When Oliver Peyton's famous restaurant went into administration last September, a new operational team led by Channel 4 chairman, Luke Johnson, restaurant consultant Simon Wright and Gary Ashworth (collectively Adriatic Restaurants Ltd) took over the magnificent Grade-II listed art deco building within weeks and renamed it. The Astor name is designed to merge the great 1920's art deco Gatsby era with the edginess of the 1960's and the Profumo scandal.
After running it as a corporate party venue they have now laid out a versatile operating blueprint following a £200,000 refurbishment; this will incorporate a mix of live music, art exhibitions, sophisticated comedy, cabaret, record company showcases and high profile DJs. The weekly Live At The Astor will feature established artists and showcase breaking talent.
With three impressive spaces - the grand dining room, celebrity Dick's Bar and Chez Cup - the owners knew they needed high-octane sound reinforcement. "We wanted a lot of loudspeakers that could be run at low volume during the early evening but then be turned up depending on the style of entertainment," said Wright, formerly Food & Beverage director with Ian Schrager Hotels.
During his time with Schrager Simon had routinely contracted Sound Division's Chris Baxter to provide their outside production for special events at the Sanderson and St. Martin's Lane Hotels. "The relationship with the company just grew from there - in fact the only time I haven't used Sound Division was on a Glasgow project, and that was purely because of the distance.
"Their turnaround time here was amazing. In just two days they had stripped out the old gear and had three separate systems up and running - not to mention the additional equipment they brought in for our launch party. They have a fantastic work ethic." He added that Sound Division had always managed to pull out the stops - even when he asked for the impossible at 10.15pm on New Year's Eve they were able to respond. "They just have a great team," he said.
The installation company's response is based around a Martin Audio solution predominantly drawing from the high-powered, cost-effective Blackline series. Sound Division quoted Martin Audio because their vast range of enclosures matched all operational and design requirements. "We now know the product capabilities of the Martin Audio catalogue inside out," said MD, David Graham. "And the one thing we know is that it will provide a highly flexible solution."
In the 200-cover restaurant and 4,000 sq ft island bar area are 12 Blackline F8's and a pair of S15 subs powered respectively by Crown XS900 and XLS602 stereo amps. The club sound is reinforced by a further S218 dual 18in sub, powered by a Crown XS1200.
In the exclusive Dick's Bar four further Martin F8's and S15 compact sub are likewise powered by Crown, while in the circular Chez Cup, four aesthetic AQ6 Contractor loudspeakers are wall mounted around the perimeter of a space that is ideal for private dining.
Sound Division have also equipped the main restaurant and Bar with their own dedicated DJ stations using Technics SL 1200 turntables, Denon DN-D4500 twin CD players and Allen & Heath XONE:62 DJ mixers. When these are not in use background music is distributed throughout the venue from a Pioneer six-disc multiplay CD player, with sound processing, routing and system management detailed to a pair of dbx ZonePro 640 DSP digital zone processors.
Graham says: "As entertainment will take centre stage in Astor, high fidelity music and speech intelligibility are of paramount importance, wherever you are in the building. With six inputs and four outputs the ZonePro 640 provides flexible signal routing, powerful DSP processing and multiple control interfaces - perfect for this environment."
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