1. Aspect Training Berlin September 2005
A little history
The Turbosound Philosophy
Why not a line array?
The Designers
TA-880 v’s TA-890
TA-890H Training Sessions
Success Stories
The Shadows Tour
Soundworks
Roskilde
The engineers view……

2. Design philosophy

3. 2-way Systems

4. Disadvantages
Paper cone to metal diaphragm transition in middle of vocal range
Low HF crossover point
High distortion
Low intelligibility

5. Vented enclosures Sounds OK close to the box but:- insufficient throw
no good outdoors
poor directivity control
HF keeps going beyond LF

6. 1981: 3-way System

7. Advantages Paper cones throughout vocal range
Higher HF crossover frequency
Less stress on HF driver
Lower distortion
Better intelligibility

8. Modular One-box System
One box full range vs. bins and horns
Modular enclosures
Arrayable, stackable
Horn loaded
High power: 1kW
TMS-3

9. Horn loading Horn loading gives higher efficiency
TurboMid™ device minimises phase cancellation
Better intelligibility

10. TurboMid™ Device

11. 1990: 4-way system

12. Advantages Extends use of paper cone transducers up to 8kHz
Very high efficiency: 111dB, 1W at 1m
HF driver under very little stress
Point and shoot aiming
Hi-Fi sound to all seats
Negligible distortion

13. Flashlight System Virtual point source Elegant, safe flying
Ideal truck pack
Integrated system
Smallest, lightest

14. What was wrong with Flashlight?
Poor horizontal consistency
Dated rigging and trucking system
Too many enclosures required for coverage
Too big and heavy

15. Why Virtual Point Source?
Line array
VPS
2D system design
Horizontal changes with Frequency and length
Motor and point intensive
Poor ground stacking
Not Scalable – several types of line array size needed with point source fills
Power hungry
Output Doubles with distance
3D system design
Dispersion tailored to suit venue
Good stacked or flown
Scalable – 1 box does all
Extra efficiency through horn loading allows minimal power requirements
Listener only hears 1 hi mid and hi cabinet at a time

16. Why not a line array? Over crowded market place
Fixed dispersion reduces flexibility
A single box is not capable of doing 200 people or 50,000
Line array effect is rarely relevant accept in a large array
Potential Site line issues with large arrays
System advantages are little to do with acoustics

17. Some typical issues with using Line arrays
Opening angles on lower enclosures has no effect on the dispersion of the system
Despite theory, practical designs do not double with distance
Attenuating the middle of the array has little or no effect on directionality of system

18. Opening angles has no effect!

19. Line Array at distance

20. Audio hits the balcony

21. Does this mean line array is terrible?
Line array is like any tool in an engineers toolbox
Use it when it’s dispersion and packaging is correct
Use them for what they were designed for, 1 per side will not work!
When these don’t fit the venue use a point source box

22. Turbosound Aspect

23. Successful products are usually the result of teamwork……..
Aspect – Guru’s
Danny Cooklin –
Chief project engineer Aspect
Mid range drivers unit
Flying Hardware
Laurence Dickie –
Mr. Polyhorn
HF Drive Units
Jon Crawley –
Everything below 400Hz!
TA-880 Chief Engineer
John Constable –
Mechanical engineer
Flying hardware
Dan Orton –
Amplifier Racks
SDA –
Prediction Software
Successful products are usually the result of teamwork……..

24. TA-880 v’s TA-890 TA-880 system TA-890 system
Small ground stack regional touring companies
Installations
Cost effective flying and transport
TA-890 system
Medium to large format touring companies
Theatre to arena tours
Designed for quick flying and trucking

25. TA-880H 3 way active 140dB continuous 146dB peak
Arrays at a real 25 in the horizontal
Between 4 and 15 in the vertical
Trap angle set for close packing

26. TA-880 Series Aimed at small rental companies and installations
Maximum suggested system for rental 24 x TA-880H
Simple cost effective flying for up to 3 deep
Wheels available for TA-880L
Wheel boards for TA-880H

27. TA-880H Wheelboard
Easy to fit
Simple to stack

28. TA-880H - Simple flying Swords and pins to connect cabinets
Choked chains to connect boxes to bars
Rear Biscuit to hold cabinets together
Fixed 2 wide and 3 wide flybars
Tilt Strap for kelping

29. TA-890H 3 way active 140dB continuous 146dB peak
Arrays at a real 25 in the horizontal
Between 4 and 15 in the vertical
Rotatable hornflare
A system and B system integrated flying/stacking
Extremely small package
Ships with single wheel board
76KGS
A system
B system

30. TA-890L 1200 w RMS 136 dB Couples for additional output
Extremely small footprint
Integrated A system hardware for stacking
Ships with wheel board FOC
60KGS

31. TSW-218 Super sub for use below 100Hz
Works best with 4 or more for low frequency extension
Recommended as a 5th way for TA890 users when required
Can be used in a 4 way system

32. TA-890 Series Aimed at professional concert touring companies
Capable of 400 – 500,000 with just 2 enclosure types
Multiple flying options
Full range of accessories available

33. Aspect TA-890 training seminar
Level 1 engineers –
Trained by Turbosound
Toured to Level 2 standard
Signed off to Level 1 by Turbosound or a qualified Level 1 trainer
Level 2 engineers –
Trained to Level 3 by Turbosound
Working with Aspect on the road with a level 1 engineer or Turbosound
Level 3 engineers –
Todays training!

34. Level 3 training
Acoustics
System Packaging
Flying & Stacking

35. Acoustics Polyhorn theory Lo mid coupling and dispersion
2 x 15” performance
2 x 18” performance
Lo end directivity
4 way v’s 5 way
Picking array width
Using EASE FOCUS

36. CD Horn properties LF HF LF Directivity given by horn width
HF Wavelength too short to provide pattern control – horn beaming
Phase is not uniform LF HF

37. 2 CD Horns Arrayed Holes in HF due to beaming Destructive interference
Poor horizontal consistency

38. The polyhorn Made up of multi tapered waveguides All equal path length
High frequency directivity provided by hornlets
Low frequency control by size of overall horn mouth

39. The polyhorn
Hornlets curved to provide array angle of 25 degrees in horizontal
Constructive interference
Horizontal consistency close to line array

40. The dome 50mm dome tweeter Takes compression from polyhorn
First break up at 18kHZ
Very low distortion
Extremely powerful neo magnet – 2,1 tessla at the gap

41. 10” Himid Spun Aluminium bowl for strength
Neo magnet for weight and increased magnetic field
114dB 1w 1m on the polyhorn
400-4kHz no x-over in the vocal range
Mounted on phase bung and poly horn for phase coherent wavefront
Custom Turbosound design

42. Polyhorn v’s CD horn Very low distortion Horn reflections gone in 1ms
No visible break-up
No smearing

43. LMF 2 x 10” Device
Rear facing to ensure maximum air movement for cooling
Heatsink Assembly over Neo Magnet for cooling
Powerful Neo Magnet structure
107dB 1w/1m when loaded
Custom to Turbosound
Rising response

44. Lo mid coupling 1 box naturally rises from 100Hz -400Hz
As enclosures are flown deeply more low end can be heard
No need for DSP processing- use the band gain and your ears
Depending on horn rotation and width low mid response will clover leaf at Hz

45. Aspect Hz 3 wide

46. Aspect 1kHz to 5 kHz 3 wide

47. Aspect 5kHz – 10kHz

48. 2 x 15” stacking
Stacking narrow but high provides wide horizontal and limited vertical
150Hz should be pulled out of band in quantities over 8 due to 100Hz coupling
For the US market we suggest 1 x 18” to 1 x 15” in a 5 way system

49. 2 x 18” stacking Works best in quantities of 3 or higher per side
Should always be stacked to extend the horn for low frequency coupling of 4.5dB
4 units has a sensitivity of 1w 1m

50. Bass arraying Long thin stacks cause beaming from ¼ of a wavelength
Log spacing causes smooth coverage but may clover leaf
Be careful of beaming low end, it may well be just as loud behind as in front!

51. How wide do I go? Aspect arrays in 25 degree horizontal segments
Most theatre gigs require 2 wide with infill
Arena’s are 4 or 5 wide
Turn off boxes that are pointing at hard surfaces
Use a protractor and a plan!

52. EASE Focus / Turbosound Gigmate
Turbosound in partnership with SDA
Provide accurate acoustical prediction software for the Aspect Series
Initially in the vertical with further updates to follow

53. Gigmate- Setting up the room
Gigmate - Project Files
Saving and opening project files
Adding appropriate information
Gigmate- Setting up the room
Adding/Removing an audience area
Setting up audience area’s

54. Gigmate - System setup Pick the correct flybars
Select the number of enclosures needed
Inserting TA-890L
Ground-stacking
The acoustic compensator!!

55. Gigmate - Prediction SPL Mapping Frequency selection
Weighting/Max SPL options
Graph Options
Relation to the real world
What you should be trying to achieve

56. Using the flying calculator
Enter angles information from Gigmate
Select narrow or wide pick up points on fly-bars
Confirm motor requirements
GO!

57. Roskilde 1kHz – 10kHz
download from ftp.turbosound.com

58. System packaging Flying and Stacking
Amp racks
4 way v’s 5 way
Returns system
Trucking
Flying and Stacking
A System flying
A System stacking
Rotating the horn
B System stacking

59. AMP-890 Complete Turbosound solution OEM’d MC2 amplifiers
Patchable between 4 way and 5 way operation
Based on proven Flashlight Design
Mono/Stereo operation by internal jumper
Available as a kit or as a complete rack

60. 4 way or 5 way
Most theatre work and small work should be run 4 way with the 2 x 15”
Dance work can be run 4 way with either bin but may require a large number of 2 x 15”
Arena touring and large outdoor events should be run 5 way
Amplifier racks make this very simple

61. Complete Returns system
Based on 24 way Veam connector
20 way used with spare lines
A single stage send breaks into 4 x 5 way sends
Provides 20 way system or 16 way system with returns

62. Truck Packs Loading methods Target Truck Width (in) Cab Dimension (mm)
Pack Width
(in)
5 wide 3 high
individual dolly 96
478 94
3 wide 4 high (5 high on individual dolly)
4 high dolly or individual dolly 99
796
4 wide 4 high
4 high dolly only
574
90.4
3 tipped 1 on end (2.4m in height)
Individual dolly
3 x x 796
87.7

63. 4 High Wheelboard
Allows trucking of 4 x TA-890H or L on a single wheel-board pre-flown
Can be tipped to 26 degree’s when 3 high
Must be kept flat when 4 high or use separate stabiliser
Weighs up-to 310 KG’s
Must have 4 people around when 4 high

64. TA-890H B system Cabinet connects with small interlinks
Internal captive biscuit holds cabinets apart
Choked pick up chain connects cabinets to bar
Tilt strap separates or kelps cabinets
Hardware used for ground stacking

65. TA-890 A system Completely integrated hardware
Allows cabinets to be trucked pre flown
Allows cabinets to be securely ground stacked up to 6 high without flying or ground support towers
Allows cabinets to be flown 8 deep!
Safety factor 13:1!!
Simple to use
Removable for testing

66. TA-890 A system

67. TA-890 A system Stacked

68. TA-890 A system flown

69. TA-890/1w

70. TA-890A – 2 wide A

71. 3 wide

72. 4 wide

73. Setting up the system words of advise
Use your ears!
Phase check the system before anything else
EQ is always the last resort