Powersoft has supported Leeds-based audio integrator, Audioserv, in creating a vast audio system for Roxy Ball Room, Roxy Leisure’s bowling alley and bar experience in Birmingham, UK.
The American style venue harbours a ten-lane bowling alley, which also includes a bar, creating a vibrant experience with the help of a modern audio system. Audioserv, who has also provided audio systems for over 15 of Roxy Ball Room’s locations, took on the task of providing and installing audio equipment for the venue, with support from Powersoft audio distributor CUK.
“We’ve been working with Roxy Ball Room since the beginning of the brand in 2013,” explained Pete Rollinson, technical director of Audioserv. “For the Birmingham venue, we designed a system to give consistent coverage across the whole space, with an added impact in certain areas of the venue, as we did for the other Roxy Ball Room locations.”
In order to create a system capable of meeting these requirements, Audioserv, together with Roxy Leisure’s Matt Jones, designed a high-quality sound system that had the ability to sound like a club system when required, but also could provide balanced, quality background music. The system was created using Turbosound loudspeakers, Powersoft amplifiers, and Audac enclosures.
In order to create a directional sound system from the back, upstairs part of the ball room to the end of the bowling lanes, the placement of the equipment was carefully considered. Mounted horizontally on the back wall upstairs of the venue, five Turbosound TSC122 loudspeaker cabinets are paired with two NuQ118B subwoofers. “It would have been tempting to use smaller boxes, but they would have started to sound thin in such a large volume of space,” explained Rollinson. Above the bar, ten Turbosound NuQ82 loudspeakers are mounted to provide coverage for this area, with another five Turbosound TSC122 loudspeakers and two NuQ118B subwoofers to cover the area between the bar and the bowling lanes.
To support this equipment, Audioserv selected 3 Powersoft’s Quattrocanali 4804 and 2404 fixed install amplifiers, which Rollinson speaks highly of. “We have been using Powersoft amplifiers for years. In many of our installations, we use multiple channels of audio for either the number of loudspeakers we use or the amount of different time alignment delays. Having a huge number of channels of conventional amplifiers would take up a massive amount of room in what is usually a small office,” said Rollinson.
“We have supplied amplifiers from Powersoft’s installation range to Roxy Ball Room on different projects before, as well as a number of other clients. They sound excellent, they are extremely small physically and their power consumption is exceptionally low.”
The Quattrocanali series has been designed with small to medium-sized installation projects in mind. The series can operate with Lo-Z (from 2 Ω) and 70V/100V distributed lines, or any mix of the two, and features the patented SRM (Smart Rails Management) technology which allows it to maximize the efficiency of the system and drastically reduce power consumption. It also features the lowest thermal dissipation in the industry, minimizing the need for external cooling systems. In particular, Quattrocanali 4804 boasts the legendary Powersoft switch mode power supply – up to 400VAC tolerant with Power Factor Correction.
“Overall, we were pleased with the outcome of the project,” Rollinson concluded. “And with careful adjustments of the different areas, we managed to minimize the potential sound reverb which is always a concern for large venues like this one.”
