HELL (now Bar Music Hall)

Sound Division take Martin AQ series to HELL

Photograph courtesy of Theme magazine

A remarkable site in London’s trendy Shoreditch area has been taken over by Martin Audio aficionado, Stephen Breen.

Breen, who with his partner Fred Nicolay owns a string of bars in Belgium, and has also installed Martin Audio in his West London bar The Morrison, is the proud owner of a range of AQ series enclosures in his new venue — the £1.5m HELL, which opened last month. The system forms part of a complete multimedia package, which was supplied and installed by Breen’s preferred contractors, The Sound Division Group.

L to R: David Graham – Sound Division, Stephen Breen – HELL

The venue at various times has served as a button factory, and most recently the Brick Lane Music Hall. With its 10,000 sq ft footprint and 512 capacity, HELL looks set to dominate the leisure landscape of Shoreditch, with its mix of music, all-day, deli-based food and a strong continental flavour.

Stephen had been operating bars in Northern Europe before moving to London and meeting up with Sound Division. “A lot of the major players were recommending Martin Audio, and in the serious venues more and more people were running Martin rigs,” he observed.

Two years after installing The Morrison with a Martin Audio system, Sound Division were able to introduce their client to the manufacturer’s new-generation AQ series. Acoustically correct and aesthetically unobtrusive, they have been designed for speed of installation, with easy-to-fit mating plugs.

Dividing the venue into three sound zones Sound Division’s David Graham has specified eight AQ8’s, eight AQ5’s and a combination of AQ112 (1 x 12in) and AQ210 (2 x 10in) subs. The AQ5’s double up with the AQ112’s in the restaurant zone, AQ8’s and AQ210’s (recessed under the benches), are found in the ‘hotspot’ area facing the DJ booth, and in the multimedia area further AQ8’s, either side of the projection screen, create a sound bias.

The multimedia area features a 7ft drop-down screen, front-projected in 4:3 aspect ratio from a Mitsubishi DLP projector, and used principally to show sport. Sound Division have also installed a Harman Kardon DVD. Image processing includes a Kramer video scaler, and routing by an Elca 16x16 video and matrix switcher.

The DJ booth benefits from an 'industry standard' Allen & Heath XONE:62 mixer, a Denon DN-D4000 rackmount twin CD player and a pair of Technics SL1210 Mk 5 turntables — while Sound Division have enabled the DJ to reference his playout via a Martin Audio Blackline F8 monitor.

The installers have also specified Martin Audio amplification — MA900’s and MA1400’s — to power the system, which operates under BSS Soundweb DSP process control (with remote ‘Jellyfish’ and ‘Shrimp’ units for local access). Other signal feeds include a Rolec hard disk digital music management system and Pioneer six-disc multiplay CD — while Soundweb is also configured for open mic nights.

Finally, those using the expansive washrooms will maintain aural continuity, courtesy of quantities of Martin Audio’s C516 ceiling speakers.

“Martin Audio produce great speakers — sonically excellent — and the fact they are a British company is an added bonus,” summarised Stephen Breen, at the same time commending Sound Division for the excellent job they had done.

David Graham is proud to have introduced the signature Martin Audio sound to Shoreditch, and praised the company’s Bradley Watson for exemplary technical support and product advice.

“I am especially delighted that the service we have given Stephen over the years has been such that he didn’t feel the need to obtain other quotes for this job,” David concluded. “He has been a great client to work with, and placed total confidence and trust in us.”