|
The latest Carling Academy venue has recently opened in Oxford's Cowley Road, a £2 million refurbishment transforming the building from its previous incarnation as the Zodiac.
With an overall building capacity of 1150, the Carling Academy Oxford now features three fully-equipped performance spaces, with video mixing and high quality audio as the focal points.
The technical side of the transformation was handled by Marquee Audio led by Audio project manager Scott Wakelin ably supported by Turbosound's UK Sales Manager Paul McMullan and Applications Engineer Dan Orton, ensuring that the optimum sound coverage and quality is delivered.
The installation incorporates not only a brand new Turbosound Aspect® rig, but also integrates two of Turbosound's other ranges, ensuring that the whole venue will be providing consistent and high quality sound.
The main space - Carling Academy Oxford - features a brand new rig comprising a pair of Aspect TA-880H mid-highs, four TA-880L bass cabinets, two wide-dispersion TA-500s and two TSW-218 subs, complemented by 12 NuQ-15 wedges on stage. Amplification is by MC2 with FOH and monitor mixing by a pair of Soundcraft MH3 consoles.
In the second area - Zodiac - the Marquee Audio team reconditioned the existing Turbosound trapezoidal Floodlight TFL-760Ht mid/high cabinets and TSW-718 subs, adding Turbosound's dedicated LMS-D24 system controllers, MC2 amplification and a new Soundcraft MH2 console.
Meanwhile in the third venue - Bar Academy - a TXD-121/TXD-115 passive combination has been provided as a small, portable band rig alongside a two-way TXD floor monitor system, with four TCS-121C 12"/1" 2-ways covering the peripheral areas.
All systems have also been integrated into a new digital network, which features a touch screen front end based on Biamp Systems daVinci graphic control software. "In essence this means we have control over the audio and visual throughout the whole venue, and can route any signal source to any of the three zones," says Scott Wakelin.
"It means that Carling Academy Oxford, the Zodiac and Bar Academy can all operate stand-alone systems, or receive feeds from the other sources."
The digital network uniquely ties together three different Turbosound systems, demonstrating the flexibility and cost-effectiveness that is possible across the different loudspeaker ranges. The brand new Aspect and NuQ units dovetail seamlessly with older Turbosound products to deliver the high quality of sound which such a brand new, high profile venue demands.
|