Azimuth Co-ordinator developed by Bernard Speight for the British Rock band Pink Floyd and used by them in their Queen Elizabeth Hall concert 'Games in May', 12 May 1967, and on their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon

Azimuth Co-ordinator developed by Bernard Speight for the British Rock band Pink Floyd. Oblong metal box painted grey apart from the top side which is painted pink. In the centre of the front fascia there are two black bakelite knobs. The top surface has two octagonal holes to either side. Two metal joy-stick levers with plastic knobs protrude through these holes from the mechanism below. This mechanism include the rheostats. In the centre of the top panel are eight black buttons which are depressed to operate the co-ordinator.

Given by Pink Floyd Music Publishing

The Azimuth Co-ordinator is an early quadrophonic sound system made by Bernard Speight, an Abbey Road sound engineer, for Pink Floyd in the late 1960s. The first of these systems was used by them in May 1967 at their concert, 'Games for May', at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, but was stolen after the performance. This concert was the first appearance at the hall of what was essentially a pop band, and it also marked the first appearance in Britain of a rudimentary quadraphonic PA system, effected by additional speakers erected around the room and an early version of an amazing device. This particular one was introduced in 1969 at Pink Floyd's Royal Festival Hall concert and has now gone down in Floyd folklore as the 'Azimuth Coordinator'. The elaborate name was given to what was essentially a crude device which used four large rheostats converted from 270 degree rotation to 90 degree. Along with the joystick, these elements were housed in a large box and enabled the panning of quadraphonic sound.

The co-ordinator was also used on the recording of the Dark Side of the Moon album, which was released in March 1973. The album was produced by the band between 1 June 1972, and January 1973, and engineered by Alan Parsons who had worked for The Beatles. Parsons was responsible for many of the sound effects, most notably the clock montage leading into 'Time' on side one, which he used to demonstrate the power of quadraphonic sound.

The Azimuth Co-ordinator was a joystick device for controlling a quadraphonic sound system. By swivelling the joystick, the sound output could be shifted from one speaker bank to another; with the joystick in the central position, the sound output would be equal in all speakers. It was used almost exclusively by Pink Floyd, in conjunction with a quadraphonic sound system, and was operated by keyboardist Rick Wright.

This equipment was used at the band's 1969 Royal Festival Hall concert and was one of Pink Floyd's first uses of quadraphonic sound in a live environment. The surround sound technique utilised a four speaker system, with a speaker positioned in each corner of a room. In a live performance four banks of speakers were used. Pink Floyd would later go on to develop and champion the quadraphonic system for their album Dark Side of the Moon.

Quadraphonic sound never took off to any large extent, however, despite its availability to the home consumer. In 2003 Dark Side of the Moon was re-released, this time in 5.1 surround sound, the updated and more successful progression from quadraphonic sound. Consumer technology had, by this point, caught up with Pink Floyd's early sound experimentation.

S.294-1980