BSS Audio and UK distributor Sound Technology Ltd is pleased to report high-profile AV systems integrator Sound Power is upgrading to BSS Soundweb London for future installs.
Few companies can have fitted more BSS Soundweb units into their vast portfolio of bar retail chains this year than Sound Power. For many years the company has been closely associated with roll-outs on the high street — particularly those who place high currency on automated venues, with simple plug and play facilities. Foremost among these has been the JD Wetherspoon estate (through their vibrant Lloyd’s No. 1 portfolio).
Having just announced the opening of a further 250 sites over the next five years, Sound Power director David Ridout sees no let up — particularly as a percentage of these will be designated Lloyds No. 1’s.
However, going forward he will need to address these without his trusty Soundweb SW9088 Original ‘Green’ DSP devices, which are being discontinued with immediate effect after an astonishing 12-year reign. “I have been using these for nine or ten years and we have literally fitted hundreds of 9088’s, 9008 expanders and 9010 ‘Jellyfish’ remotes — not to mention many SW3088 Soundweb Lites out there in the field,” said Ridout.
Having just completed the group’s flagship Union Rooms in Plymouth — where multiple Soundwebs again handle all the routing and gain structure, he is now ready for the switch-over to the newer Soundweb London on January 1st, 2010.
“The HiQ.net System Architect is probably more intuitive than the Soundweb Designer,” says Ridout. “It has the advantage of being able to do clever things with the Logic and also the flexibility to configure the processing blocks with different I/O’s and a combination of Mic and Line.”
He adds that Soundweb has always been the perfect platform for Sound Power’s fit-outs since the bar operators wanted to take control away from individual sites. “We can programme the presets and set the parameters so it only notches up or down ±3dB. We can control the system via RS232, so the only options the manager has are a slight trim, or to turn it off entirely.”
Having delivered around 180 Wetherspoon group sites, with 95% of them equipped with Soundweb, he estimates that there are at least 200 of the DSP devices out in the field. Most are timed to turn the volume on automatically at 5pm, when Lloyds No. 1 drops its ‘Wetherspoons’ silent daytime trading policy and introduces music for the night time session. To avoid giving the impression that Lloyds are little more than a disco in pub clothing, the physical presence of sound, lighting and special FX instruments are kept discreet.
David Ridout is relishing the switch-over. “One thing we are looking forward to in upgrading to the Soundweb London BLU is the presence of a clock,” he says. “The Soundweb Originals didn’t have this and we have been fortunate that the Show Magic lighting controller which we use does, and could output RS232 strings to the Soundweb.
“For us the clock makes all the difference and I no longer need a third party PC. I can dial in remotely via Ethernet.”
He adds that Soundweb London offers easy text recognition as to the I/O’s handled by each device.
Finally, it will also give Sound Power a more economical option, enabling them generally to specify a single BLU-16 and a BLU-10 local remote to replace the Jellyfish. It provides them with massive amounts of processing power and a great improvement in signal-to-noise ratio and general sound fidelity.
“The Soundweb London also has superior algorithms, delivering a pristine signal, and enables us to switch any sound source to any destination in a multi-zone venue.
“And with the footprints of the Lloyds No 1’s getting larger, and the introduction of more live bands, having the flexibility to mix the configurations for Mic and Line in the BLU-16 is another real blessing,” he said.
Since its introduction five years ago Soundweb London itself has been enjoying a steady upgrade path and recently expanded the range with the addition of BLU-Link, BSS Audio’s proprietary network transport. Based on Gigabit Ethernet technology the BLU-Link carries 256 channels of fault-tolerant, low-latency audio at 48kHz/24bit, or 128 channels at 96kHz/24bit across a standard CAT5e connection.
They have also now introduced the new BLU-BOB output expander, which represents an inexpensive solution to increasing the number of outputs in a Harman HiQnet™ networked system.
Thus Sound Power embark on the next generation of fit-outs with a new set of digital audio tools at their disposal — thanks to BSS Audio.
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