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TRANSMISSION FESTIVAL ASIA: SPIRIT OF THE WARRIOR Returning to Bangkok for a second Asian edition, global trance extravaganza Transmission once again turned to trusted audio supplier Audio Plus to deliver the festival’s now-essential Funktion-One sound. Over the past 12 years, United Music Group’s Transmission festivals have become world-renowned for providing the ultimate in indoor EDM experiences. Each event is designed to deliver an evening of high-quality DJ sets, woven together into a single themed show and elevated to the level of mind-blowing spectacle by an expert behind-the-scenes team of suppliers and designers. Serving up a night of progressive house and trance to an audience drawn from over 60 nations, Transmission Festival Asia 2018 was no exception. Taking place on 17 March, the festival returned to the Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC) for a second year, bringing with it the Spirit of the Warrior show that had already wowed audiences in Prague at the end of 2017. In typical Transmission style, specially created video content swept across the stage’s giant shield-shaped video screens, linking each of the night’s top-name DJ sets into one continuous narrative. Intense bursts of pyro, laser and light, bolstered by live performers, provided an overload of visual awe throughout, while a combined Funktion-One Vero vertical array and Evo system - supplied and fine-tuned by UK-based Audio Plus delivered the all-important mix. Transmission first launched in 2006 with a trio of shows, before quickly settling into its annual rhythm at Prague’s O2 Arena. In 2014, the festival ventured beyond the Czech border for an additional event at Bratislava’s Ondrej Nepela Arena and since then has become truly global. Shows are now held in Melbourne and Bangkok, delivering the same programme of intense, thematically linked DJ sets to all 3 continents.
Audio Plus’s involvement began in 2009, 2 years after Transmission’s move to its regular Prague home at the O2 Arena. Event organiser and promoter Anco van der Kolk was looking for a PA that could match the impressive visuals on the production, but had been unable to find anything suitable locally. With its gold-standard reputation, Funktion-One became the obvious choice, and so van der Kolk made contact with the speaker manufacturer’s HQ in the UK, beginning a process that would eventually bring United Music and Audio Plus together. In the years since, the shows have evolved and grown, with FunktionOne remaining an essential core ingredient throughout. Thus, when the decision was made to expand into Asia, van der Kolk was adamant that the same high levels of audio clarity and quality should be maintained. No suitable Funktion-One system was available in Thailand, or in the surrounding region, so Audio Plus once again stepped up to the mark, shipping the entire system to South East Asia. As Audio Plus Project Manager Kris Hayes explained, this job isn’t too dissimilar to projects they’ve worked on in the past: “We have been involved in international shows before, especially in and around Europe. With the scale of Transmission Asia, it’s a great opportunity where we were asked to supply a complete arena PA system with crew and transport,” he said. Indeed, it isn’t just the audio that makes the annual trip. To ensure the scenery, lighting and lasers are faithfully reproduced - to match the show experience to the event in Europe - each element is either sourced locally or shipped over. “For Anco it’s about providing the same experience in Bangkok as in Prague,” noted Hayes, explaining that this sometimes 26