D&B AUDIOTECHNIK CCL SERIES LAUNCH

Sydney’s beautiful City Recital Hall is already home to a d&b audiotechnik sound system, complete with Soundscape immersive processing. Late in August, it played host to the launch of d&b’s newest release, the CL-Series compact cardioid line array and subs. Judging by the impressive attendance, the Australian market is extremely interested in this smaller, but still powerful ‘entry level’ d&b line array.

CL-Series is making good on d&b’s promise of ‘democracy for listeners’, bringing their legendary cardioid directivity to a passive design over the full frequency range. Using a bit of ingenious physical design, the CCL8 and CCL12 elements maintain their directivity from 62 Hz to above 18kHz, and one 4-channel d&b amp can run up to eight elements or eight of their companion CCL-SUBs.

The CL-Series PA was supplied and rigged up by Sightline Productions, the first in Australia to invest in the new product. After a tight and knowledgeable presentation from NAS’s Anthony Murdoch and Dave Jacques, we got into some serious listening. With the CCL8 capable of 137dB, this small system can take on some big gigs. The small size does not diminish the typical d&b sound and punch, and devotees of the German brand will find themselves totally at home in front of CL- Series.

What is amazing is the rear rejection, especially considering it’s being achieved physically. It’s not often you see more people at a speaker demo standing behind the system than in front. While the PA was blasting, I stood on stage and had a perfectly comfortable conversation with a colleague. This astonishing performance will make mixing anything so much easier.

d&b’s ex CMO and Sydneysider at large, David Claringbold, was home and on-hand to chat all things d&b at the launch. I sat down with him to talk about CL-Series and where it sits in the d&b universe.

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“The important thing about CL-Series is that it builds on the broadband directivity features of SL- Series,” began David. “SL features full broadband directivity control and cardioid performance in GSL, KSL, and XSL. It’s become a leading industry system for tours and installs. d&b’s philosophy is always driven by ‘democracy for listeners’ and a lot of innovation and thinking went into how we could bring that cardioid performance to a form factor like CL-Series. The smaller format can work on regional festivals, as outfills to a larger system, or smaller live music clubs and rooms like City Recital Hall, with around 1000 capacity. We’ve achieved this cardioid performance using passive technology, using only one channel of an amplifier to deliver cardioid performance in the box, which is extraordinary.”

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Previously in the position of Director of Theatre & Events at the Sydney Opera House, David joined d&b in 2016 in a board role before becoming Chief Marketing Officer. “GSL was being introduced in 2016,” relates David. “They first demonstrated it in one of the big arenas in Stuttgart. The leading audio companies on the planet flew in to have a look at it. It was first time I’ve ever seen sound engineers standing behind a system in a demo, but it happens every time we show our systems now. d&b has had a lifelong focus on directivity. In the early decades, we focussed on controlling the high frequencies. As the decades and technology have progressed, we’re now able to control the full broadband spectrum. That’s driven by another principle that’s dear to d&b’s heart, ‘more art, less noise’. We want to put the focus on the audience, and we don’t want to have sound unnecessarily bouncing around a venue or into residential areas. The musicians on stage, people mixing monitors, and people in catering or other production roles behind the system all benefit from the way it operates.”

There was no shortage of interest on the night, and the Recital Hall’s foyer was heaving after the demo, with excited attendees enjoying NAS’s hospitality and sizing up what gigs they could deploy CL-Series on. “A system like CL-Series has pretty broad appeal,” observes David. “It is a market leading technology in a form factor and price point that is accessible. Existing d&b system owners can just add CL directly to their workflow. For people who are looking at an entry point d&b PA, CL-Series’ HF performance is equivalent to the Y-Series; you can do some pretty serious shows with this system. I think a lot of corporate rental companies, medium production companies, and regional production companies will be interested.”

As d&b further democratises good sound, David is seeing more venues and promoters actively seeking superior audio performance. “There’s a direct correlation between making money and good audio systems,” asserts David. “If the audio system is good, people feel comfortable. They want to stay, they want to share, they want to talk, and it’s just a much more emotional and transformative experience. That translates into people wanting to tell their friends, spend their money, and have a great time. It’s great to see the audio industry evolving like this. We’ve come from a position where audio systems used to be a mixed bag. You’d look at an amplifier rack and there’d be two or three brands in it, and the loudspeakers would be two or three different brands, and there’d be some kind of crossover stuck out the front, and someone would dial in whatever settings they thought were good. Overall, the industry has become so much more professional, as has the quality of audio. I’ve been to a couple of big stadium events recently, and I was blown away by the quality of the audio. In such a big environment, with 90,000 people, and wherever you sat or walked around, it sounded fantastic. That’s priceless.”