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Turbosound Helps Make-A-Wish’s Valentine Dreams Come True

The guests at this year’s Make-A-Wish Valentine’s Ball were jumping out of their seats as they rocked to the great sounds of We Will Rock You via a Turbosound loudspeaker system. This fabulous event was held at The Dorchester on Saturday February 16th, and consisted of a champagne reception, dinner and dancing with over £125,000 raised.

London-based Subfrantic Production Services provided the sound equipment for the night. “As the Make-A-Wish foundation is such a popular charity, there’s a long list of people wanting tickets for the balls,” says Subfrantic’s owner, Steve Davies. “So space in the ballroom at the Dorchester is at a premium and we have to do everything we can to ensure that the entire production takes up as small a footprint as possible. For this reason we used two TQ-425s with TQ-445s mounted on poles to cover the main bulk of the sound for the dance floor and the rest of the ballroom. Infills for the corner of the room and the Orangery were handled by TQ-310s. We also used TQ-310s as stage monitors and for the pre-dinner drinks in the Dorchester’s Gold Room.”

Turbosound LMS-D24s controlled the loudspeaker systems, with MC2 E25 and T4-250 amplifiers powering them.

The other criteria Davies had to consider when working out the configuration for the Make-A-Wish balls was to ensure the design was as flexible as possible to cater for the varied selection of cabaret acts, which this year consisted of the cast from We Will Rock You, Karen Hardy and her students dancing, opera singer Sean Ruane, Blake and drag act, The Globe Girls.

“All of these acts performed on the dance floor in front of the speakers, so we had to be particularly careful about feedback, especially from lavalier and head-worn radio microphones,” said Davies. “The cabinets performed perfectly, as always. We had tonnes of headroom and the coverage across the room was perfect.

“The event manager has finally agreed to let us fly the rig for the next ball in November. This is going to let us use a smaller truss for the lighting and plasma screens we put in, which should mean the charity can get another two tables into the room.”

Subfrantic’s relationship with Turbosound is explained by Davies: “Initially I was drawn to Turbosound back in the nineties, as they had by far the best sounding products of any manufacturer I’d worked with. We’ve been using their speakers since the early days of Floodlight and bought into Aspect last year which has shown itself to be a fantastically versatile system.

“Not only are their products exactly what we want, we also have a great relationship with the team at Turbosound, which shows itself not only as excellent customer support but also a fantastically sarcastic relationship with Paul McMullan,” continues Davies. “As they’re only 45 minutes from our warehouse, we find ourselves down there a few times every year listening to new or prototype cabinets, which means we feel more involved with the products than simply buying them and using them. For me, this is something I can’t get from any other manufacturer.

“Turbosound has always been an innovator with anything from the TurboMid devices and the Axe-Heads through to the Polyhorns that feature in the current top end kit. To me, that gives the products an edge: they lead the field rather than being one of the companies that follow other peoples’ trends.

“The speakers themselves are very easy to use once you understand the thought process that designed them, particularly as they are designed to sound good without the overbearing processing and equalisation that is so common in other systems.”

Subfrantic has been working with Make-A-Wish, which grants magical wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses, for the last three years. The organisation was founded in the UK in June 1986 and has since granted over 4,700 wishes. This year, the charity is celebrating 21 years of wish granting. Wishes made include being a princess or a policeman for a day, owning the latest computer equipment, meeting a favourite celebrity or just enjoying some special time away from home with their family.

Stuart Tucker, production manager for Make-A-Wish, commented: “I have had the pleasure to work closely with Steve and the guys from Subfrantic on many varied projects over the last 10 years, they take care and pride in their work and I would never use anyone else for my production elements.

“Another very good reason as to why I choose Subfrantic above the rest is down to its choice in PA equipment. In my opinion, Subfrantic’s reliance on Turbosound equipment means that you know that the system you are getting will be the best. On every event we do together, the majority of artists performing comment on how good the sound is. In fact, I never heard a negative comment.

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Turbosound Helps Make-A-Wish’s Valentine Dreams Come True

12th March 2008

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