COMPANY 151
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1. XTA headquarters in Stourport on Severn. 2. Co-founder John Austin and Technical Brand Manager, Waring Hayes. 3. XTA Test Engineer Martin Haycock, Lukie Duffell from the Produc- tion Department and Tomas Resano Inza working on product development. 4. XTA’s DP548 dynamic management units. 5. A glimpse of what’s to come from the new hybrid product.
neers and it became one of those things that people bought to be part of their own ‘boutique’ tool box that does everything,” said Waring. Witnessing its popularity sparked the idea for the Series Two dynamic proces- sors. “I think that process worked really well for XTA, after we initially responded to what people wanted we then thought, ‘what can we do to make that better?’ People liked the sound but they wanted to access it in a different way and that’s how the Series Two evolved,” continued Waring.
The follow-on success of the current DP4 Series speaker management systems has further evolved to now encompass the dynamics found in the Two Series but ‘powered up’ in the form of the current fl agship processor, the DP548. “One of the key strengths of all our processing is how the units react under stressful conditions - driving them into compression and limiting should always produce listenable results,” said Waring. Along with developing products to sell under its own brand, XTA also has a number of OEM partnerships. Possibly the most well-known is Funktion One that uses XTA processors and MC² Audio amplifi ers - which was acquired by XTA in 2007 - to provide a complete audio package. Waring explained how OEM has helped the XTA brand develop: “It’s helped us because we get a lot of exposure with Funktion One, it is seen as a premier brand in a market where its not very often about the sound quality its more often about show, how loud it is and how hard it is but they always push for it to sound good, and because one of their tools is our product it refl ects well on us, and of course they are
very nice people to work with.” HK Audio and D.A.S. Audio have similar partnerships set-up that so they too are able to offer their customers turnkey solutions. Over the years, there have been many milestones for XTA and as the company has expanded and thrived, it has been helped along the way through a number of high profi le projects. Arguably XTA’s fi rst big break was the 1999 Rolling Stones Tour. XTA processors were thrust into the limelight on a worldwide tour and the fact that The Stones used XTA once again at Glastonbury this year is a testament to the products. Being involved with the 2012 London Olympics was also a once in a lifetime opportunity for XTA, as was an installation at NASA’s Space Power facility in Ohio. Refl ecting on XTA today, it’s had a steady progression of product development - which includes its newest audio control platform iCore, initially designed to work with MC² Audio Ti-amplifi ers but has now been rolled out and used with XTA products as well. It also has excellent on-site facilities boasting an R&D laboratory and a sound-proofed testing facility thanks to a couple of building expansions, so the company is well prepared for the next challenge, which it believes the market is already waiting for. “Because XTA and MC² Audio have been collaborating for quite a long period of time now, nobody can deny that people are expecting a box that combines an amplifi er and DSP, its been a long time coming,” com- mented Waring. Plenty of research has taken place to ensure that the product goes beyond what is expected. It’ll need to have the fantastic sound quality of an XTA
product combined with the massively powerful amplifi er technology that MC² Audio products have become known for. Keen to offer a sneak preview, but unable to give away all the details, Waring said that while this eagerly awaited product will incorporate features such as FIR fi ltering and load monitoring, it won’t be those which makes it special, it’ll be how it works as a whole. “Other companies have tried to do something similar before but it’s been very product specifi c, what were hoping to produce is something that can be used with any speaker system.
“The approach that we’re going for is a product that’s symbiotically melted together. John’s turn of phrase is it’s a product with tentacles running throughout, its not just sat on the front end doing signal processing and then going to an amplifi er. It’s sort of in the power supply, it’s in the output stages, it’s beyond the box and into your speakers!” continued Waring. Users will also gain a new way of interacting with this new product - which will be branded as an XTA product initially - however, it’ll be something more unusual than remote control via an iPad. “I know it hasn’t been done before and I’ve had to contact the company which produces it to ask if we can integrate hardware with the way it produces its products,” concluded Waring. This groundbreaking, industry-changing new product is set to launch at Prolight+Sound, Frankfurt 2014. Watch this space.
www.xta.co.uk www.mondodr.com
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