Collaborating with artists on areas such as design and installation, Zafra's years of experience means that these days, he has no trouble in identifying the right gear to fit the latest job. When he was recently tasked with working on the Milano jazz club installation project in Barcelona, he could think of only one loudspeaker brand that would meet the high expectations of the job at hand.
The Milano Jazz Club is famous throughout the city and Spain as a whole, and is one of the most prestigious music venues for Jazz aficionados in the Catalan region and beyond. For a live music venue such as this, sound is everything, and can define the venue's reputation, as well as that of the performer. As far as the experience of the listener goes, sound quality is paramount - and needless to say, Julian Zafra, with his many years of experience, understood this perfectly.
Working alongside Spanish company Soinua, he settled on a solution that featured Tannoy VX Series, a product renowned for its exceptional performance and versatility that makes it a premier choice for many typical applications. It provides a higher performance solution for medium scale sound reinforcement such as loud fashion retail outlets and bars and clubs as well as being well suited for portable PA applications. In short, it's the perfect box for this intimate venue.
Zafra explained his reasons for choosing the Tannoy VX 12HP for the main PA system, coupled with and Lab.gruppen IPD 1200 power amplifiers. He said, "We had Tannoy DMT 15 in the studio when I was studying record engineering 16 years ago - after that, not many monitors have satisfied me as much as Tannoy. No other brand could meet my expectations as much as Tannoy and as soon as I was aware that they did professional loudspeaker PA systems, I didn't hesitate for one second to choose them for the Milano sound installation project.
"We had a very short timescale to work to, as the owner wanted everything ready for a big jazz festival in the city. Thanks to the great service from Soinua, we managed to get everything installed and sounding great just in time. The combination of Tannoy speakers with Lab.gruppen power gave this project all the necessary sound control and accuracy without the need for any extra sound processors."
At the heart of the Lab.gruppen's IPD platform is a latest-generation DSP engine equipped with up to a total of 40 real-time, multi-slope parametric EQs along with adjustable gain, input and output delay, and both high- and low-pass filters adjustable to any frequency.
Since the installation, the system has proved a major success with the owners, players and visitors to the Milano. "The neutrality and warm, natural sound of Tannoy speakers make them worth every single penny of their price," concludes Zafra. "The music seems to come directly from the stage at any point of the venue, without realizing it actually comes from the speakers. The systems sound superb, and radiation is very well controlled, giving an all-round great coverage."
(Jim Evans)
