Needing to replace an under-equipped system in a 1,100-capacity, open plan venue - split on three levels - Green-I turned to a Martin Audio/Soundweb solution. When they arrived on site, just six tiny speakers had served the vast downstairs space at Fox's ExCeL site from a DJ feed. While Fox operations director, John D'ell-Ross, instigated some screening, to separate the general bar area from the restaurant, the installers set to work with BSS Audio's proprietary Soundweb and a judicious configuration of EM Series architectural loudspeakers to achieve an even dispersion pattern over the vast space.
They installed eight EM26s - finished in Martin's textured green corporate livery - supported by a pair of the ultra-compact EM15s on the mezzanine level, and four further (white) EM15s on the ground floor.
The design splits the venue into four sound zones, for all day operation (commencing at 8am), handing control of three of these zones to the operators (since the upstairs control offset also manages the mezzanine area). For routing flexibility, Green-I used a line-configured BSS Audio 9088, which takes feeds from Sky Television, a two-zone Rolec (one servicing the bar and one the restaurant) and DJ points in the upstairs and lower areas (with auto override. The Rolec signal distributed to the restaurant takes on the restaurant preset, while the sound delivery to the bar goes into a different mode. And when the DJ starts up, Soundweb automatically activates the subs.
The system is powered by a combination of QSC CX502s and CX902s (while in the 380-capacity Stratford site, the six EM26s distributed around the L-shaped room are fed by QSC RMX 2450s). The full-range EM26 is equipped with a long excursion eight inch bass driver and ferrofluid-cooled 1" HF compression driver, creating a 70º horizontal by 50º vertical dispersion pattern.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
