HOLLWOOD, Calif. –– Like many Hollywood clubs, Vanguard has had many lives. It's been a warehouse, roller-skating rink and, more recently, Qtopia club. Now it's a multifaceted venue with state-of-art sound systems, a solid choice for concerts. According to Richard Ralke of LA Sound, the club first approached him "a few years back, Adam Dugan, the technical director, was looking for a monitoring solution for the many big DJs that play the club. I suggested the Martin W8 system together and it’s been there for two years. Vanguard was doing a facelift and decided to replace the sound systems in the three VIP rooms, which we did with Martin Audio."
The main room features scenic-treated stone walls and a curved bar lit by LEDs. While cavernous in size, the hanging truss and lighting rig (designed by Steve Leiberman of SJ Lighting), decorative sconces and customized furniture add intimacy. The 21,000-square-foot venue qualifies as a legitimate mega-club for live performance and disco.
As Dugan describes it, "The upstairs was a mix-and-match system and it didn't have the power to handle the size of the rooms. We have three VIP Rooms with table service and a small dance floor area. We looked at several systems and we needed something quickly, so Richard was able to come through for us."
Richard describes the solution more specifically, "The upstairs system is two rooms one large room and one smaller lounge that looks out into the main room. The bigger room has four flown Martin AQ15 boxes for the dance area, two AQ10s for fill and four Martin WS218X subs. The smaller room has four Martin EM 76 box and two Martin WS218X subs. The downstairs room has four AQ15 flown and four Martin W218X Subs.
Asked about the reaction at Vanguard, Adam says, "Everyone's been really happy with the sound. We're still making adjustments because I haven't had a chance to tune it with a crowd in the room, but all of the pieces are there. The rest of the system includes dbx 481 processing and different DJ mixers according to the guest DJ.
When we were looking for a system, the owners wanted more of a "lounge-ey" atmosphere but if you install a dance system, you can always turn it down, but it's a lounge system, you can't really turn it up. We have all we need now for both situations.
At Vanguard, we've set ourselves apart from other clubs in L.A. because we're really focused on presenting DJs and we do it better than other clubs out here not as into the electronic and DJ scene."
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