turbotyke - Blue at Heart

Wickerman Festival

2008-07-31T07:55:00.014+01:00

Ah The Wickerman.

An ancient pagan symbol of fertility and rebirth (ok I am winging this bit) and used to such great effect in the 1973 Brit flick of the same name. Edward Woodward's naieve police officer, Sergeant Howie, is lured to a mythical island off the west coast of Ireland, Summer Isle, which is run by Christopher Lee's pagan peer, Lord Summerisle, to investigate a missing child case but get caught up in strange rituals. Anyway it is a fantastic film so watch it but please don't get it confused with the limp US remake starrring Nicholas Cage. Anyway at the end of it all there is a 30ft high Wickerman than is burnt.

This is the centre piece of Scotland's own leftfield and hip boutique Wickerman Festival which takes place atop a cliff in South-West Scotland (Galloway & Dumfries,if you are interested) . The festival has carved out a nice little niche for itself in its relatively short history. And it has long looked to Viking Audio and their Turbosound Floodlight system to provide an audio system capable of dealing with the ecletic mix of rock, folk and world music acts the festival is known for. BUT this year things were a little different, Viking opted to use Flex Array for the Summerisle main stage freeing up the Floodlight for duties on other stages around the site.

The main stage caters for around 8,000 people and this year highlights included acts such as The Dub Pistols, Dodgy, Gary Numan (yes, that Gary "Cars, Friends Electric" Numan), Alabama 3, (title theme to The Sopranos), KT Tunstall, The Cuban Bros and the legendary Fall led by the infamous Mancunian Mouth, Mark E Smith.

Set up ran nice and easy in beautiful summer sunshine and blue skies - apparently they get that up there in Scotland - though usually all I've got from hiking the Munroes is trenchfoot and midge bites. Turbosound's Paul McMullen was on hand to enjoy the sunshine and help rig the PA - an easy job as you can see.

The main stage system compromised of 8x TFA-600H and 4x TSW-218 per side run from an amp rack comprising of 2x T-25 & 3x T-45 and controlled by LMS-D26s. It ended up looking a little like this

The system was turned on, tweaked and the field was walked. Lots of smiling faces and, as the further sections were reached, heads shaking in disbelief at the performance, throw and clarity of such a small system.

Anyway then with the opening of the festival the proper Scottish summer weather arrived to add some atmosphere in the form of a Haar (or summer sea mist) as can be seen below. But then what is a festival in these great British Islands without precipitation in one form or another? Apparently the system held together well despite the changes in humidity and temperature over the two days and the occaisional strong on shore breeze.

ANORAKS AT THE READY? LETS PARTY!!!!!

In the end the skies might not have been clear but the PA sure was!

And Steve at Viking is looking forward to getting to grips with Flex when dealing with his diverse range of work over the coming months.

And the last word, or image, goes to the Viking Truck...

FB-600 Flybar Demo 1

2008-06-19T12:40:00.003+01:00

DEMO OF ADJUSTABLE PICK-UP POINT ON FLEX ARRAY FB-600FLYBAR

Have a look at the FB-600's unique feature - the ability to move the pick-up point's CoG under load. Here Turbo's own Paul McMullan demonstrating this feature with 3x TFA-600H and a cordless drill. You can do this manually with a socket set and upto a weight of some 700Kg or well over 12x TFA-660Hs. Full details of the appropriate tools to follow soon, along with more practical Flex videos.

In the meantime sit back and stare in awe at the power of Paul's tool

PALM show Beijing 2008

2008-06-01T09:03:00.004+01:00

Ah the wonders of the new Great Fire Wall of China, which lets me post but not view or edit this blog. I'll have to edit and finish this entry off when I fly back down to HKG and back to the UK. Man that's irritating must be the subversive and corrupting nature of its contents......

Ah well, sorry for the inconvenience. Normal(ish) service to be resumed soon.....

PALM Show Beijing May 2008

2008-06-01T08:56:00.012+01:00

Phoenix Stand 3
Originally uploaded by furryface

Ah Beijing - city of brown skies, traffic jams and crazy driving. The Olympic city, centre of the new Chinese Empire. And home to one of the world's craziest trade shows. Its so loud in some halls you can barely think let alone speak - and this goes on from 9AM to 6PM. Turbosound with our Distributor Phoenix, is in a relatively quiet (and that is very much a relative term) Hall two where it is also quite cool and has high ceilings. Other halls are hotter and much more claustrophobic and this is only made worse by the fact they are full of local manufacturers with dodgy "tribute" products all on at full volume.

Noticeable absentees this year include ACE (the Harman Family package), Funktion One, Martin Audio, Coemar Lighting to mention a few. Some are boycotting because of the organisers lax attitude to IP infringement, some are spending the money in other ways and some, well nobody seems to know.

Whether its the Olympics or the effects of the recent earthquake the show feels a little different this year. Whilst still a very busy show there is an obvious reduction in foot traffic. Luckily it seems that the absentees are mainly timewasters and tyre-kickers, because there is a constant stream of serious enquiries about Turbosound for the Phoenix crew to deal with. There are new dealers and contractors to meet and greet. Established customers and old friends to talk to. But the oddness even extends to the nearby SAS Radisson hotel where many of the gwailo (westerners) exhibitors stay and is used by most of them as a place of refuge for quiet meetings, discrete conversations and escape from the crush and noise of the show. After the show the lobby bar is normally invisible under the weight of exhibitors having a drink, having tete-a-tetes, and planning the rest of the evening. But this year, whilst still busy, it was possible to get a seat and the upstairs cafe was practically empty. Even getting taxis, usually a thankless task was merely frustrating rather than seemingly pointless.
Impact makes one on two punters
But nevertheless a very, very postive show for the boys in blue. ots of interest in the new products such as Impact and FlexArray (which unfortunately couldn't put in an appearence due to a mix-up with some paperwork and the tightening of customs due to the Olympics), with serious rental company interest in Aspect, club owners interest in TA-500 and NuQ series (obviously this got demonstrated quite frequently along with a TSW-218 - and we were one of the quiet ones, plus lots of enquiries for TXD & TCS Compact from the KTV sector.

Examining the back of a TA-890H Sucked in by Polyhorn Technology

Aswell as the Chinese market the show attracts a large foreign contingent of visitors drawn by the ability to buy just about anything made for the Audio, LX and AV business at a knock down price and badged with their name. Particularly popular at the moment seems LED walls. Anyway the upshot of this being that existing overseas customers were seen as well as potential new distributors and customers. As well as Northern Asia (Korea & Japan) I saw customers from SE Asia, the Indian Sub-Continent and Australia. There were also plenty of Russians around.......

Left - A happy Melburnian Aspect customer impersonates
an Egyptian Tea Pot

Above - Lone Gwailo in the crowd - The usually
inseperable Mondo boys get split up...

Technology Corner Frames business talks

Looking out from the stand in vain for daylight

FLEX ARRAY DAY!

2008-05-25T11:59:00.021+01:00

Flex Array Day – North Weald Airfield 21-05-08

There are few places better than the English countryside on a summers day with a blue sky, lush green trees and grass, a group of friends and the sound of a really big sound system overwhelming the gentle thwock of willow on leather (that’s the traditional way of describing a cricket ball being hit by a cricket bat) . And last Wednesday Turbosound, having finally found an outside location where we could make noise without too many issues, took a Flex Array system upto North Weald airfield just to the north of London to show to some interested parties from both Europe and the UK.

North Weald is an old Second World War fighter airbase, famous for its pivotal role in the Battle of Britain. Now as a modern civil airfield, it is home to numerous light planes but also to various historic and interesting aircraft as well. For more info have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Weald_Airfield Anyway from our point of view it is ideal, close to major London airports, easy to get to, in a sparsely populated area with a motorway down one side meaning we can actually run a system up and show people what it is capable of. We were located by Hangar 39 (thanks Dave!) which gave us access to power, cover and hard-standing. In the image you can see the M11 to the left of the picture just some 200-300m away. The white line across the ground is for scale and is approximately 70m indicating the distance from the clusters to the perimeter road.

On to the set-up. The system was 6x TFA-600H per side flown from self supporting aluminium truss towers with 0.5 tonne motors. We ground stacked 4x TSW-218 subwoofers per side. Each side was run four-way from one amp rack with 2x T-25 and 3x T-45s and LMS-D26 digital controllers run with Turbodrive PC control.

The TFA-600H were running fully active (Tri-amp) with a T25 on HF, a T25 on HMF and a T45 on the LMF 10"s. Each TSW-218 was run by one channel of a T45.

The Hang weight is 246Kg plus the weight of the FB-600 (about 25Kg). the hangs were positioned some 10-12m apart.

Both Hangs and control rack in the centre.

Images of the TFA-600H hangs, showing the integrated hardware and the single point pick-up FB-600 flybar – Using the towers and 0.5 tonne motors that were used upto 11 TFA-600H could have been safely and easily flown

Rear views of the speaker hang, showing the back panel and basic guide to setting rear angles using the central “spine” system. See close up of the setting guide

More to Follow

My thanks to JP from LMC, Martin Reid and myself for the photos used - sorry but I can't be bothered to remember exactly who took what!

Pigeon Detectives - Cambridge Corn Exchange

2008-05-24T21:51:00.003+01:00

Aspect SL Stack - Cambridge Corn Exchange

Here you can see some of the most abused wedges currently out on the road in the UK. I didn't take any pictures of the grilles yet but will at the end of the tour so you can see what I mean.

Also we can see one column of the ground stacked FoH PA. The bottom three cabinets are TA-890L (2x 15") and the top two cabs TA-890H Mid/highs. The tour also uses a pair of TQ0445Dp for front fill, this being hidden by the Aspect in this shot. The more keen eyed of you may notice that the TA-890 cabs are a traditional shade of Turboblue - very fetching. And they sound better because of it you know!

I will do a more in-depth entry on this tour when I get back from China, based on one of the shows at the Brixton Academy. I hope to also include a small interview with the FoH engineer

Aspect does the Detective Work!

2008-05-24T21:46:00.004+01:00

Cambridge Corn Exchange - May 2008 Pigeon Detectives

Whilst everyone is getting very excited about Flex Array, its worth remembering that its much bigger brother Aspect is still out there doing the business night after night. Today I popped along to the set-up of an 5-way Aspect gig in the Corn Exchange in Cambridge UK. The Band are the Pigeon Detectives - a northern hi-energy indie rock 5 piece renowned for the dynamism of the lead singer and his unerring talent for jumping on wedges - the grilles are a shocking state.

For more info on the band look at their website http://www.thepigeondetectives.com/ or search for them on myspace.

The rental company is We Audio and in this picture you see 8x TA-890H per side (4 stacked and 4 flown) with 6x TA-890L and 4 TSW-218s driven from Turbo T-series amps and XTA controller. Andy, the bands FoH engineer, used Aspect a few times last summer on the festival circuit and realised straight way that Aspect was the ideal system to capture the racing energy and dynamism of this Leeds based 5 piece. He is really happy with the results he is getting every night with the system in a range of 1800-4500 capacity venues.

Monitors are much abused TFM-450s (with TQ-425s subs for Drum Fill) plus TQ445DP/TQ-425DP sidefills run via a Midas Heritage H3K

BTW the photo was taken with my phone so apologies for slightly fuzzy analogue feel to it.

AND just to underline the hardworking nature of the Aspect series go to http://www.turbosound.com/newsroom/forum/index.html for details about another one of the UK's key touring venues, the Kentish Town Forum (for you older punters out there you may remember it as the Town & Country Club) and its new Aspect system. For more details on the Forum check out its website or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Forum

Flex Array on Production Line 1

2008-05-10T12:27:00.001+01:00

Flex Array on Production Line 1
Originally uploaded by furryface

Lots of lovely Flex Cabs ready to go and rock the world!

Flex Array on Production Line 2

2008-05-10T12:26:00.001+01:00

Flex Array on Production Line 2
Originally uploaded by furryface

We describe part of the factory at Turbosound as the Fitting Floor - here you can see why! The First production TFA-600Hs nearing completion and ready for testing

FlexArray hits Manchester (part 2)

2008-05-10T12:10:00.002+01:00

After the gig at the Manchester Academy, the local rental company used the system twice more over the holiday weekend. Both times as a point source due to lack of flying points and positioning restrictions. On Bank Holiday Monday it was used at an outdoor gig to promote the launch of a "classic rock" radio station in the city - 106.1FM Rock Radio (imaginative name there!). The gig was held in the Catherdral Gardens and featured named acts such as Bad Company and Gun as well as tribute bands such as Letz Zep and Mercury (can you guess which bands they cover?). It was a free event and the PA company was told there would be an audience of around 1500. They put up 4x TSW-218s per side then a row of 4x TA-600H with a further 2x TA-600H on top (in point source format) all ground stacked.

It was a lovely sunny Holiday Monday (a rare event in the UK) and the gig ended up with an audience of around 5000 happy rock fans. Despite a few nervous moments on behalf of the rental co, the system covered the larger crowd with plenty of level and worked flawlessly for the entire length of the show. Everyone was impressed with a) the flexibility and b) the power and finesse of th system.

Unfortunately we don't have any images from this gig just yet. Will put them up if they become available

Flex Array At Manchester Academy 03/05/08

2008-05-06T07:45:00.015+01:00

Arrive at Manchester Academy 1 on Oxford Rd just before 10am. Just driven 200 miles and need a coffee but it looks like its time to unload a truck - oh joy! All this is made even better by the fact last night (or is it this morning) I was up till about 2.30am having been to see a band down at the Scala (another Turbo Installation, TA-500s http://www.turbosound.com/newsroom/scala/index.html ) in Kings Cross with a freind who had flown in from Brazil just to see it. Further complicated by the Cachaca, Sugar and Limes packed in her luggage which made the best caipahrinas I've tasted for some time. But that was last night and 4 hours sleep seems scant reward. All this on a bank holiday weekend aswell!

Still my colleague Paul has just arrived with his mate Jeff, from one of our UK dealers, and gthere does seem to be a very efficient stage crew to offload the truck - so maybe things aren't so bad. We are working with a company called STS on this gig, they have a bit of previous with Turbosound having grown out of an earlier company called Phantom Power, and their mainstay system for many years being a Floodlight rig. One of their system tech's, Keith, also has quite a few connections with Turbo so it all makes for a nice freindly and efficient atmosphere.

Anyway once we've had chance to look at the room, seems they have spent a few quid on it since my last visit, we decide on a plan of action. The room is a bout 25m wide and roughly 35m deep with a 6m ceiling, rectangular with good draping but there is a new glass fronted balcony at the back for the VIP area. That might cause a few issues, so having been told no-one ever really uses it we decide to try to point the PA away from it.

So what have we got to use? Well we have 16x TFA-600H plus 8x TSW-218 along with 2x TA-500DP Aspect Wides for fills. We are running Turbo T-45 & T-25 amps and a networked system of LMS-D26 with a laptop at FoH for control and tweaking.

Once the points are in and the chain hoist, yes that's right chain hoist, is up plus the stage configured then we start to fly the PA. This proves to be a remarkably easy job. All the cabinets have come up individually (ie not pre rigged in cases) so its a simple matter of lying one cabinet down then putting the next on top, dropping the front links in, pinning them off and then dropping the rear angle arm and selecting the appropriate arm position. Repeat a further 5 times and cable up. Then we bring in the FB-600 flybar - a chunky-looking piece of kit that looks like a cross between an M-60 machine gun and a crossbow (see images below not from gig) - and attach the front pins then drop the rear arm to pick up the back of the cabinets and pin off

Then we decide on which will be the appropriate pick-up point on the bar top and attach the hoist hook. Taking the strain and winching away we take the array up to see how it hangs - pretty flat but we have few more cabs to add (only six on so far) and need to miss that balcony. Unfortunately we don't yet have the appropriate information on the Turbosound Predictive software - GIGMATE - which would ordinarily allow us to look at our options on the laptop and identify the weight of the array, appropriate pin positions and angles etc. Therefore a certain amount of trial & error was involved - but thankfully not much.

We added the extra two cabinets to the bottom of the array and then reposition the pick-point. This is where the full production feature of the FB-600 would have been a boon, in the fiull version you have a screw thread with handle that allows the pick-up point to be moved forwards or backwards under load, then pinned off. The pin not loadbearing but just secures the block in position.

Having found the correct angle then it was just the long, boring and tiring process of hauling the total array (approx 350Kg) up 4.5-5m in the air on a chain block. Times like that you really appreciate the old Lodestars and a pickle.

So if you have been following the process correctly, with the aid of a responsible adult, then you should end up with a very neat looking array. Repeating the process on the other side and ensuring the same settings are used on the complemenary cluster means you will have symetrical hangs, then it was just a matter of towing in the arrays to ensure maximum floor coverage and minimum wall reflections. So your clusters will look a little like the following ........

So now the PA clusters its time to add the subs and fill. We stack the TSW-218 left and right of stage two wide, two high and stick a TA-500DP on top by the stage for immediate stage front fill of the "mosh pit" - not that there's likely to be any moshing at an I Am Kloot gig. That's the band btw for more info check out http://www.iamkloot.com/ or this video from the Manchester Academy (but from an earlier gig I think) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=babgbInpYOI

Then just a matter of turning the system on, checking it through for any cabling or phase issues, then selecting the appropriate preset (yes there will be presets for the system for reasons that will be explained at a later date, to do with how a line source/array system works) and tweaking a little to deal with the room. As you can see from the picture below its very difficult to see the PA given the cabinets are black and there walls and drapes are all black aswell. Still very compact and discrete for all those corporate gigs etc. Certain amount of EQ, then we handed it over the 5 or 6 STS guys to have a quick play. Then Paul, boss man from STS (in left of this image), brings his copy of Thriller for his litmus test. All very happy once we sort out a small issue with a high impedance connection on the subs.

Lots of appreciative head nodding and positivity for the simplicity of the flying gear, the size of the cabinets, the weight of the cluster, the format and the audio quality. Then we're asked how much headroom is left in the system, "oooh, a good 10-12dB" we say. The faders push up and Paul's laptop at FoH starts to bounce across its perch. Eyeballs wobble but ears don't scream, and mouths all seem to smile.

So the system is up and running. We hand it over to the STS guys and IAK's FoH engineer and retreat to the local kebabshop for some lunch and a serious chat with Paul (STS).

More to follow.........

THURSDAY 24th APRIL - FLEX IN PEPSI CHALLENGE

2008-04-26T16:33:00.002+01:00

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

Future Festival Fashion

2008-04-25T11:18:00.001+01:00

Future Festival Fashion
Originally uploaded by furryface

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

2008-04-25T11:16:00.001+01:00

About 50 metres back on the Pepsi Challenge
Originally uploaded by furryface

Paul & Danny in the field in front of Turbo HQ listen to Flex

Pepsi Challenge - left or Right?

2008-04-25T11:15:00.001+01:00

Pepsi Challenge - left or Right?
Originally uploaded by furryface

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 ?

2008-04-25T11:13:00.001+01:00

Pepsi Challenge - Is that the Grim Reaper ?
Originally uploaded by furryface

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

2008-04-25T11:11:00.001+01:00

Pepsi Challenge - Not the parts, its the labour mate
Originally uploaded by furryface

Thursday 24th - Turbo HQ. FlexArray gets a work out against A N Other Mid sized Line Array

2008-04-04T16:56:00.002+01:00

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?

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…….

2008-04-04T13:55:00.002+01:00

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.

2008-04-04T13:52:00.001+01:00

Having set up the TA-500 demo system Danny & Chris ponder the imponderable. Obviously Chris is pondering much, much harder!

Turbo Lime Array

2008-04-02T13:54:00.001+01:00

Turbo Lime Array
Originally uploaded by furryface

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

Techno corner & PSNE

2008-04-02T13:23:00.001+01:00

Techno corner & PSNE
Originally uploaded by furryface

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.

Shootout City

2008-04-02T13:22:00.001+01:00

Shootout City
Originally uploaded by furryface

The Musik Messe Sound Forum with new improved (ie reduced)stupid noise limits

Nice Bracket.....

2008-04-02T13:21:00.003+01:00

Nice Bracket.....
Originally uploaded by furryface

....but is it wired out of phase?

Technology Corner

2008-04-02T13:21:00.001+01:00

Technology Corner
Originally uploaded by furryface

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.

Weird Looking Line Array

2008-04-02T13:20:00.003+01:00

Weird Looking Line Array
Originally uploaded by furryface

Becos its a point source, the Aspect Wide Tourer

Father to be - practising

2008-04-02T13:20:00.001+01:00

Father to be - practising
Originally uploaded by furryface

Dom needs to support the head more

Listening to Aspect Wide

2008-04-02T13:18:00.001+01:00

Listening to Aspect Wide
Originally uploaded by furryface

"What is that strange noise between 100Hz & 500Hz?" "That's called defined low mid"

Maximum BASS!

2008-04-02T13:17:00.001+01:00

Maximum BASS!
Originally uploaded by furryface

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!

Are you taking photos of me?

2008-04-02T12:43:00.001+01:00

Are you taking photos of me
Originally uploaded by furryface

Caught in the act of selling

Frankfurterblog Messe 2008

2008-04-02T12:41:00.001+01:00

Frankfurterblog Messe 2008
Originally uploaded by furryface

Ally working hard and resting her feet. Sorry I mean Marketing Department doing research!

Sweet!

2008-04-02T12:40:00.003+01:00

Sweet!
Originally uploaded by furryface

Me & Paul looking lovely, suited and booted and not for court!

Flex Array stacked

2008-04-02T12:40:00.001+01:00

Flex Array stacked
Originally uploaded by furryface

See its beautiful flexibility - Point source and Line Source in one cab

Flex Array Flown

2008-04-02T12:39:00.001+01:00

Frankfurterblog Messe 2008
Originally uploaded by furryface

As a line source

Flex Array Press Launch 1

2008-04-02T12:38:00.003+01:00

Press Launch 1
Originally uploaded by furryface

The feeding Frenzy picks the Turbo stand dry before disappearing to the next press launch

Flex Array Stacked

2008-04-02T12:38:00.001+01:00

Flex Array Stacked
Originally uploaded by furryface

Point Source format

The day after a night before

2008-04-02T12:35:00.003+01:00

The day after a night before
Originally uploaded by furryface

Suited and booted then rebooted and rebooted again

Deals to Be done

2008-04-02T12:35:00.001+01:00

Deals to Be done
Originally uploaded by furryface

Lots of trading, numerous countries, several continents, just one stand

So I shot him there

2008-04-02T12:31:00.001+01:00

So I shot him there
Originally uploaded by furryface

Chris tries the old hypno sales tactic - "You will order, you will order"

Turbostand 1

2008-04-02T12:29:00.001+01:00

Turbostand 1
Originally uploaded by furryface

The Turbosound stand at Frankfurt in all its glory - luckily before the doors opened

Frankenfurter Musik Messe 2008 Part 4

2008-04-02T09:55:00.000+01:00

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.

Frankenblog Musik Messe 08 (pt3)

2008-04-02T09:23:00.000+01:00

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.

Frankenfurter Musik Messe 08 (pt2)

2008-04-02T09:21:00.000+01:00

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.

Frankenblog Musik Messe 2008 (pt1)

2008-04-02T09:16:00.000+01:00

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.