Powersoft / Traction Sound Partnership Prospers At Bestival

Florence, Italy, 17 September 2013 ? The new partnership between Powersoft and Traction Sound chose the perfect showcase for previewing the potential synergy on offer by harnessing these two brands, when this year's Bestival kicked off on the Isle of Wight.

The Italian amplification manufacturer supplied six of their flagship K10 switch-mode amplifiers to drive both the powerhouse Hidden Disco tent and more sublime, soothing grooves of the Ambient Forest, bringing the best out of Traction Sound's passive soft dome loudspeaker technology.

Powersoft provided 72kW of muscle in just 6RU spaces (12kW per amp), with one audiophile polling Traction Sound's Facebook page to observe, "... that disco is not going to stay hidden for long!" ... while Traction Sound Business Development Director Jonny Goodwillie noted on the same site, "Powersoft are killing it with their K Series." As if drawn like a magnet to the sound, the hidden stage was always packed to over-capacity.

It was Jonny Goodwillie's friendship with festival owner Rob Da Bank that delivered the opportunity for both brands to showcase the products and what is one of the most high profile events in the UK, having won the title of Best Major Festival 2012 in the UK Festival awards. Having got the call just two weeks before the event it was only natural for Traction Sound to ask Powersoft to power the system due to the two companies close relationship since the launch of their SDS range.

Jonny Goodwillie says the exercise had been to "prove the compatibility of the systems and prove our capabilities as a production team. The aim was to get in front of DJ's, bands, hire companies and sound engineers ? effectively creating a big demo room."

Meanwhile, Powersoft has a philosophy all of its own, and according to Marketing & Communication Manager, Francesco Fanicchi, the dynamic driving this has more to do with passion than simply generating as many raw kilowatts as possible, with a determination to nurture different technologies for the greater good of the industry.

Arguably as important as cranking out high-octane wattage, eddying into the lowest registers of Traction Sound's Hades infrasonic bandpass subs, is the fact that Powersoft's Armonía Pro Audio Suite? remote control and monitoring software will put the power status onto the screen, as Billy Woods notes.

"This is the first time we have used Armonía at a gig. It's perfect for monitoring the health of a system and I know which boxes are getting hot so I can adjust the limiters and EQ settings accordingly. As for offsite noise, Armonía enabled me to sort limiters offsite straight from the laptop."

Traction Sound had already tested the reliability and quality of amps and had been in contact with Powersoft's account manager OEM Matteo Bianchini before selecting Powersoft Dcell amp modules for their Active Loudspeaker System.

States Woods, "It's great to be collaborating with another like-minded company." With both Powersoft and Traction Sound sharing a distributor in South Africa (iLED), it seemed logical to seek other similar 'shared' opportunities in the future, he said. "What we like is the efficiency of the amp and low carbon footprint. At festivals the less strain you can put on generators the better, while the software enables us to monitor the system and stay ahead of environmental health control. On top of that, these amplifiers take up such little space in the van ? everyone is amazed how small it is."

In fact numerous touring sound reinforcement systems have been built around racks exclusively utilising K10?s for all frequency bands. Operation with 2? loads is not only safe but recommended, as this reduces the number of amplifiers required in a system.

Fully digitally controlled and with a serial PC communication port as standard, the K10 is also available with either or both KDSP board and KAESOP Ethernet/AES3 interface. Equipped with both options, the K10 DSP+AESOP amounts to a fully integrated power source including state-of-the-art sound shaping ? remotely Armonía controllable.

Certainly the combination proved an irresistible one on the Isle of Wight. Says Jonny Goodwillie, "All the DJ's have been really impressed with the FOH and monitor set-up ? and the crowd have loved it too. Our rig smashed it and kept people dancing 15 hours a day and didn't miss a beat. Now that's the way to do a festival."

So how had they achieved this? In Ambient Forest they deployed two Atlas single 18in bass bins and Kodiak mid tops (with two Soft Dome Source SDS horns and 12in driver), running through two Powersoft K10's.

In the more power-obsessed Hidden Disco, on each side of the stage were a pair of Hades infrasonic bandpass subs, driving the bottom end down to 22Hz a pair of Zeus V4 twin 18 high output bandpass-horn sub-woofer loudspeakers, and four Kodiak SDS mid tops powered by four Powersoft K10.

Summing up, Billy Woods states, "It's great to set up a system and know the amps are just going to do their job without having to have someone babysitting the whole time. We didn't get close to hitting limiters," he reports. "There was so much headroom that in fact DJ's were turning the system down."

The two companies share one fundamental tenet: a determination not to make products that anyone else is manufacturing ? and to source as many of the components as locally as possible. Bestival could just be the start of a long exciting adventure together.

Top image: Hidden Disco at Bestival 2013Bottom image: Armonía Pro Audio Suite in action during the festival