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Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

Sound

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Forward-looking Digidesign presented several new augmentations for its digital desk, the Venue. D-Show 1.1 is a free update, giving a new Variable Group mode that permits operators to configure 24 discrete mix busses, in addition to main LCR bus. Drawmer TourBuss gives live sound engineers four plug-ins for the desk, noise gate, expander, comp/limiter and a bracketing filter. D-Show Script Tray is a simple flat transparent tray designed to fit above the console surface and roll across it without disturbing any controls, while supporting notes, cue sheets - even a Laptop, anything reasonable the operator needs to hand. Personal Q Monitoring software and hardware allows for remote mixes from the main desk transmitted over a four-pin XLR to PQ wired controllers.

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Equipson showed its new Studio Series loudspeakers. The new range is specifically aimed at providing high quality audio for short spaces that have high ceilings, such as shops, galleries and museums and are designed to minimize diffusion to maintain intelligibility.
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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XLNT (a development arm of Flashlight/Ampco) launched a couple of clever audio products. Bass Creator is in may ways a problem-solving tool for club and bar owners, designed to filter out sensitive frequencies that 'grab' the harmonics of neighbour's walls and excite them. To compensate and keep the customers happy, Creator then works with higher tone harmonics that fool the ear into believing it is still receiving the same low bass energy. Tuned to the 20Hz to 150Hz frequency range, Creator can give level gains of 6-10dB once the offending frequency is eliminated. It also has a two-band limiter to avoid pumping effects, and an eight-band EQ if you need it.

In prototype form, the Engineer is a balancing tool, again designed primarily for pubs and clubs. The problem stems from the current fashion for mass storage MP3 file players, where the myriad compression techniques lead to wild var

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Funktion One, purple cabinets, Ann Andrews, Tony . . . Tony . . ? Anyone seen Tony? Of course not: Mr Andrews was in the demo room for most of the show blowing people away with his purple powers of persuasion and an updated version of the Resolution 1 of which, we were reliably informed, a self-powered version is imminent. As the year has progressed the company has seen its systems go out on another theatre musical tour, Seven Bridges, this time with Orbital and sound designer Glen Beckley.

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Another new range of ceiling speakers, this time from Martin Audio, all two way coaxial, 4" + 0.8", 6.5" + 0.8" offering 180° and 150° dispersion, with a larger 8" + 1" model at 90°; all at 16 ohms. These speakers come in installer kits - tile rails, template and paint mask are all included.

Augmenting the Martin line array range is the W8LMD, a small under-hang cabinet for the mini line array that will attach to the standard fly-frame for use as a near down-fill 120° by 20°, while the W8MX is a sub delivering 104dB at 1W/1m from a single 18" hybrid cabinet. The two boxes can also be used a compact stand-alone system, the top boxes capable of being stacked - MD above MX - or the MD can be pole-mounted to the sub; in this configuration there's a handy HF cut switch included, on the assumption you'll likely be playing a small room and won't want th

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With the entire team in evening dress and the stand decked out with a piano bar including live music, the Adam Hall stand certainly caught the eye. Probably best known for flightcase hardware, connectors, stands and tools, Adam Hall has shifted markets slightly by expanding into finished products. Rob Fricker, general and export sales manager, told L&SI that the influx of cheaper products from the Far East has meant that fewer people are building their own equipment - hence the company's new sales opportunities.

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With the Disability Discrimination Act meaning that retail and entertainment venues have to look far harder at their disabled facilities, Current Thinking is ideally placed to assist. The company was showing a range of its low-spill induction loops, call systems and voice alarms. Perhaps the simplest yet most ingenious is the Easy AX Customer Care Kit, which includes a portable clipboard induction loop, text magnifiers, pen holder and templates for writing cheques, forms and documents.

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The 00DJ is the latest release from Computer DJ, a product that any self respecting DJ and secret agent will want to get hold of. This state-of-the-art, all-in-one DJ module, housed in a stylish robust silver case contains touch screen, a digital soundcard and biometric (fingerprint) security with plenty of storage for your MP3s: the company says it's now being used by top DJs worldwide - goodbye record cases!

Of particular interest for bars and clubs as well as light and sound installers was the new Q-Play digital music systems. This touch screen unit incorporates bio-metric (fingerprint) security, ensuring that only those authorized to do so can change the music (or its volume). The system can be managed by venue staff or programmed remotely via an optional secure internet link.

Also attracting a stream of visitors was the new Screenfly, a software programme used to generate immedi

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Funktion One, purple cabinets, Ann Andrews, Tony . . . Tony . . ? Anyone seen Tony? Of course not: Mr Andrews was in the demo room for most of the show blowing people away with his purple powers of persuasion and an updated version of the Resolution 1 of which, we were reliably informed, a self-powered version is imminent. As the year has progressed the company has seen its systems go out on another theatre musical tour, Seven Bridges, this time with Orbital and sound designer Glen Beckley.

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The TCS contractor series from Turbosound comes in black or white as standard, but Turbo will paint it any colour you like. This install speaker range is intended for outdoor use, is IP54-rated with stainless steel front grilles, waterproof cable glands, and all driver voice coils are treated. Cabinets come with a range of mounting brackets, including Omni-mount for the US market. TCS comes in a range of eight speaker cabinets, four mid/highs, four subs.

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A fairly radical re-vamp of the product range from HK Audio: Con Tour is an upgrade of the T Series making it more suited to multi-purpose usage. These trapezoidal box speakers can be used as wedges or mirror pair PA cabinets, pole-mounted or flown (aero-quip fittings as standard). Three mid/high boxes, CT115, CT112 and CT108 sport respectively 15", 12" and 8" neodymium driven speakers from B&C, with 1.4" compression drivers on the 12 and 15, and a slightly smaller 1" on the 8. All work with the CT118 single 18" sub.

DSM2060 is a DSP controller for any system, not just Con Tour. 2 in, 6 out, it uses Hardman Filter technology, has 64 EQ bands, two shelving EQs on all inputs and outputs as well as delay and limiters.

The new Actor DX is a self-powered upgrade, previously rated at 2400W per stack, now handling 3200W from a pair of low-end boxes and a mid/hi

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Aside from its Award-winning COMPASS system (see Award Winners), Outline introduced the HARD45, a low profile wedge monitor (4x5" and 1x1"), self-powered with reflective waveguide giving 60° by 40° from a very shallow box.

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DMC - the worlds leading remix and megamix service, is a digital DJ supplier of download music, and will shortly also be a download site in October - 'The DMC Download Network' - for which there was keen interest at the show. Its website is one of the biggest online resources for DJs and one of the largest music sites. The DMC 'Buzz Chart' goes out live on Pete Tong's Friday night show.

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Promo Only is a DJ/VJ subscription service, and featured its latest music video and DVD collections plus all the latest chart videos including 'Hot Video'. The company also highlighted a range of 'Oldies' classic music videos from the 1970s to today. Promo Only is licensed by VPL, the official video licensing body.

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Cloud has come along way since its DJ roots and at this year's show continued to expand its range of high quality audio equipment for the installation market. Launching the CXV-225 100V line amplifier, Cloud has added transformer-less amplification to its range. The CXV-225 boasts a variety of features including two channels of 250W into 4 ohms, variable high pass filter, clip limiter, thermal and DC offset protection and the option to add an EQ card and a VCA. The CXV-225 will begin shipping in around four to six weeks. Cloud experienced "a significant amount" of overseas interest at PLASA.

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Celestion launched two new products. The QXi215 speaker is part of the QXi range, aimed at small club and pub installations, while the new TN Series of neodymium magnet low frequency drivers focused on the needs of OEM clients.

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CD Pool is a subscription service for professional DJs. The company highlighted its 'Remix' CD among other products and its new specialist download service which includes music from some of the best indie dance labels, often available as pre-releases. It costs between one and three pounds to download a track.

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Millbank Electronics has always provided high quality, reliable public address, induction loop and background music systems. In recent years they've also moved into the area of voice evacuation systems and it was the 10Max controller that was a central part of the display on its stand. The 10Max can be used in systems with a maximum of 10 zones and can handle up to 10 prioritized input sources. The BS5839 compliant router is designed to form the heart of a voice evacuation system.

Another featured product was the DVS8 compact flash sound store. The unit uses CF cards to store high quality 16bit 44.1kHz samples that can be played back across public address and voice alarm systems. A positive show, according to Neil Voce.

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The launch of the new M7CL digital console turned many heads at PLASA, culminating in multiple sales for Yamaha to companies with the calibre of Britannia Row Productions and Orbital, while dealers like Warehouse (Scotland) and Marquee Audio (UK) queued up to place orders. A completely intuitive touch-panel control surface on the M7CL guides the user through a straightforward and logical navigation system. Touch the on-screen Rack button and instantly patch effects or EQ to any channel; another touch takes you to detailed editing within your chosen effect or graphic.

Eight signal processors can be used simultaneously; conventionally deployed as four graphics and four effects, but with all the onboard effects units capable of operating alternatively as graphics, up to eight graphics can be used. If you don't need the effects - the choice is yours. Operators can exploit processing power

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Some stylish re-branding by SSE Audio Group proved attractive for a company reassuring the market of its future longevity (the company was founded in 1974 by directors Heather and John Penn). The re-branding underlines SSE's presence as not just a PA rental and service provider, but also as a fully-fledged equipment dealer (now an approved Yamaha Digital dealer) and construction company, providing stage sets for purchase and hire.

On the PA rental side, SSE confirmed they are now members of the V-dosc Network, and that recent improvements to the software control of their Nexo Geo-T system has been extremely well received by visiting sound engineers to this year's V and Reading festivals.

SSE has re-tooled its range of stage deck products, a new aluminium profile extrusion of just 75mm makes for a compact system; six sections stacked in the same space as two decks of older conventiona

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Visual Discomix from Slovenia made its first professional DJ computer software in 1995, since when, many others have appeared on the scene. VDMX's DJ Professional Advance has seven modules - known as racks - offering all the control you'd expect from a digital DJ mixer and storage archive.

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A PLASA debutant was Cornored Audio Systems, whose Hans Madsen was giving a world premiere to his new approach to loudspeakers. "I want to build bracketless loudspeakers which will look good in any environment," he said. Manufactured from aluminium, the low-profile enclosures feature a 90° curved front panel, producing a high quality sound.

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Gemini showed a myriad of new products, the most significant of which was the I-Key portable USB recorder which records to any external mass storage device. The user can select between MP3 or WAV file formats and then record onto the key - very simple to use and great for recording on the fly.

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Proel made the most of this year's PLASA by launching three new products of its own and a further nine from among the third-party brands it distributes in the UK. The Proel Extreme Series of affordable PA enclosures providing reliability and audio quality above that of an entry level system. The range is available as both passive and active versions, and has its own range of matched subs.

Debuting at PLASA was an enhanced version of Proel's popular Smart series - the Smart VPlus. The new, improved versions boast high quality sound coupled with sturdy build quality. The trapezoidal enclosures come in 20 flavours, both active and passive.

At the higher end of the market was the AX1118SP subwoofer system, designed to work with the Axiom line array system. The cabinet is designed to be flown as part of an Axiom system and comprises an 18" neodymium woofer with 4" voice coil, wh

  1. Audio-Technica
  2. EtherSound
  3. dB Technologies
  4. Vestax Europe
  5. Fametrack
  6. Cadac Electronics plc
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
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