Notes Dylan Thompson, project manager and system specifier, "With the arrival of CDD I don't need to look elsewhere, which is a nice position to be in. CDD has been a revelation - it's well priced, sounds great and I can spec it for just about anything."
Penguin were awarded the contract by Kent Hospitality, which manages all the university's bars and leisure facilities, having worked for them previously. "We met Keith Williams, head of trading at Kent Hospitality a few years ago now, and he really liked our ideas and approach."
The brief this time was to develop a technical infrastructure for a multipurpose facility that would trade as a sports bar by day, with a small stage for live bands and DJs coming on weekend nights. It needed to be cost-effective, multi-zonal, for flexible audio and video routing, and offer simple control for bar staff.
And with a C-Burn 'Secret DJ' pumping background music through the sound system during daylight hours the CDD has certainly been put through its paces.
At the Stage end are a pair of CDD10 (10") speakers, wall-mounted on Powerdrive brackets either side of the stage, and a CSX212 (2 x 12") sub. Facing this at the opposite end of the room are a pair of CDD8 (8"), left and right and another CSX212 sub. "It can therefore function as a 2.1 cinema surround system or for student presentations, while if the DJ wants to work from that end the volume can be adjusted accordingly," says Dylan.
A separate sofa/loose furniture area, away from the main action, is served by a pair of CDD8, with a further pair of CDD8 providing a warm sound at the bar.
In this four-zone design, any source can be routed to any destination via Soundweb London DSP, operating under the master control of a Crestron processor, which also handles the video routing to the seven screens. All local control is performed from an iPad with a custom user interface from Penguin.
(Jim Evans)
