Sound Division goes Local in Fulham
Bar Local, recently opened in the heart of Fulham, is the second venue to be rolled out by entrepreneur Rob Stephenson. The first Bar Local opened in Clapham last year to great acclaim, and Stephenson is confident that the Fulham venue will enjoy similar success.
While this area of south-west London is already home to several upmarket bars and restaurants, Bar Local offers something a little bit different, combining the class of a piano bar with the energy and ambience of an intimate club. Stephenson turned to audio visual specialists, Sound Division, to furnish a powerful yet discreet audio system including DJ booth for his latest venture.
Sound Division's David Graham explained that the brief was to provide a high quality background and foreground audio system that would transition smoothly from the daytime background music CDs and early evening tinklings of the grand piano, up to the high octane demands of a sophisticated DJ set-up. To this end Sound Division supplied and installed a sophisticated system based on JBL Control 25AV and Control 28 cabinets driven by both Crown XLS and QSC2450 power amplifiers with a Cloud Z4 venue zoning mixer plus a DBX compressor limiter and graphic for main system processing. For the live music sessions with the piano, Sound Division supplied a Soundcraft Folio FX8 live mixing console (which feeds into the Cloud zoning mixer) and Shure SM58 microphones.
There is also a comprehensive DJ set-up including Technics SL1210 Mk5 turntables, Ortofon cartridges, Pioneer CDJ1000 Mk2 digital CD players and a top of the range Allen & Heath Xone 92 DJ mixer. The ensemble is completed by a JBL Eon 10 powered DJ monitor. "The audio system is zoned across three separate areas with remote source selection and volume control, and as the owner does a lot of DJ-ing himself, we've really gone to town on the DJ system," commented Graham. "The end result is a very tidy and flexible little system that will happily tick over for daytime background music, but is nevertheless capable of packing a real punch once the DJ set-up gets going for the evening crowd."
Owner Rob Stephenson agrees. "Sound Division worked hard to make sure that the installation both looks and sounds good. Furthermore, they respected the budget they were given, which makes a nice change! They were a pleasure to work with, and I'd have no hesitation in recommending their services to others."
May 2005