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Our History......... |
<1969>
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Company formed. At that time the company concentrated
on making vinyl recordings, mainly choirs such as Lichfield
Cathedral choir, a Welsh choir and other church choirs
Our first sound installation was at Stourbridge Tennis
Club to provide paging for tennis and squash matches,
relay umpire commentary, and background music for various
parts of the clubhouse. This system was replaced a few
years ago by a new AREAC system after some 30 years service.
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<1972> |
Amongst other jobs we designed and built four line level
mixing consoles for H.T.V. studios at Bristol and Cardiff.
These units allowed for up to 6 recorded sources to be
added to broadcast programmes.
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<1973> |
We designed and built a portable P.A. system
for Cwmni Theatr Cymru using equipment housed in flight
cases. The equipment was used for various productions
throughout Wales. We have a letter dated December 1973
from their Technical Director which said, “your
superb piece of equipment proved itself to be excellent
in every way.We are delighted with the operation and the
quality of the sound produced.”
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<1974> |
We purchased a P.A. trailer with raised platform of
16.5ft by 6ft, giving enough room for a musical group
including a piano on the platform. The group later became
known as the New English Orchestra. Since that date the
NEO has hired AREAC equipment for their U.K. concert tours
which have included Bristol, Manchester, Bradford and
Birmingham Cathedrals. and large halls in Manchester,
Bristol, and Nottingham. Our equipment has also been used
for their concert tour at the Salzburg music festival.
During the year we designed, built and installed a complete
sound system for Denbigh Community Theatre.
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<1975> |
We designed and built the sound equipment for Theatr
Gwynedd at Bangor University this included the main auditorium
system; show relay and front of house sound systems.
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<1976> |
We used our PA trailer and other speakers for the Peace
Rally in Trafalgar Square in London covering a crowd of
10,000 to 15,000 people.
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<1977> |
Designed, built and fitted a complete sound
system for Birmingham Town Hall. The system used a 10
channel AREAC mixer for the main hall sound system, with
a dressing room call system and Front of House system.
This sound system was in use until the hall closed in
1996 for major refurbishment.
Following on from the system at Birmingham we designed
and installed sound equipment for 4 town halls in the
Birmingham and Dudley areas during the early 1980’s.
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<1980> |
In 1980 we installed our first hotel system
in the function suite at Coventy Crest Hotel. The room
was approx. 60m by 15m and could be divided into four
sections. The system allowed each section to be used independently
or for a number of sections to be combined using illuminated
matrix switches. The microphone sockets in the rooms could
be connected to any input on the mixer amplifier using
leads and microphones sockets on the amplifier. For ease
of use the microphone sockets were arranged in a mimic
diagram showing their approximate location within the
function room. The system was considered so straightforward
and easy to use whilst providing a high sound quality.
Later we were asked provide a similar system at Runcorn
Crest Hotel. This equipment is still in use showing the
reliability of our systems.
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<1981> |
1981 was a very busy year. It started with
us installing systems in the two function suites at Heathrow
Crest Hotel. The location of the hotel, alongside one
of the runways at Heathrow airport, presented several
challenges. Great care was taken with cable screening
and connections so that the radar unit at the end of the
runway had no effect on the sound in the function suites.
Prior to our installation the interference from the radar
made the old P.A. system almost useless. We also installed
one of our P.A. systems at the Regent hotel in London
for use at the Bass A.G.M the following year. Unfortunately
the then Bass chairman visited the Regent hotel looked
at its size and said the A.G.M. should be transferred
to the Bloomsbury Crest hotel which was much larger. The
chairman however made one proviso, that an AREAC sound
system similar to that at the Regent hotel be installed
in Bloomsbury. The order was placed in late November and
we worked right up to Christmas Eve to make sure the system
was working for January 20th. In the following years we
installed systems in a further 16 Crest hotels which later
became Holiday Inn Hotels, ranging from Eastleigh (Southampton)
to Edinburgh to Basildon to Telford together with other
hotel groups in places such as London, Birmingham, Nottingham,
and Dawlish Warren.
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<1982> |
The Welding Institute saw our equipment
at Runcorn hotel and asked us to design and supply a light
weight portable system for use at their conferences in
the U.K.and Europe. Since 1982 we have designed and supplied
15 or so portable light weight Units, which cover groups
of 20 to 100, people and easily fit into a car boot. We
have also built portable units that have been used by
the England football team.
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<1988> |
We were asked to provide emergency sound
cover for the Birmingham international Carnival in Hansworth
park. The carnival was later moved to Soho Road covering
a length of 1.5 miles. The sound source was at one end
of the route, with cable and speakers connected to each
lamp post along the entire length. All the installation
work had to be done whilst the street were open to ‘normal’
traffic.
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<1969-2006> |
Places of
worship - During this period we have provided
over 350 sound systems and/or induction loop systems for
Christian churches and other religious buildings. In 1990
we provided a temporary sound system in Worcester Cathedral
while the seating was turned round to allow work to be
done on the tower crossing. Our temporary system proved
to be so easy to operate we were asked to provide a new
sound system using the latest digital control techniques
to control the volume levels, route the audio signals
and relay all the settings on the amplifier down to a
compact 26 channel mixer. The remote mixer is connected
to the system using sockets in any one of 5 positions
within the cathedral. There are some 4 miles of cable
used in the complete system. The sound system was completed
in1992 and was awarded a ‘rose bowl’ by the
‘Audio Industries Council in the U.K.’ in
recognition of sound quality and engineering design.
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