The live music is a mixture of bands (of all genres), DJ sets, and quirky pop-up acts, like a Mannequin Challenge and a walkabout brass band that performs covers of famous 90s-era dance tunes (including, we're told, all the Manchester acid house classics!). It rents out for private parties as well, including one for the Manchester City soccer team. Local A/V integration and live sound company Neuron Pro Audio delivered impactful sound that didn't spill out to the streets beyond by using a sizable collection of Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers.
"My business partner Jonny Wharton orchestrated the Winter Gathering contract, through his relationships with several acts and promoters who are involved in both this and other projects around the UK," explained Kyle Marriott, managing director at Neuron Pro Audio. "The brief for the project demanded a very high production value, designed and delivered in a short span of time to meet stringent city centre licensing requirements." Elemental Events Limited orchestrated all the events and subcontractors for the Winter Gathering under the direction of Allied London, the large-scale property developer that owns London Road Fire Station.
"As one of our company's main technical people, I advised that we should import Danley equipment via air freight due to its famous sound quality and pattern control," said Marriott. "In addition, Danley would be something a little outside the norm for the area - it has a 'cool' factor.
"The ability to take the client's preliminary site plans and use them to produce accurate direct SPL plots with Danley's free Danley Direct acoustical modelling software also helped us to meet their tight licensing application deadlines and assuage council fears of off-site noise bleed affecting nearby residents."
The event uses four zones in total, controlled via a BSS London BLU-160 running a bespoke configuration with auto-gain leveling and timed noise level reductions, with customized BLU-10 touchscreen wall panel for minor adjustments and source selection.
Each zone has independent source control and can be fed from one of two background music systems running from iPads or from the music being played on the main stage (either a band or a DJ). Most of the day, the ice rink and outdoor areas run background music only, but both zones can deliver the goods when the band or DJ feed goes live and the goal is to get people dancing!
The main stage uses a stereo set of Danley SH-46 full-range loudspeakers, girded from below by three Danley TH-118 subwoofers per side (six total). The Neuron team chose the SH-46 for its narrow dispersion pattern to help with the sound quality in the long, reverberant space. They aim straight down the narrow room that used to house the fire engines and are time-aligned well with the indoor bar, which is fifteen yards farther down the room.
The indoor bar and its associated attractions use six Danley SH-mini loudspeakers mounted to the fire house's original Victorian firefighter poles, along with one Danley TH-212 subwoofer installed against the wall near the bar.
Outside, the ice rink uses four Danley OS-80 fully-weatherized loudspeakers in a classic "quad" configuration (one box per corner of the rink). Finally, two Danley SM-80s handle the outside (but covered) bar area. The rink and the outside bar get enough low-end punch from the OS-80s and SM-80s, allowing Neuron to avoid adding subs and risking breaking sensitive sound ordinances.
Danley DNA SC48 processors handle all of the loudspeaker conditioning with presets for each of the Danley boxes. Neuron's fleet of four-channel Powersoft X4 amplifiers runs the entire installation.
The network connects to a remote control system that also controls the BSS BLU platform. A Behringer X32 desk with 2x S16 stage boxes is the engineer's interface for live acts, complete with a full live production case with Sennheiser, Shure, AKG mics (wired and wireless), and Radial DI boxes. Neuron also supplied full backline for each live band to suit rider requirements, as well as a complement of Technics 1210s and Pioneer CDJ2000NXS2s and DJM900NXSs for DJ performances.
"I feel that it is important to ensure that our clients always have the best solution available to them, regardless of budget, and Danley happens to offer exceptional products that help us to achieve that goal with the absolute minimum of fuss," Marriott said."
(Jim Evans)
