Installations

This month, FRONT of HOUSE takes a look at some recent installations nightclub sector — in particular, the new sound systems deployed for Hudson Ultra Bar in Hoboken NJ, Hard Rock Live in Las Vegas, the Oxford Social Club in San Diego, the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, Switch in Southampton, U.K. and LOFT in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (pictured here).

If Toronto was the capital of the U.K., then Massey Hall might reasonably be named the Royal Albert Hall. This is no fanciful comparison. Both are, in the absolute sense of the word, iconic venues for their respective cities and share a common era, being built within just a few years of each other in the late 19th century.

An (Audio) Transformational Experience

Great Hills Baptist Church has long been a cornerstone of Austin’s faith community. Located in a town long known for its deep involvement in music, this vibrant and growing congregation definitely needed a high-fidelity sound system to suit the needs of parishioners in the church, which seats approximately 2,700.

The pride of Lynchburg, VA, Liberty University’s School of Music, set a new benchmark for acoustical flexibility as it debuts one of the world’s first performance venues to offer adjustable architectural acoustics working hand-in-hand with Meyer Sound’s Constellation active acoustic system. Students, faculty, guest ensembles and the surrounding community can now experience musical performances of any genre in acoustical surroundings precisely tailored for optimum benefit.

In the evolving world of the praise and worship market, venues are not only upgrading to meet new digital standards but also raising the bar in terms of production value.

Audio installations and upgrades within sports facilities typically present severe challenges to integrators and system designers. Perhaps the most formidable of these is the sheer scale of multiple coverage areas. The latter often entails working with enormous, cavernous open-air spaces while also delivering an acceptable listening experience to everyone occupying the seats, whether fans are courtside or in the upper “nosebleed” seats of an arena or — in a stadium project — on the grandstand, bleachers, end-zones or beneath a second or third deck.

Audio Upgrade at South Carolina’s House of Representatives Chamber Gets Bipartisan Support

The South Carolina House of Representatives consists of 124 part-time citizen legislators elected every two years to represent the state’s 124 separate single-member districts. Operating from the House of Representatives Chamber, officials recently oversaw a massive restructuring of the Chamber’s AV facilities, which in addition to legislative sessions, is also used occasionally for a wide range of special events.

A Unique Production/Performance Complex Blooms in a Wine Country Setting

In a pristine business park of well-kept warehouses and offices located in northwest Santa Rosa, in bucolic Sonoma County, CA, one immaculate structure stands out against the more conservative surrounding architecture of its wine distributor, microbrewery, electrical supply and motorcycle mechanic neighbors.

A longstanding tradition in show business — at least harkening back to circus performers in the 1800’s — is that “the show must go on.” Today, despite competition from multiplex cinema complexes, home theaters and every conceivable form of sporting events, there is still considerable interest in watching humans in live onstage performance, whether in drama, musicals, concerts, dance, opera — the list is nearly endless. At the same time, while stadium shows are less common these days, venues in the 1,000 to 4,000 capacity range seem to be doing well, especially as music artists once strictly relegated to arenas are now turning to these smaller, more “intimate” venues.

Achieving great sound in a house of worship setting is fraught with challenges. Worship services may range from simple piano and/or organ with voices to high-SPL contemporary music at rock concert levels; or with many churches, it may be a combination of the two, serving two different congregations. Unfortunately, few house of worship sanctuaries are built with acoustical needs in mind, and often feature highly reverberant spaces with ample use of wood, glass, marble and other acoustically reflective materials.

The largest country music club in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Saddle Rack, was founded by Hank Guenther and opened on Aug 13, 1976 in San Jose, CA. The club prospered for some 25 years, but the astronomical rise of real estate prices in the Silicon Valley eventually swayed Guenther to close the club in 2001 and sell the 6.5-acre parcel of land where it stood.

At over 100 years old, the former National Guard Armory is one of San Francisco’s most distinctive buildings. Designed to convey the impression of a heavily armored and forbidding Moorish fortress, the massive structure features four octagonal towers, rough clinker brick exterior walls and narrow rectangular lancet windows. Now listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the building measures 192,300 square feet and includes the administration building (84,700 square feet), basement (68,000 square feet) and Drill Court (39,000 square feet).