"Here in Ottawa we're sandwiched between Toronto and Montreal, which means we face stiff competition from large regional providers on the major events," notes Neil Collier, senior project manager for the company. "Our recent investment in Meyer Sound's Leo Family not only has helped us maintain our major share of the local market but also has helped us grow our business in new directions by securing larger and more prestigious clients. It has taken us up to the next level."
Wall Sound and Lighting supplies sound, lighting and staging services for a broad range of arts/entertainment, corporate and government events throughout the Ottawa region. A longstanding client has been the RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest, a somewhat misleadingly titled event as it now features a broad range of genres. This year the new Leo Family system made its main-stage debut by powering the sounds of, among others, Billy Idol, Duran Duran, The Lumineers, Brad Paisley and The Red Hot Chili Peppers.
"The response among our clients has been extremely positive," says Collier. "Promoters and mix engineers have noticed the improvement, and the sound quality has even been praised in newspaper and web reviews -- which usually only mention sound when it's bad. And of course it's accepted on riders by major touring artists."
From his company's standpoint, Collier appreciates the bottom-line efficiencies of the Leo Family system. "The fast set-up and take-down makes a huge difference in tight time frames, and the extremely long throw capability means we don't need delays in most situations," he observes.
Wall Sound and Lighting's most recent acquisition includes Leo-M and Lyon-W line array loudspeakers plus additional 1100-LFC low frequency control elements to supplement an existing stock of the highly linear sub-bass units. The company also offers an extensive inventory of MIlo and Mica line array loudspeakers and 700-HP subwoofers which are available either as separate rental systems or for deployment to augment LEO Family arrays in very large outdoor applications.
(Jim Evans)
