MARTIN AUDIO MLA DEBUTS AT YOSAKOI CARNIVAL

There are many rock festivals taking place in Japan during the month of August. But equally as popular are the local Yosakoi Carnivals (based on the unique form of 'Yosakoi' dancing after which it is named).

Originating in the city of Kochi back in 1954, today Kochi still hosts the biggest carnival. In fact the 61st Yosakoi Festival took place over four days, running through 15 streets in Kochi City's commercial district - where dancers, clad in colourful costumes ranging from traditional kimono to modern designs, played wooden clappers called naruko as they danced throughout the streets.

With over 100 people in each team (dancing to around 200 tracks) high powered sound systems are always specified - but when Martin Audio's MLA Compact made its debut at the event this year, it redefined the audience experience.

The sound engineer fortunate enough to be mixing through the MLA Compact system, was Mr. Tommy from HSS Sound. He commented, 'We use different types of large scale loudspeaker systems for connecting this carnival every year. But while these large dance teams wouldn't be able to perform if they couldn't hear the music, the extreme volume often had a detrimental impact on the audience, who would cover their ears.'

But everything changed this year after using MLA Compact systems and MLX subwoofer, with their additional headroom and controllability. The sound engineer continues, 'Because of the unique MLA Compact technology we were able to even out the coverage pattern so that the levels were not too loud at the front, and retained their clarity and consistency right to the back. So despite the volume, for the first time no-one covered their ears; old people, children, everyone was thoroughly enjoying MLA Compact's extremely big sound - which was amazing. We had not experienced that before.

'Martin Audio's slogan is 'uniting the audience' and here they proved it!'