The landmark 350-capacity venue on Swan Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester's city centre has just been completely renovated, restored and reborn by registered charity Inner City Music with the help of a £4 million combined award from the Arts Council England, Manchester City Council and Lottery Heritage Fund to transform the venue into a 21st century centre of music with strong community ties.
The system was designed by Adlib's Roger Kirby who says: "We all agreed that dV-DOSC rig would work best in the space offering a detailed high frequency and solid low end response, with the system also having adequate headroom for the eclectic programme of live events that are planned."
The music will encompass a wide range of musical genres, from jazz to dance (including DJs), rock to soul, and it will also be utilised for a variety of music-based educational programmes.
The main audio system of three dV-DOSC mid highs with a single dV-sub flown as of left and right hangs, with two dV-DOSC flown centrally to cover the balcony. The system is completed with three SB28 subs with pair of Adlib AA81 cabinets utilised as centre-fills providing coverage to the area directly in front of the stage.
The control playback rack includes BSS FDS 960 graphics for grab EQ and Tascam CD-RW / CD playback machines along with an ASL Comm.'s system.
A Soundcraft Vi4 was specified as the main mixing console for the venue. The Vi4's MADI output allows all 48 input channels plus stereo mix to be sent to the Band on the Wall's recording studio for capture should this be required.
For monitors, Adlib supplied eight of their bi-amped low profile 1515W "MP3" wedges. These are processed with BSS 334 mini-drive crossovers and driven by Crown XTi1000 and 4000 power amplifiers.
(Jim Evans)
