Flare's owner and MD Davies Roberts encouraged project manager Arron Smith to approach 5 Star - initially on their booth at the PLASA exhibition in London in September - as he had memories of the name and reputation for quality dating back to when he worked on film sets with his father.
Smith and 5 Star's Keith Sykes chatted through some thoughts and options based on the need for an innovative casing system to house multiples of Flare's Triwave i10 loudspeakers. They wanted to be able to deploy these quickly and efficiently when flown as main left and right PA arrays once inside a venue.
The resulting case concept was originated by Flare, then adapted by 5 Star and evolved into a highly practical solution for the i10 touring system.
When they arrive at the venue, the cases are positioned below the flying points, the tops are removed along with the middle sections, which are folded in a neat concertina-style and stored. The bottoms are also taken off. The flying cradles are rigged and the first set of four speakers is flown, after which, the next stack of four can be attached below, etc., depending on the size and shape of the venue and the required PA configuration.
The cases can also double up as rapid ground stacked line sources. Simply by removing the lids and unfolding the case ... the ground stacked high-packs are left instantly ready to go.
5 Star's Keith Sykes says, "We really enjoy working with ahead-thinking companies like Flare, who have imagination, present new challenges and ideas, whilst offering the opportunity for great teamwork."
(Jim Evans)
