Headed by Surgesound MD, Andrew Rowan, and technical product manager, Ruan Joubert, the tour started in Bloemfontein and travelled through Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban before finishing in Johannesburg. Supporting the event from the manufacturer was Sound School Trainer and Powersoft sound engineer, Luigi Chelli.
The sessions were attended mainly by touring, production companies and consultants who were eager to see whether X Series lived up to its claim. Explaining their approach, Andrew Rowan said, "Although we used conference facilities in the major cities, a lot of our demonstrations were a custom set-up where we would provide clients a private demonstration at their premises with their relevant audio staff.
"The sessions consisted of technical content, demonstrations on the latest Powersoft X-Series technologies, and then comparisons with competitor models."
He reports that there had been particular interest in the versatility of the power supply units - the 3-phase options on the X-Series, and the DSP power. Buoyed by the success of this tour, and the positive response of the clients, Andrew Rowan now plans to establish this as an annual event.
"The tour was an incredible experience," he said, in summary. "Not only was X Series featured but also Powersoft K Series, M Series, and Ottocanali, were discussed and displayed.
"The opportunity to share the Powersoft technology with like-minded companies, made the tour extremely successful, and we look forward to the next one."
Soundtrade's Roadshow a big success in Poland
Meanwhile, the three-day X Series Roadshow set up by Powersoft's distributor SoundTrade, which visited the major cities of Poznan (Blue Note Jazz Club), Wroclaw (Club Firlej) and Warsaw (Bemowo Culture Centre) could not have been more positive.
The presentations were planned as a series of training sessions, during which participants (including sound engineers) would have the opportunity to learn about the latest technology embedded in X Series.
The tour was presented by Powersoft's product trainer/sound engineer Michele Azzimonti and the event also incorporated series of workshop topics which dealt with the power amplifier stage, acoustic measurements, as well as remote control public address systems implemented using Powersoft's proprietary Armonia software.
According to SoundTrade's Product Manager - Maciej Szewczyk, who co-hosted the events, the attendance featured an impressive mix of engineers, rental companies and even some press. And in Poznan they welcomed one significant guest in the shape of Jurek Taborowski, owner of rental company GigantSound Letus who already runs a large number of Powersoft K series amps in his inventory.
Maciek reports that each session was divided into four parts: Corporate and Technology presentations, X Series, and finally a measurement session and Armonia workshop.
After introducing some raw data in the opening section, Michele Azzimonti set out the new series and supported his presentation with practical examples of power supply robustness, easy web-based interface and so on.
According to Maciej Szewczyk, attendees were impressed with a number of factors, but particularly the weight, 3-phase power supply and the FIR filtering.
"As always the measurement part was the most interesting part of the proceedings," he reports. "While in reality major speaker manufacturers prepare presets for their loudspeaker and amp platforms still there are situations in which one has to do it oneself ... and this is the 'secret knowledge' that sound professionals are looking for."
Summing up, he said the small
