Audio Pro

With the final commissioning of a purpose-designed dance system for its premier room, the Ministry of Sound (MoS) in London is now equipped exclusively with Martin Audio components – from the ground up.

It had long been the dream of Dave Bradshaw (formerly head of production but now a consultant to the MoS) to make the world-famous club an exclusively Martin Audio house. After last year’s PLASA show the bar underwent a sound system conversion, and last month added the four additional S218 subs to create uniformity, while the club embarked on redesigning the venue’s Holy Grail, the main dance space known as The Box. That process was completed last month.

It is around eight years since the venue specified an all Martin Audio Blackline 5.1 monitor domain for world-class DJ’s working in The Box, although the legendary six-stack system, which enveloped the audience, had been in nearly twice as long.

“It was important that in upgrading we retained the signature six-stack system as it would have taken away the history had we not done so,” believes head of production, Alex Barrand.
Nevertheless, Martin Audio’s Jason Baird first reviewed a W8LC Compact Line Array approach before reverting to conventional Wavefront technology. “Line Array just wasn’t suited to the solution they were looking to achieve,” he concedes.

“The issue wasn’t so much the power as the imaging – which was right in front of your face. They wanted a larger-than-life, but still laid back sound that you could listen to at high SPL all night, with the image appearing to come from behind the stack.”

Instead he proposed a five-way, mission-critical, hybrid system, driven by Martin Audio MA series amplification, so that each frequency band was just ticking over when the system was producing phenomenal SPL’s.

“We chose the W8C as the basis for the mid/high cabinets as it is famous for its Hi-Fi and high SPL characteristic,” he said. “We made various modifications to ensure the cabinets were equal to the harsh environment of one of London’s busiest clubs – after all the previous system had survived for over 15 years.” At the same time Baird’s technical team optimised the crossover presets. “In particular we changed the EQ so that it would behave differently than when operating in the touring world.”

To run the system five-way required an upper bass cabinet with tremendous mid bass punch. The AS118 folded bass bin design was plucked from the company’s AM Stadium range and re-engineered to work with the existing enclosures.

“As it delivers 108 dB for just 1W, it was the obvious choice,” believes Baird. “Its compact dimensions also meant that we could squeeze two in to each stack to give even greater dynamics and headroom. Also, by removing the ports we were able to make the speed of the upper bass a little faster.”

To cover the lowest frequencies Martin Audio first demonstrated their WS218X, a dual 18-inch direct radiating sub. Although they offered more level and bass extension, MoS were less keen about the appearance of the direct radiator design, and needed to find a way to retain their signature bass bins. “In order to bring them up to scratch, we refitted them with the DLS846 18-inch driver from the Blackline S218. Now, as the two AS118’s were sharing some of the bandwidth, the subs could be driven harder but over a narrower frequency band.”

The Ministry of Sound’s tailored solution will lead it comfortably through the next decade. “Extensive on-site delay alignment and EQing was performed to hit the balance that the MoS technical team knew the clubbers would like,” says Jason Baird. “Nothing is off the shelf – it’s a complete hybrid system and this includes the stack design itself.”

The use of custom woodwork has given the W8C’s the appearance of ‘floating’ above the stack below, since they have been separated by a ‘wedge’; this has been designed to ensure the correct splay angle between the cabinets, which is important for seamless horizontal coverage.

At the same time the venue ensured total optimisation by recabling and upgrading to Martin Audio MA series amplification, which delivers detailed, low-distortion power with massive amounts of headroom. As such, whilst the system is producing stunning levels on the dancefloor the amps, and hence the speaker drive units, are just ticking along.

Three MA4.2s are assigned to the AS118s, while three MA2.8s drive the W8C low-mids, three MA1.6s handle the high-mids and three MA1.3s are responsible for the high frequency. The pre-existing MA4.2 amplification was retained to drive the subwoofers.

The system was set up using SIA-SMAART and measured using MLSSA lab tools; in fact, so loud was it that local office workers were complaining – after just the first stack was fired up – and final commissioning had to be done outside of office hours.

This is put into some perspective by the house production team. While production technician Yassin Haji refers to “that amazing chest punch”, Alex Barrand says, “In all the clubs I have worked in, I have never experienced such a feeling as when this system is turned on.”

ministryofsound.com
martin-audio.com