Last December the venue was one of three purchased by Paul Kinsey's Nexum Leisure. Earmarking a generous £7m for redevelopment, the company assembled a design team - including Alan Brown at Blueprint Design and Will Norton at Leicester-based Willpower Sound and Vision - to reinvigorate the nightclub and transform the interior into a 2,000-capacity, two-room space.
Although the experienced Willpower started out in the rental industry more than 25 years ago - and still services stages at the major festivals - today the company is making great inroads in the corporate nightclub installation sector. While Will Norton has been buying QSC amplifiers for many years, he has chosen a QSC-processed line array speaker system for the first time, as the preferred primary sound reinforcement in the high-profile club.
Willpower was awarded the contract through its association with lighting company, TechLiaison, whose MD Malcolm Robertson, had been one of the nightclub lighting pioneers back in that golden era.
"As well as lighting, Mr. Smith's has always set a precedent in powerful dancefloor sound - so we knew we had to better that," reasoned Norton. "The venue clearly lent itself to a line array approach."
The installer had already been treated to a demonstration of a ground-stacked QSC Installation Line Array (ILA) at the HQ of Shure Distribution UK (the manufacturer's UK importer). "If it sounded that good in a demonstration environment I could just imagine what it would sound like in an optimised venue."
He explained that Nexum had gone to great lengths to cut down on reflections by installing a lot of drapes - and when they saw the compact footprint of the ILA inside the venue the operators were delighted.
Willpower designed two conventional left/right hangs in drops of six WL2082-i top boxes, flown with a pair of WL-115sw on each side, while ground-stacked and coupled underneath are four MD-S218 (2 x 18in) subs providing further bass extension from a single point source.
The QSC system, supplied by wholesalers Batmink, is thus run five-way using QSC's new PowerLight 3 - the system is largely powered by four PL380's with a PL325 assigned to the top boxes. Meanwhile, QSC Audio's RMX 5050 workhorses drive some of the pre-existing loudspeakers which have been assigned in-fill duties in the main room, as well as running the system in the second, R&B Room.
What really brings the sound to life is the use of QSC's integrated Basis 914lz monitor control operating under QSControl.net, and using QSC Audio's Power Limiting technology.
Elsewhere, the venue features an industry-spec DJ console and a provision for live feeds; there are ample visual stimuli in the form of lasers, moving lights and trusses ... and four projectors firing onto two 12m x 4m fixed screens.
(Jim Evans)
