Coda Audio’s AiRAY system has caught the attention of the eyes and ears of the audio world. Since its launch in July 2015, sales have been strong and orders are being placed in increasingly high volumes. AiRAY’s impact was nowhere better illustrated than at this year’s Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt where Japanese giant, Hibino Sound Division, placed a substantial order for AiRAY, increasing its holding of Coda boxes to over 300 (including AiRAY, TiRAY, ViRAY and others).
Soon after AiRAY’s launch, Hibino Intersound took a close interest in the system based on demonstrations and previous discussions with Coda, as well as the recommendation of Hibino Sound Division’s Head of Sound, Hiroshi Inoue. He had already used a Coda LA12 system on a successful tour in 2014 where its excellent sound quality was a talking point amongst everyone involved. Guided by this experience, when Inoue attended Prolight & Sound in 2015, he assessed Coda’s new AiRAY system and was confident that it would offer great advantages in scalability and flexibility to a leading rental company. Divisional Head, Ryoichi Hashimotoagreed with his Head of Sound and an AiRAY system was ordered for use on a tour by top Japanese artist Shogo Hamada. The system made an immediate and lasting impression – one that was to lead to Prolight + Sound 2016 and this very significant order.
Hibino Sound Division Head of Sound, Hiroshi Inoue was clear: “Firstly, as with all Coda line-array systems, we see that AiRAY achieves very high sound resolution with good separation of each instrument’s sound. Sound shape is maintained over a long distance meaning that the required SPL can be obtained using fewer cabinets. AiRAY’s functionality is also excellent for both flown and ground stack applications – cabinet angles can be quickly and easily adjusted for both. When the system is flown, the light weight of the main frame and the light, compact cabinets combine to significantly reduce set up times and of course reduce trucking costs. I think AiRAY is the only system that offers such great sound quality in combination with so many practical advantages.”
Head of Hibino Sound Division Ryoichi Hashimoto was equally enthusiastic: “It is really striking just how much power AiRAY produces from such compact cabinets and the comments from our clients about sound quality have all been very positive. The clarity and SPL for such a compact system is remarkable. AiRAY’s size means that it has significantly less effect on audience sight-lines and the fact that it is so light means that it reduces the impact of weight restrictions when the system is flown. From the point of view of a rental company it is really important to stress that in terms of trucking, AiRAY takes up something like two-thirds of the space of previous systems, meaning fewer trucks on the road and therefore very significant cost savings.
Added to this, the lightweight and flexible nature of the system means that fewer crew are needed for transport and set-up, so again, more costs are saved. These obvious advantages made this large additional order for AiRAY a very easy decision. “Coda Sales and Marketing Director Paul Ward added: “We are genuinely delighted that Hibino has chosen to make this very sizeable investment in AiRAY. They are clearly confident in the system’s capacity to address applications right across the touring market and they are certainly well-placed to judge its credentials. For Coda, this represents another ringing endorsement of AiRAY on the global stage.”
