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SOUND ASSOCIATES

Graham Lodge, Managing Director

 

 

Welcome to our latest Newsletter.

 

This is a wonderful time of year for cinema, the film makers have just enjoyed the annual ‘patting on the back’ with the BAFTAs and the Oscars, and this increased interest can only be beneficial to those of us who aim to create the best environment in which to see these films.


The SA team have been busy researching new technologies at the ISE Show and recently at Barco’s HQ in Belgium, while also focussing on keeping up to date with existing equipment. Our engineers benefitted hugely from a week of training and idea-swapping and are looking forward to some exciting projects we have in the pipeline.


I really enjoyed the ‘performance’ of Imagine Dragons set to Philips LightVibes last week at the Genesis Cinema, the choreography of the lighting really worked and enhanced the concert experience.


CinemaCon in Las Vegas is fast approaching. Mark and I look forward to seeing some of you there.


Graham Lodge, 
Managing Director

 
 

Star Wars VII at Dolby - in Dolby Cinema

Graham and Antonio were lucky to be invited to Dolby’s demonstration of their latest laser technology in January. Dolby Cinema combines Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision (1,000,000:1 contrast ratio from a laser projector!) to create an unforgettable cinema experience. “I’ve never seen such a black black” said Antonio.

 
 

Engineers’ Training Week

In January all the SA engineers came from their bases all over the country to our Head Office for a week of training. The variety of subjects covered reflects the wide range of skills that the engineers need in their day to day work, it was also a welcome opportunity to get together and swap ideas and stories.


There was a day long course on LANsat receivers and another day on IT skills tuition, including advanced network design. There was advanced Barco training including in depth maintenance and diagnostics on the new Barco 6E and Alchemy server. Finally, they had refresher courses on Sony 3D systems and advanced maintenance and diagnostics on Sony R515 and R510 projectors. What better way is there to learn than taking projectors to pieces and then rebuilding them?

 

And the training never stops, in February a number of our engineers attended CAD familiarisation courses and we will be advancing their skills in this area, to add to the already advanced skills of the sales and design teams.

 
 

ISE Amsterdam

This year’s Integrated Systems Europe show in Amsterdam was HUGE! As usual there was a vast selection of new technology on show, and we were there to seek out the elements that are usable in the ever growing event and satellite section of the cinema industry.


It was interesting to see a marked increase in the use of laser technology in non DCI projectors just as we are seeing more and more DCI Cinema projectors with laser light sources, currently available from Barco, NEC, Christie, and soon from Sony.

 

The biggest leap in technologies that we noted was the ability to distribute alternative content to multiple screens at 4K resolution.


 
 

Graham & Mark visit Barco’s Head Quarters in Belgium

It was fascinating to see the new technology that Barco is launching over the next 12 months. The main focus we given to the new laser projectors, DP2K- 15CLP and the DP2K- 20CLP offering both new and retrofit solutions. See our website for more details.


They also enjoyed a demonstration of Barco Escape, 3 screens working together or independently creating a panoramic movie format for the ultimate immersive cinema experience.

 
 

Two of our current jobs:

Vue Darlington –

A 9 screen cinema with Sony 4K projectors and QSC amplifiers and speakers.

 

Look where this equipment is going… to the picturesque village of Patreksfjordur, Iceland, for installation in a 160 seat multipurpose venue

Sound Associates

 

 
 

Support & Service Agreement

We are very excited to announce we have just started covering our 800th screen under our latest Sound Associates Support and Service Agreement.


These packages are designed to offer continued support and maintenance of the cinema projection and sound equipment at your venue. Contact sales@soundassociates.co.uk for more information.

 

Platinum

•  1 Annual service

•  Unlimited remote/phone support

•  4 engineer callout visits

•  Service Consumables


Gold

• 1 Annual service

• 12 hours remote/phone support

• Engineer callout visits (chargeable)

• Service Consumables (chargeable)

Sound Associates

 
 

Philips Xenon Lamps

As some of you will be aware, we have been selling Philips xenon lamps for a number of years. Since the beginning of the year we are the sole UK reseller of the Philips xenon lamp range in the UK and we now purchase these lamps directly from the factory in the USA.


This not only allows us to have a much closer relationship with the factory technicians but also allows us to offer much more competitive pricing than before. Please ask us for a quote (sales@soundassociates.co.uk ) and I’m sure you will be pleasantly surprised at the prices we can now offer. There is also a new range of ‘longplay’ lamps being released over the next few months that will reduce the operating costs even further – watch this space!

 
 

Raspberry Pi


It is amazing what can be done with this small piece of kit. We are honing our programming skills and devising ways of incorporating these into our automation systems amongst other things.

  Sound Associates

 

   
 

 

Staff News

Antonio, Engineer, Sound Associates  

“Sound Associates have always believed in giving their engineers regular training to make sure that they are all up to date with the latest technologies. It is also vital to give them real time “hands on” practice for some of the more unusual faults, so minimising time on a customer’s premises, and potential down time. It takes a great deal of time and planning to arrange getting all the engineers together at the same time, and always in the back of your mind there is the possibility of a customer needing an urgent engineering visit. We had measures in place so that customers could reach the engineering team and the week went very smoothly. No matter how much formal instruction I try to organise, I still find the best training is the engineers chatting and sharing real life experiences."

Steve Case, Engineering Manager

 

Sound Associates  

“I am very excited about my upcoming trip to Iceland. As you see in the photo above, the equipment is travelling separately and we will be reunited in what promises to be one of the most remote and beautiful parts of Iceland. I will be taking my camera so look out on Twitter for some photos of spectacular scenery.”


Antonio Marcheselli, Senior Engineer

 
 
Sound Associates - Go to the next level

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