ST. JOHN AT HACKNEY

A cherished landmark, St John at Hackney Church was established in 1275 and has been part of the East London community ever since. A church in the traditional sense, over the past 10 years it has also established itself as a go-to venue for bespoke musical events. The potential to fund the churches charitable efforts by hosting live music was first recognised by the current Rector of the church, Rev. Al Gordon, leading to major redevelopment work as Al and the Hackney Church team set about future-proofing the space and securing its position at the heart of the Hackney community. The main brief was to design an audio system that could serve both religious services and

offer a rider-friendly install that would enable the venue to host industrystandard live concerts. A major part of this ambitious project is a stunning d&b installation, set within a breath-taking environment engrained with the principle of helping others by means of music and the arts. As with so many current projects, installation and commissioning had to go ahead with heavy COVID-19 restrictions in place, but a great team effort ensured a successful completion. The venue has now tentatively scheduled its first few socially distanced concerts at the start of December including renowned musical artists James Bay and Lianne La Havas. “In these dark days, this restoration is a beacon of hope: a cathedral of creativity, playing its part in a spiritual, social and cultural renaissance in East London and beyond” said Rev’d Al Gor-don. Tim Last, one of the Trustees focussing on the production, technical install and commercial set-up explained: “We wanted to create a special place for events that will support the people of East London. I knew d&b is a key player in the audio world and investing up-front in a rider-friendly sound system was crucial to making the venue commercially viable. “Gigs and events profits go to our various charitable and social impact projects. The main aim was transforming the building to function as both a church and a live-music and arts venue, cre-ating a self-sustaining charity with an income that does not solely rely on donations, allowing us to do more,” he continued. This acknowledgment of the importance of quality audio to produce successful live music gigs sets St John at Hackney Church apart. A Grade II* listed building, the main objective of the interior redesign was attention to detail and quality for every aspect. Special features of the church were to be revived and the infra-structure for

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a state-of-the-art concert venue carefully put into place, including a brand-new PA, backstage and artist facilities as well as other hospitality features. The architectural redesign team included none other than John Pawson CBE, the ‘father of modern architectural minimalism’. His design of a decluttered, airy and mainly white space makes for a beautiful setting but integrating an audio system into such a pure environment came with particular challenges and needed expert consideration. “Bringing the architectural vision together with the technical upgrade we needed required careful consideration as John’s stunning vision is minimalist and we didn’t want to see any visi-ble plug sockets or truss.” said Tim. Ben Musson, Production Manager at St John added: “Discretion was key. Our decision-making process included details like matching our boxes exactly to the RAL colour of the walls, hiding almost all of our cabling, and incorporating the production desk into the scheme from the very beginning. Continuity and sympathy with the building in every detail was so important.” But it wasn’t just the aesthetics that would prove challenging, acoustically the venue came with a reverberation time of seven seconds, caused by the domed ceiling, a feature delivering stun-ning sounds for choral or classical music, but proving to be a major issue for other musical gen-res such as rock and pop. d&b sales partner, Southby Productions, submitting the successful tender to solve the difficult acoustics, provide a rider-friendly system to make the charitable efforts of the church a success, and deliver on the aesthetics. Their proposal centered on a d&b V-Series line-array system in conjunction with SL-SUBs customcoloured in Signal White. Sav Remzi, founder of Blue Note Nightclub in Shoreditch, which was at the root of London’s cul-tural transformation back in 1993, influential record label Nuphonic Records and Lovebox music festival, was enlisted as audio consultant for the project. “Southby have an attention to detail and dedication that matches my own,” said Sav. “As soon as I was briefed on the extraordinary demands of this project, I knew they, and d&b, would be the perfect choice for my client.” Chris Jones, Director at Southby, gives insight into why they proposed the d&b V-Series for the project: “The V-Series is an absolute rider-pleaser, which was a crucial aspect of the brief. The tight pattern control and cardioid nature of the SL-SUBs also ensure that reflections of the back wall are kept to a minimum. The real advantage

of the d&b V-Series in this space came from coupling it with ArrayProcessing, it meant we could provide the venue with the control of easily modifying the system for different occasions, be that a sold-out live concert or a smaller event where the balconies are empty for example” ArrayProcessing optimises the tonal and level performance of a line array hang and significantly improves the consistency of the frequency response over distance, as well as correcting for air absorption. This makes it a defining addition to a system that needs to be flexible in its uses. Ben elaborated on the decision-making process: “We took charts from a number of different manufacturers and found that the d&b system and management software delivered the best coverage and control for our requirements. When the system was tuned, we were able to avoid acoustically problematic areas and isolate coverage to certain zones. “We chose the V-Series, over the Y-Series, particularly, as we wanted an option whereby, we could, for smaller events, remove the hung Vi-Subs without affecting the frequency response and integrity of the system. This turned out to be a very flexible option, especially for socially distanced events” he continued. To deliver on the aesthetics, Southby and the team came up with a solution where all hangs and rigging are hidden above the ceiling. This way, the array is solely fixed by motors giving the illusion of it being suspended in mid-air. Sav is pleased with the outcome: “I love the end-result. The modernity of the all-white d&b line array marries beautifully with the classic backdrop of the church, like it was always supposed to be there. It looks particularly stunning with the d&b loudspeakers hanging there unin-

terrupted by unsightly frames and trusses.” It is clear for all involved that quality audio is crucial in operating successful events. The church wants this to be a thriving, multi-purpose venue that benefits the community and those in need through generating much-needed funds and the new d&b system enables them to do just that. As Sav put it: “I call St John a ‘future-proof venue’. You need the best products to create great experiences and this is usually 90% achievable through the quality of sound. As an audiophile and long-time promoter of music events I understand the importance of the best possible sound in making a lasting impression on the artist and the audience, and find that the clarity d&b delivers always hits the sweet spot.” “We think we’ve created something really special. We did it for the people of East London,” concluded Tim.

Known locally as the ‘D&A’, Dhow & Anchor is a popular restaurant based in the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai. Offering a modern twist on British cuisine - and open for lunch and dinner every day - the D&A is a stylish, casual venue that delivers the authentic essence of a British gastro-lounge. The tranquil outdoor terrace has impressive, panoramic views of the Burj Al Arab - the perfect backdrop for its al fresco dining and drinking options. It’s a popular location for sports fans, too, with indoor and outdoor screens available to cover

all major sporting events. There was a need for a new audio system at the D&A – one that could meet the owner’s expectation in terms of sound, whether it was to enhance the atmosphere for sports fans or provide the perfect ambience for the restaurant. In line with this, it was vital that the staff were able to control the new audio system intuitively and wirelessly via an iPad. This had to include controlling the video source selection for each of the display monitors populated across the restaurant, as well as adjusting the levels on each zone. Not only that, but live acoustic performances are part of the experience at the D&A, too, with artists creating a relaxed atmosphere for visitors. So, it was important that the new audio system had different sources and was able to produce foreground music with extended bass support. To assist with this project, SONIDO Technology were enlisted to help provide a zonal audio solution for bands and DJs, as well as every day media server playback. Gareth Armstrong of Sonido explained why his team decided to opt for a QSC system: “This was to suit the refurbishment of the Dhow & Anchor, which is widely known amongst expats in the UAE. Together with audio came the distribution of video where QSYS was highly favoured to manage the audio and video distribution seamlessly. “The design was kept ‘open’ per se,

however, the strictest regard to controllability, quality, ease of use, flexibility and price point were to remain key in the overall design. SONIDO Technology approached QSC with the challenges, as their thoughts and ideas to the project and a solution was found between QSC, Atterotech and Visionary Solutions to ensure design intent was kept and delivered and design benchmarks were met. The new setup includes the QSC QSYS Core110f DSP that can receive analog audio and AES67 network streams. The sources from the IPTV are connected to a network video encoder that converts it to an AV stream via Visionary Solutions. It is then being received and converted by a network video decoder and being fed to the display monitors. Atterotech wall mounted Dante/AES67 devices are also strategically placed for the live acoustic performances and DJ locations. The benefit of using the QSC QSYS is that it is not only an audio DSP – it is also being used for control and configuration for the devices that are connected to the network. It is responsible for controlling the Visionary Solution AV network devices video routing to the display monitors

and, since the network video encoder has Dante/ AES67 audio streams, the Core110f is receiving all audio streams from the IPTV, Bluray player, and the live mixer, local input sources and DJ sources. The user control interface was designed for ease of use for the staff. QSC QSYS uses layers for each of the pages, with an animated effect whenever a zone is selected, with another window fading in for the controls. Audio and video selection is simple, too - the staff can see images of the video that is assigned to the displays and it even shows the visual metres to reveal the audio level for each

of the zones. The overall system is completed using QSC loudspeakers inside the restaurant, which deliver a rich sound throughout. Gareth added: “QSC loudspeakers are designed for clarity and presence. This loudspeaker system delivers pristine audio reproduction for installations requiring a refined audio experience. “As part of creating a full QSYS ecosystem, QSC QSYS Designer software and QSC Digital amplifiers uses intrinsic correction, which is an advanced loudspeaker tuning technique applied to all QSC loudspeaker models to ensure the dynamic

range and monitor the performance of the QSC loudspeakers.” The distributed system is composed of QSC Acoustic Design loudspeakers, including ADS4T, AD-S6T and AD-S112 - and these are all powered by the SC CXD4.3 digital amplifier. The outdoor terrace loudspeakers are powered using the QSC QSYS CX-Q8K4 and CX-Q8K8 network amplifiers. The end result has been a huge success, with the new QSC system enhancing the atmosphere at D&A - ensuring its status as one of the go-to venues for food and sport in Dubai. TECHNICAL INFORMATION

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