Lux Integrate’s first commercial project equips Macclesfield Town’s revamped social areas and gyms with Dahua video walls, Yamaha and Sonance speakers, and Wyrestorm encoder/decoders.
There’s more to Macclesfield Town football club than meets the eye. Riding high in the North West Counties Football League, one of England’s oldest clubs has become a thriving sports and entertainment hub for the local community.
The new-look Macclesfield Town complex, which is open to the public all year round, is the brainchild of Rob Smethurst, whose plan for multiple revenue streams included an all-weather pitch, refurbished stands and floodlights, a thriving youth football academy, two state-of-the-art private membership gyms and the Bar Twenty-Seven sports bar/restaurant.
In keeping with the new décor and well-equipped health and social spaces, the club also sports the latest AV systems. These were designed and installed by local company Lux Integrate, which had never undertaken a large-scale commercial project.
The integrator’s managing director, Jay Hussain, says: “It came to us via a residential customer – ex-footballer Robbie Savage – who is part of the team working with Rob Smethurst to build the business at Macclesfield Town. He contacted us with the idea of installing a couple of TVs and soundbars in the club’s boardroom.
“But when we got there, Rob showed us the plans for larger-scale AV distribution, supplied as part of a full refurb by a contractor. I realised the plan wouldn’t deliver what Rob needed, and with (distributor) Habitech’s support, I suggested a few changes, upselling the idea of spectacular high-quality video walls and evenly distributed wide bandwidth sound to go with them. This would deliver the new experience that would get customers talking about the club and coming back in greater numbers.
“He asked us for a detailed proposal, and virtually overnight, my role changed from consultant to project facilitator in charge of design and installation. I’d had this vision of sports bar AV done right – and this was my opportunity to prove it.”
In the 20m by 10m sports bar, 2×2 video walls by Dahua, each comprising four 55″ DAH-LS550UCM monitors, have been positioned in the restaurant areas away from the bar’s longer pitch-side elevation. All screens are hooked up to Sky and Freeview through Wyrestorm’s NetworkHD 400 Series 4K AVoIP encoder/decoders. Between the video walls in the bar , 10 Sonance PS-P63T 6.5” Pro Series pendant speakers have been installed in the ceiling.
“Too many sports bars skimp on the very thing that defines them: the AV,” says Hussain. “Many suffer from inadequate sound that is too loud in some areas, and almost inaudible in others. Invariably the screens are too small for the space and suffer from poor resolution, so customers have to squint to see what’s going on. In Bar Twenty-Seven, we wanted to make a statement with a state-of-the-art AV experience.
“Over several weeks, we had the chance to test the audio in all conditions, and while it worked beautifully for high-quality background music and voices, the intelligibility needed a boost on match days, as the live commentary was getting drowned out by the noise in the bar. Lux Integrate’s solution was to install Yamaha IF-2205 2-way 2 x 8″ speakers in strategic positions, to enhance the vocal frequencies.”
Bar Twenty-Seven forms one zone of an eight- zone audio network, which runs on Yamaha Commercial’s MTX-5D matrix processor and three XMV amplifiers, with local control from seven Yamaha-DCP4V4SEU wall switches. Another zone covers the VIP bar, a 15m by 8m space that is used for dining and hospitality events on matchdays and throughout the year. Lux Integrate installed 15 ultra-discreet Sonance PS-C63RT 6.5″ Pro Series in-ceiling speakers to blend in with the surroundings.
The refurbished gyms are used by the football squads and academy players, as well as being open to the public. The Stealth Gym, which is dedicated to cardiovascular exercise, features seven Sonance PS-P83T 8″ Pro Series pendants and a Dahua 2×2 video wall. In the main health club, four Sonance PS- S83T 8″ Pro-Series surface mount speakers were installed in the spin area, along with another Dahua video wall and enclosures concealing two Sonance PS-S210SUBT dual 10″ Pro Series bandpass subs. In total, 22 Sonance PS- S63T 6.5″ Pro Series surface mount speakers nestle in the ceilings of the reception, weights and boxing areas.
The changing rooms feature 12 Sonance PS-C43RT 4″ in-ceilings, while Sonance Landscape Series all-weather satellites were used for a small hospitality area outside.
“The biggest challenge for any integrator is having to deal with your client’s changing vision for the space – which can often arrive in an overnight epiphany – and then having to ‘move the goalposts’ within the contractor’s schedule of works to make the adaptations,” says Hussain. “Rob Smethurst is delighted with the work and feels that the quality of the AV performance and the installation has made a big contribution to the new Macclesfield FC experience.”
Reference : AVinteractive
