Founded in 1997 by school leavers Brendan Sadgrove and Jeremy Koch, Sydney’s Innovative Production Services is now among the leading technical production companies operating in New South Wales and along the eastern seaboard of Australia. This year the company moved into the top tier of audio rental companies when it invested in an L-Acoustics Kara system and X-Series speakers.

A part-time enterprise until 1999, Sadgrove and Koch has built the company to serve an ever-growing roster of corporate clients. Focused on building and trust and their clients, they felt it was time to retire the loudspeaker system that had previously comprised their ‘A’ rig.

‘Our original system had served us well over the years, but it was time to take the next step with a market-leading system that would deliver better results for our clients. In doing so, we hoped that this would also further raise our profile and widen our client base,’ Sadgrove says.

The new system will serve a wide variety of corporate events, with demands including live bands, fashion shows, high-level conferences and product launches. Sadgrove, Koch and their team of sound engineers looked at three different audio systems and, after a series of exhaustive tests, L-Acoustics Kara emerged as the preferred option: ‘The decision to invest in Kara was based on a number of factors,’ Sadgrove explains. ‘We were impressed that the L-Acoustics product portfolio is very focused and, as a company, it does not release a continual stream of new products. This gave us the confidence that we were not investing in a system that could be superseded in the near future.

‘Second, L-Acoustics product portfolio offers uniform excellence. Rather than have different lines of varying quality and price point, the company has a concise, high quality range with no weaknesses and long product life cycles. This speaks very highly of the company’s R&D engineering and market awareness.

‘Last, of course there is its audio quality and ease of use! When the three systems were subject to our listening tests, every one of our engineers chose Kara for its sonic performance and rigging simplicity.’

Supplied by L-Acoustics’ Australian distributor Hills SVL Group, the Kara system was immediately put to work. It has quickly proved itself worthy of the faith that Innovative placed in it: ‘It has genuinely exceeded all our expectations,’ Sadgrove says. ‘I knew we had made the right choice at one of the very first events we did with it. The sound quality and SPL coverage was very consistent. It sounded amazing, regardless of where you were in the venue – even right at the back.

‘In addition, every one of our customers has made a point of mentioning the clarity and overall performance of the Kara system. This has frequently been passed on from venue owners, who have received many compliments from their clients.

‘I am very excited to own this “tier one” sound system and I look forward to expanding our L-Acoustics inventory in the near future. I am very confident that this partnership has been the right choice to help us move to the next level.’