Was hoping to get this posted at the same time as preceding images but day to day stuff like flying to Dubai for PALME show go in the way.
Anyway on Thursday we were able to test some FlexArray outside against a leading competitve product - the names have been deleted to protect the innocent (look closely at the images and I'm sure that the trainspotter amongst you will figure it out - if not contact me by mail and I'll name names). Anyway these products were brought down by a friendly rental company, but not a company known for any relationship with Turbosound, who came down mob-handed to listen and play.
As the systems were being set up this being spring in the UK, it went from bright sunshine to dark skies and lashing rain. Eventually the rain stopped, the skies cleared a little and the forklifts came out to provide each cluster of three speakers with some height. For those of you not accquainted with Turbo Towers we are on an industrial estate in the rolling West Sussex countryside, luckily for us there is a large expansive of heath/wasteland in front of the factory that leads to the downs. Normally the playground for birds, rabbits, cats, dogs, deer and kids on BMX bikes, every now and again we use it to test products. If you are interested have a look at http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&geocode=&q=turbosound+ltd&near=rh13+8ry&ie=UTF8&ll=50.959589,-0.305557&spn=0.011353,0.029011&t=h&z=15
Anyway it gives us several hundred metres of open space to test speakers occasionally before we upest the whole village and/or break the Criminal Justice Act 1994 and Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (aimed at illegal raves and free parties, and another nail in the coffin of personal freedoms in the UK).
Enough about raving back to the "pepsi challenge". For the record both systems comprised of 3 cabs running fully active tri-amp, with appropriate subs groundstacked. The system we were up against has more components and, according to the specs for this latest version at least, should have outperformed Flex easily. Not quite the case. Despite being smaller, lighter, cheaper Flex certainly held its own in performance terms, and certainly sounded better - ie smoother, more detailed mids, less harsh HF and no gap between the Mid/High and the sub. And that's not my opinion but that of the rental company. Who are now seriously considering how to invest their money in the near future, especially when the flexibilty of Flex Array was explained to them.
We're hoping to do some more such A/Bs and have some gigs lined up in the nexty few weeks which I'll try to post up here as and when. In the meantime
Saturday 26 April 2008
Friday 25 April 2008
Future Festival Fashion
Danny , resplendent in brogues and shorts, picks his way through the mud and detritus of the field in front of Turbo HQ
About 50 metres back on the Pepsi Challenge
Paul & Danny in the field in front of Turbo HQ listen to Flex
Pepsi Challenge - left or Right?
Flex Array on right, goes up head to head against bigger, heavier, more expensive A N Other on Left.
Pepsi Challenge - Is that the Grim Reaper ?
During the |Great Pepsi Challenge - A/Bing Flex against some leading products, the weather was not the best. Paul in the rain, me inside
Pepsi Challenge - Not the parts, its the labour mate
Thursday 24th - Turbo HQ. FlexArray gets a work out against A N Other Mid sized Line Array
Friday 4 April 2008
Friday 13/03/08
Groundhog day. Wake up. Shave. Breakfast. Put suit on. Get Tram. Trek the long corridors to Hall 8.0 – its almost like I never left.
No, no, no. Hold on that was yesterday. Today was slightly different because we were a little later (and considering the state of some people last night its not too surprising) and it was a bit wet, so being delicate little flowers we got a cab. Beyond that it was groundhog day again. I think only the change of shirt made it very different initially. That and the bundle of rags on my hotel room floor, that turned out to be a friend of mine who never made it home. Ah thank the lord for the PSNE Pub quiz, every year good intentions are left in the gutter along with conciousness and colleagues.
Luckily its a bit quieter on all fronts in the morning and not just in the hall. The Sound Forum or speaker shootout is still a stupidly low levels. With the much vaunted ruthless German efficiency you would have thought external noise complaints would have been factored into setting this segment of the show up. Still they’ve got everyone’s money now. So the exhibitors aren’t happy, and neither are the punters – OK you can judge a system when its running low level but these guys want to here these things rock! Hey Ho, even after last night it’s still a little too loud for Paul, who is driving the system, or is that not loud enough?
Groundhog day. Wake up. Shave. Breakfast. Put suit on. Get Tram. Trek the long corridors to Hall 8.0 – its almost like I never left.
No, no, no. Hold on that was yesterday. Today was slightly different because we were a little later (and considering the state of some people last night its not too surprising) and it was a bit wet, so being delicate little flowers we got a cab. Beyond that it was groundhog day again. I think only the change of shirt made it very different initially. That and the bundle of rags on my hotel room floor, that turned out to be a friend of mine who never made it home. Ah thank the lord for the PSNE Pub quiz, every year good intentions are left in the gutter along with conciousness and colleagues.
Luckily its a bit quieter on all fronts in the morning and not just in the hall. The Sound Forum or speaker shootout is still a stupidly low levels. With the much vaunted ruthless German efficiency you would have thought external noise complaints would have been factored into setting this segment of the show up. Still they’ve got everyone’s money now. So the exhibitors aren’t happy, and neither are the punters – OK you can judge a system when its running low level but these guys want to here these things rock! Hey Ho, even after last night it’s still a little too loud for Paul, who is driving the system, or is that not loud enough?
Anyway I have a few meetings with distribution which all goes well, everyone being excited by Flex, new Impact and the other upcoming products we discuss. Plus some customers who’ve already done the show come back for a further chat, a coffee and answers to questions they’ve been mulling over.
And then there are the meetings with companies who want to distribute your product in such & such a country – usually wherever you are doing well. Could that be a coincidence, I wonder. Sometimes these are 10 minute conversations that are all about you being polite and saying “we’re very flattered but we’re happy with our current arrangements” whilst they try to convince you that they respect your current distributor but how they are holding back the brand and/or messing the market up, and how they would do a much, much better job. Other times these are those kind of conversations where you are both trying to find out as much information and gossip as possible whilst giving out as little as possible. And then there are the rare ones when you have no idea why you are sat down exchanging pleasantries with someone who you once may once had said hello to, and they have just “dropped by to say hello”. Ah the heady atmosphere of a closed trade show does weird things to some people.
Once more no lunch, but I am getting used to breadsticks. Am quite glad I can’t eat the spicy Wurst that is the only other real offering. Looks like they may do damage over a period of days to the unprepared. Start thinking of dinner at the Italian – mmmhh fresh food and properly cooked.
Then the afternoon takes an interesting turn. Notice some guys looking somewhat animatedly at the Flex Arrays. Kind of think I half recognise them and consider whether I should offer my help. Then my memory throws out the info I was looking for, I do know who at least one of then is. One of our competitors. Not that it makes any difference to me, we’ve nothing to hide. I always offer to talk to people about what we’re doing and to discuss it with them – after all we’re all trying to make the best speakers we can – and I’ve had some really interesting conversations with “competitors”. Truth be told, as loudspeaker manufacturers, once you’ve got beyond world domination and the money, we’re all trying to produce excellence its just our philosophies on what excellence is and how to get there differ. But its funny usually you approach other companies who are looking at your product and offer to help and they either melt back into the show hub-bub or you have an interesting conversation. This time the situation was a little different…..
…..After dealing with that I really needed a sit down and a drink to recover but there were still several hours left until end of the show. So more coffee – always relaxing for the nerves - more Apfelsan and wasser had to suffice. Show hit a quiet patch, a precursor of the deadly Public Saturday where the only people you talk to are other bored Exhibitors who haven’t been lucky enough to leave for home already because they have to strike the stand. On that note various members of Team Turbo started to disappear, with the usual discussions about flight delays, sharing cabs and how they’d love to stay and help strike but……
They leave, we stay. And eventually, after a few last discussions about Flexarray, and some goodbyes to distributors who are heading home, its time to have a quick beer on the stand, a quick gossip then a vote. Back to the hotel to drop bags and have a shower or straight to the restaurant for food and wine. I call the restaurant who says they are busy until after 9pm but if we want to come now (6.45pm ish) and eat quickly they’ll squeeze us in. We decide to eat. We are ushered in and hurriedly order our food so not as to abuse our host’s largesse in fitting us in. We leave the restaurant close to midnight, obviously not having been thrown out at 8pm, after some good wine and gossiping about the days events. We also sort out a table for late on Saturday night to ensure we can get something to eat after the strike – wandering the streets of Frankfurt after 10pm hungry and tired, after striking a show, looking for food is not something you want to do too often. In such cases experience really pays dividends.
And to bed, perchance to sleep, perchance to dream…….
And then there are the meetings with companies who want to distribute your product in such & such a country – usually wherever you are doing well. Could that be a coincidence, I wonder. Sometimes these are 10 minute conversations that are all about you being polite and saying “we’re very flattered but we’re happy with our current arrangements” whilst they try to convince you that they respect your current distributor but how they are holding back the brand and/or messing the market up, and how they would do a much, much better job. Other times these are those kind of conversations where you are both trying to find out as much information and gossip as possible whilst giving out as little as possible. And then there are the rare ones when you have no idea why you are sat down exchanging pleasantries with someone who you once may once had said hello to, and they have just “dropped by to say hello”. Ah the heady atmosphere of a closed trade show does weird things to some people.
Once more no lunch, but I am getting used to breadsticks. Am quite glad I can’t eat the spicy Wurst that is the only other real offering. Looks like they may do damage over a period of days to the unprepared. Start thinking of dinner at the Italian – mmmhh fresh food and properly cooked.
Then the afternoon takes an interesting turn. Notice some guys looking somewhat animatedly at the Flex Arrays. Kind of think I half recognise them and consider whether I should offer my help. Then my memory throws out the info I was looking for, I do know who at least one of then is. One of our competitors. Not that it makes any difference to me, we’ve nothing to hide. I always offer to talk to people about what we’re doing and to discuss it with them – after all we’re all trying to make the best speakers we can – and I’ve had some really interesting conversations with “competitors”. Truth be told, as loudspeaker manufacturers, once you’ve got beyond world domination and the money, we’re all trying to produce excellence its just our philosophies on what excellence is and how to get there differ. But its funny usually you approach other companies who are looking at your product and offer to help and they either melt back into the show hub-bub or you have an interesting conversation. This time the situation was a little different…..
…..After dealing with that I really needed a sit down and a drink to recover but there were still several hours left until end of the show. So more coffee – always relaxing for the nerves - more Apfelsan and wasser had to suffice. Show hit a quiet patch, a precursor of the deadly Public Saturday where the only people you talk to are other bored Exhibitors who haven’t been lucky enough to leave for home already because they have to strike the stand. On that note various members of Team Turbo started to disappear, with the usual discussions about flight delays, sharing cabs and how they’d love to stay and help strike but……
They leave, we stay. And eventually, after a few last discussions about Flexarray, and some goodbyes to distributors who are heading home, its time to have a quick beer on the stand, a quick gossip then a vote. Back to the hotel to drop bags and have a shower or straight to the restaurant for food and wine. I call the restaurant who says they are busy until after 9pm but if we want to come now (6.45pm ish) and eat quickly they’ll squeeze us in. We decide to eat. We are ushered in and hurriedly order our food so not as to abuse our host’s largesse in fitting us in. We leave the restaurant close to midnight, obviously not having been thrown out at 8pm, after some good wine and gossiping about the days events. We also sort out a table for late on Saturday night to ensure we can get something to eat after the strike – wandering the streets of Frankfurt after 10pm hungry and tired, after striking a show, looking for food is not something you want to do too often. In such cases experience really pays dividends.
And to bed, perchance to sleep, perchance to dream…….
A very nice wine from the Italian restaurant in Frankfurt. Ruby red in colour, full bodied but smooth and with more than a hint of alcohol. In Wine Buff terms "The 2004 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (mostly Prugnolo Gentile with some Canaiolo and Mammolino) presents a richer, riper expression of black cherries, licorice and smoke, in a linear, understated style, with notable purity and outstanding balance. Although delicious today, it is also quite fresh and primary. Readers who enjoy a more developed wine will want to give this Vino Nobile another year or two of bottle age. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2016."-Wine Advocate Ideal for celebrating birthdays, big deals or just to dull the pain a little after a hard day at the tradeshow.
Wednesday 2 April 2008
Turbo Lime Array
A genuine leap forward in Fruit Based Loudspeaker technology. Designed in Frankfurt over a curry with Danny Cooklin. No need for the back of a Fag Packet here!
Wait until we get the Geo-Tangerine Array working
Wait until we get the Geo-Tangerine Array working
Techno corner & PSNE
Dave Robinson from PSNE playing nicely with the other kids in Technology Corner. That's a Flex Array Hi/Mid horn on the top there.
Technology Corner
Various Polyhorns and the new Dendritic Flare. We don't just bang metal & paper on the bit of old plastic - we try to be clever about it aswell.
Listening to Aspect Wide
"What is that strange noise between 100Hz & 500Hz?" "That's called defined low mid"
Maximum BASS!
TSW-218s as part of Aspect Wide Touring demo - pity the noise police reduced the limit right down for everyone. But great whilst it lasted!
Frankfurterblog Messe 2008
Ally working hard and resting her feet. Sorry I mean Marketing Department doing research!
Flex Array Press Launch 1
The feeding Frenzy picks the Turbo stand dry before disappearing to the next press launch
Frankenfurter Musik Messe 2008 Part 4
Thursday 13/03/08
Groundhog day. Wake up. Shave. Breakfast. Put suit on. Get Tram. Trek the long corridors to Hall 8.0 – its almost like I never left.
Once again Chris is straight into meetings. Mine start a little later so I’m once more talking to walk up customers.
Meanwhile the demo has had a new noise limit slapped on it because of off-site complaints yesterday. Our suspicions are that the line arrays are being carried by the gale force winds and dumped somewhere on the French border. Its either that or our bass is undermining the financial centre of the city! The new limit sucks – it is now LEQ of 95dB over 20mins, with a max SPL of 100dB. We might as well take most of the TA-500t system down. And guess what, despite this not being what we signed up, and paid for, there’s no recompense! Paul and Danny work on some new demo music that better suits the level limited system. Despite the signal lights on the amps and controllers barely coming on, those distributors and their customers who understand systems appreciate the quality and coverage of the system.
More talking about FlexArray, Dendritic and Polyhorns to the hordes of interested parties. Another “interview” with foreign press – this time for a Russian magazine. More distributor meetings plus informal meetings with distributors I’ve already had meetings with. More coffee, more Apfel San and more breadsticks.
In between talking to customers I sometimes catch the eye of an industry colleague and have chance for a quick catch up and gossip before being pulled back to the world of FlexArray. Amazing what you can find out on the floor of a tradeshow!
The day continues in much the same vein. Soon it is time for plans to be formulated about the PSNE Annual Pop Quiz later that evening. This is a traditional form of “entertainment” which involves large chunks of the British Pro Audio business, an Irish bar in Sachsenhausen, alcohol and obscure music trivia questions. It is a good release following the intensity of the past few days of the show. Its also a good chance to catch up with old friends from the industry.
Its now far too early in the morning, I’m trying to get bodies out of a Taxi at our hotel and get to bed. We came second in the Pop Quiz thanks to the combined efforts of myself, Chris and Guy Lewis from Audioforce. To celebrate a party of assorted industry types found a Cuban bar and some Mojitos, plus a bottle of the winnings – hence the bodies in the back of the cab.
Groundhog day. Wake up. Shave. Breakfast. Put suit on. Get Tram. Trek the long corridors to Hall 8.0 – its almost like I never left.
Once again Chris is straight into meetings. Mine start a little later so I’m once more talking to walk up customers.
Meanwhile the demo has had a new noise limit slapped on it because of off-site complaints yesterday. Our suspicions are that the line arrays are being carried by the gale force winds and dumped somewhere on the French border. Its either that or our bass is undermining the financial centre of the city! The new limit sucks – it is now LEQ of 95dB over 20mins, with a max SPL of 100dB. We might as well take most of the TA-500t system down. And guess what, despite this not being what we signed up, and paid for, there’s no recompense! Paul and Danny work on some new demo music that better suits the level limited system. Despite the signal lights on the amps and controllers barely coming on, those distributors and their customers who understand systems appreciate the quality and coverage of the system.
More talking about FlexArray, Dendritic and Polyhorns to the hordes of interested parties. Another “interview” with foreign press – this time for a Russian magazine. More distributor meetings plus informal meetings with distributors I’ve already had meetings with. More coffee, more Apfel San and more breadsticks.
In between talking to customers I sometimes catch the eye of an industry colleague and have chance for a quick catch up and gossip before being pulled back to the world of FlexArray. Amazing what you can find out on the floor of a tradeshow!
The day continues in much the same vein. Soon it is time for plans to be formulated about the PSNE Annual Pop Quiz later that evening. This is a traditional form of “entertainment” which involves large chunks of the British Pro Audio business, an Irish bar in Sachsenhausen, alcohol and obscure music trivia questions. It is a good release following the intensity of the past few days of the show. Its also a good chance to catch up with old friends from the industry.
Its now far too early in the morning, I’m trying to get bodies out of a Taxi at our hotel and get to bed. We came second in the Pop Quiz thanks to the combined efforts of myself, Chris and Guy Lewis from Audioforce. To celebrate a party of assorted industry types found a Cuban bar and some Mojitos, plus a bottle of the winnings – hence the bodies in the back of the cab.
Frankenblog Musik Messe 08 (pt3)
Wednesday 12/03/08
Up early, shower and shave down for breakfast with my similarly bleary eyed colleagues. Then back to my room to change into my new grey Paul Smith suit, clean my teeth and pick up my bag for the day’s meetings. Out to the tram and this time there isn’t exactly a queue but the tram is full (we are the first stop) of people all obviously working at the Messe – bedecked in a variety of suits, uniforms and company logo bedecked jackets and shirts.
On stand for around 8.30am, just time to get everything in place before the onslaught as the show opens at 9am. Out stand is close to the main doors in Hall 8.0 so its not long before we are very busy with people on the stand. Almost immediately I see Kiyoshi and Yasuhiro from our Japanese distributor which gets me paranoid that I’ve messed up my meeting schedule. Luckily they tell me they are just checking in and using our stand as a point of reference. Phew! Didn’t want my meetings to get out of synch already within the first hour of the show. Luckily I’m not Chris, who has distributor meetings back to back for the first 3 days – guess that’s the advantage of dealing with Asia, it’s a long way away. However, as Paul is out with the demo system, it does leave me on point dealing with majority of enquiries especially about the much vaunted FlexArray.
“So this is your new line Array?”
“Well, it’s actually a very flexible system that can be used either as a single or clustered point source as well as in Line Source Mode for both smaller and larger shows”
“So it’s a Line Array”
“It’s both a point source and a line source”
Then taking them through the details and specification, trying to convince them that its not just another line array, its much more than that.
“So you’ve finally built a Line Array then?”
“No, not finally. We have built line arrays and many other products before that never see the light of day in public. Unless they have the right feature and more importantly the Turbo “sound” we don’t release them. FlexArray acts as a Line Source but more importantly it sounds like Turbosound box. It has the innovation in both driver and wave-guide design you’d expect from Turbosound. It also has Low Mid”
And so on and so on until 11am and the press call. Suddenly there is a big crowd of 50+ people crowded around the stand reception area, effectively blocking the aisle. I realise who they all are, the poor unfortunates who have to spend the first 2 or 3 days of the show running from one press call in Hall 4 to their next in Hall 8 then back again.
Simon, our MD, welcomes them all then hands over to Dom Harter from R&D to explain a little more about some of the technological advances of the products we are launching– as well as Flex there is the Impact family of compact plastic install speakers with a funky new look and clever integrated bracket, and a new self-powered version of the TSW-218 horn-loaded bin that now makes a great partner to any system especially the TA-500DP & TA-500tDP – onto an unsuspecting Frankfurt. Obviously most interest is in FlexArray. Speeches over some of the press sprint off to the next product launch but many from the more Pro-Audio orientated press cluster in little groups around various bits of the stand, especially near the Flex display.
As feeding frenzy dies down I get drawn into conversation and explanation with various interested journalists and photographers. I do a piece to Flash Mic (clever bit of kit, that) unprompted for Audio Media’s Messe Podcast. Then a detailed explanation of the theory around FlexArray as well as both dendritic and polyhorn concepts, followed by some photos for the French Magazine, Sono. And finally a discussion and more photos for a Spanish Website, Dr ProAudio.com.
After all that its back to meetings with some of my Middle Eastern and Asian distributors, which is after dealing with the press a bit of a relief. The meetings have a kind of pattern. Firstly the greetings and pleasantries about their journey and families, then a walk through of the new product paying particular interest to the FlexArray to ensure that they take away enough information to deal with the “So you’ve got a line now” type question. Then pricing, purchasing, and onto upcoming developments and changes at Turbosound or at their company. Then we examine any issues that they may have concerning our business together, or particular projects and shake hands and say good bye. Most then disappear off to their next meeting but they all will be back to look at the new product again, have a further chat and to ask further question. They quite often bring back some of their own contacts or customers with them, so we inevitably go through FlexArray again for their benefit.
When there’s no meeting I try to get five minutes to myself, but that never seems to work. There’s always someone that wants some information, or that has a question. The show lasts from 9am until 6pm and as the magic hour approaches my voice is going and my feet ache. Today my diet has consisted of coffee, Apfel San and breadsticks. Still it could have been worse - outside the weather has been terrible and I’m not doing the demos!
A post show beer on the stand with our German distributors, and a generally good feeling about the first day of the show. The new product has been received well and we have already taken some decent sized orders for FlexArray from right across the planet.
Then a treat, cabs back to the hotel, a quick debriefing drink in the hotel bar and we’re off to dinner. This time in an Indian restaurant we always swear we’ll never go back to but always seem to end up in there having ordered too much of its salty food. We do invent a new product in the restaurant. Its called a Lime Array. Then the tram, the hotel and bed.
Up early, shower and shave down for breakfast with my similarly bleary eyed colleagues. Then back to my room to change into my new grey Paul Smith suit, clean my teeth and pick up my bag for the day’s meetings. Out to the tram and this time there isn’t exactly a queue but the tram is full (we are the first stop) of people all obviously working at the Messe – bedecked in a variety of suits, uniforms and company logo bedecked jackets and shirts.
On stand for around 8.30am, just time to get everything in place before the onslaught as the show opens at 9am. Out stand is close to the main doors in Hall 8.0 so its not long before we are very busy with people on the stand. Almost immediately I see Kiyoshi and Yasuhiro from our Japanese distributor which gets me paranoid that I’ve messed up my meeting schedule. Luckily they tell me they are just checking in and using our stand as a point of reference. Phew! Didn’t want my meetings to get out of synch already within the first hour of the show. Luckily I’m not Chris, who has distributor meetings back to back for the first 3 days – guess that’s the advantage of dealing with Asia, it’s a long way away. However, as Paul is out with the demo system, it does leave me on point dealing with majority of enquiries especially about the much vaunted FlexArray.
“So this is your new line Array?”
“Well, it’s actually a very flexible system that can be used either as a single or clustered point source as well as in Line Source Mode for both smaller and larger shows”
“So it’s a Line Array”
“It’s both a point source and a line source”
Then taking them through the details and specification, trying to convince them that its not just another line array, its much more than that.
“So you’ve finally built a Line Array then?”
“No, not finally. We have built line arrays and many other products before that never see the light of day in public. Unless they have the right feature and more importantly the Turbo “sound” we don’t release them. FlexArray acts as a Line Source but more importantly it sounds like Turbosound box. It has the innovation in both driver and wave-guide design you’d expect from Turbosound. It also has Low Mid”
And so on and so on until 11am and the press call. Suddenly there is a big crowd of 50+ people crowded around the stand reception area, effectively blocking the aisle. I realise who they all are, the poor unfortunates who have to spend the first 2 or 3 days of the show running from one press call in Hall 4 to their next in Hall 8 then back again.
Simon, our MD, welcomes them all then hands over to Dom Harter from R&D to explain a little more about some of the technological advances of the products we are launching– as well as Flex there is the Impact family of compact plastic install speakers with a funky new look and clever integrated bracket, and a new self-powered version of the TSW-218 horn-loaded bin that now makes a great partner to any system especially the TA-500DP & TA-500tDP – onto an unsuspecting Frankfurt. Obviously most interest is in FlexArray. Speeches over some of the press sprint off to the next product launch but many from the more Pro-Audio orientated press cluster in little groups around various bits of the stand, especially near the Flex display.
As feeding frenzy dies down I get drawn into conversation and explanation with various interested journalists and photographers. I do a piece to Flash Mic (clever bit of kit, that) unprompted for Audio Media’s Messe Podcast. Then a detailed explanation of the theory around FlexArray as well as both dendritic and polyhorn concepts, followed by some photos for the French Magazine, Sono. And finally a discussion and more photos for a Spanish Website, Dr ProAudio.com.
After all that its back to meetings with some of my Middle Eastern and Asian distributors, which is after dealing with the press a bit of a relief. The meetings have a kind of pattern. Firstly the greetings and pleasantries about their journey and families, then a walk through of the new product paying particular interest to the FlexArray to ensure that they take away enough information to deal with the “So you’ve got a line now” type question. Then pricing, purchasing, and onto upcoming developments and changes at Turbosound or at their company. Then we examine any issues that they may have concerning our business together, or particular projects and shake hands and say good bye. Most then disappear off to their next meeting but they all will be back to look at the new product again, have a further chat and to ask further question. They quite often bring back some of their own contacts or customers with them, so we inevitably go through FlexArray again for their benefit.
When there’s no meeting I try to get five minutes to myself, but that never seems to work. There’s always someone that wants some information, or that has a question. The show lasts from 9am until 6pm and as the magic hour approaches my voice is going and my feet ache. Today my diet has consisted of coffee, Apfel San and breadsticks. Still it could have been worse - outside the weather has been terrible and I’m not doing the demos!
A post show beer on the stand with our German distributors, and a generally good feeling about the first day of the show. The new product has been received well and we have already taken some decent sized orders for FlexArray from right across the planet.
Then a treat, cabs back to the hotel, a quick debriefing drink in the hotel bar and we’re off to dinner. This time in an Indian restaurant we always swear we’ll never go back to but always seem to end up in there having ordered too much of its salty food. We do invent a new product in the restaurant. Its called a Lime Array. Then the tram, the hotel and bed.
Frankenfurter Musik Messe 08 (pt2)
Tuesday 11/03/08
Up too early after a bad nights sleep, could have been the hassle from yesterday, could have been the sauna of a room or the pillow made out of concrete, but its not even the first day of Frankfurt and I feel dog tired already. Still breakfast makes a slight difference as does the on-time, queue free tram ride – even if we’re still not sure what ticket we’re supposed to have bought!
Today is finishing off the stand and setting up the TA-500t demo system outside. It is squally outside – sometimes sunny and dry, sometimes raining heavily but always very windy and cold. Given the size of everyone else’s PA (all Line Array Hangs) we decide to give them a chance and only fly four TA-500t per side. Then with a little bit of rearranging everyone else’s subs we get our TSW-218s stacked and wired up. All this is achieved in a relatively short period with the help of the ever cheerful Carsten Eichstädtof BLL-Veranstaltungstechnik (a German Aspect Rental company owner) Then we had to we had to wait for our slot for sound check so we could check the system through and tune it for the conditions.
Sound check threw up the odd “high impedance, high oxygen mix connections” – ie unconnected cables. These were probably explained by the conditions and the fact that the stage is full of cables for another seven PA systems as well as ours. Connections connected, using Danny’s years of experience the system was tweaked to ensure the subs were time-aligned to the speaker hangs and the band gains adjusted to achieve the perfect balance from each component set.
By now there are some happy and worried looking people around the PA Forum area. We are the happy looking people! Carsten is particularly please when we play a renowned German Techno track, which gives the TSW-218s something to work with. Pity we are limited in the Demonstrations to 99dB LEQ over each of our 20min slots.
Back to the stand to ensure that everything is packed away, all the product is set-up and labelled correctly, literature is out in the appropriate location and we are ready for the massed hoards in the morning. I am particularly proud of my flowing arrangement of NuQ product around what we’re calling “technology corner” – which is full of technology (Aspect Polyhorns and one of the new Dendritic horns from FlexArray) but is a display cabinet rather than a corner.
More delays have held up yet more members of the Turbo crew but eventually most of them make it to the stand to find most of the work already done – suspicions about how bad the delays really were remain.
Back to the hotel then back to our Italian restaurant where we get to discuss everyones travel disasters and the plan for the next few days. As ever when you put more than one member of Turbosound in the same room there are plenty of opinions on display at the table. We also get to watch Liverpool beat Milan at the San Siro in the Champions League – this makes our host, Leonardo happy as his team AS Roma were already through and become the only Italian team left in the competition. His partner Antonio, a Juve fan, feigns disinterest in the whole affair.
Still cold and windy, tram back to the hotel and another bad nights sleep.
Up too early after a bad nights sleep, could have been the hassle from yesterday, could have been the sauna of a room or the pillow made out of concrete, but its not even the first day of Frankfurt and I feel dog tired already. Still breakfast makes a slight difference as does the on-time, queue free tram ride – even if we’re still not sure what ticket we’re supposed to have bought!
Today is finishing off the stand and setting up the TA-500t demo system outside. It is squally outside – sometimes sunny and dry, sometimes raining heavily but always very windy and cold. Given the size of everyone else’s PA (all Line Array Hangs) we decide to give them a chance and only fly four TA-500t per side. Then with a little bit of rearranging everyone else’s subs we get our TSW-218s stacked and wired up. All this is achieved in a relatively short period with the help of the ever cheerful Carsten Eichstädtof BLL-Veranstaltungstechnik (a German Aspect Rental company owner) Then we had to we had to wait for our slot for sound check so we could check the system through and tune it for the conditions.
Sound check threw up the odd “high impedance, high oxygen mix connections” – ie unconnected cables. These were probably explained by the conditions and the fact that the stage is full of cables for another seven PA systems as well as ours. Connections connected, using Danny’s years of experience the system was tweaked to ensure the subs were time-aligned to the speaker hangs and the band gains adjusted to achieve the perfect balance from each component set.
By now there are some happy and worried looking people around the PA Forum area. We are the happy looking people! Carsten is particularly please when we play a renowned German Techno track, which gives the TSW-218s something to work with. Pity we are limited in the Demonstrations to 99dB LEQ over each of our 20min slots.
Back to the stand to ensure that everything is packed away, all the product is set-up and labelled correctly, literature is out in the appropriate location and we are ready for the massed hoards in the morning. I am particularly proud of my flowing arrangement of NuQ product around what we’re calling “technology corner” – which is full of technology (Aspect Polyhorns and one of the new Dendritic horns from FlexArray) but is a display cabinet rather than a corner.
More delays have held up yet more members of the Turbo crew but eventually most of them make it to the stand to find most of the work already done – suspicions about how bad the delays really were remain.
Back to the hotel then back to our Italian restaurant where we get to discuss everyones travel disasters and the plan for the next few days. As ever when you put more than one member of Turbosound in the same room there are plenty of opinions on display at the table. We also get to watch Liverpool beat Milan at the San Siro in the Champions League – this makes our host, Leonardo happy as his team AS Roma were already through and become the only Italian team left in the competition. His partner Antonio, a Juve fan, feigns disinterest in the whole affair.
Still cold and windy, tram back to the hotel and another bad nights sleep.
Frankenblog Musik Messe 2008 (pt1)
Monday 10/03/08
Wake up to one of the biggest storms that has hit UK in past few years. Winds gusting to 80mph combine with Spring Tides and torrential rain to batter the west coast of the country. Get a lift to meet Chris Hinds, European Market Manager, to travel to City Airport for the flight to Frankfurt for a 7.30am check in. City is a small airport in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, all planes are small but so are the queues in theory.
Approach City Airport to see a small private jet trying to land in very strong gusting winds – looks like we might be in for a bumpy ride. Get to terminal building to find chaos. People everyone on mobile phones trying to find out what is going up. Boards have “Indefinite Delay” displayed next to every flight. We ask at our airline desk what this means, they change it to “Cancelled”. Then we queue up for 40mins to get transferred to another flight. In the meantime both Chris and I contac the airline to try to rearrange our lives – I am told confidently by a call centre worker that the Plane I have just been thrown off is not cancelled. When I cast doubt on this answer the answer comes back “ I have checked on the internet and that plane is leaving on time” – so there you see the power of the internet, it has created a completely separate reality!
Find out we are on a mid morning flight from Heathrow (so much for avoiding the queues!) and are put in a cab across the city. I mention that its Chris’ birthday and we get the black cab to ourselves. Chris get’s an impromptu present of a tour of the sight of London (Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Trafalgar Sq, Buckingham Palace, the M4 etc)
Arrive Heathrow Terminal 2 to find out that the chaos of city airport is repeated here on a much grander scale. Find out Martin Reid, our Marketing Director, is on the same flight as us now. We join queue and when we find out that there are no planes join another queue. When asked why by a young woman we reply “this queue looks shorter and we’ve nothing better to do” – she queue happily behind us. We get to front of the queue to find we need to queue elsewhere. Now its around 11.00am and the flight we were supposed to be catching hasn’t even left Frankfurt yet. Martin appears to have got on the first plane out of Heathrow and will be the first Turbosound rep in Frankfurt. Will be the only one? Another colleague, Paul McMullen (UK Market Manager), sounds to be in an even worse position, in a different terminal with another airline. So far Frankfurt is looking like a bit of a disaster. We bump into some industry colleagues from other pro-audio companies so we don’t feel quite so bad about it all.
Eventually we get checked in, eventually we get through security, eventually we get a seat for something to eat only to be called to the gate. There we sit for another 30 mins before boarding the plane so we can sit there whilst another storm passes overhead. Plane finally leaves around 3pm, and after a somewhat bumpy flight we land in Frankfurt trudge through the world’s most confusing terminal to wait for our bags and get a cab to hotel to check in and drop off our bags. Then we find we can get the tram from hotel to Messe – there is no queue and no delay!
Arrive in Halle 8.0 and find our stand. Its now 6.30pm and we’re about 7 hours late. Still stand is looking pretty good – the Aspect cluster and the new FlexArray hang are both flown. We put in a couple of hours unpacking, positioning and labelling products, then head to our favourite Italian restaurant for something to eat, and a decent bottle of Vino Rosso to celebrate Chris’ Birthday. Paul finally arrives at the hotel after midnight over 10 hours late bizarrely with one of our R&D engineers, Danny Cooklin, who was supposed to be flying from Southampton.
Wake up to one of the biggest storms that has hit UK in past few years. Winds gusting to 80mph combine with Spring Tides and torrential rain to batter the west coast of the country. Get a lift to meet Chris Hinds, European Market Manager, to travel to City Airport for the flight to Frankfurt for a 7.30am check in. City is a small airport in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf, all planes are small but so are the queues in theory.
Approach City Airport to see a small private jet trying to land in very strong gusting winds – looks like we might be in for a bumpy ride. Get to terminal building to find chaos. People everyone on mobile phones trying to find out what is going up. Boards have “Indefinite Delay” displayed next to every flight. We ask at our airline desk what this means, they change it to “Cancelled”. Then we queue up for 40mins to get transferred to another flight. In the meantime both Chris and I contac the airline to try to rearrange our lives – I am told confidently by a call centre worker that the Plane I have just been thrown off is not cancelled. When I cast doubt on this answer the answer comes back “ I have checked on the internet and that plane is leaving on time” – so there you see the power of the internet, it has created a completely separate reality!
Find out we are on a mid morning flight from Heathrow (so much for avoiding the queues!) and are put in a cab across the city. I mention that its Chris’ birthday and we get the black cab to ourselves. Chris get’s an impromptu present of a tour of the sight of London (Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Trafalgar Sq, Buckingham Palace, the M4 etc)
Arrive Heathrow Terminal 2 to find out that the chaos of city airport is repeated here on a much grander scale. Find out Martin Reid, our Marketing Director, is on the same flight as us now. We join queue and when we find out that there are no planes join another queue. When asked why by a young woman we reply “this queue looks shorter and we’ve nothing better to do” – she queue happily behind us. We get to front of the queue to find we need to queue elsewhere. Now its around 11.00am and the flight we were supposed to be catching hasn’t even left Frankfurt yet. Martin appears to have got on the first plane out of Heathrow and will be the first Turbosound rep in Frankfurt. Will be the only one? Another colleague, Paul McMullen (UK Market Manager), sounds to be in an even worse position, in a different terminal with another airline. So far Frankfurt is looking like a bit of a disaster. We bump into some industry colleagues from other pro-audio companies so we don’t feel quite so bad about it all.
Eventually we get checked in, eventually we get through security, eventually we get a seat for something to eat only to be called to the gate. There we sit for another 30 mins before boarding the plane so we can sit there whilst another storm passes overhead. Plane finally leaves around 3pm, and after a somewhat bumpy flight we land in Frankfurt trudge through the world’s most confusing terminal to wait for our bags and get a cab to hotel to check in and drop off our bags. Then we find we can get the tram from hotel to Messe – there is no queue and no delay!
Arrive in Halle 8.0 and find our stand. Its now 6.30pm and we’re about 7 hours late. Still stand is looking pretty good – the Aspect cluster and the new FlexArray hang are both flown. We put in a couple of hours unpacking, positioning and labelling products, then head to our favourite Italian restaurant for something to eat, and a decent bottle of Vino Rosso to celebrate Chris’ Birthday. Paul finally arrives at the hotel after midnight over 10 hours late bizarrely with one of our R&D engineers, Danny Cooklin, who was supposed to be flying from Southampton.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
