"Type H is the most affordable line array we've ever produced and we're delighted to launch it into the European market at Prolight + Sound 2009," says Brett Downing, sales & marketing director, TOA Europe. "The speakers have been designed with a simple goal in mind: to provide clear, intelligible speech reproduction in large, modern public spaces such as airport lounges, train station concourses, hotel lobbies, auditoria, conference halls, and places of worship."
There are four models in the Type H range, each based on the same 7cm full-range drive unit. The SR-H2L uses nine of these drivers, while the taller SR-H3L uses 18. Both are also available (as the SR-H2S and SR-H3S respectively) with a front that curves downwards towards its bottom edge, rather than a flat front, for applications where listeners closer to the speakers are also lower than those behind them - an auditorium with a floor that slopes down toward the stage, for example.
Finished in white, all four models measure just 84mm across - making them TOA's slimmest-ever line array and ensuring that they remain visually unobtrusive in any application. Using the flat-front variants, two arrays can be coupled together for coverage of particularly large areas, while a range of purpose-designed mounts and brackets enables the enclosures to be wall-mounted, tilted, rigged, flown, or free-standing.
Type H needs no external signal processing and little amplification in order to deliver high-quality sound. Downing says: "The ability of line arrays to resist sound attenuation over distance is well-documented and they are justifiably popular in concert applications. In the field of commercial audio they have traditionally been viewed as an expensive option, but Type H challenges that notion with a compact, highly intelligible design that is easy to install and set up, and won't bust the budget. And although we do offer additional signal processing options, these speakers sound great 'out of the box'."
(Jim Evans)
