Bose puts Soul into Aberdeen Casino
30 July 2010
Converting a church into a bar and casino is a tall order, but perhaps the most challenging aspect is the provision of even sound coverage.
Bose Pro Partner, Holburn HiFi, were set this challenge by the owners of the Soul Casino & Bar in Aberdeen. Holburn were asked to design, supply and install a three zone, multi-source audio system that not only met the clients' requirements for high quality background and foreground music playback, but was also sympathetic to the stunning architecture of the building.Although Soul Casino only occupies the upper floor of the building (Soul Bar is below the old balcony level) the vast ceiling is still higher than you will find in most churches. Holburn needed to design a system that would cover all 16m by 27m (52ft by 88ft) of the main gaming hall whilst keeping the reverb under control even at higher volumes, and ensuring that the hardware would work aesthetically - so hanging boxes on poles from the ceiling or on pillars were not an option.
Holburn HiFis' Jonathan Turner;
“It didn’t take long to decide on Bose Panaray 502A's and 502B's as the speakers for the gaming floor. The 502As' very wide horizontal dispersion and tight vertical dispersion, along with relatively long throw made them perfect for this application and allowed the space to be filled with surprisingly few boxes, only six 502A's and two 502B's. With three 502A's mounted down each side wall at about 3.5m and tilted slightly down, really even coverage was achieved with a slight level drop off down the centre of the hall which is ideal since this is an area reserved for croupiers who benefit from the slightly lower levels.”
Hidden spaces were found at high level for the 502B bass bins at each end of the hall, one above and behind a false wall that hides the audio control system and the gaming machine control system and the other in an open topped box above the elevator shaft. The relatively far away bass bins were brought into time with the rest of the system with the use of individual delays on each channel of the Bose ControlSpace ESP88, which also provided individual channel equalization, limiting and compression, as well as source control selection via its matching key pads.
Bose 802's running in full range were used to cover the bar and diner areas where the architecture is more conventional but no less sophisticated. The wide dispersion and reasonably high SPLs available from this relatively compact old classic make it an ideal choice for this type of application.
Stuart Clarkson of PB Dev Co, which owns and operates the Soul Bar and Casino, is delighted with the impact that the Bose system brings to the venue;
“We use Holburn HiFi for all of our venues, and the service we receive from them is second to none. We are in total agreement with Jons' specification of Bose as it gives us a high quality sound system, combined with a brand image that is recognised by our guests, and that matches the exclusivity of Soul Casino.”
According to Jon Turner;
“The final pieces in the quality jigsaw are Bose B series amplifiers, manufactured by MC2, which in our view, are the only amplification to specify with Bose larger speakers. Anything else just doesn’t cut it. Soul Casino was recently nominated for the ‘Best Casino Interior in the World from the international gaming association’, confirmation if we needed it that our system met the brief aesthetically and is heard much more than it’s seen.”
Other Press Releases By This Company
- 01/06/2011 - Pyramid chooses BOSE for Pentewan Sands
- 01/06/2011 - BOSE enhances sound experience at TGI Fridays
- 01/06/2011 - BOSE brings clarity to St. Georges
- 30/07/2010 - Carden Park Benefits from Bose® Sound
- 25/03/2010 - Alderney Church selects Bose
- 27/01/2010 - Bose® Pro in ‘Top Gear’ at Beaulieu exhibition
