Pro audio, like any other expanding industry depends on a firm base of technical innovation. But as yet more companies find themselves in financial difficulties the incentive for UK back-room and bedroom boffins to devote time and energy to research diminishes. Playing safe at least pays the rent.

The market place is fast becoming a minefield in which innovation and capital creation are no longer synonymous. Roger Linn in the US and Clive Sinclair in the UK have discovered that to be the first does not necessarily guarantee company longevity, market domination, or autonomy.

Yet even with these problems innovators are still found. Greengate, whose DS:4-8 is examined in this issue, has surprised and delighted many with its approach to adapting existing computer technology to create individual high-spec products. It is one of the few companies that can still surprise the most cynical observer.

Whether they become as large a company as some of those they have chosen to compete with depends on a mixture of market forces and marketing.

But as an industry let us hope that innovation is not curtailed, or put on hold, through economic pressures and that next month's APRS throws up some shockwaves that will affect us all, and provide us with something we can all profit from.