3DsoundSurge Press Release: Lake Technology Limited Announces Contour

Lake Technology Limited Announces Contour

Today Lake Technology announced the launch of a new Digital Speaker Controller - the Lake Contour. Named because of its unique capability to enable users to literally reshape sound, the Contour has already achieved significant success in the trial installations in which it has been deployed. Contour's technology was previewed at the recent Audio Engineering Society Convention in Los Angeles. Bruce Jackson and Justin Baird from Lake's San Francisco office together with Lake co-founder, David McGrath, demonstrated the product to key industry guests.

Bruce Jackson, Senior VP Research at Lake Technology, says, "Pre-production units of Contour were installed in two key US installations as part of the trial of this new product. The first is at NT Audio's new screening room in Santa Monica. NT Audio is a specialist digital mastering service for the movie industry in Los Angeles that has extremely high demands in terms of the functionality of the hardware it uses. The NT Audio theatre now features 6 Contours controlling the entire main and surround speakers, and the units are performing extremely well."

Jackson adds, "Belmont University in Nashville has provided an entirely different installation. Belmont uses its new theatre for teaching students performance, music and sound. Outsiders have commented that the stereo imaging provided as a result of the use of the Contour is amazing, far better than they would expect for a theater."

David McGrath, Lake's Principal Research Scientist, said, "Once users take hold of the Contour wireless remote control, they don't want to let go. Sound system information is presented in full colour on a bright touch screen display. The wireless remote has easy to understand touch screen controls and it allows the mixing engineer to set up the system to provide the best possible experience for the audience, all the way to the back of the largest stadium. Using the power of Contour's touch-screen tablet controller, sound engineers can analyse sound and draw on a stored library of parameters."

The Contour provides users with new software tools and hardware to improve the quality of sound in every kind of venue. The hidden digital engine manipulates audio in an entirely new way.

After the successful launch of the Clair iO speaker controller earlier this year, Lake Technology found that there was tremendous interest in both the underlying technology as well as the user interface that was developed for the Clair iO.

The Lake Contour was developed using the fundamental hardwareplatform used for the Clair iO. At any time currently there are 500 Lake designed and manufactured Clair iO's travelling the world's entertainment venues with leading live performers (with a further 500 to be delivered to Clair Brothers early in the new year). However the Lake Contour has been optimised for a much broader market than the large live concert business that Clair Brothers specializes in. The average user is now able to easily create complex EQ curves that have before required a significant amount of training and experience.

The new Contour features a wealth of new features, including a new method of equalization. Unlike other DSP-based loudspeaker controllers, the Contour synthesizes filters, providing the most precise and flexible equalization ever developed for optimising loudspeaker systems. The synthesis technology supports a virtually unlimited number of EQ curves in comparison to conventional processors that have a finite number of parametric EQ sections or graphic EQ bands.

Lake Contour promises to revolutionize the way live audio is experienced in every installation in which it is deployed. Production quantities of Contour will be available starting January 2003. Distribution arrangements are currently being put in place.

Chris Gilbey, CEO of Lake Technology said, "The addressable market for DSP-based speaker controllers has turned out to be far greater than I had imagined when we first started supplying Clair with the iO. Our intention is to remain highly focused on how we take advantage of the tremendous interest we have in the Contour by focusing first on the installation market. For instance, the market in churches and church halls in the US has become highly competitive as entertainment has become a driving force in this space. We believe that this market segment will provide great strategic opportunities for us."

J Bell
COMPANY SECRETARY
+61 2 9213 9000
www.lake.com