The fashion marketplace app Depop recently approached Flipside Soundsystem to design and install an audio visual system for its recently established front-of-house area – intended for holding team meetings of up to 150 employees while also showcasing new products from its sustainable fashion portfolio.
Requiring a comprehensive audio visual installation that was in-keeping with the brand’s niche aesthetic, the Flipside team were on-hand to deliver a solution that could disappear into the background when not in use.
In terms of sound, the speakers included two Yamaha VXL1W16 column speakers, one VXL1B8 and a final VXS10SW in white and black to match the walls they were installed on. The amplification and processing called upon a Yamaha MTX5D and an XMV4280 located in a hidden rack. Audio-Technica were the brand of choice for the wireless mics with two ATW-3211/892x and four ATW-3212/C510s, allowing presenters the freedom to roam without cables.
For the visual side, two white NEC P525UL 5,000 lumen native WUXGA projectors have been flown from the ceiling and fire onto a pair of motorised Sahara Pro Electric Hall Screens. Visual processing is handled by a Wyrestorm MX 0404 HDBT 4K, while conveniently located Single Gang 2XD and 4xD wall boxes complete the project.
“There was quite a lot to do,” comments Flipside Managing Director, James Cooper. “But it ended up being a fun problem to have – to design an AV installation that allowed the team to use each aspect dynamically, but present them with a user interface that is simple to use. When you solve that problem, you end up with a really high-end, high quality solution.”
Depop initially faced the challenge of having its IT team and technical crew dedicating too much time to setting up each system – often requiring someone to sit at the back of each event with an analogue mixer during department Zoom calls.
Luckily, Flipside were able to offer a much simpler process that the technical team could get onboard with. “They were really happy because they don’t have to do anything!” James explains. “With this audio visual installation, you don’t have to change any batteries on microphones, they all have charging stations, so you can simply choose what you want, and the wall panel turn it up and it sounds great every time.
“There was a really nice moment when we dropped everything down during the testing and when you stand back, you can barely notice that the infrastructure is there until you turn these projectors on and then the screen comes down and we were all just standing there looking at it like, ‘oh wow!’,” he continues. “It was even more impressive considering we were hanging screens that big on tension steel cables off of what turned out to be a false ceiling.”
“James was a really great collaborator,” adds Hayden Duffy, Depop’s IT Support Engineering Lead. “He just knew the exact solutions we needed and how we could utilise each system as effectively as possible. On one of the installation days, the team and I popped in and we got the full explanation of how everything worked which was great.”
“The philosophy of start-up companies and the requirements for AV, especially online and tech-based start-ups, ends up being a cool hybrid between traditional systems with a dynamic element and I think the end result for this project was exactly that – both a very integrated, simple-to-use system that is able to achieve everything that a large, complex public address system can do,” concludes James.
