The 450-capacity live room at Rich Mix in the Shoreditch area of London has been equipped with a JBL VRX line array system and Soundcraft Vi1 digital mixing desk.
The new audio solution reflects the increasing amount of live events taking place at Rich Mix, which originally opened with three state-of-the-art cinema screens over four years ago.
Overcoming reverberation issues in the live room was among the priorities for technical manager Glenford Barnes as he set about the audio upgrade. Following a successful demo arranged by Sound Technology, Barnes opted to press ahead with a solution based around Harman brands JBL and Soundcraft.
The installation – which was supplied and executed by Southeastern Audio – includes Soundcraft’s Vi1 desk (“everyone loves the desk for its ease of use,” said Barnes) and a loudspeaker configuration of two-mounted JBL VRX932LAP 12” two-way powered line array loudspeakers atop a pair of VRX918SP front-loaded 18” powered subwoofers situated stage left and right.
“The VRX line arrays give us much better coverage, eliminating the ‘dead’ area we had before,” said Barnes. “The top end was my concern and with the JBLs this is vastly improved. Especially now that we’ve added curtains and blocked off the mezzanine gallery space to deaden the room the system delivers not only the power but the clarity too.”
A single-wire CAT5 infrastructure and newly constructed control booth, now situated right at the back of the room to offer better sightlines to stage, complete the fit-out.
