Located near Pontyclun in South Wales, the Llanerch Vineyard Hotel is a popular venue principally for weddings but also regularly hosts conferences, corporate events, galas and parties. A large marquee is a permanent fixture, and provides ample space for more than 200 guests. Here, Spartan Audio Visual of Cardiff was behind the design, supply and commissioning of an installed sound system that meets all the various needs of a modern multi-purpose venue, yet also complies with the area’s noise control requirements.
‘We knew from the get-go that this would be a very difficult challenge, given that we were effectively working outside, with the residences just a few hundred metres away as the crow flies,’ says Spartan AVs Sales & Installation Director, Dave Morgan. ‘I was confident we could design the best system of compromise with regards to loudspeaker layout, limiting and control, but it was clear that in order to present a solution that all stakeholders, including bands, DJs and wedding parties would be happy with, the audio fidelity had to be very high. This is how we settled on the Outline brand.
‘We’d used some of their kit previously and I found they sounded on par with all of the biggest names in the industry, yet, crucially for this task, they didn’t need to be as big or as bulky as some of those counterparts,’ he continues. ‘Outline gave us high-clarity audio, with excellent output levels, but at a size of enclosure which almost has the volume of much larger loudspeakers from other brands.’
In common with many venues, the coronavirus pandemic caused a backlog of weddings to accumulate at the venue, and despite its rural location, the sudden rise in noise levels following reopening was causing difficulties with nearby residents.
‘The system only functions in the way it can because of SG Audio’s 10EaZy [SPL monitor] being at the heart of it all,’ Morgan explains. ‘It’s allowed us to use an existing noise monitoring program, used at festivals by live sound engineers the world over, and send a control signal from it into a Symetrix ecosystem that allows us to trigger “smart” actions based upon the noise levels in the marquee. Further, we can apply different rules to the bands and the DJs, who operate in slightly different time periods with differing restriction requirements, not to mention dealing with the other challenges posed by live music when compared to playback signals.’
‘The whole system is also accessible and maintainable remotely by Spartan AV, to allow for specific event-related control when occasionally required. Local control of the system is by a pair of Symetrix Symvue touchscreens in the marquee.’
‘The key to controlling noise pollution in Spartan AV’s design was the use of multiple smaller speakers, rather than an LR system,’ says James Lawford of Outline’s UK distributor, CUK Group. ‘The marquee has been fitted with an Outline Vegas 8CX and Sub 118 rig focused on the dancefloor, and Charlie 4 ultra-compact loudspeakers as delays down the room. The choice and placement of loudspeakers, plus the sophisticated control infrastructure, allows substantial localised SPLs where required, with excellent overall coverage throughout the space.’
‘Outline’s Charlie 4 is a great example of the power-to-quality-to-size ratio of the Outline products,’ Morgan adds. ‘We accepted early on that to get the control and even sound levels required to make the project feasible we would need to use a large number of speakers, and Charlie 4 allowed us to do this without making the venue look more like a club than a wedding venue. The Charlie 4s are discreet and unimposing, yet easily deliver the volume required, with headroom to spare. I’ve personally witnessed them handle a saxophone solo without getting anywhere near their limits, which is impressive.’
More: www.cuk-audio.com
More: www.outline.it
