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PT: Historically, the need for nearfield monitoring came out of the fact that most main monitors were pretty damn awful, as were the acoustics of the rooms they were installed in. MT: Is there still a use for nearfield monitoring as well as main monitors? If you have a small studio and are using smaller speakers, you still need to hear what’s going on at the bottom end so you don’t make errors with your mix. We can provide unrivalled tonal accuracy, resolution and dynamic range and get a much bigger sound out of a smaller cabinet. We’ve developed Advanced Transmission Line technology, which we use in our active speakers to give the ultimate, no-compromise pairing of speakers and amplifiers. In terms of performance, you can now get much more out of a smaller speaker. We’re addressing this market with our latest products such as the QB1-XBD-A and the BB6 and MB3 monitors we launched at NAMM, but the bulk of our business is still the midfield/nearfield monitors more suited to smaller rooms. PT: The move from lots of large studios with massive monitors to smaller studios with far more compact monitors has been a major change, although I’ve noticed there’s a swing back towards larger studios and larger monitors in recent years, especially in the USA, emerging markets and the large educational facilities. MT: How has monitoring changed over the years? I remember getting a call to say that Stevie was blown away and couldn’t stop dancing. It’s rewarding to read the sleeve notes and see that we were involved – I still get a buzz out of that! One installation that does stick in my mind was Stevie Wonder’s Wonderland Studio, where we installed the large BB5 Active system. It’s great to know that by giving our customers the best insight into their work we become part of the creative process. PT: All of them, from the smallest through to the largest. MT: Which customers are you most proud of?
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It quickly became apparent that he had gone way beyond anything I could do because he had a next-generation knowledge of development and computer software. He worked at PMC during university holidays and eventually decided he preferred designing speakers. He loves Formula 1 and did motorsport engineering at Oxford, then got a job at Red Bull working on the electronic control of engines. I told all the kids they shouldn’t see joining PMC as an easy option, because I would make them work twice as hard as anyone else, but Oliver was very keen to be involved and he had the right skillset. These days, I manage the business while R&D is handled by my son, Oliver, who took over about five years ago. We have five kids between us and they’ve all grown up together and are very close. The nice thing was that I ended up marrying Adrian’s wife Jo and 18 years on, we’re still very happy. We nearly closed the company, but having put so much into it, I wanted to carry on for Adrian’s sake, as well as my own. He was only 38 and it was a terrible time, because my wife had also died six months earlier. At first, I handled R&D, product design and manufacturing while Adrian was responsible for sales, finance and company administration. Peter Thomas: My role in the company has changed.
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MusicTech: Tell us about your role at PMC… MusicTech caught up with Peter for his thoughts… They’re used by many top artists, engineers and producers including Stevie Wonder, Henry Jackman, Thomas Newman, Coldplay, Spike Stent, Alan Moulder and Elbow, not to mention a host of mastering houses who have chosen the monitors for their high-precision, accurate sound. The company’s studio monitors have become the main choice for many facilities around the world including Teldex in Berlin, Capitol Studios in LA, and Galaxy Studios in Belgium. It expanded very quickly and now employs 55 people with offices in the UK and the USA. The company’s first product was the BB5-A active studio monitor, used by the BBC at Maida Vale Studios and also Metropolis Mastering in Chiswick, London.Īfter producing several studio-specific monitors during the 90s, PMC moved into the hi-fi market.
#PMC BB5 XBD PROFESSIONAL#
PMC (the Professional Monitoring Company) was founded in 1991 by Peter Thomas and Adrian Loader, who had previously worked at the BBC and studio-gear experts FWO Bauch respectively, and their primary mission was simply to produce the best speakers in the world.