The latest venue from Porchlight Hospitality, Vic’s Las Vegas hosts local and nationally acclaimed jazz artists to accompany its fine Italian-American dining experience. Serving up the sound is an Alcons Audio pro-ribbon audio system. It was at Porchlight Hospitality’s first venue – Stoney’s Rockin’ Country, also in Las Vegas – that company CEO Chris Lowdon first came across Alcons Audio systems.
‘Matthew Breunig, monitor engineer for The Killers, is a key part of the Stoney’s team and was alerted to Alcons by Killers’ FOH engineer Kenny Kaiser, who had checked out the LR18 system at California’s festival in 2016,’ Lowdon says. ‘We arranged for Alcons North America sales manager David Rahn to demonstrate the system at Stoney’s and I fell in love with the sound.’
As a result of the demo, Porchlight Hospitality contracted AVL Solutions of Greenville, South Carolina to supply and install an Alcons system at Stoney’s. Since then, Lowdon has worked with Rahn on systems for further venues. Opened in February this year, Vic’s is his fifth venue with an Alcons pro-ribbon system; however this one is different as it’s Porchlight Hospitality’s first dedicated jazz club.
‘Once I knew Chris really wanted this place to be a special, world class jazz facility, I connected him with Sam, because I knew Sam’s passion and expertise would be a good match for what Chris wanted to achieve,’ Rhan says. ‘Once an agreement was reached, Sam designed all aspects of the acoustics, as well as tuning the system.’
Lowdon’s father is a jazz musician and former owner of multiple Vegas venues, including the Sahara, Hacienda, Santa Fe and Pioneer casinos, and wanted Vic’s to pay homage to this legacy. Porchlight Hospitality contracted architect Adrian Jones of JONA Architecture & Design Group to design the main dining room, with acoustics by Sam Berkow of SIA Acoustics. Lowdon again worked with Rahn on the sound reinforcement system.
‘As is typical for a high-end, intimate jazz club, we designed the system to support acoustic performances and not overpower the room,’ Rahn says. ‘In the main room we specified an LCR system comprising three VR12/90 mid-size monitors. These are suspended from a truss at the front of the stage, the LR units are mounted horizontally and mirror imaged, while the centre unit is mounted vertically to maintain consistent off axis response. They are complemented by a pair of floor-standing BF121 compact subwoofers.’
A 14-seat private VIP dining room offers a prestige view of the stage, accompanying a glass enclosed bar and adjacent lounge, both with their own entrance and soundproofing. The VIP room has a stereo pair of VR5 mini versatile monitors with a single BF121 subwoofer, while an outside seating is covered by three further VR5s. The system is powered and managed by four Sentinel3 and one Sentinel10 amplified loudspeaker controllers.
Lowdon is pleased that the venue chose an Alcons pro-ribbon system, and reserves especial praise for Berkow’s contribution. ‘Working with Sam is always a pleasure and he is so willing to share knowledge,’ he says. ‘His passion for music is undeniable, which comes through in his work. I look forward to working with him on future projects.
‘Although this is my fifth Alcons system, while I already knew that its clarity and fidelity would be second to none, I was interested to see how the pro-ribbon technology sounded in a dedicated jazz venue, where tone and detail really matter.’
‘We set out to build the very best jazz venue, built for musicians and jazz aficionados, with excellent food and beverages. A lot of credit for this goes to David, Sam and the Alcons pro-ribbon system. As Sam says, “we worked on the design of Vic’s to help musicians and audiences create and share magical moments”. So many jazz greats are friends of my father and they are excited to come and play here.’
More: www.alconsaudio.com
