another Dennis hits the bright lights

One of our MeetTheBloggers Salon edition alumni, Dennis Althar, has sent us this press release. His new invention (they look like twin cobras!) got included in an artwork at The Whitney Museum. Our local talent goes to New York to get discovered. Does anybody else think this is ironic, or just plain wrong?

ALLTRONICS TECHNICAL SYSTEMS
CLEVELAND, OHIO
800.255.8766
http://www.atssounds.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 6, 2008
CONTACT: Dennis Althar
Cleveland
Audiophile Speaker System Selected for Whitney Biennial Show
Cleveland, Ohio

All-tronics Technical Systems announced that its Copernicus II speaker system has been selected for use in the prestigious Whitney Biennial Show in New York, March 6-23, 2008. The Whitney Biennial showcases 81 of the most innovative contemporary artists from around the world and is expecting 40,000 people to attend.

Noted visual and sonic artist Marina Rosenfeld has chosen the Copernicus II for use in her installation “Teenage Lotano,” a realization of noted Hungarian composer Gyorgy Ligeti’s modernist masterpiece “Lotano” (1967). Ms. Rosenfeld’s performance uses a choir of 20 teenagers, thereby juxtaposing a high modern composition with a teen-vocal sound reminiscent of pop music. The individually recorded tracks are then melded into a sonic mix, sometimes with moments of choral harmony, then dissipating into abstract isolated sounds. Fragments appear with cello, percussion, bass and electronics.The challenge for Ms. Rosenfeld is in transferring the specific placement of sounds which she has created to an open performance space. The imaging, or source of each sound, is critical to her artistic vision of the piece. In previous settings, a series of headphones (binaural sound systems) were set up for use by the audience. In this so-called “perfect environment” the producer can control the elements of the recording, especially the imaging. But at the Whitney installation, a large, cavernous assembly room, with heavy wooden walls and floor will be used, and an open speaker system was required. Most high-quality audiophile speakers seek to “fill” the room, resulting in levels, balance, and sound placement entirely dependent on the room’s acoustics. The detailed elements and imaging of Marina Rosenfeld’s “Teenage Lotano” would be lost. Ms. Rosenfeld selected the Copernicus II speaker system because of its focused imaging and accurate reproduction of sound. The system employs a novel, 16-speaker array in each of two slim, curving towers, each paired with a powerful subwoofer, to focus the sound in a “sweet spot,” placing the listener in a three-dimensional sound stage, with absolute imaging, depth and presence. Utilizing precise time-alignment technology, the speakers allow the listener to visualize the vocalists and instrumentalists at their exact positioning on the stage. Vocal quality is perfectly reproduced, with the soloist seeming to come forward into the room. Sounds emanate, not from the speaker drivers in front of the listener, but from the musicians, wherever they are located on the stage. In “Teenage Lotano,” the listener is beckoned by lighting to approach that location in the room where they will experience Marina’s sonic creation. They will be able to pinpoint the various spots in the room from which the sounds seem to emanate. Standing anywhere else in the room, listeners can experience the unique mix of sounds which she has assembled, but in the “sweet spot’ the sonic experience is unique – and as intended and designed by the artist.

"I have found working with All-tronics' Copernicus II speakers to be an extraordinary experience,” the artist noted. “The tremendous focus of the speakers allows the listener to encounter sound in a truly sculptural fashion, and is the reason I selected these speakers to present my vocal and electronic composition in the Whitney Biennial 2008 exhibition. I don't know of another system that is as realistic, elegant looking and sonically refined as these speakers. A truly wondrous sound system!"

The Copernicus II speaker system is designed and manufactured by All-tronics Technical Systems, located in the historic Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. The All-tronics staff and advisory panel have extensive experience in audio speaker development and sound reproduction; as well as knowledge and expertise in medical sonography, where time alignment is critical to accurate sound generation. “Techniques developed for Doppler phase array technology,” general manager Dennis Althar noted, “have, for the first time been applied to the field of music reproduction.” It is the precise placement and timing of the speaker output which produces such accurate imaging for the listener.

Additional information on the Copernicus II speaker system may be found at http://www.atssounds.com/

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