Martin Audio marks Asian MLA orders
Published: ASIA
ASIA: Martin Audio has announced two major deployments of its Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array (MLA) sound reinforcement system in Asia following two distributor appointments earlier this year at the Pro Light + Sound exhibition. Large MLA front of house rigs have now made their debuts in both China and Japan.
Both Beijing Pacific Budee Technology and Audio Brains, part of MSI Japan Holdings, were unveiled as Martin Audio distributors at Frankfurt’s Pro Light + Sound in April, representing China’s tour sound vertical market and Japan respectively.
Following the announcement, Beijing Pacific Budee Technology reportedly ordered a 36-enclosure MLA/MLX system to fulfil an order from Hong Kong rental company Max Production Ltd, putting it into service at Hong Kong’s AsiaWorld-Expo for the Japanese singer-songwriter, YUI, who was playing her first overseas live concert in front of 14,000 fans in the AsiaWorld-Arena. MSI, Martin Audio’s distributor in Japan, was the contractor for the event, while Max Production Ltd was the audio equipment supplier for the venue.
After the concert, Budee’s deputy general manager Mingsong Cao commented that the ‘collaboration proved to be a great success, and the coverage provided by the MLA system was excellent’. Budee has also begun promoting MLA on the Chinese mainland having staged two recent seminars, one in Beijing and one in Shanghai.
Meanwhile, Audio Brains recently took delivery of a 30-enclosure rig, with MSI using it for the Rock In Japan festival in early August. The event marked the first use of MLA in Japan.
‘We chose Rock In Japan for MSI to debut the system as we knew it would be a good opportunity to expose MLA to many Japanese sound engineers and rental companies,’ explained Audio Brains’ Fujii Shuzo. ‘With so many potential customers for this system it was certainly worth making this level of investment for our demo stock.’
The MLA system was fielded on the festival’s second largest stage, described by the company as particularly challenging due to its circular shape. Nine MLA enclosures plus an MLD down-fill speaker were flown per side in two hangs while six W8LM mini line array elements were deployed as front fills. A total of 10 MLX subwoofers provided low-end. Martin Audio’s Martyn ‘Ferrit’ Rowe set up and tuned the system using the company’s Display software.