MI N T X L EMEA
LEEDS / UK
Photos: Mint Leeds
A ne ar two-de c ade relation ship be twe e n promote r and i n staller lan d s in a pe rma ne nt 2,500-c apacity ven u e on Le e ds’ W oodh ou se L an e. When Mint XL opens its doors on Friday 25 September, its main rooms will be running on a permanent Funktion-One sound system installed by the same audio partner that has worked with the venue’s promoters for the best part of 20 years. The 2,500-capacity venue occupies the former PRYZM site inside Leeds’ Merrion Centre, and lands at a point when plenty of UK nightlife operators are closing rooms rather than opening them. Mint XL offers an encouraging example of the UK entertainment industry finding fresh purposes for existing club spaces, transforming a onceempty venue into a new experience. For Mint XL, Mint – the team behind Mint Festival, Mint Warehouse, and the original Mint Club – has built a multi-room venue designed to run electronic music programming, touring live shows, private hire, and corporate bookings side by side. Its long-term audio partner is Audio Plus, run by owner Stefan Imhof. The relationship goes back to 2008, when Audio Plus won the contract to fit the original Mint Club with a Funktion-One system. A Mint Warehouse installation followed, and – helped along by what Imhof called the UK’s largest Funktion-One rental inventory – the company has since supplied systems and engineers for every Mint Festival, Cocoon in the Park, Newsham Park Festival, and Mint Terrace Party to date. Mint XL adds a permanent installation to a working relationship already built on festivals and one-off events. “We are excited to be working on Mint XL, as we can now translate the vibe of the large Mint Festival main stage to a permanent club installation,” said Imhof. “Using the latest Funktion-One VERO VX range and XTA DPA amplification, just like on our festivals, sonically the Ballroom promises to deliver a large-format club experience not yet seen in the UK.” The approach is specific, rather than building up from a typical club rig, Audio Plus has taken the touring system Mint uses on its festival main stage and made a permanent version, running VERO VX through XTA DPA amplification in the venue’s largest room. The Club and Cage rooms carry the same bass concept at a smaller scale. Both are built around Funktion-One’s F124 horn-loaded 24-inch subs, the same units used in the Ballroom, paired with the brand’s newest top-box range, Evo 2 and Evo 2L. Imhof described the combination as familiar territory for Mint regulars, comparable to the system deployed at a Mint Terrace Party, “but even more powerful.” DJ monitoring follows the same festival-to-club logic. Imhof exclaimed that “DJs will be delighted” by the set-up. PSM318 booth monitors, “FunktionOne’s legendary monitoring system,” as the Audio Plus owner refers to them, already in place at Mint Warehouse and on Mint’s festival stages, are in every booth across the new venue, giving touring DJs a consistent reference point regardless of which room they end up playing. Away from the main systems and booth monitors, the integrator positioned smaller Funktion-One speakers through areas that fall outside the primary coverage of the larger rigs, keeping fill consistent at the edges of each room rather than letting it drop away.
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