The long-awaited new venue has been designed by Big Blue and features a large stage, sprung dancefloor, DJ booth and bar area with permanently installed sound and effects lighting. Tega have worked closely with the University on many events in the past, and, as a result of their good support service, were awarded the sound and lighting contract. The main sound system uses the Union’s eight existing EAW KF650 boxes, which are flown above the stage on custom-designed frames. The eight SB600 sub bins are located beneath the stage along with two Logic System CS1000SB subs to augment the system’s lower frequencies. In the bar area are eight Mackie ART300 speakers, with a further four providing stage fill. The main system is powered by Chevin Research amplifiers (2 x A1000, 2 x A3000 and 5 x A6000), and the Mackie speakers are powered by QSC amplifiers. The system is controlled using a Peavey MediaMatrix Xframe-88 system which allows zoning of the main and bar speakers, and provides limiting and crossover functions for all speakers.
Chris Ford of Tega selected the Peavey unit because of its flexibility. "The beauty of the Xframe system is that, with the addition of a Breakout Box, we were able to achieve the 15 outputs that we needed at a fraction of the cost of similar units. Because of the nature of the venue, we needed to provide a high degree of flexibility; the Xframe allows us to provide different EQs for the system depending on how the speaker zones are used. It also gave us the benefit of being able to offer separate live sound and DJ inputs with separate EQ settings - not to mention making the system tamper-proof."
The DJ booth is equipped with a Pioneer DJM600 mixer, CMX5000 twin CD player and two CDJ500S. Two Technics turntables, and Tascam Minidisc and DAT machines are also provided for playback at events. A Logic Systems CM12 unit acts as a DJ monitor. An extensive tie-line and multicore system is installed with connection points at several locations in the building, intended for live bands and to give flexibility in the use of the venue which will be used for touring bands and live acts as well as club and disco nights.
The lighting system includes 10 Clay Paky Miniscan HPE, four Martin MAC250+, five Martin Atomic strobes, four Abstract Twisters, six Abstract Galactic Moons and a large number of Par 56 cans. The union already owned the Abstract equipment and six of the Miniscans. 12 1kW Par 64 cans are provided for house stage lighting, but a variety of rigging points are fitted for touring rigs. The lighting is installed on three octagonal trusses of Litestructures’ Original 3, which was custom pre-wired with power outlets and DMX by Andolite Ltd. Control is from the Union’s existing Avolites Azure 2000 console. Two Le Maitre Neutron Star Hazers are also installed. Lighting power is controlled by three LightProcessor Powerstation2 units, which provide dimming for the Par cans and switched power for the effects lighting.
The new venue opened its doors on 10 May as an enthusiastic crowd joined acts Shola Ama and Kelly le Roq to experience the new facilities.
(Ruth Rossington)
