"What better way to find out about the T12 than to actually hear it in a live situation?" says Michael Herweg, MD of dBTechnologies German HQ, who was at the demonstration. "In my experience this is the only way to fully appreciate what the product has to offer."
Holland's Kerkrade football stadium was the backdrop for the Dutch event, where visitors were able to hear different configurations for a DVA system. Twenty-four T12 units were flown (12 per side) and after hearing these, tracks were played through the 36 T4 units (18 per side). Then the subwoofers were added to create a full system for each DVA model: four stacks each of three S30 boosted the T12s and the 12 x S10 flown centre stage, augmented the T4 system.
"In order to demonstrate that T12 can be counted among 'industry standard' line arrays, we decided to set up a well known French competitor's system on the day," explains Herweg. "It's not a case of being better, we just want to prove T12 can hold its own when compared to a similar sized system." The two line arrays were flown alongside each other and a light was illuminated to show which system was being used at the time. Various tracks were played through each, swapping between the two systems for direct comparison.
On the same day, this time in an outdoor private accommodation space in Madrid, dBTechnologies, with the help of local company Sound Service, showed eight T12 either side, and two T12 with four T4 units in an array in the centre. Eight S30 subwoofers in clusters of two formed a subwoofer array on the ground beneath.
Juan-Miguel Ramonde of dBTechnologies explains, "Initially we played a few tracks using just the centre speakers - in mono. Then we added the two sets of eight T12, at this point still without subs. Finally we played some tracks using complete system, and I'm happy to say the customers were amazed all the way through."
"Both events were a great success," concludes Herweg. "We hope events like these will help people see that dBTechnologies really is getting serious about line array."
(Jim Evans)
