Canford Announces Biggest Ever Catalogue & Largest Product Launch

19 May 2010 15.25 BST

Canford has announced the publication of the 2010 edition of its catalogue ‘The Source’. This is Canford’s largest ever catalogue containing over 4,300 new products and two complete new product chapters.

Each chapter contains hundreds of new additions covering ‘Fibre Optic Cables, Connectors & Interfaces’ and ‘IT Accessories & Media’. The launch sees Canford introduce not only thousands of completely new products, but also the latest versions and additions to existing products and ranges. The Canford website (The Source online) has been fully updated to match and has a new Google powered search facility making access to product descriptions and technical information easier than it has ever been.

The eagerly anticipated 2010 edition of The Source is published and should be arriving on desks now, unless your copy has been delayed by clouds of volcanic ash, that is! As usual with the Canford catalogue it is easier to say what isn’t in it than what is. With the new edition, that’s more the case than ever before as it weighs in at over 2kg and is over 1,500 pages long. That said, we are told that to prevent damaging customers back’s permanently from carrying the huge book, their website contains all the information the book does, with full descriptions and application notes alongside a full technical specification for each product.

‘The Source online’ has been redeveloped to make it a much more immediate, easy to use, reference tool and has a new Google powered site search facility. Used with the recently added ‘next’ and ‘previous’ product buttons, Canford is certain it will make finding any of the over 15,500 items or comparing groups of products simpler than ever before. Canford has also stated that from this point forward all new product launches will take place via ‘The Source online’. This means that looking forward, customers will have immediate access to the latest additions and developments. The paper version of ‘The Source’ will continue to be published regularly and will collect and present all products launched during that intervening period in the time-honoured Canford fashion.

Dave Holloway, Canford’s sales and marketing director said: “This is our widest offering ever. The two new chapters covering IT accessories and fibre optics, when taken in the context of the convergence within the industry, have provided the opportunity to introduce completely new ranges of products to meet the needs of customers at the cutting edge of the pro audio and broadcast sectors. So their addition is as much about where our industry is heading as new products in new markets.”

It would appear that Holloway’s assertion is correct since the IT accessories range includes wireless routers, external hard disk drives, KVM switches, graphics adapters, audio and video interfaces, mice and a keyboard range that boasts an illuminated keyboard that any front of house engineer will find extremely useful. The memory and media comes from well known and reliable names like Duracell, Dane-Elec, E-Films, Hoodman, Verbatim, Transcend, Fuji and HHB.

They appear to have taken a similar approach in the new fibre optics chapter and have included some of the major brands in that sector including Neutrik, Mini5 and Fibreco.

Holloway affirmed: “It became imperative when customers we deal with on a daily basis started to use ‘fibre’ into audio desks and not just for use with ‘audio for video’ but for dedicated audio desks. We know of several companies already well down this route and we can now supply panels, connectors, couplers, cable, patchcords and more for them to employ in the signal path.”

Canford’s manufacturing division must have been equally busy because among the new product launches is the Wireless Tecpro system which can interface with its ubiquitous wired Tecpro system. There has also been a redesign of its popular analogue audio installations cables. The new D’n’A cable range has been redesigned to provide a true 100ohm impedance making the cables perfect for digital (D)as well as analogue (A) signals. The FSM multicores from two pair right through to 32 pair versions are all now optimised for digital as well as analogue and all come in standard and Low Fire Hazard (LFH) versions. The FSJ (Foil Screened Individually Jacketed) range of multicores cables from four pair to 24 pair, also come in the new design. The FST range, FST-F, the flexible version, FST-HD and FST-HD-LFH, the Heavy Duty versions and FST-M the miniature versions are all part of the D’n’A range too along with their KST and KST-M cables.

At the same time there have been additions to their own range of audio and video interconnection products produced at their manufacturing plant in Dorset. These include floor and wallboxes, flush mounting audio panels, stage boxes and outside broadcast breakout boxes accommodating a range of multipin connectors including MIL26, MIL41, Tourline 25, Tourline 37 and Tourline 54. There is also a range of panels for 3Gb/s HD video and accompanying audio and a range of specialist panels intended for OB vehicles (Outside Broadcast).

Via their distribution arm Canford has also added ranges of products from what appears to be every quarter. They include Voice Technologies, a range of Swiss manufactured miniature broadcast mics that includes a version that can be completely immersed in water and still function perfectly. New amps from QSC, cables from Draka and Belden, 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 Surround mic arrays from Holophone have all been introduced and all the latest from Shure, Beyer, Sennheiser and Trantec.