Category: Martin Audio

Lima’s eyes immediately lit up on surveying the site. “This was a rare opportunity in an arena that didn’t have a centre scoreboard, but rather two giant LED walls on the ends,” he said. “This allowed us the full real estate of the grid for sub placement.” A radial 360° dispersion TM (in the round) array immediately came to mind.

The team started working on various configurations with different boxes in Martin Audio’s DISPLAY3 prediction software, until they landed on the SXCF118. “This fulfilled all requirements while staying under the grid’s load limits,” Lima recognised. “We knew we didn’t have to steer energy away from the bottom, as they were also required to fill the court for the players, so line length wasn’t a concern, and 16 boxes (four hangs of four boxes on different axes) hit the SPL we needed.”

But Lima sensed they were in unchartered waters using cardioid subs. “We tried different approaches in DISPLAY 3—playing with distance, aim and delay times—and ended up with a variation of the TM array, where the subs are aiming sideways, instead of inwards, and are a bit spiralled off centre, with a slight upwards delay.

“With this configuration we gained 2dB over the traditional TM layout, and it gave us a ±2dB variance in the octave around 50Hz, in the entire seating area of the arena with the court being 6dB down. It’s probably the most coherent and consistent subwoofer system I’ve ever experienced.”

Completing the complement of speakers is an additional 24 WPMs (12-a-side) deployed in a portable fashion, for graduations and special events, augmenting WPS with courtside coverage.

Other complexities included setting the Hard Avoid values, since the raked seating is retractable. Thus, to ensure optimum direction of energy in all configurations Spectrum deployed a custom Q-SYS solution P\programmed by Max Kelley to recall system presets based on the needs of each event. All DSP meanwhile is contained in the combination of Martin Audio iK42 and iK81 process controlled amplifiers which drive the main system in 1-box resolution.

In addition to the PA, Spectrum Sound provided a full acoustic treatment package, installed an advanced network and fibre infrastructure, and oversaw a console upgrade.

As a result, all feeds—whether commentators’ mics, video playback, and other live and pre-recorded sources—are faithfully reproduced. As Zach Mitchell confirms, “This is the largest project we’ve completed with Martin Audio and the difference in the room is night and day — the system is very flexible and translates all sources accurately.”

Paul Royer summed it up: “Our customers are thrilled with the performance of the Martin Audio system, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. This project reinforced our confidence in Martin Audio and enables us to provide even greater results for our clients.”

Ron Malone, Assistant VP Business & Finance at MTSU, added his thanks to Spectrum Sound for their “incredible assistance” during the installation phase. “The Martin Wavefront Precision system has performed precisely as advertised,” he said. “Its capability to control and direct the acoustical energy, both where we determine it is needed, and at the same time where we do not want audio, met our primary goal of this project. It provides better zone control to accommodate various configurations for floor coverage during event games, and floor/bowl coverage during Convocation with a stage.

“We could not be happier with our selection, and we know that we could nothave done this without the great folks at Spectum Sounds Inc.”

Photography: Steve Campos / Iris Media Agency

UK: Over a decade after installing a Martin Audio public address system at Leeds United’s Elland Road stadium, Alan Inkster, and his company Imperium Integration, have returned to totally renew the PA/VA set-up with the British manufacturer’s latest tech, headed by the TORUS constant curvature arrays.

As part of a general stadium upgrade, and as a precursor to increasing the ground’s capacity as Leeds United return to the Premier League, more than 100 Martin Audio speakers have been carefully detailed to provide seamless coverage across all four stands—including the corners—as well as the TV production studios, hospitality and general ancillary areas. This reflects the growing influence and ambition of the club’s owners, 49ers Enterprises, and their desire to create a more engaging match day experience while meeting all life safety standard compliances.

“The club needed to replace the PA system because it had reached end of life,” explained Inkster. They originally reviewed a number of potential solutions almost three years ago at the inception of the contract. “But then TORUS came out just as we received the order, and so we changed it to TORUS. It was perfect timing. As a fixed curvature array it’s brilliant and absolutely kills it in a stadium this size. It’s almost like it’s designed for it. We tested it side by side with other people’s equipment and sonically and acoustically, it’s stunning as well.”

The club sanctioned Imperium’s recommendation and each stand is now equipped with TORUS T1230 (12in, 30° constant curvature) arrays. “We kept uniformity with TORUS because you get a different timbre when you use different speakers. We needed more bass, and the moderate weight of TORUS allowed us to put subs in the hang configuration, without giving the structural engineers heart failure!”

The East Stand comprises six 3-box TORUS arrays, each with an SXCF118 cardioid sub, with double TORUS arrays for the top tier. The North Stand comprises six TORUS arrays (every second one with an added SXCF118). The West Stand is populated with eight TORUS arrays, every second one with a sub, and at the rear the installers have used CDD12s in view of the physical barrier presented by the press gantry. Finally, the South stand is equipped with six TORUS arrays (every alternate one with a sub).

“AND THAT’S ANOTHER REASON WE CHOSE MARTIN AUDIO … BECAUSE WE DON’T FORGET!”

Maintaining seamless sound into each corner are further triple TORUS T1230 arrays, which can equally be raised and lowered. This is vital, as the owners were insistent that they didn’t want to bring in cherry pickers and heavy equipment to raise and lower the PA. This required them to fly the system and assign large double drum electric hoists to each array for lowering the rig.

For the rest of the stadium Imperium have turned to Martin Audio’s CDD series and Blackline. ”For instance in the broadcast studio, we’ve used eight CDD5 because when not being used as a studio the area is used for private boxes, and since it’s sound-proofed we have to pipe the sound from the stadium back through them.” Elsewhere Blackline X12s are used in the 2,000 sq.m Centenary Pavilion event space, as well as CDD LIVE 12 in Yeboah’s Crossbar, a hospitality area found opposite the East Stand. Some 40 different banqueting suites and boxes, Bars and other areas have been equipped with Cuboid 6 speakers from Focusrite Pro sister company Optimal Audio, and a further 20 Cuboid 5 models have been fitted elsewhere around the ground.

TORUS ticked so many boxes, confirmed Alan Inkster, mitigating many of the inherent problems. “Each stand is totally different, both in structure and materials it’s built with, which acoustically causes issues. Yet we managed to address this by using TORUS which answered 95% of all the questions the stadium environment asked of it. In terms of being able to fly the arrays in a semi-permanent manner, the metalwork that comes with TORUS is brilliant and really easy to put together, so the actual flying of them was the easiest part in the end.”

Given that the stands were older and of disparate manufacture not least of Imperium’s concerns had been weight-loading. The icing on the cake was when they realised how light TORUS was. “The weight saving we made through using TORUS allowed us to use those subs,” he explains.

“I also like the manufacturing quality and the way it looks, as well as the fact TORUS has different 15° and 30° options … although in this instance we only used one.”

Imperium also focused on system intelligibility by deploying Martin Audio’s proprietary DISPLAY 3 software … “as direct SPL is the key in a loud stadium,” says Alan Inkster.

In summary, he says, “The feedback we have received from the club has been stunning; they knew as soon as we put the first array into the South Stand. The difference between that and the old system was amazing. Putting uncompressed audio through it reveals the true performance of the system.

Finally, he recognises, any installation project of this magnitude is only as successful as the partnership between vendor and service company. “Martin Audio were onboard and cooperative right through the process, exactly as they were when we equipped the stadium first time around.

“And that’s another reason we chose Martin Audio … because we don’t forget!”

UK: Solotech returned to Brockwell Park in South London recently—for three successive weekends of festival activity—fielding their flagship WPL on main stage for the first time.

After populating the event in previous years with MLA, it was time for an upgrade to their recently expanded WPL inventory. This provided site coverage for a variety of events that included Wide Awake, Field Day, Cross The Tracks, City Splash, Mighty Hoopla and Lambeth Country Show over the long duty cycle.

The Festival site attracted an aggregate of more than 300,000 people in all, and Solotech—working alongside production manager Frankie Tee of EnTEEtainment and technical production manager Amy Harmsworth—fielded no fewer than 62 WPL elements on main stage—driven in the optimum 1-box resolution from Martin Audio’s multi-channel iKON iK42 DSP amplifiers.

The main hangs comprised 16 elements per side; side hangs were split six WPL (stage left) and 12 WPL (stage right), while the final 12 WPL modules formed a single central delay hang (the second delay tower deployed in previous years, was deemed unnecessary, thanks to WPL’s extraordinary throw capability).

“IT’S A TRICKY SITE, AND SO WE NEEDED THAT 1-BOX CONTROL BECAUSE WE WERE MOVING FROM MLA TO WPL—WHICH IS REALLY GOOD AT STEERING AUDIO.”

Further boosting the sound were 18 SXHF218 in a castellated broadside cardioid sub-array, with frontfills comprising 12 Martin Audio WPC and four XD12.

Moving from the second stage last year to main stage system tech duties was Ali Hellard, who has extensive experience working with WPL. It was his task to optimise the sound and ensure there were no offsite breaches while maintaining levels at FOH. As Solotech account manager, David Preston noted, “It’s a tricky site, and so we needed that 1-box control because we were moving from MLA to WPL—which is really good at steering audio.”

Hellard confirmed that with eight stages (plus fairground rides) the site needed to be heavily monitored for sound escape, with around seven measurement points around the perimeter. Onsite limits were set at 103dB (C-weighted) for morning slots, 105dB(C) for afternoon and early evening and headliners 108dB(C). This was easily achieved while meeting offsite thresholds.

He observed that the reggae-oriented City Splash had presented the biggest challenge in view of the heavy demand on LF. To that end the castellated sub array approach was his chosen option. “Tonally, I tend to prefer arranging them in stacks of three with one reversed,” he said. “However, on a sensitive site, castellated is much better from a pattern control point of view.”

The cardioid also helped mitigate noise propagation behind the PA, where it was needed with that entire area designated Hard Avoid® in the Martin Audio software, a proprietary feature that actively reduces direct sound and sound leakage to an area by up to 30dB.

In summary, both he and David Preston reported on the high number of favourable comments from guest engineers, noting the PA’s “clarity, transparency and presence.” Preston couldn’t have been happier. “This has been a very busy summer for Solotech and so we have increased our WPL inventory in order to service the large number of events.”

Brockwell Park main stage audio crew comprised: Tim Paterson; Tom Woolsey; Ali Hellard; Kieran Niemand; Dave Pickess; Luan Nikita; Isabella Di Biase; Tim Grasse; Elliot Heal.

In addition to its commanding presence in the Expo Arena Matsuri at this year’s Osaka Expo 2025, Martin Audio loudspeakers also feature exclusively in the UK Pavilion where audio system designer and spatial sound consultant, Dave Parry—a long-time fan of the brand—has equipped the visitor experience, working for experiential master planner and exhibition designer, Immersive International.

The initiative was led by the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, whose aim is to promote trade and understanding between the UK and Japan. The design, build, maintain and deconstruct contractors are ES Global.

Having won a competitive tender, Immersive International were charged with delivering end to end concept design and strategy, including interior spatial design, animation production of the content, and mascot design (the playful children’s character PIX). This interactive, story-led journey—which takes visitors through four immersive rooms with a single narrative—is brought to life by inspired projection mapping, spatial sound and interactivity. Stated Thomas Ludewig, Immersive International Head of Architectural Services & Innovation, “The idea was to showcase the UK as an attractive place to visit, study or do business with, to a predominantly Japanese audience.”

Dave Parry’s long relationship with the Immersive International team—then as Pixel Addicts—dates back nearly two decades when they collaborated on the ground-breaking Matter nightclub at the O2. “We trust Dave completely, having worked together for over 15 years,” said Ludewig. “He continued to support us throughout the oversight and management phases which saw the designs progress to delivery onsite to ensure his vision and aspirations were achieved for the final installation.”

Inspired by children’s building blocks, the animated PIX cartoon character accompanies visitors throughout the 20-minute experience. This developedfrom the pixel visual language, inspiredby the fact that when small blocks or ideas come together, great things can happen.

The zones themselves consist of The Undercroft and Lobby, the Exhibition, PIX Lobby and PIX Room and the Finale, for all of which mission critical audio was key. Dave Parry drew on a variety of Martin Audio solutions, sensitive to the requirements and constraints of each space (working within a truss-based interior, and to a brief that speakers should be architecturally concealed).

The narration was combined with a soundtrack composed by We Sound Loud. “An important part of their workstream was developing an adjusted version for the sensory mode as well as producing the audio descriptions, that are available in both Japanese and English for those with additional needs visiting the Pavilion,” Ludewig pointed out.

Brazil: After a career spanning over six decades, Brazilian music legend Gilberto Gil is midway through a farewell tour titled Tempo Rei. This is taking him through sports palaces and stadiums in nine Brazilian cities—including the 42,000-cap Ligga Arena in Curitiba and the Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro—and is scheduled to run until November.

At all but one of the shows he has been playing through an evergreen Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array, provided by partner Gabisom Audio Equipment.

Responsible for the sound system design, optimisation and recording is Martin Audio devotee, the eight times Latin Grammy award-winning Daniel Carvalho, who has regularly mixed through MLA—a popular presence in Brazil since it first appeared at the famousRock In Riofestival.

“Farmasi Arena [aka the Jeunesse] is not an easy venue,” he admits. “It has a long reverb on the low end and the shows there are known for delivering a muddy sound. But with the low leakage of MLA, side lobe reverberation is much lower in volume and the clarity of the vocal penetrates the field comfortably with the electronic processing. With normal systems, production uses a delay for upper balcony but with the long throw of the MLA system we were able to do without.”

“IT’S AN AMAZING FEATURE THAT MAKES MLA GAME CHANGING,”

The PA comprised 17 MLA and an MLD per side, and 17 outfills (also with a single MLD). A castellated subwoofer array of 34 MLX speakers and eight MLA Compact front fills completed the set-up. “Many musicians and producers commented that it was the best sound they had ever heard in the house,” noted Carvalho. “We certainly had no complaints.” This despite being unable to fly the subwoofers due to loading restrictions, as they have been doing in other venues.

Most of the array optimisation was prefigured in Martin Audio’s DISPLAY software. “I use the DISPLAY 3 (with WPL in place of MLA) to gain some insight of the horizontal coverage and azimuth of the arrays. In places, it just required some minor EQ and level in the delayed arrays to align with the main PA. I could then walk around with the venue software and Smaart computer and tune it all.”

The ’Hard Avoid’ feature was deployed to great effect. “It’s an amazing feature that makes MLA game changing,” he says. “It’s more than a cardioid in the way it keeps sound off the stage. With the PA at full volume Gil asked during sound check: ‘Is the PA really on?’ The volume before feedback we can get, together with the castellated subs makes the stage clean and the musicians comfortable. As Brazilian MPB (Brazilian popular music) songs are noted for having very quiet moments, the Hard Avoid feature makes everything possible in large venues.”

Gilberto was supported by an exceptional backing band including many of the Gilberto family (sons, grandsons, daughter and extended family)—with a string quartet and horn section. He also introduced some surprise guests at the Farmasi, like Caetano Veloso, Anitta, Marisa Monte and lulu Santos.

The shows here extended over four days, with 17,000 people witnessing the legend each night. Describing the experience, Daniel Carvalho, said, “From the very first moment it was clear to all that the sound was at another level.

“Gil is 83 years old, and his voice came through loud and clear on top of a big band with a lot of percussion, horns and guitars. All Brazil’s greatest artists respect Gil and came to the show—many commenting on how impressed they were with the sound; they could hear everything clearly to the point that it sounded like a CD.

“Gustavo Mendes, Gil`s FOH sound engineer, was so impressed [with MLA] that he shared the same concerns as I: ‘How can we do a show without this system’? Each time we walk the venue to listen, it is so impressive the way it sounds the same at each seat. Maths really is like magic.”

And his final word? “This system was so far ahead of its time that nowadays we see other brands trying to do what MLA was doing an incredible 15 years ago.”

For over 25 years, Martin Audio’s Blackline Series has set the global benchmark for affordable professional loudspeakers—renowned for their exceptional sound quality and reliability at an accessible price point.

BlacklineQ provides a comprehensive reimagining of this iconic series. The nine-strong product range comprises improved passive two-way point source loudspeakers, all-new column speakers and a suite of subwoofers. The entire series features intelligent design details, making it equally at home in portable or install applications, such as portable sound reinforcement for live sound, theatre, DJs and corporate events; unobtrusive stage monitoring; and permanent installation in clubs, hospitality venues, conference rooms and houses of worship.

In sync with Martin Audio’s design philosophy, BlacklineQ extolls the virtue of meticulous driver design to deliver improved coverage, consistency and control. For the first time in its class, both full-range two-way point source systems and column speakers feature Differential Dispersion horns, which enable wider, more consistent coverage with less energy directed to the ceiling.

“BLACKLINEQ IS OUR MOST AMBITIOUS SERIES IN BLACKLINE’S STORIED HISTORY, AND WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF BOTH DIFFERENTIAL DISPERSION TECHNOLOGY AND COLUMN SPEAKERS IT’S DESTINED TO BE OUR MOST SUCCESSFUL.”

For the four point source speakers (designated Q8, Q10, Q12 and Q15), each symmetrical, multi-angle full-range passive wooden enclosure can be easily deployed in horizontal or vertical deployment, with comprehensive mounting options—including wall brackets, yokes, eyebolt suspension and pole-mounts. A pole-mount cover provides a clean, streamlined appearance when the mount is not in use.

BlacklineQ also marks Martin Audio’s debut in column speaker design with the two-way passive QC44 and QC26 offering elegant, discreet solutions for both portable and fixed use, and perfectly suited to speech and musical content. Finished with hard wearing black or white paint, and complemented by comprehensive mounting options, these new column speakers will substantially increase the available applications on offer to the Martin Audio line-up.

Finally, BlacklineQ includes a trio of passive subwoofers, comprising the Q210 (2×10”), Q118 (1×18”) and Q218 (2×18”), which extend low-frequency performance across the series. The enclosures are constructed from durable plywood and feature slot ports for efficiency in design while reducing noise turbulence. Each enclosure includes an M20 35mm (1.4”) pole-mount fitting for seamless integration with all loudspeakers in the series. In addition, the link out socket is positioned at the top of the cabinet, providing a convenient and discreet solution for connecting the cable for a BlacklineQ loudspeaker on a pole. Finished in hard wearing black paint as standard, the Q210 is also available in white to match the white BlacklineQ column loudspeakers.

Dom Harter, Managing Director, commented, “BlacklineQ is our most ambitious series in Blackline’s storied history, and with the introduction of both Differential Dispersion technology and column speakers it’s destined to be our most successful.”

BlacklineQ will start shipping from late August and will be first shown and heard at InfoComm Asia on Generation AV booth C05.