A record crowd of more than 800 live sound operators and worship production personnel were on hand for the fourth annual Live Sound Compact System Demo at the Dallas Convention Center in October, held in conjunction with the WFX Conference & Expo.
The demo provides the opportunity to directly listen to and compare more than a dozen compact loudspeaker systems in a controlled listening environment. In addition, all participating companies had representatives on hand to provide technical details and pricing information.
The event is held in a full-size exhibit hall of the convention center, with a 150-foot by 150-foot demo space draped off to define the area and to help eliminate reflections. Carpet that covered the entire demo area furthered this goal.
While the 13 participating manufacturers primarily chose to highlight flown compact line arrays, others took a different approach in showing “single box” solutions, providing an excellent contrast between the types of systems available.
In each one-hour full demo session, all systems are played in a round-robin, random format, supplied with identical audio tracks until the final round, when manufacturers have the opportunity to play their own select track through their system. Listeners move from system to system, evaluating what they’re hearing and also observing each system’s scale, components and other important details. In addition, each participating company also provides 15-minute exclusive demo sessions, further showcasing their technologies.
As usual, Live Sound/PSW senior consulting editor Craig Leerman served as the tech director for the event, with veteran engineer Brandon Zeman of Las Vegas at a Yamaha QL Series console to manage audio for each session. Chris Tsanjoures of Rational Acoustics was also on hand with the 10EaZy platform to monitor levels, with SPL readings visible on a large video screen.
Plans are already underway for the next compact system demo – with even more features for attendees – to be held in conjunction with next year’s WFX Expo in Nashville in November 2014. Keep an eye on ProSoundWeb for more details as they become available.
Take our Photo Gallery Tour of the event here.
Demo Participants & Systems
Bose Professional RoomMatch
Danley Sound Labs SBH-20 (“Skinny Big Horn”)
D.A.S. Audio AERO-40A
EAW QX596i
Electro-Voice X-Line X2
Elipsis Audio LA-205
L-Acoustics KARA
Martin Audio MLA Mini
Renkus-Heinz IC²
Tannoy VQ 60
Turbosound Flashline TFS-550H
VUE audiotechnik al-4
WorxAudio Technologies TrueLine XL5i-P
Technology Sponsors
Yamaha Commercial Audio
Shure
Rational Acoustics
High End Systems
