Britannia Row acquires Lake?s expanded LM Series

UK rental house Britannia Row has recently boosted its investment in Lake’s LM Series, with the purchase of 17 units of the LM 44 and 12 LM 26s adding to its Lake inventory.

Britannia Row, which has been providing pro audio equipment and technicians since 1975, now holds 70 Lake LM Series units.

Mike Lowe, finance/production director at Britannia Row, explained: “We got into Lake in the very early days when the late, great Bruce Jackson came and visited us here in Britannia Row two or three times and it was pretty amazing the stuff that he showed us then. On top of the fantastic facilities that the Lake processor brought to the party, the end result was a great improvement in sound quality, and that was really the kicker for making the move in the first place.”

Managing director at Britannia Row Bryan Grant, added: “I think the purchase speaks for itself in many ways. We’ve moved pretty much exclusively to Lake units to control our systems and currently have them on the MTV EMA awards in Belfast where we have a multi zoned K1/Outline system, plus touring systems with Kasabian, The Cure, Will Young, Noel Gallagher, Beady Eye, Duran Duran, Jamiroquai, Young Voices, Tinie Tempah, Cliff Richard and many more.”

The rental company’s technical head Jerry Wing, also said: “Lake’s LM 26 and 44 are the building blocks on which all of our systems that require speaker processing operate. The shelves are often completely clear of units as they are all out there doing jobs. I think at several dates this year, we’ve had all units, plus the original DLPs we had all out there doing jobs for us, which goes to show the popularity of the unit and how much they are in demand.”

Britannia Row has now cleared its stock of the original DLPs, and replaced them with LM 44s, which provide four analogue inputs and outputs, in contrast to the LM 26’s 2-in/6-out. Furthermore, the LM 44 accommodates 8-in/8-out AES3 and 4-in/8-out Dante digital audio transport, while benefitting from the latest implementation of Lake’s ‘Mesa EQ’ configuration, utilising 4 Mesa modules, each with an independent input mixer and output signal processing chain.

With this configuration, the LM 44 is designed for use in a wider number of different FOH applications, such as a mix-matrix and full system EQ – sitting between a mixer and almost any high-end performance loudspeaker system – switching between consoles on large events, inserted EQ for monitor systems, FOH to stage digital transmission, line driver for self-powered systems, and as a Dante break-in/break-out box.

Wing concluded: “The Lakes are completely dependable and worry free. The sound quality is second to none, and when used with Dante, give a sparklingly clean low latency link, further augmented with the extra features offered by the LM44 now standard in all our drive racks.

“Britannia Row has committed itself to the LM Series, as we have found the right product that fulfils our needs and exceeds all that we ask of it. We will continue with this association with Lab.gruppen and Lake for a long time to come I hope.”

The LM 44 was officially launched at PLASA 2011 in September this year, and is shipping now.