BELFAST

THE EMPIRE

VENUES, SEPTEMBER 2006, COMMENTS

Amongst the bohemian bars and student hangouts that populate Belfast’s Queen’s Quarter, the Empire is revered by local fans with the same kind of special affection that Londoners have for the Brixton Academy, or New Yorkers for CBGB’s. A deconsecrated church, Empire’s interior is a timeless Irish dance hall, complete with bare floor boards, pub furniture and an elegant mezzanine gallery arranged around a waist-high Vaudevillian stage, from which many fledgling stars have played, including Ash and The Undertones, James Lavelle and Mylo. The church’s original gabled roof is visible above a tensile mesh, where lighting engineers perch behind a large rig of theatre spots, installed for the venue’s comedy and cabaret theatre nights.

Part of a firmly established independent outfit boasting 12 differently accented venues across Belfast, Empire is dedicated to a vibrant local arts scene, and has been prioritised by owners Wine Inns for reinvigoration to cope with an expanding booking schedule. The interior, and low intimate stage, remained unaltered for fear of upsetting the intimate atmosphere they provided, but technical engineer Dee Cyle was adamant the venue should have a sound worthy of its heritage, and turned to the venue’s original installer, PSD Electronics of Newquay, for consultation. The refit had to be powerful, compact and flexible, and was to be completed to coincide with a prestigious return to the venue of Mancunian punk veterans The Buzzcocks.

Phil Soltys, PSD’s Managing Director explains his connection with Belfast: “I have been coming to Belfast City over the last 18 years and have concentrated my support and service to the one client, bearing in mind their diverse range of business and outlets. Our relationship with Wine Inns is such that we employ an engineer in Belfast to look after solely them. It is just over 10 years ago since we installed the previous audio system here, which has performed flawlessly and reliably.”

The Empire presents a deceptively simple space for an audio install: a rectangular purpose-built auditorium, acoustically efficient, and with a straightforward design that would forgive a functional looking array. But the ‘structural charm’ of the venue meant that PSD were forced to use the existing fixed flying points, and had only a minimal space underneath the stage in which to put the bass units.

Phil’s answer came from KV2’s Andy Austin –Brown, with whom Phil designed a system around KV2’s ES cabinets for a surf bar and club in Newquay called the Koola Club. The compact design of the ES series made it a good candidate for the delicate structure of Empire.

But Andy remained unconvinced. At a capacity of 1,200, the size of the auditorium would mean two or more ES cabinets flown either side of the stage, and more subwoofers than the space allowed, creating a clumsy look and the unnecessary expense of extra amps and power. Instead, KV2’s latest touring kit, the hotly anticipated VHD series, had just completed a successful road test (on tour with the Illegal Eagles), and had been put into production for the installation market.

“The VHD series was our technology statement,” says Andy. “And a single cabinet and bass configuration, either side of the stage, had been providing the right output, quality, coverage and coherence for 1,000 capacity venues up and down the country. It was a kit that was brand new and packed a lot of attitude. It was perfect for the Empire.”

During the course of one day in early April, a full system consisting of a left/right flown configuration of one VHD 2.0 mid/hi enclosure and one VHD 2.15 subwoofer, along with 2 VHD 4.18 ground stacked subs, one on each side of the stage and driven by KV2 VHD amplifiers, were installed in time for The Buzzcocks performance in the evening.

The end result was a triumph of simplicity. The single enclosures provide clarity and comprehensive sound coverage, while the whole system was installed with plug-and-play convenience. Dee Cyle, who used to manage the sound of CBGBs, is a man who knows his stuff. He concludes: “The VHD kit is easy to work with, very responsive, huge dynamics and massive power when required with the very finest subtlety’.

Words: Leo Batchelor

Images: Jim Ellam

From: September 2006 Issue

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