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Wharfedale and Knight Bring Some Polish to Balham
Knight Sound & Light have equipped a large Polish community centre in south London with a new technology infrastructure — built around 24 of Wharfedale’s full-range, and highly cost-effective Programme 50’s.
The location is the notorious old Victorian building ‘Hamilton House’ in Balham — originally a gift from Lord Nelson to Lady Emma Hamilton and later owned by the Kray Twins who used it as an illicit gambling den. But as the White Eagle Club it has been hosting a vast range of Polish community activities since the 1960’s, and is seen as the hub of the parish.
While front-of-house operates as a bar/restaurant for the Polish community the 400-capacity multi-function room performs christenings, weddings and funerals from a portable pulpit; on the entertainment side, the venue is used for karaoke nights, a full-blown disco on Fridays, Miss Poland competitions and live Polish wedding and folk bands. In addition the White Eagle Club screens Polish movies and important sports events, and thus places high demands on its sound system.
However, the hall was in a run down state and its infrastructure virtually non-existent when Magda Harvey took over the premises last year. When freelance consultant/DJ Robert Czekalski — who had rented equipment from Knight Sound & Light in the past — asked the west London installation company how they could improve the sound system on a limited budget, they proposed the Wharfedale solution. “We had experienced environmental health problems, with complaints from the neighbours and needed the sound focused more on the middle of the room,” said Robert.
Knight Sound & Light installation manager, Andy Taylor, put their task into perspective. “Because of the period in which it was built, prior to amplification, it’s acoustically perfect; but when amplified sound came along cheap speakers were used. The problem was that the 18in subs had no definition and lots of woolly low end — and so the neighbours in the flats started to complain.”
Magda Harvey and Robert Czekalski handed down the brief that while the new system had to be “neighbour-friendly” they still expected it to pump out plenty of volume.
As a result, the Programme 50’s are flown in pairs down the length of the rectangular room — with their delay taps programmed into an Alto MaxiDrive 6.2 DSP (which also limits the system). At the stage end Knight have specified four of Wharfedale’s new SI-12’s, flown either side for the near-field.
The venue itself will be divided into three zones, once the bar area has been refurbished, with routing implemented by a Cloud Z4 zoner.
The decision to use the Wharfedale speakers had always been axiomatic for Knight Sound & Light. “The Programme 50 is my favourite speaker,” says Andy Taylor matter-of-factly. “It’s unbelievably well priced for what it is and should probably cost double the money. It’s built well, comes with a bracket and as an installation speaker it’s fantastic. The client gets good value and Wharfedale gives great back-up.”
The two-way, ported Programme 50’s — housing 5.5in woofer and 3/4in titanium driver — are ideal, since they provide a wide frequency range coupled with high power handling in an attractive, acoustically-efficient enclosure.
As for the SI-12 12in, 2-way flyable speaker, this appeared on Knight Sound & Light’s radar six months ago when they were asked to audition a pair in a nearby school. “It was a place notorious for hammering its system — but it came through with flying colours,” says Andy.
He notes that aside from coming with flying points on top, bottom and sides, “from an installation point the SI-12 has both Speakons and binding posts and they also sound awesome and look smart. As a result the customer is always happy.”
He believes that it is the sheer versatility of both the Programme 50’s and the SI-12’s, operating over a heavy duty cycle, that have impressed the wider Polish community.
“The Wharfedale speakers perform exactly the same function as the bigger pro audio brands — but at a price people are comfortable with spending. Anything and everything goes through these boxes — from full-on disco to football soundtracks coming off a Freeview box — but the Programme 50’s are very forgiving speakers.
“We’ve been using them for years and we sell bucketloads.”
In picture: the Function Room and exterior of the famous Hamilton House where The White Eagle Club is based.
18th September 2006
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