The PA People supports Bankstown Sports Club expansion
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Bankstown Sports Club, a community focused club offering 65,000 members a choice of eight restaurants, seven bars, 13 event spaces and Australia’s largest indoor children’s play structure, Monkey Mania, has recently made the decision to create two new restaurants as well as doubling the room capacity in its Travelodge Bankstown Hotel. Providing the infrastructure to support this expansion, The PA People met with senior management.
‘We embarked on a collaborative relationship with The PA People system designers – firstly giving them a list of requirements for our basic needs,’ recalled Jason Klippel, A/V manager at the club. ‘We asked them to respond with how that might work and how the brief could be improved upon. From there we worked through a design and integration process to arrive at a solution across three unique system tasks.’
The design included equipping The Rainforest, an open, informal seated area and stage where sound spill was affecting the adjacent areas. ‘The club had made various attempts to resolve PA issues in recent years. Customer experience was being compromised at very busy times, with upwards of 1,000 people affected,’ said Bankstown Sports Club general manager, Andrew Kelly. The club now has a purpose-built solution comprising JBL VRX 932 sand VRX 918 cabinets. This solution reportedly effectively manages audio for the area, which has its own performance and patron entertainment function as well as being the intersection of several access ways and with an open mezzanine above.
An overhaul has also been carried out to the ‘dated’ systems inhabiting the club’s function and meeting rooms. ‘Working with The PA People, we were able to scope a system that works “today and tomorrow” by providing a high-quality meeting environment,’ said Mr Kelly. Various rooms have been installed with a combination of Screens Technics screens, NEC projection, AXM control, Kramer digital video switchers and BSS Audio processing, as required.
Lastly, the club has a theatre which has remained largely untouched for the last 30 years. ‘The biggest component of the room was the PA, to meet customer demand for capability and flexibility; a rock concert one day, a high school speech day the next, then a dance school performance,’ continued Mr Kelly.’ We were looking for a consultative approach to achieve a solution.’
For ticketed shows, Bankstown Sports needed a solution that met varying requirements. ‘We’re dealing with a broad spectrum of users, with varying expertise and knowledge of systems.’ said Mr Klippel. ‘We need to rely on the science behind getting the correct solution, rather than the badge on the front of the speaker box.’
As part of the upgrade, the theatre now offers guests with a seated theatre experience with audio reinforcement from a Bose RoomMatch speaker systems comprised four L/R modules, two ‘C’ modules and four 218 font-fill subs. The system is powered by Bose PowerMatch amplifiers.
Bankstown Sports Club is always looking to expand and improve. As such, potential plans are already being considered for the creation of a larger A/V network within the venue.