To maximize an ideal location, Urbium brought back interior designers Tibbatts & Co to deliver this 1800-capacity multi-bar concept. With a large ground floor Tiger Bar, Moroccan-themed Kaz Bar, Manhattan-style Loft, colonial-style Raffles Bar and the retro feel of The Den, as well as a clever tunnel which acts as a bass trap into the industrially-appointed club, the venue caters to all tastes. There is also further evidence of the company’s move towards fine dining with the stylish, silver service restaurant. Yet where Newcastle has become truly groundbreaking is in piloting a network management system which enables the operation to be serviced and maintained online.
When Urbium’s technical manager, Jeremy Dowding, and technological innovators, Green-I, pooled their collective knowledge of applied electronics, an elaborate ‘dial-up’ scheme was devised. In addition to monitoring the installation, this network would report any operational activities outside predefined parameters, ensuring that the system would run on autopilot if necessary. The design was based around two essential digital control and virtual dynamics blocks - the BSS Soundweb and the less obvious QSControl, from American amp giants QSC.
The latter’s network control permits remote management and performance monitoring of QSC amplifiers and other audio devices over an Ethernet network. The software is linked via Ethernet to CM16a amplifier network monitors - each providing 16 channels of remote level adjustment via the DataPort of the QSC four-channel CX amplifiers that drive the newly-specified Martin Audio system. The operators also needed to monitor user interference and impedance change (should one of the multiple speakers on a 4-ohm load suddenly become disconnected).
QSC in California were responsive to the installers’ demands and programmed an add-on application that allows any problems to be flagged up, and an e-mail sent to the Green-I server; this, in turn, takes the attached log file and transmits the diagnostic as a text message, enabling the integrators to contact the venue before they are aware of any system malfunction. The system runs on the same computer as Soundweb, which can, in turn, be dialled up should the DSP device need to re-route the system to the spare amp in the rack for any reason. This not only saves a maintenance and service call, but recognizes that venue manager Nickki Dickens’ workforce is primarily employed to operate bars rather than sound systems. The move to QSC amplification was also based on simple economics, since four of QSC’s 4x400W (@ 4 ohms) CX404s can be monitored from a single 16-channel CM16a - and with four of those in place there is plenty of headroom.
Although Martin Audio’s EM series has long been established on the standard Urbium spec, special custom flying frames were designed to optimize coverage of the trapezoidal boxes - clustered in two- and three-packs - so that they are properly arrayed. Tiger Tiger already has its background music delivered by Rolec hard disk, the PC-operated Music Management Software facilitating preset input levels, instant customer profile changes and external control via modem - which made the QSC solution a logical extension of the network management, allowing Jeremy Dowding’s team some cost-efficient reconfigurability.
Another breakthrough implemented by Dowding is the sound system upgrade in the nightclub - from the Martin Audio EM186/WS2A combination used recently for smaller dancefloors, to the punchier Blackline series. He is running four pairs of H3s as a full-range arrayed system - without needing to supplement the lower frequenci
