FEATURE: CLUBS, BARS AND RESTAURANTS
Tony Sawyer, Electro-Voice and Dynacord technical support manager, charts the course of recent developments in the Middle East: “Recently, we have seen a very slight surge in the nightclub market around the region, which started at the beginning of spring in the middle- to high-end club market, where Dynacord’s VL [Vari-Line] series is used.” The holiday season and
Opium in Tirana, Albania, features eight Apart MASK 8F and two Apart Sub 2400s Picture: Prosound Sh.p.k.
d&b audiotechnik GB’s sales manager, Phill Coe, is in no doubt about the implications for the squeezed middle, but emphasises that demand for the company’s own products has remained consistent. “Clearly, the mid-tier club market continues to struggle as the industry comes to terms with the impact of factors like high youth unemployment and the effect that has had on disposable income among their core demographic,” he said. “d&b operates at the premium end of the market and thus has managed to maintain a market share in the small to medium-sized club sector, despite the overall downturn. It is not anticipated that this will change significantly in the short to medium term.” For Mark Copeland, product
manager of Tannoy, there is evidence of “steady business at the middle tier, but I don’t see it as a huge growth
market right now. Some geographical areas are different, of course.” It is left to Geert Polfliet,
marketing manager of Audioprof/Apart Audio, to strike the most upbeat note. “We are still seeing a high level of activity in the middle- tier market in different parts of the world,” he said. “[In addition] there is definitely a trend towards the use of multi-function entertainment spaces, [encompassing] a bar, restaurant and club.” Economic circumstances, he believes, are prompting venues “to re-evaluate what they really need” – more of which anon. In geographical terms, activity levels in not inconsiderable swathes of mainland Europe remain rather flat, although a handful of nations are bucking the trend. Further afield, parts of the Middle East and Africa are currently suggestive of a broadly upward trajectory.
regional economic climate contributed towards a mid- summer slowdown, but “heading into late summer we have seen a re-emergence of the low-end, low-budget club markets”. Polfliet, meanwhile, alludes
to recent Apart installs in markets as geographically dispersed as Albania, Turkey, Jordan, South Africa and its native Belgium. Electro- Voice/Dynacord also highlight continued opportunities in Europe as a whole, with technical support pro-audio EMEA representative Oliver Sahm describing the club market there as “an attractive market segment”. And in the UK, where the impact on leisure spend appears to have been especially acute, some manufacturers are still enjoying good returns. Derek West, sales and marketing manager for Audica Professional, observes: “We have good worldwide distribution so we’re not too dependent on any country or region, and despite the economy in the UK it continues to be our strongest market, thanks to having a really good
ELECTRO-VOICE: ROCKING ROMANIA... AND GORDON RAMSAY
Two recent installations neatly illustrate the ability of the Electro- Voice brand to deliver loudspeaker solutions appropriate to a wide variety of club and restaurant applications. For Gordon Ramsay’s latest
restaurant venture – Bread Street Kitchen (pictured) in London’s East End – CGA Integration devised a seven-zone design to satisfy noise emission bylaws and sustainability requirements. Electro-Voice ZX3 two-way loudspeakers provide the core of the resulting system, with power coming from three CPS8.5 Class D amplifiers equipped with RCM-810 remote control modules. System control and sound processing are delivered by a NetMax N8000 digital matrix controller that can be operated via PWS-4 wall panels, making it possible to adjust the volume and tone in each area individually. Meanwhile, the newly opened True
30 October 2012
Club in Bucharest features an Electro- Voice spec able to complement a wide variety of applications. Installed by E-V partner Pro Sound Solutions Romania, the main PA consists of RX-H212 loudspeakers aimed diagonally outwards from the front right- and left- hand corners of the stage; two ultra- compact EVU cabinets to serve the area directly in front of the stage; EVID loudspeakers in the sheltered areas; Xsubs to reinforce the bass; and Live X ELX112P monitors to provide foldback. The investment also included E-V amplifiers (specifically, TG7s), microphones and Dx46 signal processors. The system made its live debut with
a performance by Romanian musician and comedian Ioan Gyuri Pascu. “The high artistic quality of the performance, combined with the diversity of the music programme,
called for an outstanding performance and great versatility from the newly- installed sound system,” remarks Cornel Pectu, sales director of Pro Sound Solutions Romania. “Fortunately,
it passed the test with flying colours! The club’s owners, the performers and the audience were all highly impressed by the quality of the sound reinforcement.”
www.installation-international.com
distributor in CUK Audio.” The sector-wide shift
towards compact, integration-friendly solutions has – unsurprisingly – made itself felt in the club/bar/ restaurant market in the form of a demand for visually unobtrusive speakers and more readily reconfigurable mixing desks. (The launch, as this feature was being prepared, of Soundcraft’s Si Performer console series – which adds integrated DMX- based lighting control to the Si range’s existing digital audio feature spec – must surely be perceived as wholly complementary to these developments.)
SYSTEM EVOLUTION? Virtually across the board, budgetary requirements are encouraging venue operators to take what might be described as a more holistic approach to their pro-AV requirements. “Beside the low-end installs with smaller budgets, we also see a clear ongoing trend towards middle- and high-class installs, where complete concepts of sound, light and operation become more important,” says Sahm. “This is also where our IRIS-Net [configuration, control and monitoring] software, with its unique flexibility and programming options, becomes very important for Dynacord and Electro-Voice solutions.” But in more specific terms,
there is no evidence of a profound change in audio system requirements for bar, club and restaurant venues. Speaker solutions need to
‘We see a clear ongoing trend
towards middle- and high-class
installs’ Oliver Sahm, Electro-Voice
pack significant power into small form-factors that are aesthetically discreet and allow for flexible positioning – no great change there, then. Mixers must offer sufficient capacity for what might be a relatively small number of inputs for everyday operation (for example, basic speech and background music for bars and restaurants), while allowing for the possibility of adding more for non- recorded music and other live performance. For less demanding applications, preset capabilities should enable both trained and untrained staff to operate systems to an acceptable level. Oh, not surprisingly given the current climate, all of the above should be delivered at a price point that
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