The primary task facing Lynx Lighting’s head of sound Jerey Denning, was the ability to change the venue’s soundscape - with automatic adjustment of the room’s EQ settings in accordance with the different modes of music. This he did with the aid of four BSS 9088 Soundwebs and a 9010 Jellyfish remote. Via Soundweb, each area can select local sources, such as satellite - or multiplay CD in the Cuba Bar - while still receiving announcements from the main DJ booth. Four BSS 9012 wall-mount panels provide the local user interface - featuring a five-way switch and rotary fader. However, in the live mixing area on the balcony, house engineer Rob Evans has access to the Jellyfish, stationed alongside a Soundcraft Spirit 32 (32/8/2) desk, and this allows him to override the system at any time.
Jerey Denning explained: "The idea is to use the different processing blocks from each Soundweb to route around the whole network. The DSP is used for matrix routing and storing gain settings and limiting - delays in particular are used heavily depending on the different loudspeaker set-ups." As soon as a band takes the stage, emphasis switches to the front of the room and the delay settings will change. The engineer will type a preset and reconfigure in the Jellyfish.
Outside the system configuration, BSS also features prominently in the outboard processing rack. This includes three BSS Opal Series DPR-944 2+2 parametric compressor/gates - giving the venue six channels of gating and compression - plus a BSS DPR-404 four channel compressor, with high-frequency de-essing. Compression here really is an issue, and Lynx has given Rob Evans access to switch in extra limiting and override the system in the event of a visiting engineer overdriving the system. Lynx has also arranged threshold management in the DJ booth via a BSS customised ‘traffic light’, which controls all the environmental levels via a series of warning LEDs and an eventual ducking procedure.
"We have written a front page macro on the laptop, with Chicago Rock graphics storing certain states that are consistent," states Denning. "Because Luminar like this, we simply copy it across as a processing block." In recent Chicago Rock Cafés, Lynx Lighting have started running a link to Luminar’s server. They can remotely control and reprogramme the system at any time by going through the local hub, straight into the PC which is running Soundweb. Soundweb has also been used to optimize the loudspeaker system. All the speaker DSP settings, holding limiter, delay, EQ and gain points for each driver, were e-mailed across to Lynx, and these parameters were entered into the Soundweb macro to simulate a dedicated system processor (which is kept on the Lynx server). When the speakers revert to dance playback, the mid-high will be muted in Soundweb and the bass bin retuned down to 80Hz crossover - the lower level taking it into dance mode and acting as a sub. The signal can be rerouted and the crossover point changed - all in Soundweb.
(Lee Baldock)
