Located 100km south of Barcelona, in the heart of Tarragona, the Sala Highland Irish Bar is in the process of doubling in size. Meanwhile, in the Barcelona suburb of Hospitalet del Llobregat, popular indie rock venue Sala Mandra will shortly relocate to an expanded facility further down the street, which will not only give them an enlarged performance space, but allow them to have their own recording studio upstairs.
Packed with memorabilia in a converted Tarragona cinema, and already staging a package of entertainment ranging from club nights to sport (via the drop down projection screen), Highland owner Iñaki Iuain was unhappy with the existing sound system when he took over the venue. Expressing his desire for a line array system, he enlisted local contractor Rafael Porta from dB Lumen to set up a comparitive test of some of the leading systems.
This included a QSC ILA Line Array System, and subsequently Porta installed a system based around two hangs of four WL2082-i enclosures, using QSC's flying bars, with three AD-S82H enclosures providing delays further down the room. The system is powered by a combination of six QSC RMX-1450 and a pair of RMX-2450 power amplifiers; control presets, system management and routing are assigned respectively to a QSC DSP-322ua - capable of storing up to eight signal flow configurations with nearly unlimited snapshot parameter recall - and DSP-30 system manager.
"This is a highly practical solution," says Porta. "The dimensions of the WL2082-i are perfect for this venue and the 140 degrees horizontal dispersion pattern provides even coverage." His company has programmed a number of different presets into the DSP - and since Highland commences trading at 4pm, with background music from an MP3 server, and continues until 3am, when the music is full-on, these represent the volume levels and EQ patterns for the different times of the day.
Back in Barcelona, it was QSC's WideLine-10 which this time had to show its merits alongside longer-established line array brands at Sala Mandra. During an AB comparison, it was given the nod by co-owners Ula Batallé, David Lafuente and Paco Venegas.
Having taken delivery of a WideLine WL2102 (four hangs per side) and three ground-stacked WL218sw (2 x 18) subs - installed by ArtMedia - the venue is already preparing to move 200m further down the Avinguda Carrilet.
QSC Spain's Mauri Costa comments: "In a highly competitive market customers are quickly realising that the combination of power, transparency, coverage, compact dimensions and a seductive price is the sensible way to go.
"Touring productions are already familiar with the QSC pedigree for reliable, high-powered amplification and digital transport - and that confidence is now being transferred to loudspeakers; system techs touring these venues are generally delighted to see QSC line array systems hanging from the flying grids."
(Jim Evans)
