The Hudson Hotel, the latest addition to the 21-strong Festival Inns portfolio, is the result of merging a former post office, night club and office block into a complete leisure operation, including 31 technology-led bedrooms, The Hudson Bar and Hudson Club. To fulfil the brief of providing cutting-edge technology the company turned to Edinburgh-based Dynamic Productions.
Dynamic's project manager Graeme Anderson has brought all his expertise to bear over the three hotel room floors, ground floor bar/reception and basement nightclub, where he has worked magnificently to convert a space with restricted ceiling height into a vibrant, atmospheric dance venue.
Working within the confines of a Grade-B restriction, and sympathetic to the New York loft style concept devised by in-house designer Nikki Foulis, Anderson has specified a system based around Nexo PS series loudspeakers, Camco amplification, Symetrix 322 DSP engine and Australian Monitor mic/zoning, ceiling speakers and control components.
The Nexo PS8's in the front of house bar/reception area (formerly Flares Nightclub) are complemented by eight more in the copper-dominated Hudson Bar; these are underpinned by two Nexo LS400's, one flown and one groundstacked, with ceiling speakers providing warmth in the adjoining walkways. Anderson has also provided two DJ plug-in points, while during the day the speakers take their feeds from hard disk and satellite TV.
Assigned to the PS8's are a Camco Vortex 3 amplifier, while a Camco Tecton 24.4 powers the subs.
The signal sources are routed via an Australian Monitor Zone Mix 3 stereo matrix switching device, while further Australian Monitor Quick Fit 5A ceiling speakers and In-Wall 5's - distributed throughout the corridors and toilets - are variously powered by Australian Monitor's dedicated AMC 30 and AMIS 60 mixer amps.
However, Dynamic Productions' real triumph has been in The Hudson Club, a huge rectangular space, with a low ceiling, where eight Nexo PS8's are joined by a pair of PS15's at the dancefloor end; these have been cleverly part-recessed into the curved roof to create the correct projection angle, and are complemented by a pair of LS1500 subwoofers. The roof is edged with DMX-controlled multicoloured LED battens (which form part of Dynamic's inspired vision package).
While a pair of Camco Vortex 6's drive the subwoofers and PS15's, a Vortex 3 Quadro is assigned to run the PS8's in a system which is controlled and optimised by Symetrix loudspeaker management. Anderson is happy with this arrangement.
"Other than the ceiling height this is not a difficult room acoustically. The PS8's are very subtle, producing a transparent sound, but they are also compact which is essential in a room like this. With the crossover points programmed into the Symetrix, the overall sound is incredible."
The same attention to detail has been provided in the rooms, which are variously equipped with 26in and 20in LCD screens offering seven free satellite channels, on-demand film, music and entertainment via the SpeedWay server, and free wireless broadband internet connection.
The bulk of the 82 x In-Wall 5 loudspeakers are confined to the bedrooms and bathrooms, giving the guest the impression they are immersed in a sound field. All 31 rooms are individually controllable via low-profile RDL (Radio Design Labs) FP-PA20 20W amps, supplied by Kelsey. These were selected because they could be discretely mounted behind the speakers.
Elsewhere, in the Hudson Bar, two 55in plasma screens drop down from the ceiling at either end of the bar, and the Hudson Bar logo is rear projected onto two specially-treated LED film glass displays (which are opaque when not in use). This offers the hotel further scope to show movies and even
