Giving China a Sporting chance
LAX, a Chinese domestic speaker manufacturer arrived on our shores without the OEM coating, so AT went to the source.
By Mark Davie
16 April 2013
Standing on the wire netting suspended over the middle of LAX’s anechoic chamber is disconcerting. The netting has a wave effect without the kind of resistance you’d get from a trampoline; you rise and fall automatically, with each step only adding to the wave’s amplitude. Once inside the chamber, a heavily reinforced steel door thicker than any bank vault and covered in 1.2m-long foam spikes slowly rolls forward to lock you into… The Dead Room. While dramatic, it’s lucky there weren’t any translation errors. Getting trapped in a silent Room For The Dead for instance, may be a tad more disconcerting.
THE DEAD ROOM
The Dead Room is the centrepiece of LAX’s R&D centre in the Guangzhou province of China. It’s not too far from Uli Behringer’s Music Group Factory, and even Uli makes occasional visits to LAX headquarters, returning with the odd orange and white showbag of paraphernalia. The Music Group doesn’t have its own anechoic chamber (yet), so uses the one at LAX to conduct some testing. And despite being one of the first western audio companies to see the margins in Chinese manufacturing, Behringer still hasn’t managed to carve out the kind of ubiquity it enjoys globally, in the country it builds its products in. It’s a problem that only LAX can help with. Deep down, our loyalties are reserved for product made locally, and it’s no different in China where loyalty and distribution networks are on a closed loop.
But back to LAX. The brand has been around since 1997, though we’re only starting to see this Chinese-made product on our shores, courtesy of Galactic Music. By now, we’re used to electronics being manufactured in China, but for the most part tend to stick to brands with some American, European or Aussie design connection. As if to say that design is god, and manufacturing is merely an exercise in accurate reproduction. But it’s a fallacy. China isn’t a machine, it’s a country, full of people, business people; some that are industrious, some that are lazy, crooks or opportunists, and some that are geniuses, just like any other country. And LAX is one of the local heroes.
SPORTING PROWESS
For the most part we tend to judge a PA’s notoriety by the number of times it appears on large-scale touring riders, doubling as the litmus test for system performance. But for LAX, it’s all about sport, and there’s no greater example of human triumph than a well-executed games — university games, youth games, Olympic games — whatever the flavour, there’s a sense that the service providers are equally as valued as the participants. You only have to watch the Olympic Games coverage and count the amount of times you see a volunteer onscreen or hear the commentator’s lavish praise on them to see what LAX is on about. There’s plenty of goodwill to go round for everyone. For a Chinese company, where excellence and pride in achievements are prized, it’s a no brainer.
LAX has provided PAs for the Asian Games, Beach Games, Universiade, National Games, but the coup (or coop) was winning the contract to supply the main Bird’s Nest stadium at the Beijing Olympics. In all, LAX ended up providing a sixth of the PA for the whole Olympics. It was a big win, and gave LAX a chance to prove its product on a world stage.
GOING GLOBAL
Since then, there’s been a gradual move into international territories. The percentage of business from overseas markets is minuscule compared to the business LAX is doing in its home market, so the board doesn’t need to care if it’s only just scraping by.
Ken Lau, Lax’s Global Sales Director: “Our major income is from domestic projects and wholesale. The strategy the boss gave me is to keep it balanced, because the company doesn’t expect to earn money from this department at the beginning. The most important thing is to help our distributor earn money, and to maintain the interest in working with us. Once they raise up the brand name, maybe five or 10 years later we will share the harvest. But at this stage, we keep it about survival and give the space to our distributor.”
It’s about building up the reputation of the brand, finding those ‘Bird’s Nests’ of opportunity to showcase the brand. LAX now has over 30 distributors spreading the gospel worldwide and have hired Aussie Gary Compson as Vice General Manager, showing the board’s laid back attitude towards profits belies an outpouring of energy into the global marketplace. And it’s paying off. B&K Braun, the distributor in Western Europe, has plenty of clout and will be announcing LAX on some big tour rider specs soon.
SINGING ITS VIRTUES
As well as voice transmission for sporting events, electronic music is definitely where LAX systems excel. The demonstration rooms at LAX headquarters include a small club-sized area, another blank space that would comfortably hold a few thousand and will be renovated into a large auditorium at some future date. But perhaps seeing the most action are two fully pimped-out karaoke lounges with plush banquettes, chandeliers, beer and champagne — the perfect demo room. It is China after all, where if you’re not selling into the karaoke market, you’re not selling. And it seems that market has a particular effect on LAX’s voicing, tending to feature the presence portions of the vocal range, and plenty down low.
Five years before the brand LAX came into being, the parent company Ruefing Audio was an OEM manufacturer, so a lot of that expertise has flown across into the LAX lines. “You can never have everything from A-Z, it’s too hard,” said Lau. But you can try, and LAX certainly does. Across the demo rooms, there’s everything from concert line arrays to toadstool garden speakers. The pro audio range covers everything from the smaller U series, the covering-all-bases FP series, and the reassuringly-named Operation series, which is LAX’s big line array system.
AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION
In Australia, the ATEC series of line arrays is an attractive proposition, bringing affordable line array systems to school auditoriums and the like. The first couple of installs at the Methodist Ladies College and St Mary’s Anglican Girl’s School in Perth have used the ATEC series, with the single eight-inch element providing great value. MLC’s Theatre Manager, Adrian Arnold said, “We were so impressed by the incredible value and the capacity of the LAX system to meet our production needs for years to come that we convinced school management to purchase the complete system.”
LAX uses RCF and Eighteen Sound drivers in its speakers and manufacture most everything else onsite in China, though there have been talks with well-known amplifier manufacturers to potentially provide amplification for the line arrays, hoping big-name alliances will help the brand’s reputation globally. But for the moment, the price is more than enough for anyone looking at a PA to seriously consider it. Performance is a bonus.
LAX: www.laxpro.net
Galactic Music: (08) 9204 7555 or www.galacticmusic.com.au
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