MARTIN AQ'S HIT THE JACKPOT AT TWENTY-ONE
A chic late night style bar has been added to Harlow's hospitality circuit, with the aid of a high-powered Martin Audio sound system.
The conversion of the former CM20 music bar in Post Office Walk to Twenty One - a late night venue with a 4am license on two levels - was the brainchild of leisure entrepreneur/owner Paul Mapp (of Greedy Boys Ltd).
He contacted locally-based company, Clarity in Sound, Light & Vision who recommended a new Martin AQ system to be distributed throughout the venue, run in conjunction with some of the existing equipment.
Said Paul, 'Everything here revolves around quality. We like to invest in quality equipment and the Martin Audio system is highly versatile, sounding superb whatever we put through it. DJ's tend to drive the kit hard so we needed something we could depend on; and as Clarity had put Martin Audio Blackline F10's in upstairs last year we were already impressed by the quality of the output for the size of enclosure.'
The ground floor is divided into split zones, the sound routed via a Cloud zoner, so that the raw energy can be focused over the dancefloor while the system can be run at low level on the periphery, where ample seating is provided.
Clarity's Stuart Graham, who also worked closely with interior designer James Hall to install Pulsar Chroma LED lighting in the bar areas, said the decision to choose Martin Audio was a no brainer. 'Paul Mapp wanted to move his venue more upmarket and wanted stylish looking loudspeakers that could be fed from the DJ on weekend nights, or deliver a transparent background sound from programme CD sources.' As a result he installed Martin Audio Blackline F10's upstairs and Pulsar Chromapanels in the ceiling grid, with bottle washers and Aero tubes highlighting the bar.
While he has used similar lighting effects downstairs Graham has considerably beefed up the volume, with a pair of flown AQ10's proving more than adequate for a venue with a maximum capacity (over two floors) of 320. A powerful AQ212 (2 x 12in) takes care of the low frequencies, while around the periphery four AQ8's provide ambient level sound with the benefit of being managed by a pair of Martin Audio's dedicated AQX controllers.
Continued Paul Mapp, 'I have had this venue for five years, at which time I was new into the business. But have wanted to upgrade for a long time and we now have a venue that is completely different for Harlow.'
Twenty One presently trades from Thursday through Sunday until 1am. But judging from the initial reaction Paul Mapp will soon be looking to extend to other nights in the week - and even consider opening during the daytime.
Further information from:
Stuart Graham
Clarity in Sound Light and Vision Ltd
Tel: 0845 678 0725
Maureen Hayes
Martin Audio
Tel: +44 (0)1494 535312