Ray Lowton of West-London
Based Conference Hire Company SPS Purchases APB Spectra Consoles & ProRack House Mixers

Leading UK Hire Company Buys Into APB-Dynasonics

London, England––Completing what had become a personal odyssey, Ray Lowton, head of sound for Show Presentation Services in West London recently pur-chased three high performance Spectra 24 channel consoles and five of the small-format ProRack House consoles––designed and manufactured by US masters of the analog desk: APB-DynaSonics.

Asked about the purchase, Lowton explains, “Finding a reasonably-priced, good-quality analog desk has been an interesting process. The discovery of APB was hard won and now we will continue to buy into the brand––particularly the ProRack House mixer which I see becoming a great workhorse desk due to its size––which packs a lot of facilities, and the audio quality.”

SPS is a leading live event agency, based in the UK and operating throughout Europe. Their clients are companies operating in financial services and tele-coms; marketing and advertising; through to manufacturing and entertainment. They provide expert advice on all aspects of video staging and production, sound, lighting, IT systems, audience interaction and presentation tech-niques.

Neither Luddite nor stranger to change, Ray Lowton has witnessed and embraced the progress of audio technology since he first started over 40 years ago: “The industry has sort of been invented around us all in a way: when I started pa systems were very much in their infancy!”

Yet he will use analog for a long time to come: “I’m not anti-digital but I am ‘pro’ audio and still very much a fan of analog systems because they gen-erally give a warmer sound, you sometimes get the impression that people are blinded by gadgets and they don’t actually use their ears!”

His odyssey eventually culminated at last year’s ProLight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt: “I went specifically to look for a desk to replace existing stock that were reaching the end of their working life. A lot of what we do is very quick build, one-off events, so I wanted a simple system – and the simplest thing in the world is to use an analogue board in the right way.

“All I could find in the required price range were digital desks. Finally, just before I was about to leave for the airport, in desperation I asked someone, who pointed me towards APB.

“As soon as the headphones were on I just knew it’s a quality thing! The Spectra series and the ProRack House are great desks – as you’d expect from such a well known and respected R&D team with the pedigree to match” The award-winning Spectra series analogue consoles from APB-DynaSonics are designed to offer truly exceptional sound quality. The VCA-based models are available with 24, 32, 40, 48 and 56 mono input channels and feature four ad-ditional stereo line-input channels.

The APB ProRack's audio design is based on the Spectra Series and includes the use of minimum phase-shift circuitry, expressive EQ and integrated mic preamplifiers. The wealth of professional features and exceptional perform-ance is eased into a small-format 10-rack space. The chassis design features an adjustable connector assembly that freely rotates and can be set to three different angles relative to the front panel.

APB-DynaSonics is dedicated to the design and manufacture of superior quality analog mixing consoles, rackmount mixers and related products. For more in-formation, please call 973.785.1101 or visit us as www.apb-dynasonics.com.

Photo Caption: KV2 Audio’s Andy Simmons and Ray Lowton, head of sound at SPS, pictured with a small-format APB ProRack House console and an APB Spectra 24channel console.