The venue is divided into two totally separate spaces: downstairs is a mezzanine restaurant and different bar areas, and upstairs there's a function room suite available for private hires. Downstairs at the Lighthouse is an open plan design with large windowed frontage onto the street, overlooking the water, with two more secluded rooms with seats and tables at the rear and the restaurant on the mezzanine level.
Silver chose JBL Control 25AV speakers to distribute sound downstairs - 29 in total, together with seven JBL Control 23Ts. The Control 25 AVs were chosen for their size/power ratio. Silver sought a tightly-focussed full-range box, so it could appear that every table in the seated bar areas and restaurant has its own individual speaker. The Control 25AVs also have an inbuilt transformer allowing them to be run as 100 volt line, and adding to their dynamic as a distributed speaker.
Downstairs sound is configured into eight zones and controlled very precisely via an Allen & Heath iDR system. The music-scape is tightly controlled throughout the day, varying in the different areas of the venue, and specific to the time of day and mood and nature of the clientele. Each zone and area has its own precise localised EQ, volume and other system controls, and the A&H system generally has also enabled them to optimise the performance of the JBL speakers ever further.
The upstairs is available for all types of private hires and has already proved popular as an after-show venue for several film premiers at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The intimate space features a bar, seated area, small dancefloor and DJ booth. The main challenges for sound were to keep the different areas - all in very close proximity - separated. Here Adlib Audio supplied SI with a selection of their own speaker brand, including two FD2P top boxes and six AA15BP bass enclosures. Neil then added some JBL Control 30AVs. Six of the Control 25AVs are used for fill in the seated area. The largest of the Contractor series, the 30AVs are used for fillers in the stage area, picked for their solid, "healthy" sound throughout the range.
The beauty of the AA15BPs explains Silver, is their compact size - for a bass speaker - which enables them to be slotted under the low stage, tidily tucked out the way. The two top boxes are flown left and right of the stage, positioned to serve as PA for a live act, or be panned out to fill the dance floor during a DJ set.
(Lee Baldock)
