From Russia With Love

Credit: QSC Audio

CHALLENGE: To bring high quality, concert level audio to a difficult acoustical environment within the realm of a strict budget, limited space, and rigid aesthetic demands.

SOLUTION: Mindful matching of technology, technique, and components, provide wide-angle dispersion and the necessary vertical throw to reach every corner of the house with uniform coverage.

Think south Florida and the mind may conjure alluring imagery of palm trees, ocean breezes, and miles of beaches. Chic and trendy socialites moving along the eastern seaboard are adding one more to this list, too, thanks to the opening of the Tatiana Restaurant and Nightclub in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

An offshoot of Tatiana's on the boardwalk in Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Brighton Beach, Tatiana's Hallandale location is one of the few places in the U.S. where patrons can experience authentic Russian lavishness without having to renew their passport. With ornate gild work and plush furnishings dominating the decor, the cabaret successfully marries Moscow with Las Vegas, featuring some of Russia's most beautiful dancers and acrobats performing nightly. Underneath it all lies a perpetual whiff of sex and mystery — something the venue's management (which also owns the Tatiana Hotel in Moscow) makes no secret of encouraging.

Walking into this mystical and extravagant world with the sole purpose of enhancing it even further with an AV integration blueprint designed to meet high expectations for both quality and aesthetics was Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.–based pro AV integrator and music retailer Music Arts Enterprises (MAE). It implemented a design/build plan that successfully tamed the room with new technology, but was out of the range of their approximately $100,000 budget — until recently.

“Typically, most venues we work in outside of performing arts centers are not designed and built with acoustics in mind,” admits Scott Tryon, MAE Pro Audio division manager. “If you had to define what we do in its most basic form, it's to step in after the fact and make things sound good anyway.”

For Tryon and systems guru Bob Beaudette, the challenges before them at Tatiana's were no exception to the definition of the common tasks they face on a regular basis. The dining area, which seats 800, is divided into four areas: main floor; two balconies with spaces underneath, and the dining room, which surrounds the stage, but was built as a more intimate setting with much lower ceilings. In fact, just about every conceivable acoustical challenge presented itself to some extent: an asymmetrical space measuring approximately 100 feet wide and 60 feet deep, drastically different ceiling heights, as well as nooks, crannies, and areas punctuated with pillars.

“It didn't take much research on the audio end of this project to determine that this was definitely not going to be a one-box solution,” Beaudette says. “Conquering the wide angles of dispersion was our first order of the day. Trying to do that with an unobtrusive package meeting the aesthetic demands at hand was another issue all to itself.”

Among the options available to Beaudette and Tryon, line-array technology, on the surface, seemed like one of the least likely candidates for the job. Traditionally beyond the strict budgetary purse for the project that had to cover all the costs of both audio and comprehensive AV elements also slated for implementation by MAE, the concept nonetheless gained momentum when QSC's Installation Line Array (ILA) technology was considered.

“With ILA, we gained the benefit of technology normally reserved for bigger-budget touring rigs,” says Beaudette, who had used the products before in similar applications. “For the cost of a common point-and-shoot system and deployed within arrays leaving a minimal footprint, we achieved 140 degrees of horizontal coverage, great vertical control, and exceptional audio that met the client's demands for quality hands-down.”

Within the MAE blueprint, four full-range WL2082-i ILA cabinets arriving on the scene factory-finished in white were flown on each side of the Tatiana stage along with two of QSC's WL115-sw subwoofers. QSC CX Series amplifiers power the full-range boxes, while QSC PowerLights drive the subs. A QSC BASIS network manages all processing chores, including delay for a housewide ring of 12 supplemental AcousticDesign AD-S282H loudspeakers also from the QSC catalog. Used for balcony areas and other spaces physically shrouded from the main arrays in need of audio fill, the AcousticDesign loudspeakers were also finished in white and feature dual 8-inch woofers and a 1-inch compression driver.

Only two BASIS 922az processors were required. One is used for the flown ILAs, while the other manages processing for the rest of the loudspeakers via CobraNet. Beaudette concedes that while distance wasn't a concern requiring CobraNet within this application, using the transport protocol made things more efficient, and when considered in terms of the low number of BASIS units required to get the job done, the build process just went smoother and took up less space.

“Without processing like this, we were basically looking at using about six equalizers and delay units for each of our supporting zones alone,” Beaudette points out. “We simply didn't have that kind of space, nor the money or time to install them.”

Twelve QSC AD-S282H loudspeakers were used for balcony areas and other spaces not easily reached by the main arrays.

Credit: QSC Audio

A 32-channel Midas Venice 320 mixing console rides herd over the entire audio system. Given its ability to be used either onstage or in the house, itself thanks to an MAE-designed, multi-pin snake system built by Whirlwind and a 24-space rolling rack, the Midas desk is joined by a simple collection of outboard electronics including a dbx 2231 31-band EQ used for monitors, a PreSonus ACP88 processor used on the drum kit, Lexicon MPX1 processor for vocals, and a MiniDisk recorder/player and MiniDisk/CD player both from Tascam.

Charged from the outset with the responsibility of designing and installing the AV system for this impressive space, MAE reinforced onstage visuals and provided a palette for broadcast, satellite, and other signal feeds using a collection of 46-inch LG plasma displays distributed around the house as needed and a Da-Lite Cosmo 12-foot motorized video screen mounted at the rear of the stage. A Sony EVID70 remote control camera with a wide lens provides AV input as well, while a Sanyo PLCXP51L LCD projector was hidden in a recessed alcove to bring visuals to the big Da-Lite screen when called upon.

While the projector could be concealed to maintain the client's desire to keep the presence of technology out of the room's decor, the camera, out of necessity, had to be in a location where it could do its job properly.

“The client realized there were some limitations to how much we could hide some things,” Scott Tryon says. “In cases where we couldn't effectively conceal our work, Bob hand-crafted mounting brackets and other hardware that matched the room with the same degree of filigree and ornamentation. He has a talent for that sort of thing, and it definitely has a way of softening the presence of components that simply must show their faces to the public to some degree.”

In the long run, both Tryon and Beaudette feel that while implementing the audio portion of the system was initially the most challenging, selecting the right components for the job reduced their stress factor dramatically. Installed in time for the room's grand opening on New Year's Eve last year, the entire system performed flawlessly. Used routinely for reinforcing live music, concert-level music, and announcements, the sound system is everything everyone, including patrons, had hoped for. Ditto on the video side — one of its first uses at the grand opening was bringing the sights and sounds of the countdown in Times Square to the Da-Lite screen.