Although the neighbourhood has been upgraded in recent years, the premises - containing the seven separate units that constitute Symbol Budapest - has remained true to its traditions dating back more than 200 years.
Covering a total area of nearly 3,000sq.m, all the activity is arranged around the courtyard - with the Bombay Bar in the centre and terraces for all the surrounding venues. To one side is the Café & Lounge, to the other the Puskás Pancho Sport Pub, an elegant memorial to the late Puskás Öcsi. The 220-year-old preserved Cellar Restaurant is available for private functions, while in the modernised section of the cellar is the multi-level Live Music Club. Upstairs is the spacious Gallery and Event Hall which stages regular exhibitions and can also be rented for events.
Providing an audio link for the many zones into which the complex is divided was the task facing Bertaudio, the Hungarian Harman Pro Audio distributors.
The investor originally contacted the company two years ago with their plans to build an entertainment and cultural centre in Budapest and asked them to provide a proposal for audio coverage throughout the entire building.
"We had sufficient time to design the system and since the building was under construction, every configuration could be easily implemented," says Bertaudio's Laszlo Berta. "This venue seemed a perfect place to offer Hungary's first fully Harman Pro system." And so the company set to work in collaboration with system designer Zsolt Szarvas and installation company, Microsound.
To create the network Bertaudio turned to BSS Audio's Soundweb London digital signal processors. The building is designed around 10 zones, many of them under the control of four Soundweb London BLU-80 processors and four BLU-32 input/output expanders. Each zone has independent inputs and outputs allowing any of the local sources to be accessed from anywhere in the complex. The appropriate audio signals are routed by CobraNet in order to provide flexibility and perfect sound.
Each zone is also equipped with its own JBL Professional/Crown amplification system which can be configured by BSS Audio BLU-10 touch-screen control panels - with one set in each of the 10 zones.
Using a Soundweb London BLU-80, the audio systems can be optimally-configured, obviating the need for separate equalisers, limiters, compressors or other processors. "These features are programmed into the BLU-80 and accessed via the BLU-10 units or from a PC," said Laszlo Berta. The biggest and most complex system can be found in the multi-zone night club where the BLU-10 is required to handle a greater number of control functions.
(Jim Evans)
