London-based rental company, Dobson Sound Productions recently provided all the audio requirements for What Car? Magazine’s Car of the Year Awards, held at Grosvenor House in London. The event consisted of a sit-down dinner for 950 people from throughout the automotive industry including a significant number of journalists from the motoring press. This was followed by awards presentations for each of the 18 categories hosted by Jonathon Ross, culminating with a spectacular reveal of the winner of the Car of the Year award, won by the new Ford Mondeo. Dobson’s Tone Ferne explained that due to the nature of the reveal, they were required to provide a far more powerful audio system than a standard awards dinner might merit. "We provided a distributed system throughout the ceiling of the Great Room in the Grosvenor consisting of 18 d&b E9 cabinets. There were also two big screens at the front for video and images throughout the awards, behind which we had a further two stacks of d&b C7s each. Then, to make the cutlery rattle on the tables when the Mondeo was finally revealed on a huge revolving turntable to the accompaniment of spectacular pyrotechnics, moving lights and thunderous music, we had two powerful B2 subs hidden under the stage. And I have to say it worked! The cutlery did indeed rattle, along with the fillings in a few people’s teeth I should imagine! We also had the usual plethora of radio mics and playback equipment, and the whole lot was controlled by our trusty Midas Heritage 1000."
