Every event on this year’s trade show schedule has noticeably suffered from the general panic that the diseased world economy has spread throughout the industry.

The word from the exhibitors and visitors at PLASA 09 held last month at London’s Earls Court, however, is that things are slowly beginning to get better as the installation market begins to pick up, while the rental market still seems to be suffering.

As for the show itself, the facts are that attendance numbers were down on last year (11,518 total) and some pro audio manufacturers seemed to have dropped their own booths to share room with distributors.

Despite these factors there was a definite sense of cautious optimism surrounding the show. Andrew Richardson, general manager of Adam Hall, noted: "I'm delighted with the success of PLASA 09. Building on from many recent product launches the show gave us an excellent platform to continue this promotion to new and existing customers from across Europe.

“We have grown our client base and managed to penetrate new markets. I can easily say that without doubt, we will be exhibiting at next year and we look forward to another successful show."

Ian Cullen, marketing director of Sound Technology, admitted to being a bit nervy before proceedings got underway. “We weren't quite sure what to expect given the current climate, but we were overwhelmed by the quantity and, most noticeably, the quality of the visitors to our stand. We saw a huge number of key people from the commercial audio and live sound sectors and there's potential for some very large-scale projects off the back of it,” he said.

The show floor was flooded with new products, many of which had their world debut at Earls Court. The theme of consolidation evident in the exhibition stands carried over into the new equipment that was presented over the four days, as smaller and less expensive products took centre stage in many launches.
www.plasashow.com

Alcons Audio
Alcons Audio introduced the BRK5LR7 swivel yoke-mounting solution that allows its LR7 micro line array system to be pole-mounted, while retaining full curving functions.

The system can accommodate five LR7 cabinets in standing configuration and up to seven LR7 cabinets in flown configuration. Both the five-unit and seven-unit configurations can be connected to one single ALC amplifier channel, for an efficient system layout.

In operation, the yoke is connected to the middle cabinet with two connecting plates on the side of the cabinet, secured with two quick-release pins each. The connecting plates are attached to the yoke with conical joints.
www.alconsaudio.com

Midas
Midas and Klark Teknik announced the formation of Midas Consoles Japan and Midas Consoles Italy, both of which take over as exclusive distributors within their respective countries. The firm has also released the latest version of software for its flagship XL8 digital console.

Another show highlight came when Alex Cooper won the prestigious Gottelier Award for his design achievements at Midas/KT.

Based in Tokyo, Midas Consoles Japan is a division of Bestec Audio and is dedicated to the sales and after sales support of Midas and Klark Teknik products in the country.

Midas Consoles Italy is headed up by general manager Pierfranco Galeone, who previously represented the Midas and Klark Teknik brands at Texim Audio.
Finally, the Midas Heritage 3000 celebrated its ten-year anniversary at the show.
www.midasconsoles.com

Ohm
Ohm introduced the Ersa Major line array system at PLASA. The British manufacturer, which celebrated 30 years of producing sound equipment in the UK this year, also brought back, with newly designed Ohm drivers, the SS-3 Smack Stack bass bin – an iconic dance cabinet that delivers formidable low frequencies.

The re-designed SS-3 and Ersa Major can be coupled to produce high-level reinforcement for larger dance club and concert audiences.

The Ersa Major comprises two ten-inch, horn loaded Ohm drivers with a coaxial two-inch plus one-inch compression driver, mounted on a proprietary waveguide. The system runs in a three way active mode.
www.ohm.co.uk

JBL
While Harman released dozens of new products from their many brands one that stood out was the debut of the new subcompact additions to JBL’s Vertec line array system.

Designed to deliver a high degree of output and coverage capabilities in a very compact package, JBL has introduced the smallest system enclosures in its Vertec product family, the VT4886 passive three-way high-directivity line array element and its companion VT4883 cardioid-arrayable subwoofer. Incorporating innovative acoustical technologies and purpose-built transducers, they are specifically designed for standalone use or in conjunction with other existing Vertec models.

The new VT4886 and VT4883 subcompact models are suitable for use in a broad range of suspended-array, ground-based and fill speaker applications, with a comprehensive range of array and suspension accessories planned for the new system. Given its very compact dimensions, the VT4886 is suited for distributed front fill or under-balcony use. VT4886 line array elements can also be suspended in large multi-box arrays or ground-stacked, either standalone or with its companion VT4883 low-frequency extension for FOH, offstage fill, stereo in-fill, centre cluster or delay cluster use.
www.jbl.com

Polar Audio
Polar Audio introduced several new products from its many distributed brands as well as the announcement that it has taken on the UK distribution of Revolabs wireless microphone systems.

On the booth visitors saw XTA Electronics’ foray into the installation market with the, the DC1048 integrated audio management system and its first generation of network audio products, the NXBoB8 and NXBoB16.

Another addition to the Polar family is Australian Monitor, the maker of the Zone Revolution and AV Revolution, multi-zone solutions for the bar, club and AV markets.
www.polaraudio.co.uk

Void Acoustics
Void Acoustics announced several new products, including the Stasys Prime wide-band arrayable point-source system offering, we are told, ‘ground-breaking efficiency’. The Stasys 5 Mk2 low-frequency system has a pressure plate to enhance transient response. The Arcline 12 medium-format line-array enclosure was also on show. Two new models in Void’s UK-built Infinite X amplifier range – the Infinite X7 and Infinite X8 power amplifiers – were showcased and industry veteran Ken DeLoria, who recently joined Void as head of its US division, was present on the company’s stand.
www.voidaudio.com

Digico
Digico launched the SD8-24 digital mixing console and the new Overdrive software upgrade for the SD8 console at the show, each of which has a good deal of features to catch the eye. Designed with a smaller footprint for the corporate event sector, the SD8-24 features the same functionality and number of inputs and outputs as the SD8 console. The board also comprises the same fixed architecture of the SD8, which uses the smaller Super FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), a technology that has been around almost as long as DSP.

Much larger FPGAs and have been created, performing far greater numbers of calculations than the most advanced DSP. These Super FPGAs are used in the SD8 and 24.

The show also saw the introduction of new Overdrive software for Digico’s SD8 console. Digico’s MD, James Gordon, commented: “Over the last year we’ve been looking at what extra processing John Stadius, our technical director, could squeeze out of the smaller FPGA. There is more than even we imagined, with our new Overdrive software delivering even more of the SD7 features into the SD8.”

Digico also announced that it will donate the proceeds of a competition for it’s 500th SD8 console to the families of late sound engineers John Roden and Jim Douglas, both of whom were early supporters of the company and both respected and missed by their peers.
www.digico.org

Funktion-One
Funktion-One used the show to launch the F101 loudspeaker enclosure, which comprises a single ten-inch bass/mid driver and a one-inch high frequency device, and the Resolution 3 loudspeaker, an all-in-one, three-way enclosure comprising a special horn loaded 18-inch bass loudspeaker with a five-inch voice coil, a new Axhead loaded ten-inch loudspeaker for midrange and a one-inch compression driver for high frequencies.

It also debuted the ASPC1 audio system polarity checker. Launched as a tool for live sound and installation engineers to ensure the optimisation of high performance audio systems, ASPC1 is light, compact and supplied with belt pouch for easy accessibility.
www.funktion-one.com

Roland Systems Group
Roland Systems Group announced the launch of the RSS M-380 digital mixing console, a smaller brother to the M-400 V-Mixer. The M-380 is a 48-channel console that possesses all of the features of the M-400, but in a compact, rackmount unit. Its arrival adds to the growing V-Mixing system line up that also includes digital snakes, personal mixing and multi-channel recording.

The mixer has a rapid recall of setups, 100mm motorised and touch sensitive faders, an 800 by 480 colour screen and dedicated multi-function knobs for eq, pan, gain and control of dynamics. Its 48-channel mixing capability includes digital patch-bays with new and industry-requested classic Roland FX including RE201 space echo and SDE3000 delay, 16 aux/mono sends, eight matrices, eight DCAs, eight mute groups, built-in stereo recording/playback and support for LCR configurations.
www.rolandsg.co.uk

Crown
Crown launched new amplifiers at PLASA, along with a processor for the CTs series of amps.

The show saw the latest update to its Macro-Tech i series, with increased power and new dual port capability.

Comprised of three models, the MA-5000i, MA-9000i and MA-12000i, the Macro-Tech i series features patented Class-I circuitry, which was integrated to provide greater power while reducing the amplifier’s weight by more than half.

The firm also developed the CDi 6000 amplifier, the fourth amplifier in the CDi series, for fixed installation applications. The CDi 6000 is capable of running both low-impedance two, four and eight-Ohm loads as well as 70 and 140-Volt outputs and also features 20 available presets that can be recalled at the touch of a button. There are automatic presets for JBL cinema speaker systems for quick and easy setup, with an intuitive front panel LCD panel and compatible configuration through the Harman HiQnet System Architect platform.
www.crownaudio.com

Trantec
To coincide with the launch of the new channel 38-ready S6 wireless system, Trantec introduced The Big Trantec Trade-in scheme, offering a trade-in discount of up to £450 per channel for Trantec and other qualifying manufacturer’s radio mics, when purchasing new Trantec Channel 38 equipment.

Trantec has become the first company to offer manufacturer-funded compensation for end users and dealers amid the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the funding of the Channel 38 switchover.
www.trantec.co.uk
 
Soundcraft
Soundcraft introduced the latest board in its Si range of digital mixing consoles with the Si1. The 1,200mm wide Si1 joins the Si3 and the Si2 in the company’s range of mid-priced mixers for live, install and HOW.

Launched off the back of the Vi series, Soundcraft is making it known that the Si consoles have already earned five industry awards for their user-friendly format and for aiding in the transition from analog to digital.

The Si1 was designed to fit the space-restricted areas and features 32 mic inputs mapped on 16 faders, four dedicated Stereo Line channels, four dedicated FX Returns from the four stereo Lexicon FX processors and has the ability to mix up to 48 inputs.

The board also comprises eight balanced insert sends and returns along with the same bus structure as the Si2 and Si3 of 24 group/aux busses, eight matrix busses and a full complement of monitor talkback and main bus outputs. These busses can be freely assigned to any of the 16 physical XLR connectors as well as the dedicated mix and monitoring output XLRs. Every bus has a dedicated 30-band BSS Audio graphic eq, permanently patched in with no drain on the DSP resource.
www.soundcraft.com

Optocore
Optocore released a digital audio networking protocol called Sane. Using ring network topology, Sane claims to offer the first synchronous Cat5 network solution for streaming uninterrupted media in real time.

Billed as a new low cost with high efficiency, Sane is based on the tried and tested Optocore technology, and has evolved from the company’s flexible new AD/DA X6R and V3R converters launched earlier this year; these offer split AES-EBU ports, sample rate conversion up to 192kHz, and five different card options.
www.optocore.com