142 LAST PAGE
...A new era of large format point source
systems could change the current concert sound system trend of line array.
DAVID CROXTON FOUNDER OF ENTERTAINMENT TECHNOLOGY AUSTRALIA
How did you fi rst become involved in the professional audiovisual industry? As a child I was always playing around with old radios and record players. At 14 I got my fi rst electric guitar, joined a band and saw myself bound for musical stardom… Unfortunately my band never made it out of the garage, but some friends asked if I would do the mix one night for their band. I knew nothing about sound engineering, but after a quick 10 minutes of training on a basic desk, I was into my fi rst gig. Nothing is more satisfying than seeing people enjoying themselves to music that sounds good.
What has been your biggest achievement during your career? I worked my way up through the band scene in the early ‘80s before heading to Sydney where I started working with Jands Concert Productions, and I helped put the fi rst Turbosound TMS3 system together. I was part of the crew that took that system out on the Dire Straits’ ‘Brothers in Arms’ tour in Australia and New Zealand. It was at that point I met my wife Sue and needed to decide whether to stay on the road or look for a job that kept me home more than one day a month! I landed a job with Village Roadshow, selling pro audio equipment nationally. After a few years I set up a hire company and retail outlet in Sydney and started travelling to the US looking for new products. In 1991 I picked up mixer brand, Mackie, which led to the opening of my fi rst distribution company Australian Audio Supplies.
What do you hope to achieve through new venture Entertainment Technology Australia? During a visit to Indonesia representing KV2, I met
www.mondodr.com
some guys from SGM Lighting and was impressed by their products and philosophy. I saw a real opportunity in Australia with the SGM brand and had already been talking with the Australian KV2 distributor, David Williams about the possibility of taking on new lines to help grow his market share. When mixer brand Cadac also became available, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to develop a new distribution company and ETA was born. There are a number of partners assisting in the operation of this new identity and I hope to be able to steer ETA in a way that will best serve these brands and the Australian market.
How have you seen the market change? When I fi rst started, the market was built on the strength of brands that had good reputations in the US and Europe. With the move to China by many manufacturers, we have a seen a big drop in the cost of equipment. This tied in with the growth of the internet, means that every aspect of the distribution process has to be streamlined to maintain viability. We are now competing with companies worldwide.
If you had to predict ‘the next big thing’ what would it be? A new era of large format point source systems could change the current concert sound system trend of line array. Once someone does this right it will stand out as huge step forward in covering large areas with high level, highly intelligible sound. It will also result in major savings of power consumption and the amount of equipment needed to achieve suitable SPL for concert audiences. Also, my involvement with SGM is certainly opening my eyes to the huge advances in LED lighting and how that will become a big part of
entertainment technology in the future, both through reduced power consumption and incredible new programmability. Creative lighting is being utilised in so many areas now and is defi nitely a growth market.
What is your biggest passion in life? Music and I truly hope the art form is not lost to the defi ciencies of digital audio. There will always be compromises when it comes to recorded audio but I don’t think people realise that at many live shows today they are listening to the band at something similar to CD quality via a digital desk or processor. In my experience live music sounds far better than any CD reproduction and this is a real injustice to both the performer and the audience. Sampling rates are getting higher, however, most people I have spoken to in the industry believe that 96kHz is good enough for live audio. A lot of the argument regarding the differences between analogue and digital have related to frequency response and dynamic range but is actually a time-based issue. My hope would be that innovation will continue to improve digital audio quality. This will probably have to be led by advances in the consumer market as the current MP3 standard has lowered people’s expectations greatly. As more high-resolution formats become available I hope this will be refl ected by a raising of standards for audio quality in professional applications as it has gone backwards over the last decade. Like most things digital, we have traded quality for convenience.
And lastly, sweet or savoury? I am going to have to say savoury, you can’t sample a good red wine without a bowl of olives and some nice cheese.
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