Chapel 29 Bedford

Chapel 29 interior shot

BEDFORD

CHAPEL 29

VENUES, JANUARY 2007, COMMENTS

When fledgling leisure operator Skychief decided to launch their first nightclub, they decided a deconsecrated church in Bedford town centre would be the perfect fit. They renovated it and relaunched it as a nightclub in 2000. But in an increasingly competitive local market, over time Club Mission started to feel the pressure, and the venue closed down in 2004, remaining shut ever since.

In early 2006, however, operators Skychief decided to have a second crack at the site and began another redevelopment, employing the services of Essex-based designers Stone Me to plan substantial structural changes (moving staircases, changing the layout) and a comprehensive aesthetic overhaul that, they hoped, would add up to a new lease of life and some operational longevity.

The idea was to create a club that would appeal to an under-catered for older demographic - differentiating the club from the other venues in the town.

As well as investing in interior design, Skychief have also spent money on new sound and lighting systems for the club. For the latter, they turned to The Audio Group - run by Paul Adamson (formerly of OHM) and Nadar Shahzad (formerly of Blue Audio) - to advise on and carry out the work, with a clear remit to resolve issues the owners had experienced with the previous system.

Remembers Paul: “The venue was somewhere I used to go clubbing years ago, so I was aware of the challenges of the building and the problems that the club’s owners were having with the existing system. They had a reasonable sound system but it didn’t fit their requirements or meet the expectation, due to incorrect product positioning, lack of headroom, and it left them constantly struggling to put on PAs and live acts as there was no flexibility in it whatsoever. There wasn’t enough headroom in the system, and they struggled to put on PAs and live acts because of the positioning of the speakers. What they wanted from the sound system wasn’t what had been specified - whether they hadn’t communicated their requirements properly or whether the installer had misunderstood I don’t know.

But they didn’t want that to happen again, and from the outset they were clear that this was a priority for the new installation.”

Out of initial conversations a brief was thus developed: to create a new, flexible system that could be easily re-configured with digital control system to suit club nights, live acts and PAs, as well as an evolving venue and music policy.

“Lots of installation companies will only look at how a club will operate for the first three months - they don’t see how it will evolve and what it will change into,” says Paul. “We understand that flexibility is essential to allow clubs to adapt to the changing requirements of the local market. When we do a venue design we always work with this evolution in mind.”

That approach was manifest in product selection and placement. The Audio Group chose products that they knew well, and that’s reliability they could have confidence in. Given Paul’s previous job, this list perhaps unsurprisingly included OHM kit: with OHM speakers, amplification and control, and with Q4 Audio amplification running the main room system - a product recently introduced to the UK market by The Audio Group.

“I understand the OHM methodology and how the products fit together and work within a given space in a venue,” he says, by way of explanation. “I needed something that was reliable, that does exactly what says on box, and will allow the system to deliver what the venue needs: controlled high sound pressure levels within specific areas, meeting the clubbers’ expectations, the owners’ requirements and still complying with and taking in to consideration the EHO. It’s difficult to tailor a system to a venue unless you know exactly what it’s going to do. Therefore good communication between the installer and the owner / operator is essential, and it is critical that you develop an understanding of what the venue is, and what it may become. I knew the specified OHM products would allow us to at least meet and probably exceed their requirements.”

At the front end, The Audio Group specified an Allen&Heath mixer for the DJ booth because “it’s reliable, and it has a pure, clean audio signal that gives its operators something easy to deal with without distortion.”

System processing is via new OHM Cred digital system controllers, and has been set up with enough headroom to integrate additions in future - allowing the team to develop a monitoring package on stage, to reconfigure the venue to accept live music, etc.

The finished result is a smooth, powerful audio system covering the club’s three rooms that can be run independently or as one.

In the main room, a small line array system has been deployed to make the best of a relatively confined space. Arrays of speakers flown left and right of a central DJ booth/live performance area deliver an even coverage across the dancefloor, with a sub section consisting of OHM 4 x HDBB (4 x 18” double compound enclosure) providing depth and penetration onto the dancefloor and balcony areas.

That bass is being put to good use for the new clientele the venue is attracting. As well as design and technology, Chapel 29’s door, drinks and entertainment policy are aligned attracting an older crowd - and an over 21 policy and service-driven experience has helped the average customer age rise to around 25.

“Eighteen-year-olds are well catered for in Bedford,” says Chapel 29’s manager Alex Wyatt. “This club has a totally different feel to everything else in the town.”

Words: Alex Eyre

Images: Jim Ellam

From: January 2007 Issue

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