AV and Audio upgrade for Manorview Group’s Boutique Glasgow Hotel

Manorview Group has a portfolio of boutique hotels all situated in and around the City of Glasgow in Scotland, including Boclair House in Bearsden. This is a Category B listed building that has been transformed into a twelve suite exclusive hotel by the group.

We have worked with Manorview in the past on a variety of Hotel installation and integration projects, developing a close working relationship. The brief for Boclair House was to provide integrated audio for the main function room, a private bar, the restaurant and communal areas along with an AV solution for the twelve guest suites.

Our Sales, Manager Ryan Thomas worked on the project from the outset, specifying a Bose solution throughout the hotel.

“The Bose product range is ideal for this kind of application, it provides the high end audio quality the client requires at a price point that keeps within the budget. It’s scalable and networkable meaning we can produce an extremely flexible solution.”

Ryan Thomas – Sales Manager

The main function room can be used for conferences, weddings, formal dining and evening entertainment so the audio system had to be capable of producing anything from low level background music and voice reinforcement through to the much higher levels required for dj’s and live acoustic sets. Ryan Thomas specified the Bose Room Match RMU 208 loudspeakers, with additional floor standing subs, which were hidden from view in custom built enclosures. The hotel features a private bar where Bose Room Match was also specified, this time opting for the smaller RMU 108 loudspeakers, again with floor standing subs hidden from view in custom built enclosures.

We installed flush mounting Bose DS 40 ceiling speakers in the restaurant and Bose DS 16 ceiling speakers throughout the public spaces including reception, corridors, bar and toilets. On the terraces the Bose Environmental DS40, which is designed for outdoor use, was selected.

At the heart of the complete system is a Bose ControlSpace® ESP-00 II DSP Audio Processor. This allows any input source to be routed to any of the output zones throughout the building. Each zone can simultaneously reproduce its own input source or alternatively zones can be linked together so that the same input supplies many zones.

Bose CC-16 Zone Controllers have been installed throughout the building, providing the facility for remote control of volume levels, input and zone selection by the venue staff. The entire system is powered by just four Bose Powermatch network enabled amplifiers.

In addition to the audio for the public areas, we were tasked with installing a bathroom television along with a Bose DS16 ceiling speaker in each of the rooms. Aquavision frameless televisions were supplied, enabling hotel guests to safely enjoy the luxury of watching tv whilst taking a bath or shower.

Our Systems Integration Manager Mark Hatfield was responsible for the on site installation at the hotel.

“It was great to work with Manorview once again. The Boclair is a high-end luxury hotel and the system we’ve installed further adds to this. The audio quality throughout is superb yet the system is unobtrusive. It’s capable of providing intelligible audio at low level yet can produce high volumes for applications such as DJ’s and live performances.”

Mark Hatfield-Systems Integration Manager

Park Regis

The Busby Hotel 

https://boclairhousehotel.co.uk

As the system provider and maintainer of the PAVA systems on site, was asked to provide a future proof system that not only meets the strict emergency evacuation criteria necessary, but also delivers excellent high power audio quality throughout the venue. The O2 Arena first opened in 2007 and has become renowned as a music and entertainment venue hosting world class performers on a regular basis.

Our technical specialists have been involved with the venue since 1998, so was ideally placed to design the replacement PAVA system. We opted for a QSC Q-Sys digital audio platform and network with Bose ShowMatch line arrays powered by Crown amplification within the main performance bowl area. The BOH (back of house) areas, including concourses, backstage areas, offices and all areas outside the main performance bowl, are served from multiple network equipment racks containing Q-Sys and Crown amplification.

The audio installation has to cater for the multiple applications hosted at the venue, variously configured with a stage at one end or in the round. From a central circular truss, eight Bose loudspeaker clusters are installed, each comprising of eight ShowMatch cabinets to provide audio coverage across the main audience area of the bowl.

Our MD, Alex Penn, commented on the choice of Bose ShowMatch, “We first heard the system at a Bose demonstration in Barcelona and we were immediately impressed. When the O2 project came up, we invited Bose, along with a number of other loudspeaker manufacturers to the table, with Bose emerging as the loudspeaker partner of choice.”

Andy Rigler, UK Sales Manager for Bose Professional added, “Our engineers worked closely with the team at SSE Audio to create a design of The O2 within Bose Modeler. From this we were able to see the coverage and dispersion of the design before installation.”

“Utilising Bose Auditioner hardware, an auralisation of the space could be heard from multiple positions within the venue. This confirmed the coverage pattern and tonality of the system, which was crucial to the PAVA element of the design. From this, SSE Audio was able to move forward with the installation with confidence.”

For Sub Bass the ShowMatch range utilises the Bose RMS218 Subwoofer, which features two eighteen inch drivers. Our system design placed a total of 24 RMS218 cabinets in six vertical roof mounted hangs, powered by Bose PM8500 amplifiers with LF control steering in the DSP.

An additional four Bose ShowMatch production delay clusters were added to provide coverage to the upper levels of seating in the bowl, with each cluster comprising eight Bose ShowMatch cabinets.

We built up a wealth of expertise with the QSC Q-Sys Networked Audio platform, particularly for PAVA applications, in a variety of venues. “Increasingly we’re finding it our go-to solution not just for PAVA but for most networked audio installations,” explained Alex Penn.

“It’s completely scalable, we can build it into networks that have the necessary redundancy and we can build graphical user interfaces that make operation for the end user really simple.”

For The O2 arena, we specified a pair of QSC Q-Sys Core 3100i processors as the backbone of the system. From the two remote control racks, Q-Sys Cores are linked over a dual fibre optic cable backbone to over 100 Crown DCi-DA Amplifiers, housed in 16 amplifier racks and also security and control network stations with full GUI access.

Each equipment rack comprises dual fibre patchbay and dual network switches A & B, Q-Sys I/O frames providing the contact and fire alarm interface I/O. The system is configured as a redundant dual star network, with the Q-Sys Core 3100i servers separated across the site for further redundancy, which means that if any single element should fail the system stays in operation.

With the three key elements, (Speakers-Amplifiers-DSP) coming from three separate manufacturers, (Bose-Crown-QSC) Our challenge was to bring the whole package together in a system that would both sound good and work effectively from a safety perspective. The PAVA system has to meet strict monitoring and fault reporting requirements of British & European Standards.

We worked with Harman / Crown to develop a software ‘plugin’ to integrate the amplifier control & monitoring function within the Q-Sys platform. “The audio transport was Dante and therefore not a major issue, although we had to make certain design considerations,” explained Alex Penn. “We developed the ‘plugin’ to provide the monitoring and reporting of the amplifier health over the network – essential in a PAVA application. For a venue like The O2 not only does your emergency evacuation systems have to work, you have to be able to see in real time should any failure occur.”

Once the plugin for the amplifier had been finalised, we worked with Bose to develop the loudspeaker tuning EQ & limiter settings for the amplifiers so they would provide the best performance with the Showmatch loudspeaker.

Scheduling a major audio install in the world’s busiest music venue is no simple task. We developed a phased upgrade to the process: first integrating the audio network and amplification, with the central cluster completed later in the year. The production delays were then added with the Sub Bass upgrade completing the upgrade.

“The venue now has a great sounding, robust and incredibly flexible audio and PAVA solution”, reflects Alex Penn. “For sporting events and other productions in the round, the system is used as a stand alone audio solution. For concerts and touring productions, where a stage is built at one end, the touring system provides the main L-R audio but will interface with the house system for delays and infill. In all applications the system is the venue’s PAVA solution, enabling security and management staff to provide guidance in the event of an incident or emergency.”

Lee Lacey, The O2 Facility Director said: “We have worked closely with SSE Audio since the venue opened and their knowledge of the system and the venue’s operational requirements are crucial to us as a business. When we were looking into the life cycle of the systems with the possibility of also upgrading the platform, SSE Audio presented us with a variety of possibilities to consider. We were convinced by SSE Audio that the Bose product would not only meet the venue’s statutory requirement for a PAVA system but would also deliver an improved sound performance. On hearing the system for the first time we have been incredibly impressed with the performance of the system and therefore very pleased with our decision to go with Bose.”

Bose’s Andy Rigler added, “It’s been a real pleasure working with the SSE team and we are proud to have our ShowMatch products in this iconic venue. We have admired SSE’s tenacity in working with AEG to find time slots to install the system, whilst minimising disruption to the venue’s extremely busy schedule!”

Renowned rap artist Stormzy released his second album Heavy is the Head in December 2019 with a UK arena tour booked in for early 2020. Like all Live Production projects it fell a victim to COVID and as the pandemic dragged on dates were rescheduled time and again with the tour finally heading out in March 2022. Read the full cover feature in the latest issue of L&SI magazine here.

Joel Stanley (Production manager for Stormzy): “I have a group of preferred vendors and specific people who I know can be relied on. Over the two years of COVID, I have always kept those companies and people informed at least six months in advance about what dates we were booking. The dates might get cancelled, as it transpired, but that meant the vendors could bank that chunk of time well in advance. In total, this is 42 days of work including band, build and production rehearsals, and the 15 shows”

He continues: “That didn’t mean our needs were precise gear-wise. We didn’t have a lighting plot then, let alone a conceptual framework, but they all knew what the scale of the production would be and the length of the commitment. There is always a pressure to get fresh quotes from other vendors, but you have to weigh that against those magic ingredients, reliability – a mutual flow in that they can also rely on us – and consistency. I know our vendors will try their utmost to deliver. That’s something to be cherished. If I call Dan Bennett at SSE and say, “Look, we need to try something out”, they would bring the tools. There’s no nickel-and-dime attitude, no “we’ll come but we’re going to have to charge you.” They get on side, and if what we’ve proposed to trial doesn’t add up, they will proffer alternatives. You can’t put a price on that; they’re first class on that score.”

Luigi Buccarello (FOH) has an L-Acoustics K1/K2 system with all the fidelity that system promises. “It’s a great rig, and I have a great tech in Richard Kemp. I’ve never worked with him before but he’s very flexible, has great knowledge of the system and got to know what I wanted very fast.”

He mixes from an Avid Venue S6L. “I’m comfortable with this, it sounds amazing and I really like the workflow, I find it’s much like the Avid Venue Profile, just with smaller buttons and knobs, but it does so much more.”

Stage tech David Courtney and RF tech Patrick Taghavi ran through the nuts and bolts of monitor world. “Raphael (Williams, Stormzy’s usual sound engineer) produces 21 mixes on his DiGiCo SD7 Quantum,” says Courtney, “The IEM system is Sennheiser EW G4 with the Digital 6000 series for the wireless mics; there are 12 handhelds. Every earbud is custom – Stormzy and the band all use Ultimate Ears, the rest have Cosmic Ears.”

Meanwhile, Taghavi looked after RF. “I do a lot of monitor work in France and RF is far less regulated there. Here it’s much more stable, not that it means I can be less vigilant. There are two separate RF antenna systems, one upstage of the LED back wall where the band and BVs mostly live, and one downstage. That makes things much more secure.”

Williams has been with Stormzy since 2017. “I did FOH initially, that’s the end of the snake I prefer, but what’s needed is some TLC from this end, so here I am. The first hurdle is the voice and the band being separate. Then there’s the room and the audience, which all have an effect. Stormzy has great projection, so the BVs, but if you’re not careful, that BV detail can get lost.”

He continues: “With Stormzy, my process is to get it correct for me. He’s not looking to pitch from his IEM – he’s listening to the full show and needs to hear the band and the audience. That’s probably the key difference between what Luigi is doing out front and me – I bring balance to everything, just keeping the vocals present. He will bring more emphasis to the voices where needed.”

He concludes: “There’s not much treatment on the mixes for the performers in the desk – a bit of EQ, a bit of compression I needed the SD7 for the output channel count. If I need extra, I need it immediately; the SD7 has that flexibility plus the Quantum gives me the Mustard Processing for a more powerful EQ. I use the UAD-2 racks post desk to finesse what goes to each of them.”

Dan Bennet managed the project “With the project being so delayed it was great to see this tour finally go out and be the great success it turned out to be. While we managed to ressurrect our festival work last summer, indoor events have taken longer to come back online and Stormzy was one of our first full on arena tours to head out the warehouse. It was great to collaborate with the Stormzy production team and we look forward to working with them again.”