KOLA HOUSE OPTS FOR MARTIN AUDIO MLA

Located in the heart of New York's meatpacking district, Kola House is a club, restaurant, lounge and event space offering unique food and beverage pairings along with entertainment by leading artists.

Given the venue's need to ensure the highest quality sound reproduction to satisfy the musical requirements of each act, a Martin Audio MLA Mini system was chosen to provide audio.

As installer Angelo Poulos of Anthem SSL points out, 'The owners wanted ultra audiophile sound and the ability to achieve very high levels with zero ear fatigue on the club patrons. A system that A-list national acts like LCD Soundsystem and Jason Derulo, who opened the club, could play on without requiring additional sound equipment.

'The system had to be compact, accurate and robust with a one of a kind size to performance ratio in what is a long rectangular 3500 square foot space with the stage at the far end.'

To fulfill these criteria, Angelo designed a system with four Martin Audio MLA Mini enclosures flown on each side of the stage and two MSX subwoofers recessed into the ceiling above the center of the stage, plus a WS218X ground stacked on the floor under each hang. Two W8VDQs are mounted on the ceiling at the bar halfway down the room for delays while six ceiling-mounted CDD8's around the stage are used for fills and the VIP section to the left of the stage.

As it turns out, 'the MLA Mini loudspeaker array was the ideal solution,' says Angelo. 'Not only does it put the sound exactly where it needs to be, but it has the ability to control the audio so that reflective surfaces like the large mirrored wall at the Kola House is not a problem because of the 'Hard Avoid' feature in the MLA control software.

'The CDD8's and W8VDQ's match seamlessly with MLA in terms of sound quality and consistent coverage throughout the whole space, which is exactly what we needed.'

Summing up, Angelo adds, 'Once the installation was completed, we closed our eyes after the room was calibrated and it sounded like studio monitors at low levels and a system ten times the size at higher levels.

'The finished product is unreal. We have smooth, consistent coverage and incredible audio quality throughout the venue with zero spillage in perimeter areas. The engineers at Martin Audio and the team at Anthem have really achieved great success in another awesome venue.'