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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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