Martin Audio forms the backbone of the AV system at Fairgame City, a 24,500sqft basement leisure venue billed as a “giant adult playground” complete with fairground games, bars, street food and private event areas. The venue opened recently, three years after the inaugural Fairgame at Canary Wharf, and sits in London’s One New Change shopping and dining hub with spectacular views of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Middlesex Sound & Lighting (MSL) designed and installed a fully integrated system, distributing around 100 Martin Audio speakers across eight distinct audio zones. BlacklineX loudspeakers cover elevated areas such as the Main Bar and Private Function Area, supported by SX210 and SX212 subwoofers, while SX110s and CDD6s provide even coverage throughout the main floor, and ADORN series units serve mezzanine and ancillary areas.
MSL’s integrated solution allows one-touch system control, remote monitoring, and easy adjustment of presets.
All audio runs over a Dante network backbone, with BSS wall panels and Netgear line switching controlling signal routing. Lighting and effects are integrated into the network, with roving iPad control providing total remote management, preset changes, and diagnostics.
In the Main Bar, four Blackline X10s are pole-mounted from the ceiling with two SX212 subs, while the Private Function Area features eight wall-mounted Blackline X8s with three SX210 subwoofers. ADORN ACS-40TS and A40T units cover mezzanine and toilet areas, ensuring immersive and consistent sound throughout the venue.
Toby Jones, project lead, MSL, said: “It was really important to have lots of compact little boxes everywhere at the right height, with the correct orientation. The ceilings were quite high, so these custom acoustic mount solutions kept the speakers at the correct height. The CDD6s provide a lovely distribution in combination with the compact SX110 subwoofers, mounted on the ceiling.”
Jones added: “The large distributed system can be under-driven and optimised at strategic heights on Powerdrive mounts or ceiling poles. This approach helps contain sound while maintaining transparency and intelligibility for all sources, from BGM to live mic and DJ feeds.”
The installation also includes multiple Dante wall input points and two DJ stations, allowing future expansion and additional inputs. “The ease of the Dante network and the redundant Cat6 cabling means we can always add more input points,” Jones said.
