PA company Blueboxx Creative premiered its new Electro-Voice XLE compact line array system in the potentially controversial open-air theatre of London's Trafalgar Square at a public ceremony to mark the passage of the Olympic Flame through London.

In a relatively peaceful culmination to the event, the bearer of the torch arrived in London's most famous Square and ran down the steps to the foot of Nelson's Column, where a stage had been erected for live performers and PA playback of the ceremonial trumpets which provided the fanfare for the occasion.

Weather conditions were not that great for Blueboxx's city centre debut, with freezing temperatures bringing a light dusting of snow onto their new XLE cabinets. This new company has made a major investment with Shuttlesound; XLE arrayable enclosures, X Subs, Xi1152s and ZX5 speakers from EV, with new Tour Grade power amplifiers.

Based in St Albans, Blueboxx Creative was founded by Domonic Martin and David Glover in 2004, and has handled high-profile events such as the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival and the opening event ‘Out Of The Blue' at the O2 Arena. Between them, they have an extensive theatre background plus a wealth of experience working with live bands. With Blueboxx expanding quickly thanks to excellent industry connections, Martin and Glover took the decision to invest in a branded system.

"Initially, we weren't thinking line array as we envisaged a mid-market, ground-stacking system," explains Dominic Martin. "However the flexibility of the XLE system, which we demoed at Shuttlesound, was very persuasive. We could ground-stack, put it on poles, or fly it: in ground-stack mode, it is adjustable from 0-10 degrees, and when flown, it can be expanded up to 16 boxes per side. We did want a prestigious marque, a name that our clients would recognise, but we also wanted it to be economically viable. XLE fitted nicely into our budget and also into the budgets of the jobs we wanted to do, and it has the influential Electro-Voice badge."

Blueboxx has future-proofed its system with the IRIS-Net control and supervision software suite which is running the Tour Grade amplifiers; added functionality includes remote control and monitoring of the amps, and the ability to set up the system off -site.

"The system is rugged and ideal for use on outdoor events," says Dominic Martin, who will be back in Trafalgar Square with the EV XLE system for the St George's Day celebrations. "The quality of support and back-up that we've received from Shuttlesound has proved as important as the performance of the enclosures."