Spearheaded by British entrepreneurs, the Heron City leisure operation has so far opened four venues in Europe - in Madrid, Barcelona, Stockholm and, most recently, Valencia, where its extensive range of family entertainments can attract 20,000 people in an evening. The Valencia site offers a variety of leisure activities, including a 24-screen multiplex cinema, fitness centres and an array of restaurants, cafés, bars and clubs.
The 2,700-capacity Guru is the final piece in the Heron City jigsaw, being the last venue within the complex to be built. In a contract worth £400,000, Xtreme has installed a high specification sound and lighting system into the new club, with Coemar and Electro-Voice providing the main building blocks. The company was contracted thanks to a previous connection with Robert Cruickshank, director of Bloc Management, who is now branding and operations manager for the complex.
The Xtreme team worked closely with designer Nic Preece, also a director of Bloc Management, with Xtreme's Craig Wiggins undertaking the lighting design. "All the moving yoke fixtures in Guru are from Coemar UK, and allare controlled through a ShowCAD Artist system," explained Wiggins. These include 10 ProSpot 150s and four ProSpot 575s. To intensify the atmosphere Wiggins is using six Hungaroflash strobes. The ShowCAD Artist system is operating through both a touchscreen interface and via MIDI controllers. It is linked via a dial-up network to allow Xtreme to update the programming and software from its UK offices.
Three 20m lengths of truss above the dancefloor will allow additional lighting to be rented in to suit the occasion. A budget has been allocated for the purpose, and Xtreme is to open a rental company in Spain, which will include Coemar CF7 HEX fixtures among its stock. As a final decorative effect, Xtreme purchased 60m of Pixeon LED Color Stream from Coemar UK for use inside and outside the venue. Also under the control of Artist, some 20m of this forms a main feature in the Chillout Bar, providing slow colour changes, with further Pixeon units deployed in the foyer, running off their own wall-mounted controller, and others run with DMX off the main floor. As part of the installation, Xtreme laid video cable to facilitate future expansion.
To fulfil the audio end of the equation, Xtreme placed a valuable order with Shuttlesound for Electro-Voice X-Array loudspeakers, Midas Venice consoles and a considerable number of P3000RL Precision Series remote amplifiers.The nightclub's eight rooms and three outdoor balcony areas are equipped with Electro-Voice RX speakers, with EV EvID speakers handling all the exterior applications. The main dancefloor sound system features Dynacord Alpha X1 full-range speakers, Dynacord Alpha B3 bass and Dynacord V1 full-range speakers.
The club's sound system is driven by Electro-Voice's new Precision Series remote amplifiers. More than 50 units have made their way to Spain and, according to Wiggins, these are essential to the whole project since, like the lighting, the entire high-tech audio system can be remotely monitored online. Xtreme can dial up the system every Monday morning and run a complete diagnostic on the loudspeakers. "Using the remote amps and the IRIS management system, we can provide a comprehensive and intelligent maintenance service from the UK. We can phone up the club, dial into each individual amp and find out what ohmage is at the end of the line. We've set up the IRIS software to show us a little green LED for every speaker position: if there's a problem, we'll know almost before they do because the computer is on-line 24/7. The control we have with these is phenomenal."(Lee Ba
