Date: September 2006

AUSTRALIAN HIRE COMPANIES ENJOY THE XTA FACTOR

Australian distributor Production Audio Services has recently enjoyed a surge in sales of XTA system management and processing units, proving that Antipodean hire companies are as keen as ever to give their productions the XTA factor.

No less than 15 GQ600s have been purchased by Brisbane and Sydney-based IJS Logistics, which went straight into the company’s hire stock, upgrading graphic equalisers which had been with IJS for some time.

“The reason for the purchase was simple,” says IJS’s Ivan Simon. “Both the GQ600s and the units they are replacing are internationally acknowledged. The reason for the change is that I have been looking for an EQ with less performance issues than the ones we already owned.”

He continues: “I hadn’t used the GQ600 before, but we already had XTA C2, G2, DP226 and DS800s in our hire stocks and the reliability of those units has given me complete confidence to purchase the GQ600s.”

Meanwhile, Novatech Productions, based in the outskirts of Adelaide, has been adding to its stocks of XTA processors, with the purchase of DP428/448s for controlling its L-Acoustics Kudo line array PA.

The company already has XTA C2, D2, G2, GQ600, DP6i and DP226s at the heart of its systems, taking full advantage of AudioCore and WiFi control. “We have been using XTA for over eight years and have always considered the product to be of high quality and reliability, which has been proven in the field,” says Novatech co-owner Leko Novakovic.

“We were one of the first companies to really push the XTA C2/G2 product in our main racks and have had no issues converting other product users to XTA,” he continues. “At all our shows with high end users we offer on-site assistance for them to understand how to use the products, we send them away with an XTA product CD and they always leave loving it!”

Proof of this is in the form of a recent letter to Novatech from Pete Keppler - FOH engineer for David Bowie, Talking Heads and Nine Inch Nails - in which he describes his experience when mixing a week-long run of shows by David Byrne at Adelaide’s Ridley Centre.

“The XTA C2 stereo compressor was new to me, but I fell in love with it in a matter of minutes, the ‘de-EQ’ section in particular,” says Pete. “What a joy to use! It took the occasional harshness and sibilance out of the vocals, and I still had the main compressor section for gentle compression, independent of the de-EQ. The de-EQ worked well for bass guitar, too, for controlling high-mids when the player was ‘popping’.

“The G2 gate was also great,” Pete continued. “The ability to do look-ahead gating in a live situation… amazing! No more clicks when the drummer is playing lightly! The XTA loudspeaker management systems (DP224 and 226) were a familiar sight, and a welcome one. Great filters, reliability, interconnectivity and the AudioCore software make a great combination with the Kudo PA.

“The final system tuning was done with an XTA GQ600 EQ. Once again, great filters, minimal phase shift, and great sound! And the Novatech crew set the system up beautifully.”

[ENDS]

CONTACTS:

Guy Lewis, XTA 
Tel: +44 1299 879977
Email: guy@xta.co.uk

Sarah James, Gasoline Media
Tel: +44 1372 383000
Email: info@gasolinemedia.com