Howard Smart has been appointed senior technical support specialist at Turbosound, bringing an innate knowledge of the company’s products as well as experience from both national and international concert touring spanning more than 20 years.
Smart started his pro audio career with Sussex-based Blue Box Company and worked with many of the UK’s top production companies. Learning much of his audio engineering skills at the sharp end of the electronic dance music boom of the 1990s, he quickly progressed to become a freelance engineer for Capital Sound, SSE, Entec, RG Jones and Audile.
A talented sound engineer at front of house, on monitors, or for outside broadcast, Smart was instrumental in taking Leftfield’s seminal dance music studio albums on the road in 1996 and again in 2000, and has mixed monitors for Ian Brown, Moloko, Tata Young, Ed Harcourt, Massive Attack, Apollo 440 and Badly Drawn Boy.
He also served as project manager and systems engineer for new rental company Ban Moh in Thailand, an early adopter of Turbousound’s Flashline large-scale line array system. There he put together and managed the complete sound reinforcement system, together with the cabling and power distribution infrastructure, to afford it full stadium size capability.
During that time period, Smart was also the freelance Turbosouond appointed technical support specialist for Flashline and Flex Array products in the APAC region.
“The opportunity to contribute towards Turbosound’s latest cycle of innovation at the highest level of concert sound is the fulfillment of a dream for me,” Smart states. “Having been very recently involved with a big Flashline system on the other side of the customer fence I know just how good it can be, and as a result of that fresh experience I know what our rental customers really want in a PA. I am totally enthused to be joining the company at this exciting time in its history.”
In his new role, Smart will spearhead Turbosound’s training program, which is aimed at educating sound engineers and systems technicians in the use of the company’s concert touring and fixed installation loudspeaker systems. In addition he will manage the team that provides on-site hands-on technical support to new users of Flashline, Flex Array and Flashline Mini loudspeaker systems.
“I’m delighted to welcome Howard to the MUSIC Group,” says Nigel Beaumont, SVP, Operations and Head of the MUSIC Group Professional Division. “This key appointment strengthens our technical resources dramatically and comes at a time when the brand and its flagship Flashline product are already in high gear. Howard will be a key asset in our accelerated expansion of the Turbosound brand worldwide.”
