MIA performing admist the crowd at the Bowery Boston venue
Photo: 5342 Studios
The Bowery Presents—with assistance from Scorpio Sound Systems—recently retrofitted its Boston venue with a new state-of-the-art sound system, which includes a d&b P.A and Avid Profile boards at both front of house and monitors. According to general manager Josh Bhatti, one of the overriding factors in determining which gear to select was how well artists and their touring crews could work the equipment. “Once we narrowed it down to a few systems,” Bhatti adds, “factors such as how the equipment can fit into your venue and what are the right size speakers come into play. If the system doesn’t sound good, it can quickly ruin the day for the artist and the patron.
“d&b has been putting out a great product for a number of years and is starting to make more and more strides into the U.S. with its gear,” he continues. “The technology behind the speakers is second to none and the sound quality is unbelievable. From a design standpoint, the individual boxes are very compact, and in a club setting where every square foot is critical for the artist and for the sightlines of the audience, it’s great to have such a compact system.” The system at Bowery Boston comprises Q Series boxes for mains and balcony fills, B2 subs, C Series sidefills and maxx monitor wedges.
As for the Avid boards, user-friendliness reigns supreme. “For the engineers who have limited experience on digital consoles, the Profile is very user-friendly, and with our great in-house engineers, learning is pretty simple. For those touring around and familiar with the Profile console, it makes the engineer’s day when he or she can walk in here and pop in a USB stick and be up and running quickly. Also, the Pro Tools interface allows for multitrack live recordings of shows, which is light years above having the CD burner in the rack for a live recording.”
The rest of the install saw brand-new gear including mic stands, amplifiers, road cases, mics and all-new electrical to minimize long cable runs.
“It’s been smooth sailing with the system, and artist after artist has walked away extremely happy. More and more, we are hearing from fans coming to shows commenting on how great the sound is at the club, and we’re really proud to have the best system in the city.”
