The Leisure Group—run by Josh Simons, Alan Simons and John Tyror—also runs restaurant in Bournemouth, UK, and had been actively looking for a nightclub to own and operate, having previously worked as promoters. They knew the pedigree of Northampton-based Production Hire when the company was asked to provide sound reinforcement for a Missy Elliott concert they were promoting at the International Centre.
For the 840-capacity former K-Bar, Production Hire and club owner Mark Neal have gone for a combination of Martin Audio Blackline speakers and ground stacks of the original Wavefront 8s in front of the DJ booths on each floor.
On the ground floor, two stacks of Wavefront W8 and W8S complement sets of AQ12 and AQ8s, as well as the F10 DJ monitors. In the large tented area that guests chill out in the former conservatory, music is delivered at reduced volume through another pair of AQ8s.
“I use Blackline for aggression and cut on the dance floor and for DJ monitoring,” says Neal. “It has that bite anywhere you need it. The AQs produce a smooth, transparent sound and are perfect for the bar areas.”
For the mezzanine VIP lounge—where a permanent DJ booth has been set up—there are two more AQ8s. Downstairs in the large main club, with its resin-coated floor, are two ground stacks, each with two W8s and two W8S, and a pair of F10s; two more F10s serve as DJ monitors.
Multiples of AQ12 are used for infills with further bass extension coming from a pair of AQ215 floor-mounted subs, while a pair of AQ6s service this floor’s dedicated chill-out bar.
Routing and gain structure are assigned to line-configured BSS Soundweb 9088iis (with two SW9008 expanders) and an SW9010 Jellyfish wall remote for local source select and volume control. This provides a capacity of 24 outputs and eight inputs—with most channels in use.
“The whole system is correctly time-aligned and EQ’d, and any DJ source can be sent anywhere in the building,” confirms Neal.
For more information on Martin Audio, visit www.martin-audio.com.
