Dave has used Martin Audio for DJ monitoring in the Ministry of Sound's main room (The Box) for some years, and had received many plaudits from top DJs, who had remarked on how clean and powerful the system was. The club's resident DJs, Marc Hughes and Nick Bridges, used the same system in Singapore recently and said: "The Martin Audio sound gives us just what we want, really phat and punchy, incredibly clean, a definition that had escaped us in the past."
And Dave Bradshaw, who put together the system with Martin Audio's Peter Owen, added, "The reliability of the units has been first class - in fact I haven't replaced a single driver." Owen responded by saying: "I have known Dave for a number of years, and when he approached me with his requirements we were able to construct this new outstanding solution very quickly."
The new specification - which remained the same from concept to completion - sees eight W8LC Compact Line Array enclosures distributed in two drops of four, for main coverage at The Bar. A further four W8LM Mini Line Array boxes have been configured in two hangs of two per side (as side fills) and a pair of Blackline S218 as subwoofers. The Bar's DJ booth also houses two Blackline F12s and a single S15 sub for DJ referencing. The Baby Box has four each of the larger Blackline F15 and S218 subs with a pair of F8s as infill under the balcony area with two Blackline F12's used as the DJ monitors.
The main VIP room has a selection of four Blackline F10s and a single S218, allowing The Ministry to maximize the use of the room - from full-on party to background low level music. "The beauty of the Martin product is that it retains its characteristics at low and high level, so that you do not need to adjust the EQ to boost the sound when it is running at low level," observes Dave Bradshaw.
The venue's head of production also changed the audio components in all other peripheral areas such as entrance walkway, private VVIP rooms and outside courtyard to keep a well balanced sound running throughout the club. As a result, sound in the VVIP Room is now reinforced through four Contractor series C115's while the entrance corridor has four AQ6s (finished in white) and in the outside courtyard the sound is distributed through a pair of black AQ8s.
The system was supplied by Chris Preston of Absolute Audio in Maidstone, who also carried out the installation. Chris has worked in the industry for many years and for much of that time has been using Martin Audio as his preferred choice of loudspeaker. Preston felt the tie-in between the Ministry of Sound and Martin Audio had been long overdue and noted: "The EQ has been minimal as the boxes have adapted to the environment very well."
Erick Morillo and Pete Tong christened the system as part of the Subliminal evening over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Dave Bradshaw commented: "My initial reason for changing was to have a closer working relationship with the manufacturer. Martin Audio and Absolute Audio have surpassed all expectations. Having owned a premium brand I had not expected to experience such a sonic difference! The Bar is properly rocking now, a real kick in the chest, just brilliant."
(Lee Baldock)
