Close to London’s British Library, Bloomsbury Theatre and St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, the Kings Place multifunctional conference and events venue includes an arts and creative hub, office space, events and conference rooms, and bars and dining areas, and a waterfront restaurant. The recently renovated Battlebridge Room is at the heart at the Cross complex, its modularity, natural light and views over Regent’s Canal make it one of the venue’s most popular spaces.

An existing client of Marquee AV, the UK-based system integrator again stepped in to upgrade the Battlebridge Room’s A/V equipment the venue again approached Marquee. Marquee AV Director, and project director for the Kings Place installation, Stacey Tough explains that his design philosophy was to be as unobtrusive as possible, reflecting the minimalist style of both the Battlebridge Room and wider Kings Place venue.

To that end, Tough specified a Bose Professional MA12EX column speaker system, installed discreetly at either side of the screens at the room’s focal point, and Powersoft’s Mezzo amplifiers, which offer all the power and reliability of the manufacturer’s larger install products but in a compact, easy-to-hide half-rack- form factor.

For the Battlebridge Room, Marquee chose a Powersoft Mezzo 602 AD and Mezzo 322 AD amplifiers to drive the Bose Professional loudspeaker system. Additionally, the ultra-flexible AD models add audio networking capabilities via Dante/AES67, as well as an internal Gigabit Ethernet switch with a second port, allowing multiple products to share the same network.

Able to accommodate up to 400 people for events including networking receptions, corporate dinners and wedding celebrations, it was important that the system be sufficiently flexible to handle a broad range of applications. With its analogue and digital inputs, power sharing capabilities and onboard DSP, the Mezzo platform presented itself as the ideal solution.

Mezzo leverages Powersoft’s Smart Rail Management (SRM) technology to reduce power consumption, providing integrators with energy efficiency, high power density and good thermal dissipation. By minimising the amount of power needed to run the amplifier, end-users benefit from low running costs and reduced CO2 emissions. Complementing the Powersoft amplifiers and Bose loudspeaker system are a Q-Sys TSC-70-G3 touchscreen, a Q-Sys Core 110f v2 processor, and a Blackmagic Videohub, including a Smart Videohub 12 × 12 SDI matrix, for video content.

‘Both aspects of the A/V in this space have seen significant improvements,’ Tough says. ‘The speaker system has greatly enhanced sound distribution throughout the conference room and the SDI implementation has stabilised and simplified the video path element of the requirement.’

‘We regularly use Powersoft in our projects, as their products are high quality and reliable,’ he adds. ‘With its compact footprint, wide range of inputs and, in particular, its compatibility with Dante, Mezzo AD was the perfect choice to deliver high-quality audio and remote control and monitoring of the new A/V system.’