#void acoustics

A few weeks ago I was asked to go and photograph some Void Acoustics gear at the Color Festival at Splott Warehouse - supplied by Spartan Audio. A bit different to how I would normally photograph at a show but it was fun.

Mike is the Senior Sales Manager at VOID Acoustics Research Ltd

Void create some of the most exciting looking and sounding systems in the world and are renowned for their quality, flexibility and imposing looks.

Hi Mike.

Hello Murray

What sets Void apart from other major speaker brands (Funktion 1, Turbo Sound, Martin etc) in your opinion?

I think fundamentally the combination of visual style and sonic performance that is offered by Void is something that nobody else is currently doing.  Brands like Turbo and Martin are very much black box brands.  Clearly they make solid products, otherwise they would not be in the market position they are, but otherwise there is nothing to really help differentiate the brand.

Funktion One have obviously had a try at some more ambitious designs, but they have ended up being quite lazy in this.  The majority of their products are just normal loudspeaker designs, in wooden boxes painted purple.  We like to think that products such as Airmotion, Trimotion, Nexus and Incubus truly break the mould of the traditional design.  As we can then back this up with world class sonic performance this leads to a package unlike anything else on offer.

What is the future for speaker design?

I think it depends which section of the market you are talking about.  Touring system are going to be dominated by line source solutions, anyone who says any different is kidding themselves.  There is a lot of harking back to old large scale point source arrays and how they sounded far better than line arrays, but the reality is that with current touring companies being so heavily invested in line array, this won’t change soon.  For most touring solutions, line array is the smallest and lightest solution and to most rental companies this is frankly almost more important than how it sounds.  If it can be rigged by two guys and go in the back of a transit van, but still cover 5000 people, then you’re on to a winner!

The install market does follow the touring one to a certain extent, people want to use what they have seen on X Festival or at Y live music gig.  Thankfully for us however there will always be people who want to think outside the box, people who want to be different.  We try to innovate all the time, for example at this years Prolight and Sound show we released nine new products, which is more than any of our competitors.  So we will always be trying new things, and this gains us a lot of respect from the audio community.

I think if I had to predict one think that is the most important feature of loudspeaker design it would be control the sound particularly in outdoor spaces.  Noise restrictions are being more and more strict and therefore speaker systems which can control the spread of the sound and stop it spilling in to the wrong area are going to be key moving forward.

How important are the looks of your systems to your clients?

Depends on the customer, but to most very important.  That is our principle USP and therefore people love to have the funky looking red products.  These hold a lot of brand value and are therefore key anyone investing in the brand.

Do you think club/party goers are still interested in the sound system?

Yes to a certain extent.  They are interested in the brand, perhaps not the technical side, but brands such as ourselves and Funktion One carry weight in that a club night with a “void sound system”does create some additional interest, certainly in our experience anyway!

Thanks Mike.