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Harman Pro UK at PLASA 2006
As usual, the Harman Pro UK group are showcasing the latest new products from their eight brands at the PLASA show. The kit on show ranges from affordable studio and live recording products to the cream of PA and venue sound-management systems, and includes the latest cutting-edge developments in loudspeaker design and digital mixing ergonomics. Highlights on the booth (F43/G43) this year include the new Soundcraft Vi6 live digital console, literally lighting up the stand in its first appearance at a UK show since it began shipping in July. The Vi6’s colourful user interface is derived from the Vistonics interface used on Studer’s high-end broadcast consoles, and with its large TFT touchscreens (featuring integral hardware controls), it can justifiably claim to be one of the most intuitive and easy-to-use digital interfaces ever designed, making simple use of colour to ensure that users never get the assignable, multi-function channel strips confused. A few minutes of experimenting with it should convince almost anybody — drop in and give it a try. Also on the stand are recent additions to Soundcraft’s analogue mixer ranges, with the four-buss GB2 covering the more affordable end of the live venue mixer market and the new EPM series replacing the E series as Soundcraft’s new compact entry-level multi-purpose mixers.
JBL have had an equally busy year — the former’s products include the new lightweight MRX500 PA system, the Venue Performance (VP) speakers (a range of six high-output self-powered models for live sound reinforcement applications) and new additions to the VRX900 series and LSR studio speaker range. Similarly, Crown are showing a spread of power amplification products, from the the new analogue six-channel 660A for commercial and industrial applications to the lightweight digital XTi range for portable use, and the recently introduced CDi (Contractor Digital) range of high-powered amps for installed sound applications. Signal-processing wizards dbx are also showing their new 96kHz DriveRack 4820 audio processor, which makes its UK show debut, and continues the ethos of the previous DriveRack 4800 of providing everything a venue needs between its mixer and its power amps, including advanced routing, filtering, feedback and dynamics processing, all under networkable control.
But the PLASA show isn’t all about gigantic sound installations; many of Harman Pro UK’s offerings this year are on a much more personal (and affordable) level, including more hardware reverbs that behave like software plug-ins and sub-£50 desktop recording interfaces from Lexicon, two new DJ mixers from reactivated classic brand Urei, and DJ headphones and a new mid-priced budget microphone from AKG Acoustics.
22nd August 2006
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