Following the success of the original Sugar Hut in Fulham, London, owners Chris George, Gary Smith and Frazer Donaldson have taken on a 15th century coaching inn in the heart of Brentwood village. With its unique galleried courtyard playing an important role at the heart of the venue, the old hotel is now home to six different themed clubrooms, bars and restaurants. As a whole, the Sugar Hut Village holds nearly 900 people, dispersed through the Karma Bar, the Krug Suite, the Gallery Bar, the main restaurant, and other areas.
Having worked on the Sugar Hut in London and its sister venue, the KBar in Chelsea, local audio installation company Cosmic Electronics was called in to provide the all-important sound and lighting systems. "Volume just wasn't the issue at the Sugar Hut," explains Mark Damon of Cosmic. "This is not a disco, it's a very upmarket club, so the brief called for very precise, very high-quality audio. Nor did they want to see the actual speakers, so all the cabinets have been hidden behind drapes or concealed in decorative cabinets."
Cosmic's choice of equipment was the EViD 'designer' speaker from ElectroVoice, supplied by Shuttlesound, which provided the power needed on the dance floor, as well as low-key background music for the seating and eating zones around the club.
"We were constrained in some ways by the fact that this is a listed building with low ceilings. However, the EViDs have so much output relative to their size, they're compact and light so they can be installed onto simple wall-brackets, and their performance wasn't in the least affected by being hidden away behind cloth drapes."
Cosmic has installed 12 EViD 6.2s, with two 18" Eliminator subs, in the main clubroom where the dance floor is surrounded by seating. In the Gallery Bar, which is used for club members and VIPs, the formula changed slightly, calling for six of the smaller EViD 3.2 cabinets. And even more EViDs can be heard in the Karma Bar...but not seen! Cosmic Electronics were also responsible for designing the lighting infrastructure and approached Lighting Effects Distribution, with the result that 40 Solar L80 PCB LED effects (with DMX drivers), and a set of Alkalite Octopod 80's have been liberally used to colour wash the multi-zone venue.
Said Damon, "The Solar fixtures are bright and small, which was critical in such a tiny space. We've used Alkalite before, so as far as we are concerned it's a tried and tested effect. But in both instances these effects offer great value for money."
All Solar FX are run off the inbuilt colour-change programme, with the packs then operated by touch screen dimmer control, located in the manager's office. "From here the whole look of the building can be changed from the touch of a button, or simply the mood in any of the individual areas," reports Damon.
The Solar L80 RGB is a PCB-based, three-LED (RGB) modular unit, which enables custom linear lengths of RGB units to be created in a variety of uses. The unit comes ready heatsinked for ease of installation and can be supplied with or without optics. Octopod 80 is an eight-head distributed intelligent LED colour-changing system, utilizing LED technology to produce a virtually infinite range of colours.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
