Apr 1, 2011 9:00 AM, By Sarah Benzuly

Atlantis Basel dance hall

Photos: Dirk Noy

From left: WSDG partner/European general manager Dirk Noy, Club ‘Tis general manager Timo Ruiesch and M&R Multimedia Productions general manager Alain Mueller

Switzerland’s largest and most popular music hall for the past 63 years, Atlantis Basel (otherwise known as ‘tis) underwent an acoustic and system upgrade, spearheaded by the club/lounge/restaurant’s host, Jürg Wartmann, and resident DJ, Cedric Eichenberger. WSDG Europe was brought in to collaborate on the project, which also included Jürg Arpagaus from Audio Partner and Alain Müller and Christoph Ritter from system installer M&R Multimedia Productions.

Two JBL AM6212s and an Application Engineered Series two-way speaker are centerstage. The upstairs art gallery and auxiliary zones (which host concerts and other events) are covered by 12 JBL AC 28/26 systems; Kling & Freitag 15-inch subwoofer systems were installed under the stage. Electronic signal processing and distribution is handled by a BSS SoundWeb London processor with a BLU-160 and BLU-BOB breakout box. The amplifier rack is stacked with eight Crown I-Tech HD devices.

Because the club is situated in a mostly residential area, to keep noise to a minimum WSDG recommended the Martin Audio Engineer, an audio processor that employs Residual Pitch, a proprietary psychoacoustic effect that permits the audience to discern LF energy not actually produced by the system. The overtones of this missing, suppressed or phantom fundamental frequency lack a specific sound component, but the brain perceives the pitch of a tone by the ratio of its higher harmonics. Ultimately, listeners in the club are unaware of the Residual Pitch effect, but the club’s neighbors benefit from a subtle adjustment in volume. The installation is a first for the processor in Switzerland.  

Because ‘tis is open six nights a week, the install had to be meticulously planned and implemented. M&R project manager Christoph Ritter reports, “At 5 a.m., when the Saturday Club Night ended, we started rocking. At 7 a.m. Sunday morning, we began dismantling the old equipment. By mid-afternoon, all the loudspeakers and old amplifier racks were dismantled. Then we immediately started the installation of 18 new loudspeaker systems. By early Monday morning, despite a sleepless night, we had set up and rewired all the new amplifiers and system racks. That afternoon we began running tests and fine tuning.” As early as noon on Tuesday, the club was able to play background music and launch Friday Night Club with full power.

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