Aspect Training Berlin September 2005 A little history The Turbosound Philosophy Why not a line array? The Designers TA-880 v’s TA-890 TA-890H Training Sessions Success Stories The Shadows Tour Soundworks Roskilde The engineers view……

Design philosophy

2-way Systems

Disadvantages Paper cone to metal diaphragm transition in middle of vocal range Low HF crossover point High distortion Low intelligibility

Vented enclosures Sounds OK close to the box but:- insufficient throw no good outdoors poor directivity control HF keeps going beyond LF

1981: 3-way System

Advantages Paper cones throughout vocal range Higher HF crossover frequency Less stress on HF driver Lower distortion Better intelligibility

Modular One-box System One box full range vs. bins and horns Modular enclosures Arrayable, stackable Horn loaded High power: 1kW TMS-3

Horn loading Horn loading gives higher efficiency TurboMid™ device minimises phase cancellation Better intelligibility

TurboMid™ Device

1990: 4-way system

Advantages Extends use of paper cone transducers up to 8kHz Very high efficiency: 111dB, 1W at 1m HF driver under very little stress Point and shoot aiming Hi-Fi sound to all seats Negligible distortion

Flashlight System Virtual point source Elegant, safe flying Ideal truck pack Integrated system Smallest, lightest

What was wrong with Flashlight? Poor horizontal consistency Dated rigging and trucking system Too many enclosures required for coverage Too big and heavy

Why Virtual Point Source? Line array VPS 2D system design Horizontal changes with Frequency and length Motor and point intensive Poor ground stacking Not Scalable – several types of line array size needed with point source fills Power hungry Output Doubles with distance 3D system design Dispersion tailored to suit venue Good stacked or flown Scalable – 1 box does all Extra efficiency through horn loading allows minimal power requirements Listener only hears 1 hi mid and hi cabinet at a time

Why not a line array? Over crowded market place Fixed dispersion reduces flexibility A single box is not capable of doing 200 people or 50,000 Line array effect is rarely relevant accept in a large array Potential Site line issues with large arrays System advantages are little to do with acoustics

Some typical issues with using Line arrays Opening angles on lower enclosures has no effect on the dispersion of the system Despite theory, practical designs do not double with distance Attenuating the middle of the array has little or no effect on directionality of system

Opening angles has no effect!

Line Array at distance

Audio hits the balcony

Does this mean line array is terrible? Line array is like any tool in an engineers toolbox Use it when it’s dispersion and packaging is correct Use them for what they were designed for, 1 per side will not work! When these don’t fit the venue use a point source box

Turbosound Aspect

Successful products are usually the result of teamwork…….. Aspect – Guru’s Danny Cooklin – Chief project engineer Aspect Mid range drivers unit Flying Hardware Laurence Dickie – Mr. Polyhorn HF Drive Units Jon Crawley – Everything below 400Hz! TA-880 Chief Engineer John Constable – Mechanical engineer Flying hardware Dan Orton – Amplifier Racks SDA – Prediction Software Successful products are usually the result of teamwork……..

TA-880 v’s TA-890 TA-880 system TA-890 system Small ground stack regional touring companies Installations Cost effective flying and transport TA-890 system Medium to large format touring companies Theatre to arena tours Designed for quick flying and trucking

TA-880H 3 way active 140dB continuous 146dB peak Arrays at a real 25 in the horizontal Between 4 and 15 in the vertical Trap angle set for close packing

TA-880 Series Aimed at small rental companies and installations Maximum suggested system for rental 24 x TA-880H Simple cost effective flying for up to 3 deep Wheels available for TA-880L Wheel boards for TA-880H

TA-880H Wheelboard Easy to fit Simple to stack

TA-880H - Simple flying Swords and pins to connect cabinets Choked chains to connect boxes to bars Rear Biscuit to hold cabinets together Fixed 2 wide and 3 wide flybars Tilt Strap for kelping

TA-890H 3 way active 140dB continuous 146dB peak Arrays at a real 25 in the horizontal Between 4 and 15 in the vertical Rotatable hornflare A system and B system integrated flying/stacking Extremely small package Ships with single wheel board 76KGS A system B system

TA-890L 1200 w RMS 136 dB Couples for additional output Extremely small footprint Integrated A system hardware for stacking Ships with wheel board FOC 60KGS

TSW-218 Super sub for use below 100Hz Works best with 4 or more for low frequency extension Recommended as a 5th way for TA890 users when required Can be used in a 4 way system

TA-890 Series Aimed at professional concert touring companies Capable of 400 – 500,000 with just 2 enclosure types Multiple flying options Full range of accessories available

Aspect TA-890 training seminar Level 1 engineers – Trained by Turbosound Toured to Level 2 standard Signed off to Level 1 by Turbosound or a qualified Level 1 trainer Level 2 engineers – Trained to Level 3 by Turbosound Working with Aspect on the road with a level 1 engineer or Turbosound Level 3 engineers – Todays training!

Level 3 training Acoustics System Packaging Flying & Stacking

Acoustics Polyhorn theory Lo mid coupling and dispersion 2 x 15” performance 2 x 18” performance Lo end directivity 4 way v’s 5 way Picking array width Using EASE FOCUS

CD Horn properties LF HF LF Directivity given by horn width HF Wavelength too short to provide pattern control – horn beaming Phase is not uniform LF HF

2 CD Horns Arrayed Holes in HF due to beaming Destructive interference Poor horizontal consistency

The polyhorn Made up of multi tapered waveguides All equal path length High frequency directivity provided by hornlets Low frequency control by size of overall horn mouth

The polyhorn Hornlets curved to provide array angle of 25 degrees in horizontal Constructive interference Horizontal consistency close to line array

The dome 50mm dome tweeter Takes compression from polyhorn First break up at 18kHZ Very low distortion Extremely powerful neo magnet – 2,1 tessla at the gap

10” Himid Spun Aluminium bowl for strength Neo magnet for weight and increased magnetic field 114dB 1w 1m on the polyhorn 400-4kHz no x-over in the vocal range Mounted on phase bung and poly horn for phase coherent wavefront Custom Turbosound design

Polyhorn v’s CD horn Very low distortion Horn reflections gone in 1ms No visible break-up No smearing

LMF 2 x 10” Device Rear facing to ensure maximum air movement for cooling Heatsink Assembly over Neo Magnet for cooling Powerful Neo Magnet structure 107dB 1w/1m when loaded Custom to Turbosound Rising response

Lo mid coupling 1 box naturally rises from 100Hz -400Hz As enclosures are flown deeply more low end can be heard No need for DSP processing- use the band gain and your ears Depending on horn rotation and width low mid response will clover leaf at 250-400Hz

Aspect 100-400Hz 3 wide

Aspect 1kHz to 5 kHz 3 wide

Aspect 5kHz – 10kHz

2 x 15” stacking Stacking narrow but high provides wide horizontal and limited vertical 150Hz should be pulled out of band in quantities over 8 due to 100Hz coupling For the US market we suggest 1 x 18” to 1 x 15” in a 5 way system

2 x 18” stacking Works best in quantities of 3 or higher per side Should always be stacked to extend the horn for low frequency coupling of 4.5dB 4 units has a sensitivity of 110dB @ 1w 1m

Bass arraying Long thin stacks cause beaming from ¼ of a wavelength Log spacing causes smooth coverage but may clover leaf Be careful of beaming low end, it may well be just as loud behind as in front!

How wide do I go? Aspect arrays in 25 degree horizontal segments Most theatre gigs require 2 wide with infill Arena’s are 4 or 5 wide Turn off boxes that are pointing at hard surfaces Use a protractor and a plan!

EASE Focus / Turbosound Gigmate Turbosound in partnership with SDA Provide accurate acoustical prediction software for the Aspect Series Initially in the vertical with further updates to follow

Gigmate- Setting up the room Gigmate - Project Files Saving and opening project files Adding appropriate information Gigmate- Setting up the room Adding/Removing an audience area Setting up audience area’s

Gigmate - System setup Pick the correct flybars Select the number of enclosures needed Inserting TA-890L Ground-stacking The acoustic compensator!!

Gigmate - Prediction SPL Mapping Frequency selection Weighting/Max SPL options Graph Options Relation to the real world What you should be trying to achieve

Using the flying calculator Enter angles information from Gigmate Select narrow or wide pick up points on fly-bars Confirm motor requirements GO!

Roskilde 1kHz – 10kHz download from ftp.turbosound.com

System packaging Flying and Stacking Amp racks 4 way v’s 5 way Returns system Trucking Flying and Stacking A System flying A System stacking Rotating the horn B System stacking

AMP-890 Complete Turbosound solution OEM’d MC2 amplifiers Patchable between 4 way and 5 way operation Based on proven Flashlight Design Mono/Stereo operation by internal jumper Available as a kit or as a complete rack

4 way or 5 way Most theatre work and small work should be run 4 way with the 2 x 15” Dance work can be run 4 way with either bin but may require a large number of 2 x 15” Arena touring and large outdoor events should be run 5 way Amplifier racks make this very simple

Complete Returns system Based on 24 way Veam connector 20 way used with spare lines A single stage send breaks into 4 x 5 way sends Provides 20 way system or 16 way system with returns

Truck Packs Loading methods Target Truck Width (in) Cab Dimension (mm) Pack Width (in) 5 wide 3 high individual dolly 96 478 94 3 wide 4 high (5 high on individual dolly) 4 high dolly or individual dolly 99 796 4 wide 4 high 4 high dolly only 574 90.4 3 tipped 1 on end (2.4m in height) Individual dolly 3 x 478 + 1 x 796 87.7

4 High Wheelboard Allows trucking of 4 x TA-890H or L on a single wheel-board pre-flown Can be tipped to 26 degree’s when 3 high Must be kept flat when 4 high or use separate stabiliser Weighs up-to 310 KG’s Must have 4 people around when 4 high

TA-890H B system Cabinet connects with small interlinks Internal captive biscuit holds cabinets apart Choked pick up chain connects cabinets to bar Tilt strap separates or kelps cabinets Hardware used for ground stacking

TA-890 A system Completely integrated hardware Allows cabinets to be trucked pre flown Allows cabinets to be securely ground stacked up to 6 high without flying or ground support towers Allows cabinets to be flown 8 deep! Safety factor 13:1!! Simple to use Removable for testing

TA-890 A system

TA-890 A system Stacked

TA-890 A system flown

TA-890/1w

TA-890A – 2 wide A

3 wide

4 wide

Setting up the system words of advise Use your ears! Phase check the system before anything else EQ is always the last resort