of the biggest artists of our time, including KOAN Sound, Grimes, TOKiMONSTA, Diplo, Pretty Lights and Grammy award winning Skrillex. Clearly we were very excited to be included in this mammoth event, and hoped to “up the ante” from Full Flex’s 70s counterpart.

Channelling our inner Janis Joplin, we began preparation for 10 days of madness and two stages. The action for each evening was set to be fast-paced and fun, going from DJs to bands, and back to DJs. Skrillex and Pretty Lights both had large-scale set designs sure to please the crowds from Toronto to Vancouver. Due to the tour having both indoor and outdoor stops, the system needed to be versatile enough to suit outdoor festival crowds and indoor arenas. The dates were also very spread out geographically with tight timelines, so the system needed to be setup and struck very quickly—we would have to have complete synergy with the other road crews. In the end we decided to bring 60 PK-CX800 subwoofers, 32 PK-VX12s for the main PA, and 32 PK-VX10s for side-fill and delay. We chose to use a combination of ¼ wave spaced subwoofers centered on the stage to provide even coverage across the crowd with additional flown subwoofers on each side. Flown subwoofers! With a system of that magnitude we could be sure to be the vessel delivering the soundtrack to the summer, indoor or outdoor.

The tour kicked off in Toronto with a packed crowd of older electronic music fans, teens and parents. Full Flex wanted a bit of additional intensity during the early evening acts, so the Front of House structure did double-duty and the rear of it was used for the opening two acts. We split out 10 PK-CX800 subwoofers centre-stacked, and eight of the PK-VX10s per side, which covered the area behind FOH for the opener. When the stage switched over to the main acts, this gear became delay stacks. The combination worked out great, and the delay subwoofers performed perfectly. Hearing the crowd sing along to anthems such as Skrillex’s Cinema and Major Lazer’s Get Free made it feel like our mission was accomplished. The Full Flex Express tour ended in Vancouver at the PNE Coliseum, and after travelling across Canada together the Full Flex crew felt like part of the PK family. This was an event we’ll remember forever and tell our grandkids about… definitely one of the things that made summer 2012 our best yet!

The PK crew.