The sound of splintering wood and hardware being shattered would usually strike fear in the hearts of any sound engineer or crew member. However, last year in Florida, the noise of sledge hammers smashing speakers was greeted with triumphant cheers, as L-Acoustics invited a selection of rental houses to take up arms and smash a pile of speakers to pieces before being recycled. Why did the destruction of 136 speakers provoke such celebration? Well, despite their L-Acoustics branding, these particular products were in fact counterfeit.
Following a successful court case against a local Floridian rental house, L-Acoustics was awarded damages of $5m as well as being granted the right to destroy all the confiscated speakers. As well as providing an effective stress-relief exercise for all those present, the team at L-Acoustics decided to use the event as an opportunity to send a strong message to those breaking the law and flooding the market with these counterfeit products.
With images from what L-Acoustics dubbed as ‘Destruction Day’ flooding social media, counterfeit products are a hot topic, so we at TPi decided to delve deeper into the issue and find out about how the manufacturer is trying to tackle it and what customers and end users should be aware of.
Words: Stew Hume
Photos: Zack Whitman
