297:, who had not allowed them to use his superior sound system, and they were stuck with the poor house sound system. This made them realize the benefit of traveling with their own sound system. Once again impressed with the Clair brothers sound system, the tour manager asked them to join them on the road for the rest of the tour, bringing their sound system, for $ 90 per show. It is believed they were the first professional sound company to tour with a band.
293:. Their road crew was impressed by the Clair Brothers sound system. Roy asked to be invited into their dressing room, where he talked about why the system sounded so good. The next day the band had a show in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which sounded terrible. They contacted the Clair brothers through a local DJ and asked them to come down with their system. Just before these two concerts they had done a show with
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Clair designed and built the first stage monitor, in 1970, and the first hanging sound system for indoor arenas, in 1972. Both are now standard parts of live events. Clair, along with JANDS co-founder Bruce
Jackson, developed and introduced its own 32-channel folding audio console with parametric EQ,
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The 4-way design used a 3-way active cross over with 200 Hz and 1,200 Hz crossover points initially powered by Phase Linear 700 amplifiers. A passive 7 kHz high frequency crossover between the JBL 2440 and JBL 2405 drivers was installed in the cabinet. Speaker cabinets were connected
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In
October 2000, Clair bought Showco, its direct competitor, and named the combined company ClairShowCo. With this move, the company became one of the world's largest sound reinforcement equipment providers, and it continued to grow over the course of the decade, particularly with acquisitions of DB
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Sound of
Chicago and ConcertSound of the UK in 2008. In 2008, renamed as Clair Global. Clair Global added a broadcast services division in August 2010, in part through the acquisition of Wireless First, Inc. and GTO Live, Inc. With that acquisition came Kevin Sanford, the founder of both companies.
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The original S4 design was a 4-way system with two JBL K150 18 inch bass speakers, four JBL K110 10 inch midrange speakers, two JBL 2440 2 inch troat high frequency drivers coupled to JBL 2385 12 inch elliptical exponential horns (without the slant-plate acoustic lenses) and two JBL 2405 ultra-high
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In 1968, the Clair
Brothers main front of house system consisted of stacks of custom designed dual 15 inch bass horns loaded with Altec drivers. These were paired with passive crossovers and Altec 288-C high frequency drivers attached to Altec multi-cell horns. These were powered by the new Crown
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In 1990, Clair acquired MD Systems of
Nashville and created a partnership with JANDS in Australia. Also that year, Clair opened a location in Cambridge, England. Four years later it moved the operation to Switzerland to combine with Audio Rent in Basel, operating there as AudioRent Clair. In 1995,
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to install permanent sound, video, and lighting systems in concert venues, churches, stadiums, theaters, cruise ships, and schools. This new business eventually grew large enough that in 2009 it moved out of the Lititz location to a new location in nearby
Manheim. That business is now separate and
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In 1974 Clair
Brothers introduced their S4 all-in-one PA speaker. A radical departure from the different sized modular boxes generally used in large concert PA systems of the time. The S4 was a single box full range 4-way speaker weighing 425 lbs with integrated
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In the early 1960s Gene began working as a technician for
Franklin & Marshall College in nearby Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which gave them opportunities to rent out their sound system. Their sound system consisted of two columns with six eight-inch speakers each, a
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frequency "slot" drivers. The drivers were vertically aligned so they would acoustically couple with the cabinets above and below them. The driver selection evolved over time generally keeping with the all JBL design.
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In 1980, Clair Global established its first location outside the United States, with Clair Japan in
Yokohama. At the end of the decade, Clair Global officially launched a
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reconing business, Clair
Reconing, which fixed loudspeakers. This is where they first started learning about loudspeaker design and how important it is to efficiency.
218:. It is believed they were the first professional sound company to tour with a band. The company formally incorporated in 1970 as Clair Bros. Audio Enterprises, Inc.
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In April 2022, Black Box Music in Berlin was acquired by AudioRent Clair, which now operates as BBM Clair. Clair thus has a branch in the EU again after Brexit.
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ATK Audiotek, AudioRent Clair, BBM Clair, Britannia Row Productions, Eighth Day Sound, JPJ Audio, Pro Media Audio Video, SKAN, Sound Image, Surfhire, TDA Clair
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In 1970, the Clair Brothers officially incorporate as Clair Bros. Audio Enterprises, Inc. and switched to JBL speaker components in their speaker designs.
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In 2014, along with partner Tait Towers, Clair opened the 30,000 square-foot Rock Lititz, the largest dedicated rehearsal space in the world.
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DC300 direct coupled amplifiers. The new dual 15 inch bass horn design was based on the Altec A7 horn design. They were built in-house.
259:. Money they earned went to buying more equipment. Through high school, college and after they continued to rent it out and add to it.
328:. The S4 design was a system that included the S4 speakers, amplifier racks, flying hardware and cabling as an integrated package.
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In 1967, Clair Brothers used Altec Lansing A7-500 Voice of the Theater speakers on the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tour.
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The S-4 was used in large two dimension arrays. Typically six to ten or more columns of six or nine speakers closely arrayed.
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of an auditorium or arena. The S4 measured 45 inches by 45 inches which allowed two cabinets to sit side by side in a
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Clair is a primary developer of Rock Lititz, a campus shared with other companies in the live event industry.
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to the amplifier racks using custom large gauge multi pair cables with Cannon multi-pin connectors.
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Gene Clair sold his end of the business to his son Troy Clair, who is now president and CEO.
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in 1977, followed by CTS™ processing and the Clair/TC remote controlled EQ system in 1980.
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in 1955 which they started to rent out to bands, schools, and churches. It consisted of a
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I was a partner with Bruce in the first several sales of Fairlight in the States
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and live touring production support company. It was founded by brothers Roy and
585:"Clair Brothers rebrands to separate installation and audio speaker businesses"
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In December 2013, co-founder Gene Clair died of an illness at age 73.
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Greenblat, Eli (February 15, 2001). "Lake buys into US sound firm".
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695:"Medienmitteilung: «Der nächste Schritt» – AudioRent Clair AG"
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Their big break came in 1966. They provided sound to
423:"Roy & Gene Clair: The Sound of Sibling Success"
501:"An Unlikely Haven for Rock 'n' Roll Entrepreneurs"
765:Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States
785:Companies based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
528:Clair Brochure: Over 40 Years Of Audio Excellence
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499:Strauss, Robert (January 27, 2010).
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473:Jurgensen, John (August 7, 2014).
451:"Walter Eugene Clair, 1940-2013".
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708:Negley, Erin (January 14, 2014).
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612:"ClairShowco Rebranded As Clair"
320:for suspending from the roof or
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479:Wall Street Journal, The
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683:(10): 15. October 2010.
664:(1): 66. January 2012.
459:(1): 10. January 2014.
343:1980s through present
237:public address system
622:on September 9, 2015
572:US Festival Figure 3
429:. September 18, 2008
233:Lititz, Pennsylvania
206:, is a professional
102:Lititz, Pennsylvania
71:Lititz, Pennsylvania
505:New York Times, The
289:at a local show at
274:amplifier and four
208:sound reinforcement
114:Number of locations
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382:Rock Lititz Campus
326:semi-trailer truck
52:Professional Audio
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550:Clair Brothers S4
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97:Headquarters
48:Construction
30:Company type
17:Clair Global
719:January 12,
626:January 12,
510:January 12,
484:January 12,
433:January 12,
370:Innovations
295:Herb Alpert
280:microphones
264:loudspeaker
247:integrated
189:clairglobal
173:Integration
124:Area served
759:Categories
595:12 January
427:FOH Online
407:References
257:microphone
212:Gene Clair
141:Troy Clair
134:Key people
253:power amp
163:Divisions
128:Worldwide
89:Roy Clair
390:See also
349:spin-off
255:, and a
78:Founders
40:Industry
22:Formerly
643:The Age
222:History
184:Website
176:Product
63: (
58:Founded
34:Private
401:Showco
170:Rental
154:Brands
276:Shure
272:Bogen
204:Clair
721:2016
645:: 4.
628:2016
597:2016
512:2016
486:2016
435:2016
278:55s
243:, a
191:.com
65:1966
61:1966
677:Mix
658:Mix
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