Serving UK music TV productions including Strictly Come Dancing, X-Factor and The Voice, Plus 4 Audio has recently purchased an L-Acoustics K2 variable curvature line source loudspeaker system to serve a rising number of arena shows for television.

Plus 4 owner Stewart Chaney’s history with L-Acoustics dates back to the 1990s, when he first heard the company’s V-Dosc system: ‘Adding the K2 means we’ve got pretty much every L-Acoustics product – from the small coaxial boxes, and smaller line arrays, up to and including K2,’ he says. ‘I was system engineer with it out in Spain for the first time and I think like most people when it was first on the market, I was amazed at what I was hearing.’

Stewart’s history with television also goes to when dV-Dosc was launched; using it for live-to-air shows seemed obvious: ‘No one else was doing it,’ he says. ‘Everyone was still using column speakers and all sorts of other things in TV studios for music shows. It seemed odd that we were not trying to do this properly; bringing a concert experience for the TV audience watching a band on stage whilst being sympathetic to the needs of lighting and set design. It would give a great reaction for TV and control the sound in a much better way, with less spill onto the stage and much more focused audio. The advantages were multiple; it seemed strange not to try it.

‘When K2 came out I honestly thought it was too big for our usual environment,’ he continues. ‘But we soon understood that it does make sense as we were seeing a general rise in the number of arena shows for television. We were sub hiring systems in for these shows but it just didn’t make business sense to keep doing that, we needed to look at investing in a long-term product with a good lifespan. K2 was the right choice as it’s well-suited to broadcast and music projects as well as being very popular in the dry hire market making it a great investment. ‘

Since taking delivery, Plus 4 has used K2 on projects including the Royal Variety Performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall and Sports Personality of the Year in Belfast: ‘Last time we did the Royal Variety Performance we used a Kara system,’ says Stewart. ‘This time, with Sir Elton John and Jeff Lynne’s ELO on the bill, along with a fully live orchestra, we knew we needed more headroom and more control of the room. K2 was absolutely the right choice for that.

For Sports Personality, the challenge was the orchestra being out in front of the PA . This is where the Panflex directivity comes into its own; by using this unique horizontal steering technology, which combines mechanically adjustable L-Fins with DSP algorithms effective from 300Hz, Stewart was able to direct the sound where it was needed and away from the orchestra microphones.

As a result, he also chose to use it on the recent National Television Awards at London’s O2 Arena. ‘Having K2 completes our L-Acoustics inventory and has opened up new project opportunities for us,’ he reflects.