ATK Audiotek Keeps Powersoft at the Core of its Audio Systems

	ATK Audiotek's Powersoft K10 DSP+AESOP amplifiers at work.

Audio manufacturer Powersoft announced that Valencia, California-based ATK Audiotek, a provider of audio production services, has acquired 48 Powersoft K10 DSP+AESOP amplifiers, increasing its arsenal of Powersoft's top class amplification to better serve the needs of its growing international customer base. ATK Audiotek, which provides sound reinforcement solutions for television, specialized events, and industrial productions, migrated its entire inventory of amplifiers to Powersoft back in 2009, and since then has been scaling its equipment infrastructure to service high profile events around the world -- including the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, the CMA Awards, and many others.

The new K10s DSP+AESOP amplifiers, which are being put into service immediately, are able to produce 12,000W of power from within a single rack chassis off of a single 20A circuit. By leveraging Powersoft's DSP technology within its amplifiers, ATK Audiotek is able to realize a more flexible DSP topology across its systems rather than relying on a "centrally distributed" DSP model.

"We are a company that does a lot of events, so it was very important for us to have a solution that was both agile and flexible," said Scott Harmala, chief technology officer / VP engineering of ATK Audiotek. "We average close to 12 shows per day, and they are all different -- so our system has to be able to adapt to all of these different scenarios. Having the DSP in the amplifiers enables build us a library of settings and presets to do this efficiently. In all the evaluations we did, Powersoft came out on top so we made the investment."

"With its purchase of (48) new K10 DSP+AESOP amplifiers, ATK Audiotek gains an enormous amount of DSP flexibility in their infrastructure, while delivering an extremely high standard of premium sound," commented Kurt Metzler, director of sales at Powersoft. "It is extremely gratifying to know that our new amplifiers will be used on some of the most prominent stages in the world, including the Grammy Awards and the Super Bowl -- this is a testament to the engineering prowess and build quality of Powersoft equipment."

ATK Audiotek is one of the predominant sound reinforcement company in the televised special events market, routinely supporting high profile events around the world with its premium audio solutions. This August, the company will be providing audio for the Special Olympics World Games; in the past ATK Audiotek has been called on to provide audio support for events including the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, and many others.

Working in such a diverse and demanding commercial environment requires careful attention to gear selection. "We are powering a large inventory of primarily JBLs, all the way from VT 4889s, down to the smaller boxes; we also have proprietary loudspeaker systems that we have developed over time," Harmala explains. "It is simpler for us to have one amp package to serve our entire inventory, and Powersoft can handle the small boxes, the large boxes, and everything in between without us having to worry about marrying the right amp with the right loudspeaker."

"Our power distribution uses 30A circuits 120V circuits," he continued. "So it was important for us to have a high powered amp that could run all our systems and live within our existing power distribution infrastructure. We went through exhaustive testing with the other manufacturers, and frankly, the others didn't meet our performance requirements. In our listening tests, everyone's impression was that Powersoft was and the best sounding low frequency amp that anybody had ever heard. Also, it works really well for high frequencies -- very transparent and true to the original signal. Aside from the obvious DSP benefits in the new K10s, these were the real reasons behind the purchase."

In addition to attaining premium sound quality and DSP capabilities in all of its amplifiers, Audiotek ATK Audiotek has been pleased with both the reliability and service of Powersoft. "We had a mixed bag of results with the last amplifier manufacturer we used, and one particular model became a real logistics problem for us," Harmala explains. "We were experiencing such high failure rates that we had to keep spare amplifiers on site. So before we moved to another amplifier company, we looked at the reliability factor very carefully." Harmala's team spent approximately two years conducting live performance and bench testing on several amplifier models from different manufacturers.

Now that the company has moved to Powersoft, ATK Audiotek is experiencing failure rates of less .5 percent of its inventory per year. "This is a remarkable statistic -- anything under one percent is outstanding, so Powersoft gets high marks," Harmala says. "It is solid engineering and these amplifiers have proven themselves over the six years we've had them in service. That's one of the reasons we were confident in acquiring 48 more and continuing with the K10."

On the rare occasion that product support is needed, Harmala and his team are pleased that Powersoft is able to provide first rate service: "Now that Powersoft has a service center in California, they are able to turn our amps around very quickly and the fixes are always very good."

Since deploying Powersoft amplifiers in 2009, ATK Audiotek's engineers in the field have had a favorable impression of Powersoft: "Everybody regards Powersoft as a real premium amplifier," Harmala concludes. "The K10s really made all of our speakers systems noticeable sound better, right off the bat. The difference from our previous amplifiers was very noticeable. Now, we are happy to gain the new functionality we needed through the K10 DPS+AESOP units."