IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Clair Global
CLAIR GLOBAL RELEASES COHESION CO-12 LAST YEAR CLAIR GLOBAL ANNOUNCED THE RELEASE OF THE COHESION CO-12, ITS LATEST ADDITION TO THE COHESION RANGE. TPi’S STEW HUME CAUGHT UP WITH THREE MEMBERS FROM THE COHESION DESIGN TEAM DAVID SKAFF, JIM MEYER AND JIM BOWERSOX TO DISCUSS THE NEW PA SYSTEM. Could you talk us through the initial design ideas that led to the development of the Cohesion CO-12 – what did you need it to achieve? David Skaff (DS)- The core of the Coheison philosophy centres around creating the highest quality, most efficient new speaker designs, targeted as best in class for live show productions and audio mixing professionals alike. Basically, it had to have the “wow factor” on many levels. Jim Meyer (JM)- Prior to developing the CO-12, we embarked on a large survey of our clients to ask them what they wanted for the next generation touring PA system. Generally, the mixing engineers emphasised the need for lofty sonic qualities while the production managers focused on the need for minimal size and weight 84
[both in the venue and the trucks] and speedy load-in and out. So minimising the packaging and deployment time were overall goals while also using the latest design technology to push beyond the existing limits of sonic clarity, headroom, and coverage consistency. We were thrilled to discover that we were not only able to accomplish all of those goals, but even exceed our own expectations of what was possible. Jim Bowersox (JB)- The CO-12 system was conceptualised to be our next generation flagship system, so naturally it had to have the best possible sound quality. The unique design allows us to achieve exceptionally smooth horizontal pattern control throughout virtually its entire operating range. The CO-12 is a full range loudspeaker and is capable of considerably higher maximum SPL output than
previous generation systems. In addition to the sound quality, special emphasis was also put on maximising the efficiency. Trucking, logistics, and labour represent high overhead costs for today’s productions, and the CO-12 was designed from the ground up to minimise all of those. Safety is of utmost importance when it comes to rigging, so we drew on our decades of experience to create a new generation rigging system that maximises speed and efficiency, while still providing industry-best safety and redundancy. The Cohesion series was also designed to be a very ‘green’ system. By reducing weight and size, less fuel is used to transport the system. All Cohesion system amplifiers [including the CP118 and CP218 self-powered subwoofers] are Power Factor Corrected for highly energy