UK broadcasting services provider Bow Tie Television has upgraded the audio monitoring system in one of its OB vans using a K-Array system.
Because of the limited space available, it had proved impossible to correctly position all the speakers of the OB truck’s original production monitoring system without blocking the view of some of the monitors.
The K-Array KZ10 full-range loudspeaker and KU36 sub system (distributed in the UK by Sennheiser UK) demonstrated at a 2011 roadshow at Knebworth House offered a solution. ‘Because the KZ10 is so small, we thought that it was ideal. It allowed us to do something we’d never been able to do before,’ says Bow Tie TV head of outside broadcast sound, Ross Banks. ‘We could place them between two video monitors and they would be virtually invisible. It was the only thing we could find that allowed us to do that.’
Working with Dave Wooster and Sennheiser UK’s Lee Shuttlewood, Ross and his colleagues installed five KZ10 and five KU36 speakers in the truck as a 5.1 surround system. ‘We’ve already used the truck on a number of jobs,’ says Banks. ‘We used it at a major festival during the summer and they didn’t even notice that you couldn’t see the speakers.
‘Another of the main clients that uses the truck for HD 5.1 sports coverage has been very happy with it. In fact, everyone who sees it comments on how good it is. When you see how small the speakers are, the excellent quality of the audio doesn’t make sense.’
‘No one has put this sort of system in an OB truck before and it has proved an outstanding success.’
More: www.bowtietv.com
More: www.k-array.com
More: www.sennheiser.co.uk
