At Waxy O’Connors, part of The Printworks complex, the acoustic challenge was to produce a clean multi-layered system. The Waxy’s site is a busy, good looking labyrinthine complex of passageways, spaces, snugs, small meeting/drinking rooms and several bars, spread across four floors. A stunning stripped wood, sculptured tree stretches up through a high atrium space slicing vertically through all four floors. Pattenden - who has also designed and supplied sound for the very successful Waxy’s sites in London and Glasgow - has used a mix of JBL speakers, including Control 25s, Control 28s and SB2 subs, all driven by RSE amps. CP Sound also supplied a Rolec hard drive computer music system for backgrounds music, and spec’d the separate CD player source for the toilets. Waxy’s sound is divided into eight individually-controllable zones - all fed through a Cloud Zone 8. The picture was completed, audio-wise, with a DJ set up, designed to plug in to the Red Room, consisting of a Denon DN-1800 twin CD player and a Citronic CDM 10:4 mixer to feed the whole building as required.
The Zinc Bar & Grill is the latest in a series of Conran Restaurant sites for which CP Sound has designed the audio. Once again, the brief was for excellent sound, with the system to be as discreet and invisible as possible. Speakers are again a mix of JBL Control 25s, Control 28s and SB2s working with a combination of RSE amps and Pattenden specified white JBL speakers which are fitted flush to the walls. Zinc Manchester also features a computer music system and a Cloud Zone 4, complete with a backup CD player. There’s a ‘hidden’ DJ box in the bar area near the entrance door, plus concealed overall volume controls.
(Ruth Rossington)
