Temple Park Centre
Temple Park Centre

After many years of suffering with noise on their system and poor-quality audio, not to mention the endless battle against the phantom of the club that fiddles with the sound system, the Lindisfarne Club got in touch with Blaydon Communications Limited to provide a solution to their problems.

Based just a few miles outside of Newcastle City Centre the social club is the heart of the community. Providing social events and a great place to meet for the people of Wallsend and the North East as a whole.

Upon first assessment of the system it was obvious why they had problems. Easily accessible controls on old analogue equipment combined with an untidy mess of unbalanced low quality cabling meant the system was susceptible to both human and electrical interference.

As part of the initial assessment we worked with the client to determine what their end goal was to make sure our proposal would continue to meet their needs for years to come. Their needs were simple enough, they wanted a reliable, Interference free system that could be used throughout the club in multiple rooms, and this was something we had provided many times before.

Our solution pulled together a number of manufacturers to get the desired outcome for system performance and ease of use.

The latest 2.4GHz wireless microphone systems were deployed in each room with the concert room, bar, and lounge all being provided with their own handheld microphone and receiving antennae to ensure perfect audio for the spoken word. Perfect for bingo use as the chance of audio dropping out was virtually eliminated, and for those of you that have played bingo in a social club we’re sure you’ll appreciate just how much trouble that can save!

Additional audio feeds into the system come from Sky decoders to allow sports commentary or music to be played over the system.

The routing of the audio is where things get complicated. The users wanted an easy method of being able to use the system in single room use or make any combinations of rooms the required. This included the routing of all microphones to either work into their own space, or to be broadcast to other areas too. Likewise with the sports commentary and music from the Sky decoder.

There’s nothing worse than going to the gym and being bombarded with sound of silence; where’s the motivation in that! On the flip side, you don’t want to be walking into a full-on raver!!

Working with South Tyneside Council recently, Blaydon Communications Limited offered a sound system that was perfect for the needs of the venue without breaking the bank or busting and ear drums either.

The brief for the system was quite simple. They needed a sound system that was easy to use, could deal with a range of audio levels to cater for quiet and busy times, needed to look good, and didn’t need to cost the earth.

As with all projects, a site survey was completed to make sure the needs of the client were fully understood and also to get a good understanding of the space to make sure that loudspeaker selection would result in a quality of audio that would make fitness enthusiasts want to return and not disappear off to the next gym down the road.

It was the Managing Director, Paul Dougherty, who attended this one and here is what he had to say: “ We understand the requirements of most gyms thanks to our experience in this sector. There are some gyms you walk into and instantly know that chest compressing bass is what’s needed but this one was a bit different. The users ranged from teenagers to pensioners and the sound system needed to reflect that. There was restricted space and low ceilings to take into account so the first thing that come to mind was the TOA BS-1030W cabinet speaker or the universal loudspeaker as it’s known.”

The resulting proposal included a total of nine BS-1030W’s strategically positioned to give a nice even coverage to every gym user without overpowering any single area. All cabling was concealed above the suspended ceiling to give the best aesthetic result. All the loudspeakers were hooked up to a TOA A-2240DD amplifier which gave more than enough power to the loudspeakers for any level of music. In fact, the customer asked for it to be turned down which is always a simple fix! A nice audio streaming unit was provided for the source music which runs a bespoke schedule to determine music type based on the time of day.

The final word from Paul Dougherty: “We’re always confident when installing the TOA brand. The audio quality is superb, and they look as good as they sound. The robustness of their products gives a great return on investment for the client and helps us prove time and time again that we are a provider of fantastic sound systems!”.