October 2014 — For centuries Italy has been the country of design and creativity, it’s a country of dreamers. That passion still flows here in the heart of Tuscany, Firenze, inspiring some of world’s most noticeable innovations. In the world of Pro Audio, the new creation to leave the workshop of K-array is a product of this rich history set to shake the experts in the industry.

Since the first line array systems appeared in the market back in the 90’s, there have been great strides in terms of sound quality, the sound pressure levels (SPL) and the ability to focus energy towards the listening areas. This has increased large areas of the audio market which the public have become accustomed to over the years with major festivals sporting giant PA systems to support reputable artists all around the world. However, the price paid for this evolving technology has continued to grow as the systems have increased in size and complexity thus adding more costs to move equipment around and set up. The need to uniformly cover large areas led to the appearance of increasingly cumbersome systems that were complex to assemble and difficult to manage.

The result is the KH8 and KS8 which complete the first releases of the new Firenze Series , the world’s first flexible digital “slim array technology” line array speakers aka S.A.T; slim and compact in design, self-powered and weather resistant providing an exceptional peak output of 145 dB SPL offering a rather different solution to the touring audio market. It is fully controlled by the on-board DSPs for hyper detailed beam steering and maximum operational flexibility.

Its counterpart, the KS8, is a compact, self-powered, weather resistant subwoofer element providing an exceptional peak output of 148 dB SPL. This too has dynamic set up options for optimum delay calibration. A system of 24 KH8 units can be flown in just 10 minutes. This is possible because it is not necessary to dismount the entire cluster: the speakers are anchored in groups of three within rigid frames that can be connected quickly to create longer clusters (up to 24 units).

Compared to traditional systems that require wiring and a mechanical connection for each speaker, the KH8 saves time. Every unit can be independently tilted to focus the sound mechanically and then digitally steered.

High profile sound engineer and Director of UniSound in the United States, Michael Apodaca who has enjoyed a celebrated career working with artists such as Prince, John Mayer and Larry Graham commented “Its ultra modern design is next generation.”

The portability and ease of assembly are just some of the advantages of configuring a “straight array”. For example, suppose you want to change the inclination angle of a speaker when the cluster has already been hoisted: with the KH8 it is not necessary to pull the cluster down, it is sufficient for someone to change the tilt of the single speaker, an operation that requires no more than a few minutes. In addition, the “straight array technology” minimises the cluster’s volume and allows maximum freedom on where they are hoisted. For instance, you don’t need much space in depth behind the cluster which instead can be flown almost attached to a wall or a Layer tower. The result is to obtain a wave front that has the desired curvature from a perfectly vertical cluster. “We like to say the bananas go digital”.

The KH8 was used at the JZ Festival in Shanghai and concerts in Italy in 2013 and 2014 during the BETA testing period and is currently being installed at the Carina Club in China. The KH8 and KS8 systems featured at the recent JZ Festival 2014 and requests for the system have already started arriving.

The KH8 will be arriving in New York for next summer’s events.

2015 is about to get very loud!