The Fusion Venue
Designing the Lighting and Sound System for the Alleycat in Charlotte, N.C.

The waning interest in the singular clubs, restaurants, music venues and neighborhood bars has led to fusion venues. These venues combine all of the above.

Full Service Through Fusion
    I’ll start with entertainment venue theory. The trick to success in entertainment is, first, location, which doesn’t involve me. Secondly, in order to achieve success you have to exceed the standards within your market, which makes the formula for success different in every market (city, neighborhood, etc.). Otherwise opening day buzz will die the first month.
    New owners tend to overspend, making an unrecoverable start-up cost, or under-spend and never get anyone in the door.
    I had the privilege of working with the owners of the Alleycat, leaders in the entertainment industry in Charlotte. Each owner represents some of the most influential and successful venues in town. So we began the lighting and sound system design for a new type of entertainment venue in downtown Charlotte.
    The Alleycat has introduced the first full-service venue to downtown charlotte. No longer is the CD player playing the same tunes night after night, nor are disgruntled groups of guests splitting up to get something to eat. Between live music sets, a real DJ spins the tracks you would expect from a serious dance club. The kitchen provides both full meals and late night snacks. Although many restaurants have radio, bands, and a menu, the difference is in the Alleycat’s professional daily approach to each element.
    This presents some unique problems for the lighting and sound designers. Kevin Mitchell and Andy Kastanas wanted to provide a light and sound system that can handle both live music riders and satisfy the needs of touring DJs. Oh yeah, and they wanted to keep the budget below $50,000. Yikes! So we came up with multi-purpose sound and lighting system to handle everything.
    In order to make an impression and compete with the other lighting systems in town we had to approach the stage differently. So we combined lighting styles of a nightclub and a music venue. For the stage, we used 12 par cans for the stage — four pairs of red, blue, green and yellow for the back line and four un-gelled pars for the front wash.
    This par set-up gives The Alleycat the traditional Rock ‘n’ Roll feel, chasing par cans from the back of stage and strong white light for illuminating the front of stage.
Everyone is comfortable with this look. It is Rock ‘n’ Roll circa 1975.

Be in Control
    Before I go any further, I believe that the most important purchase any club makes is the controller. I don’t care if you have only $2,000 in lighting. Without a good controller, the fixtures are only using a small part of their potential.
    Many venues will get a decent system, but the lights are not functioning at their full capabilities. Everyone has their preferred controllers. However, I am a big fan of Martin Light Jockey for clubs, music venues and restaurants. Once it is programmed, a monkey could run the board, and with a little training the monkey could program new shows and look good doing it.
    Now returning to lighting fun, four LED pars line each side of the stage for a side wash. The American DJ Par64 LEDs aren’t very bright but provide energetic sparkle effects and rich color accents. I like the constant color morphing on stage, whether that is from reds to oranges or blues to greens or the entire color spectrum.
The purpose is to make the band look more interesting. Live music is never perfect, and it would be unrealistic and unnatural to expect a CD quality performance every time.

Not Dancing in the Dark
    In order to satisfy the needs of a dance club, we needed moving heads or scanners. We wanted a unit that would work both as a disco light and a band light.
    The Elation Vision Scan 575e has a wide beam from 20 to 24 degrees, prism effects, dual gobo wheels, and a frost filter. The VS 575e provides both a large short-throw gobo projection, for the short ceilings, and generous stage wash. We placed them on each corner of our dance floor so that they could pump the energy for the dance numbers and create motion on the stage for the bands.
    The multiple-purpose system creates a powerful dance floor as well as introduces modern lighting techniques to the stage without losing the Classic Rock look, for less than $13,000.

Sound Solutions
    The sound system was a completely different problem.
    I was given a budget under $35,000, which sounded like a great budget, until I was told my system needed to satisfy touring band riders and that the system needed to provide appropriate levels for a night club as well.
    Myron Server and Chris Mitchell were integral decision-makers in the sound system. The EAW MK 2396 and FR250z delivered the sound we needed and the price we wanted for the front of house (FOH) system.
    Although the speakers are relatively small, the quality of components provided more than enough sound for the 10,000-square-foot venue. The four FR250z subs fit snugly underneath the stage. A metal grate was framed in front of the subs to prevent eager fans from kicking in the front of the speaker. The EAW boxes give the quality of sound we needed, as well as give us a satisfy the demands of club tour riders.
    For the stage we used Shure and Audix microphones and saved some money on the stands. Microphones are relatively inexpensive, and a cheap knock-offs can be an endless nightmare for the soundman. So never skimp on the mic.
However, when it comes to mic stands, Guitar Center sells cheap metal stands that may not last forever, but for $10 to $25 a pop, who cares? In the next couple years, the Alleycat may replace the stands. For staying within the budget, I know I made a good choice.
    For the monitors, we used six powered DB speakers and a separate DB speaker for the DJ monitor. Kevin Mitchell wanted to use the stage as a dance floor for the DJ-only events. So, on the nights when the dance club is in full effect, we place the monitors along the back wall of the large stage.

Mixing
    For the mixer, we chose the Allen and Heath GL2800-32. The dual-function live sound mixer provides 32 channels for mixing and plenty of room for effects and monitor mixes. With an 8-bus mixer we had plenty of room for two effect channels and six monitors.
    For effects we went with the Lexicon MX400. The dual-stereo MX400 has a wide array of rich, complex reverb algorithms, delays, effects and dynamics. It is loaded with options, providing two channels of stereo processing at a great price. After talking to several sound engineers, I feel confident that the MX400 is one of the best values on the market today.
    For the processing, we spent a little more money on an Ashley Matrix mixer processor. Particularly for DJ nights, I feel that having a lockable matrix mixer is necessary for the sanity of the management, who either may not have a professional soundman every night or have eager, unprofessional DJ sound engineers who like to blow horns.

More Decisions
    Rushing through the last several choices, I would like to discuss the amps, DJ equipment and cabling.
    For the amps, I was looking for an alternative that was less expensive than QSC or Crown. I found out the Yamaha P7000 amps were being used with several touring festival rigs in the area, so I asked about their performance, and everyone gave me the thumbs up.
    For CD players and mixers, Pioneers are the standard in nightclubs in the states, familiar to all professional DJs. Traveling with DJs around the country, Rane’s Sérado is the leading MP3 computer system, and its fully functional turntable inputs are keeping the turntable alive. So, for turntables, there is only Technics, or you can buy crap and hear complaints.                   NCB

Jack Kelly is chief lighting designer with Eye Dialogue LLC, a
national lighting and sound company based in Charlotte, N.C.
Eye Dialogue specializes in using intelligent lighting fixtures and LED illumination. For more information, visit www.eyedialogue.com.