Swansea-based hire and installation company, Total Sound Solutions, has provided a public address infrastructure, based around JBL components, for the prestigious Bluestone short break holiday resort.
Set in 550 acres of countryside within Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, Bluestone boasts luxury accommodation in timber lodges, cottages and studios, as well as shops, restaurants, a pub, wine store and spa. But its flagship attractions are the Adventure Centre and the Blue Lagoon water park.
However, despite its strong environmental policy, Bluestone had never equipped the Adventure Centre with its own PA system to service the 100,000 visitors it receives each year — until Chris Hooke’s company was brought in.
Hooke set up Total Sound Solutions in 2003 after a background as a DJ and entertainments manager at the local Jumping Jaks. He was soon supplying large-scale JBL systems for high-profile artists presented by UTV Radio’s locally-based The Wave & Swansea Sound — since JBL met the artists’ rider requirements — and has remained faithful to the brand ever since. “Having a VerTec and VRX systems have won us a lot of gigs over the years,” he says.
But Bluestone represents the other end of the JBL spectrum — and when Wales’ premier holiday resort carried out a website search and saw Total Sound Solutions’ client list, the installation and hire company was invited to put together a proposal.
“Bluestone wanted a cost-effective, high quality installation in its Adventure Centre because no sound had ever been installed,” Chris Hooke reports.
In order to create high site-wide intelligibility throughout the Centre, including the ‘Discovery’ NRG Zone, Techniquest interactive science attraction, LEGO room and studio (on the ground floor), and a viewing area overlooking the main adventure hall and cafeteria, on the mezzanine level, the installer dipped into the JBL ceiling and Control surface mount catalogue to come up with the most cost effective solution.
As a result a cluster of four white Control 25’s is suspended from a custom Powerdrive ceiling mount in the cafeteria to provide 360� sound, while ten further Control 25’s (in black) have been mounted around the main Adventure Room itself.
Sound is relayed to corridors, foyer and ancillary rooms via a total of 32 stylish and extremely cost-effective 8in JBL8138 in-ceiling speakers.
The system is powered by multi-channel amps and there is now a paging station at the main reception, with six MP3 recorded voice messages and tones stored on a USB memory stick, with fire alarm mute and a master priority override for evacuation.
Other source inputs feeding the JBL loudspeakers and distributed across the seven zones include CD, tuner and MP3 files.
“This solution works perfectly for Bluestone,” summarises Chris Hooke. “This combination of JBL components provides them with a superior brand, offering transparent speech — but at a very affordable price. The 8138’s, in particular, represent great value.”
Stated Bluestone’s James Mattinson: “Total Sound proposed a system that was both cost effective without compromising on quality or coverage. The system was installed over a few evenings which helped us to keep trading without any inconvenience to our customers.”
JBL products are supplied in the UK and Ireland by exclusive distributors Sound Technology Ltd.
For further information please contact Sound Technology Ltd on 01462 480000 or visit www.soundtech.co.uk/JBL
