42 l November 2013
www.psneurope.com
livefeature
d&b E8 speakers taking on Baltic storms in Kiel, northern Germany
‘TOUGH’… ‘ROBUST’… ‘enduring’… Just three of the epithets that typically litter the marketing materials for modern compact speakers. The choice of words might vary, but almost without exception manufacturers are keen to convey the ability of their products to cope with the greatest challenges that touring or fixed installation can throw in their way. For touring, prerequisites of a
‘tough’ compact speaker would include components and cabinet design capable of withstanding the endless load-in/load-out cycle and less-than-genteel handling by road-crew. With bands packing in more live dates than ever before as income from recorded music continues to decline, these qualities have never been at more of a premium. The stakes for fixed install- oriented compact speakers are arguably even higher. Typically – for example, in restaurants and shops – their design must support round-the-clock operation. But nearly as important for external or heavy- duty usage, internal public space applications is speakers’ weatherproofing and all-round solidity of construction. PSNEurope caught up with a
number of leading manufacturers to find out about their most robust compact speakers… in the process discovering that, to paraphrase Masterchef, ‘speakers don’t get any tougher than this’.
Compact speakers: built to last!
Pro-audio users are spoiled for choice when it comes to compact, multipurpose speakers… but which current products have been built to withstand the greatest rigours of the road and the built environment? David Davies selects a handy half-dozen
1. JBL CONTROL 25AV-LS Designed for applications where the music playback loudspeaker system also serves as the life safety system, the JBL Control 25AV-LS is the life safety certified version of the Control 25AV. Like its sibling, the Control 25AV-LS features a 60W multi-tap transformer with 8 ohm bypass, InvisiBall mounting and a magnetically shielded woofer. The 25AV-LS, says JBL
Professional senior manager, commercial installed sound, CBT & AWC, Rick Kamlet, is “not only physically strong, but it has been certified to being especially robust under a wide variety of difficult and hazardous operational conditions”. Accordingly, the speaker delivers compliance with UL1480/EUAY physical structural requirements, UL1480-UUMW life safety
JBL Control 25AV-LS
KV2 Audio EX12
toughness criteria, IP55 protection against water jetting and dust, and the MilSpec 810 rating to stand up to UV, salt spray and temperature extremes. Design-wise, Kamlet points to
several factors that conspire to make the Control 25AV-LS as tough as they come. For one, the drivers are made of “robust materials. For example, the woofer cone is hybrid of polypropylene in front (for protection) and Kevlar- reinforced pulp in the back (for performance).” A sealed-cabinet design – as compared to the ported design of the standard Control 25AV – prevents air- borne contaminant incursion, while the transformer is constructed of all UL-approved materials and methods to ensure robustness. One of the many applications
in which these characteristics have come into their own is a Las Vegas hotel where, says Kamlet, “the speakers needed to be installed in planters (where they are subjected to water), deliver high levels of high fidelity music, and still be certified as being capable of delivering high volume emergency announcements when required”.
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