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XTA began life in 1992 as a British owned and operated audio manufacturer and in just 21 years the company has grown on a global scale yet the company has always remained true to its roots. With an innovative new product on the horizon, is this company from The Midlands about to make a major breakthrough for our industry?
XTA STOURPORT ON SEVERN
Back in the early ‘90s, digital signal processing (DSP) technology was in its infancy. The audio industry was aware of it, many professionals wanted to use it but few fully understood it and its capabilities. However, in the Georgian canal town of Stourport on Severn, UK a couple of people with a keen interest to explore the technology further were doing just that and in 1992 Andrew Grayland and John Austin founded XTA, meaning this year marks the company’s 21st anniver- sary.
Having worked at Klark Teknik - just up the road in Kidderminster - Andrew and John had been involved with product development using DSP but felt it had more to offer. At the time DSP was not considered as
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an alternative to analogue, mainly due to limitations in converters, but the pair strived to change that, funding their research with the launch of XTA’s first product, the DS400 mic splitter.
This research culminated in the launch of the com- pany’s first digital product - the DP100 digital delay. Technical Brand Manager of XTA, Waring Hayes said: “It was much more accurate than anything else that was being used for audio DSP at the time, and in using a specialist Texas Instrument chipset the audio quality was vastly improved. Even though this product didn’t really do much in the way of EQ as it was more of a delay line, Andrew and John could see the potential and a reason to pursue the DSP route.”
Encouraged by the success of the DP100, it was swift- ly followed by the DP200, which featured more EQ control and introduced the first version of XTA’s remote control software, AudioCore. The DP200 was original launched as a digital equaliser, however after users requested crossover filters and limiters to be added to the original unit it morphed into a digital crossover. This transition ultimately paved the way for the XTA DP226 loudspeaker management system featuring two inputs and six outputs, which is today considered as one of the company’s flagship products.
“I think a product that was developed for all the right reasons was the DP324 - SiDD. It was very much a product that was developed for the needs of the engi-
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