SOLUTIONS: MONTREUX JAZZ CAFÉ, LONDON UNITED KINGDOM All that jazz
The latest incarnation of the Montreux Jazz Café has opened in a Knightsbridge department store, and had some exacting requirements, writes Tom Bradbury
[ABOUT THE INSTALLER]
Pro Audio Systems is based in Bradford, West
Yorkshire.The company celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2013 and, due to ongoing expansion, will be moving to new premises during the year
The company started out as pure audio contractors, providing personnel and equipment for various projects including live music, conferences, local authority events and product launches
The business now comprises separate divisions for installation, hire and sales, as well as the ‘Custom Shop’ which provides bespoke design and build facilities of items for numerous clients
The 70-seat café features a total of 14 Meyer Sound MM-4XP speakers (inset)
THIS PAST holiday season, many shoppers who wandered London’s luxury shopping district of Knightsbridge chanced on something delightfully unexpected: Switzerland. Not the entire country of course, but rather a rhythmic and delectable embassy of the famed Montreux Jazz Festival known as the Montreux Jazz Café. The café offers visitors a distinctive mélange of concert recordings from the Montreux Jazz Festival and a menu of lighter fare selected by the festival’s founder and CEO, Claude Nobs. Inspired by the original Montreux Jazz Café – opened in Switzerland in 2000 by Nobs and Quincy Jones – the year-round London rendition allows visitors to
sample many of the same menu items (including Funky Claude’s Pancakes with 50g of Prunier Caviar) while enjoying – in HD video and premium sound – succulent musical fare such as BB King’s memorable 1993 concert or Paolo Nutini’s stunning 2011 performance. Two other Montreux Jazz
Café locations were already in operation at Zurich and Geneva airports prior to the London debut, but setting up shop inside one of the world’s most celebrated luxury stores presented a particularly daunting challenge to Laurent Buri, COO of Montreux Jazz International, the arm of the festival charged with the café’s operations. “We knew it was important to have only the highest audio
EDITOR’S NOTE: CLAUDE NOBS 1936-2013
This article was at an advanced stage of production when we learned of the passing of Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs in a skiing accident. Installationoffers its condolences to all who knew him, and dedicates the article to the memory of a man who did so much for the world of music.
Picture: © 2008 FFJM / Lionel Flusin
www.installation-international.com
quality, and not to in any way interfere with shops adjacent to the café,” Buri observes. “We wanted visitors to have a satisfying concert sound experience inside the café, but also to manage it in a way that would not carry outside the immediate area.”
LONG HISTORY
In matters of audio, the story of Meyer Sound has been intertwined with that of the Montreux Jazz Festival since the festival was barely 10 years old. Accordingly, in early discussions regarding AV installations for the new café, Buri consulted with Roger Harpum, Meyer Sound’s UK representative. In turn, Harpum recommended Pro Audio Systems of Bradford, UK, based on the company’s extensive experience in the installation of Meyer Sound’s low-voltage self-powered systems at World Duty Free Group (WDFG) shops in numerous airport retail sites. Pro Audio Systems was
also responsible for all the latest video and digital signage requirements in WDFG locations, and that one-stop shop capability also appealed to both Buri and the
design studio for the new location, Portland Design Associates of London. “We have been using
various Meyer Sound products in high-profile retail locations for years,” notes Brian Lumb, managing director of Pro Audio Systems. “More recently, we’ve also been asked to take on video and digital signage, because clients like the way we work – we are extremely particular about how things are done.” Lumb was also well aware of the importance of the AV component of the Montreux experience. He continues: “The cafés are essentially designed as ambassadorial experiences for the Montreux Jazz Festival, the concept being to give visitors a flavour of the event by delivering an AV experience based on festival archive material. The quality of all the recorded material is extraordinarily high regardless
In recent years client demand has prompted the development of a Digital Media division, which provides leading-edge digital signage solutions to a diverse range of clients
of when it was captured, so the AV system had to be capable of delivering that quality experience throughout the whole location.” The audio infrastructure, as designed by Pro Audio Systems with assistance from Meyer Sound, is split into three separate zones plus a listening booth. The largest area is the 70-seat café, which is fitted with three discrete stereo systems aligned in transverse rows across the space. Each system comprises a ‘main’ left- right pair referenced to their screen plus stereo delays. In total, 14 Meyer Sound MM-4XP speakers are distributed throughout this area, plus one M1D loudspeaker and two MM- 10XP subs. The areas dedicated to the
Montreux Jazz Shop and Claude’s Collection are each fitted with further Meyer Sound-based systems, both of which comprise a pair of MM-4XP loudspeakers and a single MM-10XP subwoofer. All three audio systems are
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