Ronnie Scott’s, London’s Soho jazz club, has turned to Shure to deliver the audio system for Upstairs at Ronnie’s, its newly redeveloped live music room. The venue, which sits above the club’s downstairs stage, was designed to seat 140 guests and pairs a Yamaha S3X grand piano and d&b sound system with a fully digital Shure microphone and monitoring signal chain built around SLX-D+ and Axient Digital PSM.
Audio quality was central to the brief from the outset, with the venue needing to reproduce everything from intimate performances to the club’s Monday classical series. Reliability was equally important, with the club open 362 days a year and staging between two and four shows daily.
Upstairs at Ronnie’s deploys Shure SLX-D+ for microphones and Axient Digital PSM for in-ear monitoring, giving the venue a fully digital signal chain from mic to monitor. The system runs four channels of Axient Digital PSM, allowing the team to monitor RF quality and settings directly from the console over the venue’s Dante network.
The venue’s Axient Digital PSM system also benefits from a recent Shure firmware update introducing Single Carrier Narrowband, a digital transmission mode intended to simplify RF setup without requiring complex coordination or advanced antenna configurations.
Charlie Dale, technical manager at Ronnie Scott’s, said: “With Upstairs at Ronnie’s, we set ourselves the somewhat audacious goal of creating the greatest small live music venue in the world. We wanted a space where artists and audiences could feel even closer to the music, with every element of the design focused on sound quality, comfort and connection.
“We also needed to make sure the equipment we chose was as robust as possible. Working with trusted brands within the industry such as Shure, d&b and Yamaha was essential to achieve these goals.”
Stuart Moots, director of market development at Shure UK, added: “Ronnie Scott’s is one of the most iconic and respected jazz venues in the world, so supporting Upstairs at Ronnie’s with our wireless and monitoring technology is a project we’re incredibly proud to be part of.”
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