Although Niavac - who have been in operation for over 50 years - have run AKG previously in their hire fleet, they canvassed the market to look for the most suitable options before readopting the brand.
"We were recommended to AKG by a third party," stated Conlon, "but we also looked at the offerings of the other market leaders. I did a complete trawl and then contacted distributors Sound Technology Ltd, placing an order for a 30 station system."
The old AKG system, he said, had served the company well for many years but was reaching the end of its useful life. "And since we are staging high end conferences and board meetings in areas such as education, healthcare and the private sector, we wanted to replace like for like, but with a superior solution."
The CS3 System is a modular and flexible conference system suitable for any venue - from corporate boardrooms to council chambers - and its components can be easily set up, and scaled to suit (for instance, one CS3 base unit can support 60 microphones which connect to all relevant devices like PA, recording, external audio sources and camera control systems). The CS3 microphone station comes with a robust interface connector, which makes it easy to interchange the mics, which come in two detachable versions.
Since Niavac are also a major system integrator in Northern Ireland, supplying microphones and portable racks regularly to the education segment, it was important they got the choice right. "We needed the new system quickly, and having had a demonstration of some of the other brands AKG won out on sheer quality, the reliability we had experienced with the brand before, its ease of operation, its competitive price and the fact that it would sit easily in our existing transit boxes.
"Also it looked very corporate friendly; with other systems we reviewed [operators] were confused by the button pressing protocols."
To emphasise his point, James Conlon stated that one of their key clients, the local Healthcare Trust "absolutely love it" - adding, "they will attach it to amps, speakers and hand held radio mics."
(Jim Evans)
