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Fabric Upgrades with Soundweb London/BLU-Link Hub
In the ten years since opening, top London club fabric has been networking audio through its three legendary dance rooms using the BSS Audio SW9088 Soundweb.
During that time the venue's sound reinforcement has undergone constant revision to keep it at the cutting edge, but the DSP remained the same - until now.
"The old green boxes gave us great service but we had to own up to the fact that technology has moved on - processing speed has become a lot faster, and there is now greater capacity and more powerful capabilities," says head of technology Sanjeev (Sanj) Bhardwaj. This was something he became aware of last year when he was installing the audio at sister club, Matter.
As a result he has just replaced the entire digital network with the new generation BSS Soundweb London BLU solution, using BSS Audio's proprietary BLU-Link network transport, endemic to the BLU-160 and BLU-120 devices which are at the heart of the new system. Based on Gigabit Ethernet technology the BLU-Link carries 256 channels of fault-tolerant, low-latency audio at 48kHz/24bit, or 128 channels at 96kHz/24bit across a standard CAT5e connection - providing signal quality unprecedented in the club's history, according to Sanj.
"Originally we had 12 Soundweb SW9088's and three Jellyfish remotes which went in with the original fit-out but now we have a fraction of that number of processors offering much greater processing power. We now have a fully redundant system with clearer audio signal and better control.
"Although I considered other options Soundweb is still the most comfortable programme out there, and in terms of controllability will do things that other platforms wouldn't."
For instance, he can now design as many pages as he wants in the London Architect software - for monitor EQ, DJ EQ, FOH EQ and individual speaker EQ with a routing architecture that will stream any signal source to any room destination - with local booth control thrown in. "Whereas we would only use 6-band graphics before (due to processing availability) now we have 8-band or even 12-band on everything, and it's opened us up so much more."
Achieving this are a BLU-160 DSP and pair of BLU-120's in the two main rooms along with a pair of BLU-BOB output boxes, and a BLU-160 and single BLU-120 in Room 3. All three rooms are fitted with password-protected BLU-10 programmable touch screen remotes for local control.
"Anything I can do on my laptop I can do on the BLU-10," says Sanj. "We have set up separate gain controls for each individual speaker and have reset the crossovers with the result that the system is like we've never heard it before." He can also change the room EQ on the fly by walking the floor with his wireless tablet.
The I/O configuration of the Soundweb matrix was also a key factor. While the BLU-160s handle all the processing and are configured either 12in/4 out or 16/0, all the BLU-120s are configured for outputs and programmed 0/16.
"We have maintained the highest standards in each room and with so much more processing power available the system is no longer straining. We are also able to run it quieter than we did before - and yet it sounds better." Regular DJ's like Fabio, he says, have been quick to remark on the improved sound.
Sanj pays credit to Sound Technology's Dave Bradshaw whom he consulted on the project - drawing on the latter's huge experience in the nightclub world - and his own sound team of Matt Smith, Keith Reynolds and Nick Thirtle for their input.
Summing up, he says: "The idea of the new Soundweb London and BLU-Link was to future proof the club. I have so many spare outputs and we are still only using 56% of the processing power in Room 2, where we have the TiMax system, 30% in Room 1 and only 18% in Room 3, where more subs have been added.
"In fact it's the best money I've spent in the last three years and I probably won't need to look at processing again for the next decade."
5th August 2009
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