When owners Kassia Picone and Tristan Grier decided to install a background music system into their new venue, in the adjacent 100 year old bakery, they called upon Paul Morris of Morris Communications.
"Initially it was to be a simple background system neatly crafted into the existing building but a couple of days into the project Tristan decided that he wanted to have intimate live performances through the background music system," says Morris. "That changed everything. We had a frank discussion and I told him that what he wanted was completely different and the budget would need to increase considerably."
Whereas many venue owners would baulk at the added cost, Tristan remained adamant that this was what he wanted.
"I did suggest using JBL EONS and a Soundcraft console that could be stowed away when not in use but he insisted on everything going through a background music system," added Morris. "I sat down with David Burke from Jands and we designed a system which included a dbx ZonePro 640 plus remote panels mounted behind the bar to control the audio level in the four zones and the source selection.
"It also gives us the ability to control, equalise and set parameters individually for the zones and for the sources. So you can walk around the entire venue with a wireless microphone and have absolutely no feedback and it just sounds great. We spent some time fine- tuning the system with the laptop plugged into the Zone Pro and adjusting each parameter to get it just right, but the results were all worth it."
Four JBL 29AV speakers are installed into the main area of the venue where they are mounted high on wooden beams in an unobtrusive manner. Special order JBL in-ceiling speakers were also installed.
A Soundcraft EFX8 mixing console, cleverly secreted into a bookcase, has been supplied and this feeds into the dbx control system as one of the sources. For microphones there are a couple of Shure Beta 58 mics as well as a Shure wireless microphone.
"The sound is even and balanced throughout and very clean," said Morris. "They even did a live recording recently off the console. Tristan loves it and it's been great to do a job where the client is prepared to invest in a top quality result."
(Jim Evans)
