Three years ago the company returned to Martin Audio as its preferred FOH speaker, buying 20 of the Wavefront 8 Compacts and 24 WSX subs. And delighted with the signature sound of the Wavefront, has now celebrated its 20th year by making a substantial investment in Martin Audio's Line Array technology, with 18 x W8LC Compacts and 12 x W8LM Minis.
Much of this new inventory was immediately pressed into service for David Brown's DB Audio, at a major corporate team-building event at Telford International Centre this month. Discretely trimmed high above the eyeline, two hangs of seven W8LC's flanked a central cluster of eight WLM's, which provided the nearfield coverage.
Commented Dave Beck, "I think you have to be able to offer a Line Array system these days, and for us, Martin was the obvious choice. We demo'd the system at a classical show back in the summer, and it came through with flying colours." FX Music also has a close relationship with Capital Sound Hire, and the fact that the latter has a large inventory of W8L's was also a deciding factor, says Beck.
He added that the right combination of W8LC and W8LM enclosures was an important factor in FX Music's decision. Since both are stand-alone systems in their own right, FX increased the number of W8LM's to provide more versatility on shows where it would be able to supplement the larger footprint boxes with W8LM's as underhangs, to increase nearfield coverage.
The system at Telford had been set up using ViewPoint predictive software. "ViewPoint is a perfect tool and a great starting point for quoting a job," says Alan Beck. "We can show how it is often easier to meet clients' needs with line array; it looks a lot less ugly and cumbersome than conventional speakers and it's faster to rig and derig. More and more people want a discrete installation, where the PA is not visible. As for projection, it offers wider dispersion than the W8C and we reckon you will get a further 20 or 30 metres throw distance ... but at the same time there's a definite cut-off point."
Dave and Alan Beck are delighted with their new purchase. "While we wouldn't normally have upgraded our rental fleet this quickly - it was purely a technology issue, and the investment has already proved well justified."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
