UK rental companies Britannia Row and SSE have joined L-ACOUSTICS’ new K1/KUDO Pilot Program. The two companies have simultaneously taken delivery of 48 K1 line source cabinets, which forms their K1/KUDO system together with K1 SB and SB28 subwoofers, KUDO line source boxes and LA-RAK touring rack fitted with LA8 amplified controllers.
SSE and Britannia Row will be incorporated into L-ACOUSTICS’ new Rental Network, an international platform to serve the community of Line Source Array owners which replaces the V-DOSC Partnership. This allows its agents to pool quality values as well as human and technical resources, and to benefit from Network synergies.
In developing KUDO, and more recently K1, L-ACOUSTICS has increased the bandwidth of the system, extending the low frequency response to increase LF throw and give better control of tonal balance over distance. This reduces the need for stacked subwoofers and gives a more coherent system
The K1/KUDO system also features new engineered presets benefiting from the same tonal characteristics, so KUDO can be seamlessly integrated with K1. The presets are developed so the system sounds right ‘out of the box’ and can be easily fined tuned.
Britannia Row has already used its system for arena tours with Bryan Adams and Lynard Skynard, in a marquee for the BBC’s One Big Weekend, and will debut it outdoors for Hyde Park concerts by The Killers, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Blur, Kanye West and Basement Jaxx. “The system is stunningly coherent throughout the full frequency range,” says Britannia Row’s Mike Lowe. “The mid and high bass is full and has all the ‘weight’ that anyone would need while being very clean, tight and accurate. The introduction of the flown K-Subs as well as the SB28 really works well. We thought on the Bryan Adams tour that its throw capability to the back of arenas was excellent.
“With K1, L-ACOUSTICS have taken the best of what they had and made it sound even better, giving it higher output through component choice and configuration, enclosure design and excellent presets. They have also made a great job of the rigging. Apart from the flying grids and bumpers, all rigging parts are integral to the enclosure.
“L-ACOUSTICS have yet again raised the bar with this system and I think that it will be the benchmark by which other systems are compared for the next few years. It is a beautifully crafted and engineered system and will consequently attract a discerning and enthusiastic user base.”
SSE operations director Spencer Beard comments, “Speculation about the performance and format for the new large scale line source system from L-ACOUSTICS has been rife for the past two years, and a major talking point with our clients. I visited the factory last autumn for a viewing and demonstration and was extremely impressed. Now that it’s here we believe it has fully lived up to expectations and we feel K1 is going to be a very popular system indeed; it sounds great, is easy to deploy, and the new presets are well engineered.
“We invested in KUDO over a year ago; it’s a great mid-sized box and we knew that when K1 came out it would complement the new system as side-hangs, infills and delays, giving us flexibility and maximum utilisation. L-ACOUSTICS have really done their homework on the new rigging system; everything folds away inside the cabinet, and all the rigging components are tethered, so you can’t lose anything.”
Adds SSE MD John Penn, “As we’re among the first to get the new system, it puts us in a leading position, giving us a whole range of commercial possibilities. It’s already attracting lots of interest, and we intend to maximise this by putting the system out on some major festivals this summer, getting it in front of as many people as possible.”
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