Among the most exclusive live music venues in London, The Arts Club has recently invested in an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system as part of a significant audio upgrade programme.
Founded in 1863 by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope and Lord Leighton, The Arts Club is a premium members-only venue that attracts a top-end clientele, for live music, art and fashion events, and private parties.
Supplied by SSE Audio Group, the new set-up is based around a dLive S5000 surface – with both Dante and AES3 I/O audio networking cards installed – and DM48 MixRack. An Allen & Heath ME-1 personal mixer is also now employed for drum monitoring duties.
“The mainstays of The Arts Club tech team use dLive systems out on the road,” explained Richard Watts, SSE Audio Group Sales Manager, “including Jonathan Lewis (Travis FOH) and Dave McDonald (Frank Ocean FOH), so it was an obvious choice for the venue. The team needed sufficient AES outputs for the LCRS mix and five-way monitor mix – the venue’s L-Acoustics amplification has digital AES3 inputs – so the addition of the networking cards in the dLive makes for a very easy, flexible solution for them.”
“The flexibility and fast workflow of the dLive system is incredible,” said Charles Bidwell, The Arts Club’s head technician. “It’s like a hybrid of my favourite features from all my favourite desks; drag-and-drop fader population, great preamps and EQ, a brilliant surface and very versatile patching.
“When touring engineers – of which we get many at The Arts Club– use it for the first time it becomes familiar instantaneously and I’ve had nothing but good feedback from them. In fact, I like the dLive system so much I purchased my own dLive C1500 surface and CDM32 MixRack for FOH duties on Santan Dave’s UK tour.”
