46 l December 2014
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“I could see the lips of the lead singer moving, but couldn’t understand anything that was coming out of the sound system at the time”
installation
Bose UK’s Tom Simpson on the pre-RoomMatched Forum
UNITED KINGDOM
A Match made in heaven Jon Chapple reports exclusively for PSNEurope on Bose’s play for the European live market with a major install at The Forum, Kentish Town A BOSE ROOMMATCH speaker system, designed using the company’s Modeler software and powered by PowerMatch amplification, has transformed The Forum in Kentish Town, north London, as part of sixfigure, Marquee AV-installed audio solution. The install marks a major step forward for the RoomMatch brand – designed by Bose to overcome, using its acoustic waveguide technology, the performance limitations of conventional line-array and point-source loudspeakers – which has been largely associated with larger venues and stadia since its launch in 2011. The venue, originally built in 1934, was bought from Mean Fiddler in 2007 by British entertainment group MAMA & Company, which spent £1.5m refurbishing the art-deco former cinema and increasing its capacity from 2,100 to 2,300. Other MAMA venues include the Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen, The Borderline in Soho, The Jazz Cafe and The Barfly in Camden, The Garage in Islington and various venues in other major British cities. It also operates the Lovebox, Wilderness, Global Gathering and The Great Escape festivals (see PSNEurope June 2014). “We had The Fly Awards [at The Forum] in February – it was part of our [The] Fly magazine, which we were pretty much closing down, so we wanted to go out with a last hurrah,”
MAMA director Ivor Wilkins explained to PSNEurope. “We spoke to the guys at Bose and they kindly said that they would put a system in to fit that, so we had everyone from Thurston Moore to The Horrors [playing through it].” The Forum’s old sound setup simply wasn’t able to fill the entire venue, according to Tom Simpson, senior acoustic designer and technical trainer at Bose Professional Systems Division UK, who designed the new solution. Although he recalled that the sound at the front of the venue was “perfectly intelligible”, he explained: “We came to listen to a band here – we were sitting in the VIP area, about halfway up the balcony – and the band was playing and I could see the lips of the lead singer moving, but couldn’t understand anything that was coming out of the [six-year-old] sound system at the time.” Tasked by MAMA & Company with developing what became the system for The Fly’s “last hurrah” on 6 February, used by Bombay Bicycle Club, Wild Beasts and Peace (as well as the aforementioned Horrors and Thurston Moore), Simpson went to the drawing board and “experimented with a design we could use for a demonstration, based on the cabinets we had in the UK at the time”. He explained: “The solution we offer is a customisable solution, in terms of tailoring the array to fit the space, but it’s made out of non-custom components – there
The full RoomMatch installation at The Forum Photo: Laurie Pierce
Dub/electronica act Submotion Orchestra christen the Bose system on 14 November Photo: Laurie Pierce
are 42 modules in the range, and as a designer I can choose from that selection of coverage angles to produce an array. “With the demo system we put in here, it was very much a case of ‘What can you do with what you’ve got?’. In order to get a system in [in time], I had to fly the arrays about three metres higher than they are currently to make the angles that I had work. Based on the feedback [from the bands], we took that away and kept that in our minds if we were invited back to put a system in here permanently – how that would impact on the design.” As it happens, Bose was invited back – after impressing all in attendance at the awards with its Simpson-designed prototype system. “I suppose, initially, we saw it as a little bit of a risk, because we weren’t sure whether it was something that was going to fit the artists involved,” commented Wilkins, “[but] we came in on the night and it just sounded fantastic. So when we then started having the conversation about looking at a much more permanent fixture, it was pretty much we’d tried and tested it at that point, so we didn’t really need much more convincing to actually get the [permanent] system in place.” “The Bose system is great for some of the heritage artists,”
he continued – The Boomtown Rats played The Forum recently, while Marillion and Erasure will appear on 11 and 14–15 December, respectively – “and because it’s nice and compact and very clean, but [we can also use it] for some of the other stuff we have in here – the cooler stuff promoted by people like Soundcrash, such as Submotion Orchestra tonight [14 November] and Gorgon City tomorrow, and some of the acts we’ve had like [jungle producer] Congo Natty recently – because it’s flexible and adaptable and doesn’t suffer in the bottom end. “What we’ve suffered from in the past is not having the ability to be flexible to accommodate whatever bands are coming in. We used to find ourselves taking the old system out because people were saying: ‘Well, we don’t think the system you had is going to have the reach and it’s not going to get in the back of the room or it’s not got enough bottom end…’ But now we’re in a position where [the new system] complements all of it, which is great.” The permanent Bose system made its debut on 12 September, with the last ever show by indie singer-songwriter Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. “We get very good projection out of it,” confirmed Simpson. “It has to cope with quite a range
of musical material: you need good vocal projection and clarity for that kind of band [the ‘heritage’ acts], but then you need to handle the punch and the kick of the heavier bands. [The Forum] also does a lot of electronic dance music stuff, where if you really want to you can get down to 30Hz – occasionally dipping down to 25 – [so] you need a system that can do that.” Bose describes the installation as the beginning of “a partnership between MAMA and Bose” – and Wilkins reveals that he’s already eyeing up other MAMA venues to receive the RoomMatch/PowerMatch treatment. “We’re probably going to be doing some work on The Garage [in Highbury] in the new year,” he said, “so it’s something that would definitely be interesting for us.” Although that isn’t yet set in stone, the two companies will definitely be collaborating at next year’s The Great Escape. “Because there is a limited amount of clubs in Brighton, we’re looking at churches and open-air spaces,” Wilkins revealed, outlining his plans for the 2015 festival. “Because we need to be able to keep it evolving and growing.” Q wwww.pro.bose.com www.mamaco.com www.marqueeav.com