Italy / China - At the end of September 2004, the HQ of Chinese multinational company 'Neo-Neon' hosted a demonstration of the Butterfly line array system from Italian manufacturer, Outline. The demo was attended by 50 of the country's top rental companies, as well as contractors, dealers, sound engineers and professors of acoustics. The rig installed, which was sold after the demo, consisted in 12 CDH483 high-packs, plus four CDL1815 low-packs and six subs per side and was powered by the company's Series T amplifiers and controlled by Genius 6 processors. The vast area chosen for the demo enabled the team to calibrate the Butterfly setup for even coverage from 20m to 120m, and allowed a listening distance of over 200m. Outline's powerful V.I.P. aiming and simulation software was used.

During a workshop held during the same period, the concepts and numerous innovative patents on which the line array manufactured by the Italian company are based were described with the aid of images and designs. The White Paper written by designer Guido Noselli was used as a technical basis. Speaker Giorgio Biffi (Outline's sales and marketing manager) was supported by Francesco Ferretti (Outline technical staff) and the entire presentation was translated into Chinese. As expected, the event, skilfully organized by Neo-Neon's marketing manager Nathan Mung, was a unanimous success with the participants.

Here are the comments of Craig Ruan, one of the many top sound engineers at the demo: "This system's patented technology surprised me - even at a distance of 200m. Butterfly's acoustic performance not only corresponded exactly to that stated on the data sheet, it seemed to me to be even better. The systems are simply surprising compared with considerably heavier, larger products or comparable models on the international market. Before buying any line array, I think one should take part in an exam of this type, which I'd say is clarifying, and also very well organized from a technical point of view."

(Lee Baldock)


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