The Virgin Media event, organised for Virgin Radio competition winners, was recorded for playback at a later date on the radio station as well as a Virgin Radio web download feature, so the sound at the event was high priority.
As an underground city club, SEOne Club's house system is set up for its market with a DJ-ready sound system, and so a full live-capable system was supplied for the event. Hard-Fi's sound engineer, Sam Parker - also known for his continuing work with Groove Armada - called upon East London-based Headtec to ensure high quality sound for the event as well as a speedy and professional set up.
Headtec's Mark Hornsby - who has a long association with Parker - trialled the KV2 Audio VHD system in the tunnel-shaped venue, aware that the difficult acoustic properties would present a considerable challenge and thus put the system through its paces.
The system supplied comprised, per side, a single VHD 2.0 mid-high enclosure, with support from two 21-inch, low Q band-pass, VHD 1.21 subwoofers and a single VHD 2.15, 4-ohm, double 15-inch subwoofer. Proprietary control and amplification for the active system was provided by one VHD 2000 and a single two-channel VHD 3200 for the subwoofers.
Commenting on the system, Hornsby said: "It really wasn't an ideal venue as the acoustical environment threw out considerable difficulties, but the VHD responded well and both Sam and I were really pleased with the resulting sound we achieved for the band. It's a hard band to achieve a tight sound with and Sam and the system performed admirably, we were both impressed enough to want to try it on other gigs."
(Jim Evans)
