There might have been a time when audio equipment was firmly the domain of what is known as the ‘anglosphere’, but today continental European manufacturers are increasingly coming to the fore. Take Spain’s VMB, for example. Though the company has been in existence since 1967, when Vicente Matali began making valve amplifiers, mixers and small PA equipment, its rise to international prominence as a speaker company has occurred relatively recently – and particularly since the launch of the Lynx line array systems in 2006. Prior to that, VMB had been best known for its well-respected trusses and towers and if that seems an unusual combination of product types – it is. This is one of the major reasons VMB has chosen to develop Lynx as a distinct brand.

VMB’s export manager, Ben Sinclair, admits the breadth of
VMB’s product range can be challenging. “We do manufacture quite a range of products, it’s true – lifts, cabinets, amps, processors, trussing, you name it. The thing to note is that there aren’t many companies who do actually manufacture all of that themselves, but we do. Everything is manufactured here and always has been, we have never gone down the route of manufacturing in China or even Eastern Europe.”

A major supplier both in its native Spain and across the EU, VMB has only quite recently become widely known in the UK.
“It is a relatively new market for us,” Sinclair says. “When I started three years ago, we weren’t doing anything in the UK and it’s only been since MilTec took on distribution that things began to move. The real coup, though, was doing the Park Stage at Glastonbury. Being chosen for that and the positive comments that have flowed since, has made a tremendous difference to our presence in that market.

“We are the first Spanish company to have a system there and it’s quite a big stage – 20,000 people – it was quite a feather in our caps.”

The Lynx V8 provided the sound this year for artists as diverse as Pete Doherty, Franz Ferdinand and John Cale. Under the auspices of the South West Group, the system comprised eight

Lynx V8 active top boxes, with six Lynx active 218 sub-woofers per side, driven through the new Ark 48 system processor.
Operations manager, Mark Bott, explains: “We’d already heard the Lynx at the VMB headquarters in Spain and were suitably impressed with the sound from such a compact system. We wanted to put the Lynx through its paces and the Park Stage was the perfect opportunity. We were allocated a very limited weight to fly from the speaker towers and the Lynx line array meant we could get everything we wanted into the air with very little flying equipment. The Park Stage is erected in a natural amphitheatre and the line array allowed us to control

more effectively the focus area of the sound. While adhering to all the noise regulations, we also had the spread of an audience of 20,000, but everybody was still very happy with the system.”
And however many concerts a company might provide sound for, there is these days considerable kudos in getting the Glastonbury gig.

“I don’t think there can be anything bigger – maybe that’s because I’m British, but really, it doesn't get much bigger than that. And for a line array that has only been going for two years to have achieved that is pretty impressive,” says Sinclair. He admits, though, that there is a slight uphill struggle involved when a company that is renowned for its engineering products suddenly delivers a world-class line array. Sinclair, not unreasonably, points out that VMB actually started out making audio products, so is hardly coming late to the party – it just hadn’t been much known outside of Spain for that particular expertise.

“We really are best known for our lifts. We’ve set the standards in terms of safety, engineering and features and we’ve got distribution in over 40 countries now. This year we introduced two new tower lifts, new line array lifts and there is a tremendous amount of work that goes into designing and developing these.”

VMB may be best known for its engineering, but what it’s most proud of, Sinclair says, is the acclaim which has greeted the Lynx line array.

“Everyone who has heard it has been blown away,” he beams.
Considering the use of premium components, including CIARE speakers, B&C drivers and Bang and Olufsen amplification, with VMB’s own DSP incorporated in each enclosure, it is widely considered to be up there with the best. 

There is also the inclusion of the Lynx system’s built-in inclinometer, which is also grabbing attention.
“I think this came about because we have a really young team of engineers who are really excited about the product. It has attracted a lot of attention,” Sinclair says.
The Lynx inclinometer system feeds angle information to the processor and the signal conditioning algorithms change accordingly. What makes it significant is that this is the first system to be offered with a built-in inclinometer and its ability to automatically adjust the system for the right throw makes the Lynx line array not just very affordable, but also easy to set-up and use.

Because the VMB range is so broad, a marketing decision has been taken to promote the Lynx name in its own right

“It's a policy we also adopted with Arkeops, our digital processors. Again, we’ve been manufacturing digital processors for a long while – and we do actually manufacture them. They aren’t bought-in from elsewhere. In fact we do a lot of OEM work for other ‘big name’ manufacturers. We’ve had our own R&D department for years and have never outsourced our development, so although this is an area where we might not be so well known, we are actually one of the leading companies in the field.”

Indeed, Sinclair goes on to name several industry ‘big names’ whose DSPs are actually designed and made by VMB – but, sadly, whose client confidentiality clauses prevents us from naming.

“It’s a family run company that is also quite unique in this day and age,” Sinclair concludes. “Perhaps the thing that sets us apart is that we actually research, design and manufacture our products. I think that makes us quite special.”
www.vmb.es