Most of the investment in the 933-capacity venue has taken place this summer, with an extended stage and acoustic insulation to the floors and walls (provided by Pan Acoustics from Limassol), to prevent sound leakage.
The venue, which can also be configured cabaret style, with table seating for 400, approached A.L.A Equipment Co for a sound system that would satisfy the wide demands of quality rock and traditional music from Cyprus and the Greece mainland, and lead them into the digital era.
Said George Ioannou: "We already had a relationship with Andrea Piemonti and Tony Lyssiotis at A.L.A and we felt comfortable that the system they proposed would work. We have improved the club systematically and spent nearly £600,000 (sterling) in preparation for Cyprus's admission to the EU next January."
At the heart of their spend was a 56-channel MH3 at FOH, followed soon after by a 40-channel MH4 on the stage - part of a complete Harman Pro solution.
Both resident FOH engineer Christos Pappoulis and monitor man Ierides Loukas have a wide knowledge of (and respect for) Soundcraft desks. The latter's father Mike operates one of the island's prominent rental companies, Nicosia-based V&M, who stock a range of Soundcraft desks, including SM20, Series 5, MH3 and MH4 (and have road-tested the new digital Soundcraft Vi6).
"The MH3 desk sounds extremely nice," says Ierides. "I like the practicality of the aux groups and the full parametric knobs which are functional and easy to use, and there is no problem finding the right gain for any line. The VCA gain is also accurate. Speaking of the MH consoles, Ierides added: "Soundcraft is just beautiful and you feel really motivated to work with it."
The stage communicates with the FOH desk by phantom power, and Ierides regularly sends a monitor mix to FOH, where Christos is stationed in the balcony control booth. The FOH man praises the quality of sound produced by the MH4, the operational simplicity and instant access to the desk's features.
Feeds are sent to a JBL VRX system comprising two hangs of four 932LAs over the newly-extended stage, with a pair of SRX 728 subs recessed under the stage apron.
Transmission operates over HiQnet and the line array is powered by Crown I-Tech 6000 digital amplifiers. These connect directly to Crown IQ Networks, and are controlled by HiQnet over Ethernet. A dbx DriveRack 4800 handles all the system limiting and loudspeaker management, controlled through the I-Tech amplifiers.
Outboard equipment includes Lexicon PCM-91 digital FX unit, six dbx 160A compressors, dbx 3231L EQ (for FOH) and dbx 2231 EQ (for stage), and BSS DPR-504 4-channel noise gate.
Lighting engineer Tony Demetriades provides an atmospheric stage presence, controlling a wide range of DTS spots, projectors and generics from an MA GrandMA lighting desk, and mixing video signals to the NEC projector via an Edirol device. The DTS lighting effects include eight XR9 moving head spots, four XR8 moving washlights, 32 Scena 1000 theatre projectors aand various PAR 64 cans and strobes.
(Jim Evans)
