Our brands
It wasn’t just by chance that Solution One chose be the distributor for Funktion One, Full Fat Audio, Formula Sound, NST Audio and a reseller for Cadac. These companies design and manufacture their equipment entirely in the UK, paying unfailing attention to quality, innovation and sound rendition, with unprecedented accuracy.
Of course, Funktion One’s systems, Full Fat Audio’s amplifiers, Formula Sound's mixers, NST Audio's processors and Cadac's consoles are fully compatible.
Check our brands out and don’t hesitate to contact us for individually tailored advice, which will take into account the prospective use, whether permanent or mobile, your intended venue or outside space, your budget and your goals and ambitions.
A little history
The relationship between Funktion One and our partners began in 1993, at a time when their main aim was to offer the best possible audio experience during live and large-scale events that they were organising. Discovering Funktion One’s systems filled them with enthusiasm. No other company offered such an accurate sound, placed as much value on the emotional aspect of the sound or allowed as much intuition and versatility. To this day, Funktion One remains at the forefront of technology but still their love of sound remains intact.
What about Full Fat Audio? It was founded in 2003 and one of our partners was their second customer! At that time, most of the manufacturers weren’t able to offer sufficiently powerful amplification. The first generations of class D amplifiers suffered from reliability problems and risked damaging speaker components. This technology had therefore been almost abandoned. Then in 2003 Full Fat Audio discovered how to create new amplifiers with class D power ratings that were perfectly reliable and safe for transducers and for compression chambers in particular. Full Fat Audio was the pioneer of the technology that has since become the industry norm!
Our links with Formula Sound also have been forged for a long time because they co-developed the mixers FF-4000 and FF-6000 with Funktion One. Therefore, we are happy to distribute their products in France, where their mixers are widely appreciated by the best producers and DJS.
NST Audio, on the other hand, is a new brand, but we immediately knew that we would want to work with them, given the experience and skills of their founders. Their new processor gives us forward looking technology with expandable options and products are on their way to shake up the market!
To finish, Cadac is distributed in France by Audio2. We however wished to position ourselves as resellers of the brand. Why? We wish to offer our customers these exceptional consoles and thus provide them with complete solutions, the best advice and cater to their needs at every level of the audio chain.
Proposing these prestigious brands, designed and made in Great Britain by visionary companies is the heart of our mission. And it is our privilege to offer nothing but the best.Funktion One
Funktion One is a British brand whose professional audio products are designed and manufactured exclusively in the UK. The founders of Funktion One are inventors, passionate about sound, who have brought about major innovations in the audio world, delivering an incomparable and unbeatable acoustic quality.
Versatility, flexibility, quality!
Most of Funktion One’s products are available as several different models, each designed according to its intended use. The same system, with an identical output and the same optimum quality, can therefore be tailored for permanent installation or to be used on tour for example, or for one-off events.
This leads to certain variations in the price, the design and the weight of the equipment. These differences will be especially significant if the system needs to be hung from ceiling or in a marquee etc.
Funktion One’s versatile and adaptable range, including equipment suitable for fixed installations and mobile purposes along with smaller, multipurpose products, can be found in our catalogue, which can be downloaded here:
A different technological approach
Funktion One’s technological approach is based on two principles; excluding all system equalisation (with the associated problems of phase and headroom) and minimising the use of compression drivers for mid range frequencies (with their inherent harshness and distortion). Their speaker systems also have excellent directional control, which facilitates precise sound distribution within the desired space and at the same time reduces noise disturbances in the surrounding area.
Particular attention is also paid to the emotional effect of the sound. Not only that made by the music, but also that produced by the sound itself, which could be called its “quality”.
Recognisable and efficient design
The design of Funktion One’s speakers results from years of research into maximising efficiency, i.e. the conversion of amplification power into acoustic energy. They thus produce a bright and responsive sound, making the Resolution system, for example, more efficient than most others in its class.
Full Fat Audio is an independent British company, started in 2003, whose activity involves the design and manufacture of high-performance amplifiers for audio professionals. Distributed throughout the world for use in numerous sound installations, from big live music festivals, clubs and theatres to places of worship, their amplifiers deliver an exceptional performance. Powerful and effective, their dynamic amplification solutions are innovative and reliable, their equipment relentlessly working at full capacity to provide the most intense listening experience.
Part of the reputation of the brand is definitely linked to the fact that it is often used in very powerful settings, however, the equipment also shows great finesse in quieter environments.
Listening carefully to the market; finding effective solutions
Along with their great price/quality ratio, one of their greatest strengths lies in their awareness of their customers’ needs. It should be mentioned that the founder, Dave Millard, keeps in regular contact with users, as do the rest of the team, something that enables them to create and develop useful and effective solutions.
Thus their power amplifiers genuinely work at 2 ohms, without reducing the quality, which is quite unique in the marketplace. A healthy competitive advantage, since it’s not necessary to buy as many amplifiers when theirs can feed more speakers! Note too that their bass amp, producing up to 5000 Watts at 2 ohms, offers headroom, even on the largest of subwoofers.
Another interesting initiative is their DSP (Digital Sound Processor) platform, which offers options that can make a real difference, such as DSP bypass modes for example. For complicated installations, the VCA (voltage controlled amplifier) enables the use of multiple zones, whilst being less expensive and offering an infinite number of possibilities. The control of amplifiers over an Ethernet network, via their IP addresses, is another example. Thanks to its sheer simplicity, it’s no longer necessary to buy extra, expensive network accessories. The amplifiers instantly connect to the building’s internal Wi-Fi network and the free control software finds them automatically. The system is set up immediately!
FFA is a reliable, inventive company that pays great attention to quality at every stage of the design and manufacturing process, all of which takes place on British soil!Formula Sound
Formula Sound Limited started out over 35 years ago in the UK town of Stockport, created from the vision and experience of its founders, Tony and Sandra Cockell. Initially, Formula Sound produced custom built systems and one-off specials for a wide range of clients, but it soon became clear that there was a requirement for professional studio or broadcast quality sound equipment within the leisure arena.
Today, Formula Sound has offices in London and a manufacturing facility in Oldham. The company has become a leading designer and manufacturer of analogue mixing desks for live sound, permanent installation, DJs, broadcast and recording studios. It prides itself on the quality of its products and the ongoing service it provides to customers.
Formula Sound produces a wide range of mixer and audio processing circuitry which maintain traditional pro-audio build quality and values. Many of their products are not available from any other manufacturer and their unique range of volume & noise level controllers are considered to be real problem solvers.
They do not batch test their products – each and every one is individually assembled and tested in the UK. Equally, high quality connectors and faders, along with traditional through-hole circuit board designs, make their products sound great and stay extremely reliable and easily serviceable.
All Formula Sound products continue to be fully designed and built in the UK and, in addition to the ‘off the shelf’ range of products, the company offers a bespoke audio equipment design and build option and an aftersales service that is second to none. No wonder we at Solution One chose to work with them and distribute their products across our network !NST Audio
A world-class team of experienced industry professionals
In 2014, after an absence from the pro audio industry of three years, Ian McCarthy, co-founder of MC2 Audio Ltd., joined forces with long time audio software and design engineer, Dan Cartman and industry legend and co-founder of XTA Electronics Ltd., Andrew Grayland, to form NST AUDIO Ltd.
Renowned live-sound engineer and systems expert, Phil Key, joined the company later in the year, strengthening the team with outstanding technical support skills.
With expertise and knowledge developed over decades of experience in pro-audio at the highest level, NST AUDIO has world-class audio electronic designers, software developers, live-sound engineers, expert management and superior product support on-board. At Solution One, we knew from the start that we would want to distribute their processors and we are very excited about the first model to come out of their production line : the D48 Matrix Signal Processor !
Experts in DSP-based hardware and software for the audio industries
NST AUDIO brings together broad expertise and depth of experience in the field of pro audio, specifically DSP and software design and implementation, in order to design hardware and software solutions for audio networks and to supply own brand, OEM and licensed DSP based software and hardware. The approach to product design at NST AUDIO is underpinned by three fundamentally important philosophies: reliability, audio quality and functionality. Utilising the very latest remote communication technology, while at the same time exploring its boundaries, NST is committed to the production of high fidelity, flexible products, which will compete in the market at the highest level.
The Cadac name has been synonymous with premium quality audio mixing consoles for over 45 years. From the earliest recording studio desks in the late 1960s, which recorded classic tracks from major international artists, through to the live sound consoles found in prestigious theatres and on global concert tours, Cadac has always set the benchmark for quality. Nowadays, many Cadac recording desks are still in operation in studios all over the world. In fact there are few brands that can match Cadac’s unparalleled pedigree in the world of professional audio.
In 1984 a sound engineer, Martin Levan, from Morgan Studios was asked to put on a live show, Little Shop of Horrors and this resulted in the first Cadac desk built for live theatre. The spec for the console dictated that is should be of “studio quality audio” and that the front-to-back dimension could not be deeper than a row of seats. This was the start of Cadac dominating the theatre market with nearly 70% of theatre shows using Cadac desks. The longest continually serving Cadac console in London was on Phantom of the Opera where it was used from 1984 until 2008, providing 24 years continuous service!
Not all Cadac consoles are found in recording studios and theatres, they are also the console of choice for concert touring for many internationally acclaimed performers including; Rolling Stones, Van Halen, Franz Ferdinand, Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Status Quo, The Beach Boys, Tom Jones and Bryan Adams.
Today, Cadac have a range of both analogue and innovative digital consoles aimed at the live sound market and the company is continually investing heavily in research and engineering to develop the next generation of digital consoles. Currently Cadac’s flagship digital console the CDC eight has been deployed in a variety of applications ranging from theatre shows and major stadium tours to Houses of Worship and broadcast. At Solution One, we are particularly interested in its latest innovation, the Cadac 6 digital console, whose technology is entirely based on its prestigious CDC eight.