The name Allen & Heath has meant different things to different people over the years. Whether it’s Unkle spinning through Xone mixers or Pink Floyd circa 1973 using the Mod1 on the Dark Side of the Moon tour, the name has permeated all ends of the industry for the past four decades.

The one constant shared between the diverse worlds the company lives in is the core technology that has kept Allen & Heath on top of its game for 40 years.
The company celebrated its anniversary at this year’s PLASA show by throwing a big bash at the top of London’s Gherkin building, where the staff of Allen & Heath past and present traded the glare if its digital gear for the lights of London.

An essential element to Allen & Heath’s continued success, as stated by MD Glenn Rogers, is its dedication to high-quality audio. He explains: “The company is really passionate about audio and improving creativity and performance. We like to talk to the users and the creative people, listen and serve them.

“We have consistently picked the best bits of technology to deliver those expectations and helped adapt it into recording, live sound and the DJ market and then back into broadcasting. We have always truly responded to customers in the market.”

The cross pollination that has occurred within the company’s R&D departments also enables its consumer products to house the core technology present in its high-end gear.

“The skills and concepts developed in our iLive line are shared with those on, say, the Xone team which pushes up the quality and has enabled things like USB capabilities in the Zed series of analog mixers,” says Rogers. “It also allows the algorithms that have been established for iLive’s top quality effects to be integrated in those mixers.”

Having been around for so long, Allen & Heath has weathered several turbulent economic storms. According to Rogers it has done so by maintaining the battleground cry of ‘never give up’. “Doom and gloom doesn’t stop the world, it just makes the situation more difficult, so you have to try even harder. The team here has seen it all and has the confidence to push through challenging times,” he calmly states.

As for the future, the company is devoted to the development of innovative technologies based on the needs of its users. “It is an exciting time in the industry, certainly for large live sound events,” he says. “Digital technology has migrated from a niche segment to the mainstream market, which has created many interesting and fascinating opportunities, opening up how people work, and reducing the pricing of PA systems, rigging, effects and processing. 

“We have seen ten inspiring years in terms of digital processing and people have really migrated to the PC. It is happening in the live sector where DJs are exploring the full capacity of things like Ableton software and changed the outlook of the industry to the point where most people are moving towards file-based systems and how to interface while keeping the link with the audience.

“We are now realising that engineers working on smaller gigs or in the AV and corporate markets may only need a laptop and a rack system to do their jobs. This is truly exciting in terms of technology because we are able to develop products that can deliver what our users have been trying to achieve while constantly raising the audio quality.”
www.allen-heath.com