But the town centre venue, owned by experienced nightclub operator Douglas Quirk and managed by Alistair Burrell (who had safely evacuated all the staff and customers on that fateful October evening), has done precisely that.
Quirk, who made his name running the epochal Hollywood Romford in the 1980s, turned to fellow Essex contractors, Southend-based Essex Sound & Light and interior designer Colin Stone of Stone Me Design, to deliver a superior interior package. What they have produced is an upscale, all-day chameleon venue which trades from 11am until 11pm (midweek), 1am Thursday and 2am at weekends.
ESL were asked to carry out the technological integration in view of their success in converting Quilter's into the Ivory Rooms in Billericay. "They were the ideal company for the job," says Burrell.
Asked to produce a continuous but constantly changing atmosphere - ranging between subtle mood lighting and a full-on club environment, ESL's Mike Glover specified his products carefully, calling on multiples of Pulsar's ChromaLight RGB Eyeball Downlighters, finished in silver, to be recessed into the ceiling. And from another design company, Malham, ESL have sourced quantities of LED 'tape' - discreet strips of tiny LED like a flexible PCB which can be recessed behind bar or bottle display areas to produce a warm, low-lighting glow.
On the busy dance-floor are four each of Martin Professional Wizards and SCX-500 Mania scans, complemented by two CX4 colour-changers. All lighting control is under the command of a Pulsar Replay unit with an outstation.
The highly-charged dance-floor, which really comes to life after 9pm, is probably in deference to Douglas Quirk's disco past, and is highlighted by an electric drop-down screen onto which Sky Sports HD (and other content) is beamed by Mitsubishi hi-def projectors. There are also six 42in Samsung screens distributed around the 300-capacity venue, as well as three 20in Relisys displays behind the bar - all fed from the Kaleidovision KL2 audio/video system (running MP3 music and their own MPEG2 graphics system).
Taking daytime feeds from the Kaleidovision, along with a Denon DN-D4500 twin CD/MP3 player, Marantz DVD and terrestrial/satellite sources, are multiples of RCF Acustica C3108 300W loudspeakers (with 8in woofer) - processed via the BSS Soundweb Lite SW-3088 DSP. These are complemented by two ground-stacked S4012 (single 12in) subs, with a pair of white (175W) RCF Monitor 55's acting as rear-fills. The system is powered from an Allen & Heath XONE:62 stationed in the DJ booth, while the video sources are switched via a Procon 8 x 8 matrix.
Glover says: "We favoured the RCF system for this application because it is sensitively-priced and the new Acustica range is voiced extremely well - in particular the 8in model."
Plazma general manager Alistair Burrell explains that the venue was originally two buildings, which have been combined to create a micro nightclub. "We have deliberately identified an Over 25s crowd, with an elaborate DJ and music system, offering dance nights as well as karaoke and live cabaret," he says. A membership system exists for under 25s and admission is on the discretion of the management.
Wickford is scheduled for systematic redevelopment over the next 15 years - and Bar Plazma is well-positioned to take advantage, believes Burrell. "The Plazma experience is second to none," he says, adding that if the formula proves successful the operators will look to roll out further Bar Plazma's in the future.
(Chris Henry)
