Funktion-One

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Funktion-One
Type Private limited company
Industry Sound reinforcement
Founded1992;34 years ago (1992)
Founders
  • Tony Andrews
  • John Newsham
Headquarters
Dorking, Surrey
,
England
Key peopleTony Andrews (founder)
ProductsLoudspeakers, subwoofers, stage monitors
Number of employees
17 (2017 [1] )
Website funktion-one.com

Funktion One Research Limited, trading as Funktion-One, is a British loudspeaker manufacturer based in Dorking, Surrey, England. [2] [3] It was founded in 1992 by Tony Andrews and John Newsham, who had previously founded Turbosound. Turbosound systems were used at Glastonbury Festival and at the M25 rave parties of the late 1980s. Funktion-One makes horn-loaded loudspeaker systems and is best known for its work in nightclubs.

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The company's first major installation was the sound system for the Millennium Dome's Central Show in 2000. Its club installations include Berghain in Berlin and Space in Ibiza. Funktion-One has also supplied sound for dance areas at Glastonbury since 1992. Its products include the Dance Stack and the Vero touring system.

In 2014, Resident Advisor described Funktion-One as "something like an industry standard" for club sound systems. The magazine reported that promoters often listed the brand on event flyers. The same year, Rolling Stone included Andrews in its list of the 50 most important people in electronic dance music.

History

Funktion-One was founded in 1992 by Tony Andrews and John Newsham. [4] Andrews had begun building loudspeakers in the late 1960s, after leaving a university course in geology. [3] He worked on the sound at the first Glastonbury Festival in 1971. [2] In 1973, he developed a loudspeaker system for the festival that used separate cabinets for bass, midrange and high frequencies. [5] In 1978, he founded Turbosound with Newsham and Tim Isaac. [5] [2]

At Turbosound, Andrews and Newsham designed loudspeaker systems including the TMS-3 and Flashlight. [4] Turbosound systems were used at Glastonbury and the Royal Albert Hall, and by bands including Pink Floyd. [3] [6] They were used at the M25 rave parties of the late 1980s, where promoters advertised the sound system on their flyers. [3] In 1990 Turbosound provided the sound for The Wall concert in Berlin, attended by 350,000 people. [7] After Turbosound came under the control of AKG, Andrews and Newsham left with several of its design staff to start Funktion-One. [3] [4] Andrews has said he started the company out of a wish to help people connect with each other. [8]

Andrews described Funktion-One as a continuation of the approach he had taken at Turbosound, and the company's early development work started from Turbosound's Flashlight design. [3] In its early years, Funktion-One designed the Floodlight loudspeaker, which was licensed to Turbosound for manufacture. Floodlight cabinets were used with Turbosound's Flashlight system on Pink Floyd's 1994 Division Bell tour. [9] The company's first major installation was the sound system for the Millennium Dome's Central Show in 2000, which was also the first use of its Resolution Series loudspeakers. [3] [4] [10]

The brand became popular in electronic dance music, including among clubgoers with little interest in audio equipment. [3] In 2012, Resident Advisor described Funktion-One as the most talked-about sound system brand in dance music, and noted that promoters often named it when advertising events. The article added that other manufacturers, including Martin Audio and Void Acoustics, achieved comparable results. [6] In the United States, many of the company's installations have been carried out by Sound Investment Audio, [11] and in late 2012 five of its Funktion-One projects appeared in Beatport's list of the ten best sound systems in America. [12]

In 2014, Resident Advisor called the brand "something like an industry standard". At Berghain, the coat check sold T-shirts printed with images of the club's Funktion-One stacks. [3] The same year, Rolling Stone placed Andrews 46th in its list of the 50 most important people in electronic dance music. [13] [14] According to the company, 28 of the clubs in the 2016 DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs poll used Funktion-One systems. [15]

In 2017, the company had 17 employees, and the German magazine Groove wrote that many regarded it as the "Ferrari of sound systems". [1] Newsham retired in 2020. [4]

Notable projects

Glastonbury Festival (1992–present)

In 1992, Funktion-One and Underworld set up the Experimental Soundfield dance area at Glastonbury Festival. [16] It moved to the festival's Glade area in 2016. [17] By 2025, the company had been supplying the sound system for The Glade for 15 years. [16] Its Vero system was first used at the festival on The Glade stage in 2019. [18]

Space, Ibiza (2002–2016)

Funktion-One's relationship with Space began in 2002. After a first installation on the club's Terrace, Funktion-One systems were added to five of the venue's six rooms. [19] By 2014, the 2,000-capacity main room, La Discoteca, had a custom system built around DS15 and Resolution loudspeakers with F221 bass enclosures, and the Terrace had eight Resolution 2 loudspeakers and four F218 bass enclosures. [20] That year, Space was voted best club in the world in the DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs poll, for the fourth time in seven years. [20] Space closed in October 2016 after 27 years. For its final closing party, Funktion-One supplied a Vero system, with Evo loudspeakers as delays, for an outdoor area holding about 7,000 people. [21]

Cielo, New York (2003)

Cielo, in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan, was Funktion-One's first installation in the United States. When the club opened, the main room had AX88 loudspeakers (two 8-inch drivers), Infrabass enclosures and F218 subwoofers (two 18-inch drivers). [22]

Berghain, Berlin (2005–present)

Berghain is one of Funktion-One's largest installations and was its first in Berlin. [23] The original main-room system comprised four Dance Stacks (each a DS210, a DS215 and three F218), one Double Infrahorn (two Infrabass and one Doublehorn Extension) and two Resolution 2 monitors. [24] It was installed by Benedikt Koch of Funktion-One Germany and tuned by Andrews. [25] According to Koch, the system typically operated at 10 to 20 per cent of its capacity. [26] [27] Mixmag called it "legendary for its power". It was installed in a main room with an 18 metres (59 ft) ceiling and remained in use for 18 years, averaging around 40 hours a week. [25] Red Bull described the installation as one of Funktion-One's "most important calling cards". [28] Funktion-One DJ monitors are also used in the club's upstairs room, Panorama Bar. [25]

In 2023, the main-room system was replaced. The specification was not made public; Funktion-One stated that the new system improved on the original in efficiency, frequency response, accuracy and stereo imaging. [25]

Output, Marquee and Sound, United States (2013)

In 2013, Sound Investment Audio installed Funktion-One systems at three new clubs: Output and Marquee in New York, and Sound in Los Angeles. The three clubs were the first to use Funktion-One's next generation of loudspeakers, ahead of their official launch. [12]

Ultra Music Festival and Resistance (2016–2022)

At the 2016 Ultra Music Festival in Miami, eight of the company's new F132 subwoofers were used in the Carl Cox and Friends Arena. [29] In 2018, a Funktion-One Vero system was used for the nine-week residency of Resistance, Ultra's techno brand, at Privilege in Ibiza. [30] In 2022, Funktion-One supplied a system including Vero for Cox's 12,000-capacity MegaStructure arena at Ultra's Resistance stage in Miami. [31]

Basement, New York (2019)

Basement, a techno club beneath the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York, opened in 2019 with a Funktion-One surround sound system. [32] [33]

Products

References

Citations

Sources

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