Marquee Audio were introduced to the project as a result of installing the sound infrastructure at the original Peacock in Brick Lane, upgrading the venue when it was later taken over and converted into The Big Chill Bar. The festival promoters had started to get serious about venue development after merging with the Cantaloupe Group at the end of 2002, for whom Marquee Audio had also installed the high profile Cargo in Shoreditch.
The new venue occupies a large footprint on the Pentonville Road, giving them 1,246sq.m of net operating space and a total capacity of 550. Variously known as the Crossbar, The Bell and more recently Sahara Nights, the building represents the merging of three original terrace houses and forms part of the Kings Cross regeneration process. It is also the original Kings Cross railway station.
With an interior design directed by Katrina Larkin, Marquee Audio have developed the first phase (Basement, Ground and First Floors) in conjunction with project manager Andrew Palmer (from the Dept of Design) and Tom Sweet. "The requirement was for a live system that could double as a club," said Marquee Audio's project manager, Scott Wakelin. "We are delighted to have completed our first installation using Funktion One components."
Having been impressed at trials, the installer has also debuted the new Klark Teknik SQ1D 8-channel dynamics compressor and SQ1G Square One dual 30-band graphic EQ. Production Hire had already carried out an on-site demo of the Res 4s for the client, and a pair of these either side of the stage are augmented by two F-218 subs. The skeletal Res 4's rotatable mid-high section facilitates vertical or horizontal use; configured with a narrow dispersion pattern at Big Chill House they are perfectly matched with the double 18"-loaded F-218s. As the room is L-shaped, four Funktion One F88 2 x 8" loudspeakers have been deployed as delays for live performance and a pair of Mini Bass bins incorporated to create a club sound when the venue converts to DJ mode.
Further F88s provide infill sound in the downstairs 50-capacity Finlandia Cabin basement room while up in the first floor bar a pair of Res 1 (12" + 5") speakers and a further Mini Bass have been specified.
Powered by a combination of Full Fat Audio FFA2000, FFA3600 and FFA 6000 the different loudspeaker configurations have been punched into the Soundweb BLU-80s, with local control on the ground floor offered by a pair of BLU-10 remote wall panels and simple BLU-3 5-way switchplates behind the basement and first floor bars; there are live and iPod inputs along with DJ points (on each floor), with the live band mix generated from a Soundcraft 24-channel GB4. All feeds can be routed through the Soundweb matrix and sent to any destination.
(Lee Baldock)
