EM Acoustics has revealed HALO Arena at Integrated Systems Europe 2018, the system that takes HALO Compact design values to the next level. HALO-C made an enormous impact when it was first launched in 2012 – providing detail, clarity, and crystalline sonic performance. Built on the same core design intent as the much smaller HALO-C, HALO-A takes overall SPL capability to a level suitable for much larger applications, both fixed installation and touring.
HALO-A benefits from the same ‘maximum headroom’ design that characterises its little brother, HALO-C, ensuring that HALO-A delivers consistent performance across all SPL levels. A single HALO-A cabinet exhibits a flat, free-field frequency response from 48Hz to 19kHz (+/-3dB) and a phase response which is +/- 20° between 150Hz and 18kHz. Due to the unique loading technique applied to the low frequency drivers combined with the high frequency waveguide, the dispersion pattern control is maintained down to 250Hz.
Whilst HALO Arena delivers the same flawless performance and coverage as HALO-C, the technology used to achieve it is different due to the much higher SPLs required from HALO-A. Rather than an AMT plane-wave guide, EM Acoustics has used compression drivers with a specially developed patent-pending emulation manifold which combines the energy of 4 3.4inch diaphragm, 1.4inch exit compression drivers into a plane-wave array.
EM Acoustics’ Ed Kinsella, who designed HALO Arena, explained: “This assembly provides a very significant moving area for the HF section and twice the headroom of comparable systems. In real terms this means that HALO-A runs at 3dB less distortion than a competitor’s system at the same SPL due to the increased overall headroom.”
The bottom end is served by a pair of high power 3.5inch voice coil 12inch low frequency transducers. Combined with optimally tuned low turbulence porting and generous cabinet volume, HALO-A delivers a low frequency performance to match the stunning highs. “We decided to keep HALO-A as a two-way system as it reduces the off-axis parallax issues to a single crossover point,” continued Kinsella. “In fact, I’m pleased to say that the many, many late nights at the drawing board and absolutely rigorous testing have paid off, because we’ve managed to almost completely eradicate this issue now, which of course pays dividends in terms of performance.”
HALO Arena is robustly built with a tough polyurethane coating designed for outdoor use and a full range of flying hardware is available that has been designed with touring flexibility, ease of use and reliability in mind. Applications include medium to large format touring, fixed installation, houses of worship and large format corporate AV events.