The Sports Café continues to enjoy great success as a leading UK sports orientated multi-entertainment venue. Metropolis's Head of Engineering Shane Winterbourne explains that the company has perfected a flexible technical formula designed to adapt and work for all sites in the group. The entertainment system needs for each are fundamentally similar, although the individual venues are all unique in layout and space.
A mix of top quality brands are selected specifically for SCUK's venues, including HK and JBL loudspeakers, Allen & Heath sound processing, QSC amplification, Cloud Zoners, Robe Show Lighting moving lights, LightProcessor lighting control, Kramer video switchers, Panasonic TV's and plasma screens and Sanyo projectors. All are picked for their robustness and reliability in a tough working environment.
Each Sports Café entertainment system is designed in house at Metropolis. Among the trademark features are a video wall at the front entrance, for which Winterbourne has developed a special video switcher. Based on the Kramer 162 video matrix, the TFT displays can now show either the same picture across multiple screens or a variety of different images.
For the Leeds site, Metropolis also supplied dimming and control for the venue's lighting as per a request from the local council, which required the system to obtain full brightness in the event of the fire alarm activation. This system comprises, one LightProcessor Dimension 1810 18-channel dimmer, complete with four 6-button wall plates, scene control and interface boards. This allows the programming of pre-defined lighting states for each floor and bar area.
Due to the close proximity of residential buildings around the venue, it was imperative to limit the amount of sound spilling from the building. All of the main dance floor speakers are positioned to direct the sound into the centre of the floor. Metropolis worked closely with the local environmental health officers over several nights to ensure that the sound levels emitted where within the requirements.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
