“You’ll never believe what I just saw,” said a good friend of mine the other day. Of course I was instantly on the edge of my seat. “I was walking through Bryant Park, and there was a stage setup with a band playing, and it sounded really good. I stopped and listened for a while and was impressed with the fidelity of the system. I looked at the speakers, but I had never seen them before.” He went on to tell me that, a few days later, he was at one of the local sound shops and saw the same sound system from the park being checked back in. He went over to investigate the speakers and found out they were Tannoy VQNET speakers.
Tannoy speakers?! There is a group of sound people in this world that can get flustered and excited at the mere mention of Tannoy speakers, and I fall into that category.
The VQNET speakers are a line of self-powered active speakers designed for sound reinforcement in larger venues. These speakers are ideal for clubs, theatres, and arenas. The system consists of three-way full range boxes the VQNET 60, which is a 60° conical box, and the VQNET 100, which is a 100° conical box. It also consists of speakers that are components so you can build whatever type of cluster you need. There is the VQNET 40MH (40° conical) and the VQNET 64MH (60°x40°), which are two-way mid/high boxes. It also consists of the VQNET MB which is a two-way low/low-mid box, and it has some specialty speakers the DF speakers are specially designed mid/high downfill speakers.
The Tannoy VQNET speakers are very different than other speakers because of the horn design. Usually horn design is the art of balancing compromise, but VQNET works differently than other horns by keeping what is basically a dual concentric horn behind a single horn, which gives performance advantages in accuracy and sound quality. The VQNET uses a unique driver technology to radiate a coherent single point source, and when coupled to a PSW™ (Point Source Waveguide), it aligns the acoustical centers of the transducers providing a single coherent wavefront. The low frequency section, two (12”) low frequency transducers, offers high power handling and low power compression for high continuous SPL capability.
These speakers are networkable using Tannoy’s proprietary network protocol. When networked together, they can be managed using Tannoy’s VNET software, which allows control of the different parameters of the speakers as well as critical system status and performance data. The software also allows control of all speaker DSP settings including crossover/delay, EQ, gain, and power. The whole system has been designed for simplicity, expandability, and superior fidelity. Fly up a mess of these speakers, and network them together, and you will have a sound system that will make many sound pros drool.
