Turbo swinging from the Elstree

Top of the Pops — that's right, only British TV's most successful music showcase — has just completed the installation of a permanent house sound system at its Elstree studios. The choice — the brand new HiLight Series of loudspeakers from Turbosound.

The TOTP studio has four stages each with its own system comprising 2 x HiLight THL-811s flown, and 2 x HiLight THL-818 bass bins, and a Turbosound LMS-680 controller. The THL-811s serve a dual function as front-of-house for the studio audience, and as sidefill for the onstage performers.

The installation of HiLight transforms the TOTP studio into an all-Turbosound affair, following the purchase of TMW-212 wedge monitors last year as a result of the increasing amount of live material in the show.

According to John Sweeney of the BBC's sound department, the new HiLight boxes were ideal for TOTP because "the high packs are really small and light — we're always tight for space, and the studio grid is already heavily loaded so, in order to fly the cabinets, they had to be really lightweight. The audio quality of the HiLight system also allows us to reduce the levels in the studio."

Turbosound. (Contact Details)

Martin gets fit

The development of young, hip, and swinging venues being rolled out by Wolverhampton-based Banks' Brewery is being ably assisted by sound, lighting and video installers, Leamington Sight & Sound — and a wide range of Martin Audio sound reinforcement products.

Two recent fits that Leamington worked on simultaneously to achieve Christmas openings were the The Works, a pub with a 2am license in Bedditch, and Fast Eddie's in Telford — a 'roll-out' concept with island bar, bowling alley, pool tables, and video monitors.

In appraising The Works, Leamington's Ian Potter decided a different audio treatment was required for all three ground floor areas. In the cafe bar at the front, which looks out over a precinct area, he has installed eight of the new EM26s, with EM150 sub-bass, while the central raised area cried out for the new ICT 500s, run full range, and the dancefloor at the rear is serviced by ICT 300s under pinned by ICS 300 bass. The entire system was run through Martin's M1, M2, and EMX1A processors.

Martin Audio. (Contact Details)

Spirit - Zodiac & the year of the Rat

Two of the UK's more popular live venues, The Zodiac in Oxford and The Boardwalk in Manchester, have recently taken delivery of Spirit desks.

The Zodiac, which has recently played host to acts as diverse as The Mad Professor, Carter USM, and US indie-rock legends Pavement, is more than pleased with the purchase. Front of House Engineer, Matt Napier, explains: "The Spirit 8 is a really good desk. It has a lot of useful features, and the sound quality is very good indeed. The EQ is nice and clean, while the independent LEDs allow you to make sure everything's working at a glance. Although it has 32 channels, it's still nice and small. Space is at a premium in our control room here, so the fact that it fits a lot of channels into such a small desk is real bonus for us."

The Manchester Boardwalk has recently played host to bands like Northern Uproar and The Fun Lovin' Criminals in addition to hosting regular club nights. Their Front of House Engineer, Rat is equally pleased with the purchase: "We've had the Spirit 8 since August, and it's going great. It's really easy to use, especially when you have to patch in loads of effects. Nice EQ too."

Spirit by Soundcraft. (Contact Details)

A sound with bite

'Upgrade and downsize' was the brief to Hollywood-based A-1 Audio, charged with designing and installing a new sound system in Johnny Depp's famous Viper Room — and what Mr. Depp wants Mr Depp gets, 'cos that's the sort of Hollywood high roller he is. Paul Newman (no relation), A-1 Audio's Vice-President, chose a mix of Midas, Klark Teknik, and ElectroVoice products to yield a high-impact, dance-club sound system, a high-SPL house system for live bands and to maximise unrestricted viewing for the audience.

ElectroVoice MTH-1 speakers, hung in arrays of two on each side of the stage, give artists access to the entire stage, without interfering with sightlines or lighting, much of which is suspended halfway back over the dance floor. Although the boxes have only 20-inch frontal dimensions, the new system is capable of SPLs approaching 130dB. The Viper Room system also includes three EV MTL-1 sub-woofers, each loaded with two DL18MT's. On-stage floor monitors were custom designed by A-1 Audio and loaded with ElectroVoice components. The front end of the system includes a Midas XL200 console, Klark Teknik's DN3600 digital parametrics, and DN800 crossovers, and EV Precision Series amps.

EVI Pro Audio Group. (Contact Details)

When RCF eyes are smiling

Aquarius Systems of Dublin were busy through the last quarter of 1996 with a whole batch of sound installations using RCF systems.

For the new launch of Roosters Nightclub, based in Rooskey, Co. Roscommon, they installed Event 1018 subs, together with Event 1000 mid/tops. Since the revamp, we are told the club has gone on from strength to strength.

Major Toms, a popular music bar, is located in Dublin's trendy and up-market St. Stephens Green area. Their daytime audio system was recently upgraded with the addition of four Monitor MSW8 compact cabs. Following this installation, it was decided by management to upgrade their late night music system with the addition of RCF Event 1018 subs.

McNamara's Bar in the medieval city of Kilkenny recently added RCF MSW8 subs to upgrade their music system. The Barge late night bar is another venue to have installed RCF MSW8 subs. Based in the Rathmine area of Dublin, the venue is packed five nights a week.

RCF Electronics (UK) Ltd. (Contact Details)

Cadac's latest Spiel

In Hamburg, the Deutshes Schauspielhaus Cadac Concert Board has a FOH position in the 1400 seat auditorium. Built by the famous German architects Fellmer and Hellmer (I kid you not) at the turn of the century, the theatre's repertoire covers modern and historical dramas, comedy and high profile visiting productions, including international musical tours. Fast program changes, sometimes involving two within a single day, are integral to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus' operation, a factor which influenced the sound department's choice of console.

Clive Green & Co Ltd. (Contact Details)

Come to the Cabaret

Parade Cabaret Restaurant in Glasgow is enjoying a completely new sound system based on arrays of the new Shermann CA5 and CA1 high definition speakers and monitors, powered by Crest amps. The system was designed and installed by Edinburgh based GB Professional Audio and also includes a Soundtracs Solo 32-channel desk, Yamaha graphics, Drawmer compression, and a rack of Beyer diversity wireless headset mics with ADAs.

GB Professional Audio. (Contact Details)

Astoria's new addition

Already a staunch supporter of the BSS Varicurve system, Australian house engineer at the London Astoria, Erik Sanderson-Evans (apparently the Viking longboats made it all the way Downunder) has now purchased a second BSS FDS-388 Omnidrive to tune and time align the 22K of ASS front-of-house rig which the venue is running.

Erik, who runs an FCS-920 Varicurve Slave on the balcony system and the full Varicurve on the bottom one, simply drops the Remote down to the incoming band from upstairs so they can operate their sound rig from the system settings.

He has now standardised by adding a second Omnidrive again, deploying one to drive the balcony system while the other manges the main auditorium sound. "The sound system is now the best it's sounded in 20 years," Erik enthuses. "Although we already had one Omnidrive, the system originally was crossed over on BSS FDS-360s, with Martin Audio MX4s processing their VRS-800 system in the balcony. BSS then loaned me a second system to run the VRS-800s on, and with the facility to completely compress the horns, it made the boxes a lot louder. The objective was to obtain better reliability, and in the past three months, we have changed the whole system over to ASS, all driven by PSL amplification, to provide a lot more physical power. Again, the Omnidrive has come into its own."

The system is made to work particularly hard, servicing the weekend dance clubs, when it is required to run until 3.30am and 5.00am on the respective nights.

BSS Audio. (Contact Details)