The Box Belfast

The Box interior shot

BELFAST

THE BOX

VENUES, JANUARY 2007, COMMENTS

Since I retired I’ve never been so busy,” jokes Bob Senior at the opening of The Box - the fourth venue to open in his company’s mainstream division and its 11th overall. For a company that launched in December 2005, Utopian Leisure has had a busy first year.

Bob’s latest venture is located in Belfast - a city enjoying an economic, social and cultural renaissance and one he has a longstanding fondness for. “I like the place, like the people - it reminds me of Geordieland,” he says, adding, “It’s a great city that began to wake up a couple of years ago and is now stretching its arms. It’s about to become a major player in the UK’s late night scene”.

If Belfast is to become a contender for the party city crown (and a stroll round its streets would suggest this is already happening), Utopian has played an ace in this venue - the largest club in the city and a forward thinking, bold one at that. Situated over 23,000sq ft at the front of the Queen’s Quay Odyssey complex, it represents stride forward in both design and technology - as well as the company’s largest investment in a single site to date.

Formerly ‘Precious’ nightclub, the venue has been transformed from five distinct VIP areas into a two-tier nightclub and bar: a 1,300 club upstairs, with a smaller and more intimate space below. To create the club, Utopian brought in talented Irish designers O:Donnell O:Neal Design Associates, asking them to create a classical club with the emphasis on spatial quality and good circulation, with the dancefloor pivotal to the way the club works.

Working with main contractors McCue (whose other Belfast projects include Cafe Vaudeville, Malmaison and live music space Stiff Kitten), O:Donnell O:Neal specified that the club’s interior be ripped out so they could rebuild it from the ground up - changing not just its colour scheme and furniture but its entire geography. Headline-grabbing technology combines with intelligently employed ambient fixtures - all installed by Darren Gardiner’s Light and Sound FX - to complete the multi-million pound package.

“We wanted to make an impression,” explains Bob simply. And they have definitely done that.

Changes to the club are evident from the front door, where a dramatic new double height entrance from the Odyssey mall (created by filling in the floor void) greats customers.

Inside the club, Graham O’Donnell has created a moody and sexy scheme: a dark canvas splashed with feature highlights, lighting effects and - hopefully - good looking people. Back bars, for example, stand out as easily identifiable beacons with punchy, back lit digital graphics drawing the eye on entering the club upstairs. Black Corian box pod tables with opaque glass tops are illuminated by XChip LED fixtures (some 110 of which were supplied by Lighting Effects Distribution and fitted in the custom created fittings by LSFX) and sit inside the entrance, forming an orientation point for customer before they go on to hit the bars, the dancefloor or the redesigned powder rooms - which with their plush carpet, decorative wallpapers, funky furniture, multiple mirrors and handbag shelving are distinctly man-free zones.

At the back of the club room, a comfortable ‘Chill Box’ overlooking the river Lagon functions as a kind of green room. “This chill out space is really somewhere to take time out from the main club, to sit, drink and chat,” says Graham. The vibe demands cocktails (over 60, using premium brands like Tanquarey 10 to Havana Seven) and candles, with table service, and spectacular views of the river and the bright lights of the city creating a real sense of occasion.

The Box’s story would not be complete, however, without discussing the venue’s technology. Though the first conversation between installers Light and Sound FX and Utopian Leisure happened in August, their involvement had been pre-empting by KV2 Audio - with whom Utopian had an on going relationship that covered Sam Jacks and Bar 55 in Newcastle and Love Shack in Durham. Operations Director Carl Hornsby was clear about what he wanted for the club with regards to technology, and turned to Andy Austin-Brown of KV2 Audio to specify a new sound system to suit. As well as producing stunning sound fields and a highly dynamic performance, The Box’s system also required contained and controlled sound that didn’t create external noise pollution. In this case the venue is surrounded by a multi screen cinema complex, with an IMAX cinema directly above and several well-known chain restaurants in close proximity - so the implications of this potential problem were particularly acute.

According to KV2, “our Northern Irish representatives LSFX were the obvious choice to meet the needs and expectations of the project” and thus Darren Gardiner’s company were brought on board. Said Darren: “I was very pleased to be introduced to Bob Senior and Carl Hornsby by Andy because apart from anything else it gave us the chance to re-fit a venue that we originally worked on over five years ago. Working closely with Carl I was able to explain the problems associated with the Storm cinema above and so from the outset we were able to provide the necessary advice, building works and soundproofing to alleviate future problems and we designed the system to take all of this into account.”

With this in mind, Andy specified a combination of KV2 ES1.0 mid hi enclosures and KV2 ES2.5 & ES1.8 subwoofers, supplemented by well-placed KV2 EX10 active loudspeaker enclosures, for the ground floor room dancefloor system.

On the first floor, for the first time, a true 5-way system was designed utilising KV2 ES1.0 mid hi packs, with the sub bass compliment consisting of a combination of ES2.5 subs with VHD1.21 subs operating below them - constituting the first club installation of the VHD (Very High Definition) system in the UK. These were all actively driven by the new EPAK 2500R controller/amplifiers, adding enormous weight and authority to the sound.

Again, a multiple system of KV2 EX10 active loudspeaker enclosures were utilised around this core system for infill and re-enforcement. Overall control was provided by two new BSS Soundweb London Blu units, allowing complete matrixing and remote call up and control. LSFX spent a considerable amount of time customising the Soundweb software to fulfil all of Utopian’s requirements, even giving them what Carl Hornsby calls his ‘bass buttons’, which allow the level of the subs to be changed at the push of a button. The system is accessible remotely, allowing LSFX’s engineers to check and monitor the system’s status over the internet - enabling rapid diagnosis of any problems, adjustment of sound levels and preventing unnecessary call outs.

Off the back of the sound system design, scoped at PLASA, Carl Hornsby awarded the full lighting and vision effects installation to LSFX. After the audio meeting, Darren took Carl to meet some of his suppliers - and it was on this tour of the show that Carl first came across Miltec’s LED Matrix wall and FogScreen’s projection screen, instantly recognising their value. The net result was that the budget for the installation spiralled to a colossal £300k - as The Box became a showcase for yet more UK/Irish industry firsts. The £60k Fogscreen, prominently positioned in the doorway to the first floor club, is an innovative new device that creates a ‘wall’ of dry fog through which customers have to walk to get into the club. Bespoke visuals depicting anything from crowd scenes to waterfalls are projected into the fog, giving it a strangely 3-D quality that’s a major talking point amongst visitors.

“Nobody else has anything even closely resembling it - it really sets the club apart,” says Darren.

A 3m x 2m Miltec LED wall, positioned behind the DJ, is the visual focal point of the club, another industry first installation and yet another talking point. The installation is inspired by - and a development of - the VU meter behind the DJ booth at Digital in Newcastle: a venue operating under the wing of Utopian Leisure since the creation of Utopian 3 welcomed Tokyo Industries into the fold in August. But as well as featuring the music-synched VU (created using software specially designed by Yorkshire-based specialists Show Magic in another first) it also has the capacity play video, carry DJ names and messages, and more.

Whilst the list of industry firsts stops at this point, the rest of the install remains impressive. The lighting in the venue is sensational, particularly on the first floor, where 250 watt fixtures have been eschewed in favour of more powerful, brighter PR Lighting Pilot 575s, which are clustered around the DJ booth and pierce through the dark space.

Other quirky additions include the LCD screens in the men’s urinals and a VW camper van downstairs in which customers can sit (“Not so much why as why not,” smiles Graham).

Collectively, it’s little wonder that all the involved parties are pleased with the results.

“It’s very different from other offers available in the city,” says Graham O’Donnell, by way of explanation. “It’s truly innovative, with a sublime quality of design that in time we hope will be very successful for Utopian leisure.”

Adds MD of main contractors McCue, Leslie McCracken: “The Box is an exceptional addition to Belfast’s changing cityscape due to its overall appearance, finishing detail and the little interesting differences - such as the Fogscreen, the feature lighting wall, the full height chrome rail balustrading, hardwearing stone carpet, and not forgetting the Campervan - which collectively demonstrate the attention to detail of both the client and the designers, and add exponentially to the atmosphere of The Box.”

And as clubbers at The Box enjoy that atmosphere, elsewhere in the country Utopian’s business continues to develop. A 300 capacity site just acquired in the salubrious Lisbourne Road in Belfast will be transformed into the first venue under the Utopian 2 flag, the Fat Budda; and more sites on the UK mainland are in the pipeline.

“We will make acquisitions where it is right to do so - and where an opportunity is right we will move quickly,” says Bob. “We’re under no pressure from the city, the only pressure we feel is from our own common sense.”

Which is a very positive place to be.

Words: Alex Eyre

Images: Jim Ellam

From: January 2007 Issue

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