A £2m upgrade to the Amble Links ‘owners-only’ holiday park on the UK’s Northumberland coast saw A/V integrator Promotiontime NE busy with the technology design and fit-out of its main entertainment area, The Links Owners Only Bar & Entertainment Lounge, as well as the refurbished Old Storehouse restaurant/bar. The move has made the venue exclusively into a Martin Audio AQ house.

Brian Graham – who took control of Promotiontime NE ten years ago – is a frequent user of Martin Audio systems over the years, and in particular the Blackline series. And the compact AQ architectural range has opened up a number of new opportunities for him: ‘Martin Audio is generally our go-to brand for most requirements above a basic bar, and I would probably have specified Blackline again for the entertainment room,’ he says. ‘But when we heard the AQ series demoed we knew this would be equal to the demands of the room.’

Part of the Granary Leisure Complex, Amble Links required a stage system for small acts, a resident DJ and karaoke, but this also needed to be suited to larger performances when required. After sampling the AQ series, Graham chose a pair of AQ28s, one each side of the stage, as the main front-facing PA with an AQ10 on each wing for out fill. Recessed into the stage on each side is an AQ215 bass enclosure, and Promotiontime NE have incorporated a 42-way patch so that incoming productions carrying their own mixing console can plug straight in and override the house desk.

The Old Storehouse is divided into two areas – a restaurant and bar, with background music fed to eight AQ6 in the main restaurant, with its colour changing walls, and a pair of AQ5s in the overspill/annex area, while the dedicated bar area is served by a further combination of AQ8, AQ6 and pair of AQ112 subwoofer.

The music extends to the outside patio area where Graham has specified four Martin Audio C115 surface-mount weather-resistant speakers – designed with the same elegance as the AQ range. The entire system is powered by Martin Audio MA5.2K, MA4.8Q and MA2.8Q amplifiers, and fed by a 16 x 16 audio routing matrix, which allows any sound source to be switched to any zone via the Martin Audio Engineer 818 DSP. Limiting and EQ settings are also stored in the Engineer, with inputs recalled and switched between the different operating modes via the Control4 audio and lighting environmental control platform (linked to Mode dimming packs for the lighting).

The installation needed to offer ease-of-use, and the site is configured so that all audio and vision can be switched and controlled from two touchscreens, one located in the main bar and the other in the performance area, to allow intuitive use throughout the complex.

‘In addition to raising the performance level, we had to make the installation look sleek which the AQ certainly does,’ Graham reports. ‘And with only around 3m ceiling height in the entertainment room, we were able to run the AQ28s in landscape orientation, flush against the ceiling. It was the perfect solution.

‘Everything works seamlessly,’ he adds. ‘The client is delighted, the feedback has been great and we have had nothing but positive comments.’