PLASA Show: latest from Outline

5 September 2005

Italy / UK - Italian manufacturer Outline had a special reason for releasing news and images of its COM.P.A.S.S. system at Frankfurt's ProLight+Sound show earlier this year, the company says - "to avoid (or at least reduce) the risk of once again offering a 'source of inspiration' for various famous or lesser known audio manufacturers". As usual, the company has applied for a patent for this product in Italy and abroad. COM.P.A.S.S., say Outline, is the first robotic loudspeaker enclosure. It can be used alone, or with other elements to form a Vertical Line Array.

Thanks to its sophisticated mechanism moved by five motors, this system enables the adjustment (via software) of the system's vertical and horizontal directivity simultaneously, say Outline, from 60° to 150° on the horizontal plane (even with asymmetric settings) and from 0° to 15° on the vertical plane. In addition, a further on-board adjustment system - also able to be remote controlled - enables the regulation of the splay angle between the elements when COM.P.A.S.S. is used to form a Vertical Line Array.

For further control, a built-in laser system (patent applied for) displays the aiming of the axes in real time via luminous beams, allowing to identify precisely and with great time saving the area covered by the audio system. Sound designer Guido Noselli states: "Users will thus have at their disposal a system that can be adapted to suit any possible situation, according to the audience to be covered."

COM.P.A.S.S. is compact and lightweight, although it contains seven loudspeakers - a 10" woofer, four 5" mid-woofers and two compression drivers with a 1.75" diaphragm, fitted with two D.P.R.W.G. waveguides (already well-known for their use on Outline's Butterfly system and covered by patent or patent-pending in several countries).

Outline has also launched the D.V.S. series (Digitally Voiced Speaker) - "a high quality 'multi-purpose' range, ideal for a wide variety of permanent and temporary installations". The three models at present in the range are D.V.S. 8, D.V.S. 12 and D.V.S. 15. The use of horns with mouth dimensions similar to those of the loudspeakers with which they are used - one of the range's distinctive features - ensures great control of 'mid/high' frequency directivity, right from the crossover frequency with the woofer; this results in better, more even dispersion over the entire audio spectrum.

The components used are all high quality, as is the case with all Outline products, and are as follows: a 8" woofer along with a driver with a 1.75" diameter titanium diaphragm; a 12" woofer with a 2.5" diameter titanium diaphragm and a 15" woofer with a driver with a 2.5" diameter titanium diaphragm.

Also new, Outline's IS 8 is a 2-way enclosure ideal for permanent installations that completes the 'IS' range which, up until now consisted in the IS 5 and IS 6 models. IS 8 uses top-end components - an 8" woofer and a 1" soft dome tweeter - thanks to which it reproduces music with hi-fi quality and surprising sound pressure levels for such compact, lightweight enclosures. In fact, the SPL reaches a peak of 118 dB at 1 metre (half-space) and the enclosure's continuous power handling capacity is 80W AES (320 peak).

More information on all the above is available from stand N40 at the PLASA Show.

(Lee Baldock)