Bury St Edmunds, UK (July 18, 2011)–The new £18.5m Apex venue in Bury St Edmunds, UK, has had a Martin Audio W8LM mini line array permanently installed.
The venue was designed around two balcony levels, while the ground level can be reconfigured into a number of different performance arrangements. The ground floor seating is fixed to floating air-bearing wagons, and can be transferred to the basement via the pit lift for storage when not required; thus the venue can hold up to 650 (standing), 515 in raked (or flat floor) theater style seating, or operate in the round.
With the venue designed principally for classical concerts within a California oak shell, the Apex can present acoustic challenges when the music is amplified. “It is a very ‘live’ venue which we can tame using acoustic blinds,” technical manager Tim Carr confirmed. “I use these as baffles when folk or rock bands appear.”
The house system features four W8L and two W8LM Downfill boxes per side, with each hang supported by a pair of Martin WMX hybrid bass bins. Two pairs of wide dispersion Martin Differential Dispersion DD6s, mounted high up on the lighting truss, act as overhang/underhang balcony fills. The remaining pair of DD6s are floor-mounted and angled on the lip of the stage for front fills, alongside six LE1200 floor monitors that the performers use for reference sound. The system is optimized using the dedicated DX2 loudspeaker management system.
Martin Audio
www.martin-audio.com
