In addition to each room having its own character, Arribas wanted to produce a high-clarity, uniform venue-wide sound, so there was no overall dramatic divergence in volume or texturing as people moved around the building. The system also needed to deal equally well with different styles, DJs and mixing philosophies. The basement, ground floor and first floor rooms all feature identical systems speaker-wise, comprising four JBL SP212-9 (with 90° dispersion) and an SP 128 sub - all from JBL’s Sound Power series.
The atmospheric main room - the ballroom - is complete with high-ceilinged, mirror-walled dancefloor and a long feeder bar. Audiologically it’s a double decker version of the other rooms - and the dancefloor volume is pumped up with eight SP212s and four SP128 subs. At the top of the venue, in the V-VIP room, the sound requirement was to be more subtle, laid back, and in the background, so Arribas selected four of the small but powerful JBL Control 28 speakers. Sound for all rooms is linked via a BSS Soundweb network, and amplification throughout is from Crown.
Arribas’ main challenge was in dealing efficiently with the very short lead time once the green light was given for the installation. Being an old building, and on five floors, cabling was the most time consuming element.
(Lee Baldock)
