The Nightingale really needs no introduction, a venue of legendary proportion, a club that can only be described as a true super club. The Nightingale Club has built its fearsome reputation during the almost four decades it has evolved on the Birmingham late night club circuit. The club has found its place and has played its role as one of the leading gay nightclub venues in the UK. Originally founded by as group of six people who wanted to create a safe environment for lesbian and gay people in 1968, the club has expanded and moved four times before settling in its current home The Nightingale, Kent Street. The venue now in need of such a massive make over!

This installation was to be an epic one, and the request from Carl was steep given the current infrastructure in the venue. The design was required to work with both the new extended stage for live performance as well as the club environment.
With only 3 week to fully install the venue The installation team headed by project manager, Simon Harborow, set about the implementation of this mammoth project with a team of highly skilled technicians working round the clock under him. Cameroon Jenner and Richard Matthews worked on installing a custom built Nova sound system.This was to be the first installation of Nova in the UK. The system was designed by Jurgen, the chief designer at Nova, in Germany who designed the system around the actual size of the building. Using architects cads to get the dispersion measurements, the designs were sent to Richard Matthews and Cameron Jenner of Audio Energy to install and commission the system for perfect, even coverage.

Both Richard and Cameroon also worked with rigging specialist Paul Helm on the tricky installation of the complex truss design. To make the custom grid structure fit around the many obstacles in the venue they worked graveyard shifts installing countless points and testing them.

The custom grid housing over 30 Martin Mac 250 Krypton moving lights, hundreds of Architectural Leds highlighting the truss, Pyrotechnics, trusses full of stage lighting and a Rill Emerald laser and were installed by Rob Flury, Gavin Tompkinson, Jaspal Bulphliar and Stuart Paton with a web of data, mains and signal cable to cope with this demanding installation all fed back to the back room control area. Rob Flury, was then the man responsible for this key area of installation, working out the complex layout and wiring system for the Art 2000 mains and dimming system and all LED fixtures, weaving and combining kilometres of cable and terminating to perfection.

The Video element of the project was an epic installation of its own, encompassing 3 floors with cameras, plasmas and LCD video wall all run back to both the technical room and DJ booth. This part of the installation project was headed up by Jason Telford, Tom Heycock, and Michael Lewsey, who followed a careful specification designed by Tony Bolton, Technical Director at the Nightingale. Due to the nature of the cable runs involved and the need for perfect terminations the guys all worked nights to fit around the manic daytime build schedule.

The video system comprised of a Hippotizer Stage media server at its core, fed by five different camera systems: two Sony PTZ with 360 degree movement, three static cameras, one for the DJ, and two for the arena. Display is via an NEC video matrix, with a 3 x 3 plasma bank and two adjacent 2 x 2 configurations at centre stage. Also placed around the venue are 2 x 50” Pioneer plasmas and 4 x Toshiba 32” screens on the ground floor and feeds to existing plasmas on the further two floors as well as the screen on the terrace, all run through a video matrix which outputs any combination of images to any different area in the club.

The Nightingale Club, now with some of the best technology money can buy in their arsenal, a list of some of the best artists from X Factor and Pop Idol along with A List dance music artists appearing at the venue weekly, can be sure of success in the future. In fact soon after its refurbishment they are already the best venue in the midlands having just won a Smirnoff Beda Award for Best Club Midland and Wales This also, in theory, makes them one of the best four clubs in the country with its The Pink Paper Award for Best Venue outside London, The Gay Times Readers Award for Best Venue outside London, the Midlands Own Best Nightclub in the Midlands. The future is looking even better for the Nightingale Club.
For more information on the Club Installation and The Nightingale please check out press section to read night magazine.



Equipment used in club installation is listed below


Audio Visual:

NEC LCD3210
screen hanging bracket
26-42 inch
Pionner 50 inch
Toshiba 32inch lcd
VGA to Composite conversion leads
Kramer Video matrix VS-1616V
Cameras PTZ and controller
DVD
Display switchers
LCD monitor


Moving Light:

Martin Mac 250 wash
Martin Mac 250 Krypton
Martin Atomic 3000 Strobe
JEM ZR33 Hi Mass Smoke Machine
Avolites Pearl 2008
"Monitor 17"" TFT"
Avolites 6way dmx isolator buffer box


Audio:

Nova P1122
Nova P110
Nova NM-4 P
Nova NB 1 P
RB 1 Nova Rocket Bass
BSS Soundweb 9088
BSS Soundweb 9008
NFS -3 Zurrose Pro Range Series hanging brackets
Nova DXP 2300 Amplifier
Nova DXP 3600 Amplifier
VS 8 Visio
VS-12 Visio
NM-1 P Nova Monitor
Yamaha LS9-32 digital sound console
Denon DNS5000 Twin CD
Pioneer DJM-600 DJ Mixer


Stage Lighting:

Starcan2 Par 64 CE Classic
ETC S4 Ellipsoidal spotlights


Truss led's:

Instyle colour spot
36 way LED driver pack

Truss:

Lite Truss 3000mm trio
Lite Truss 4000mm trio
Lite Truss 1500mm Trio
Lite Truss Junction 4-Way Cross
Lite Truss Junction 3-way Horizontal Tee
Lite Truss Junction 2-way 90 degree
Lite Truss Junction 2-way 135 degree
Lite Truss Trio Wall/Base Plate
Lite Truss trio Wall/Base Plate special


Laser :

RiLL Emerald 500 mw laser

Mains:

Avolites Art2000 Optikinetics Gobo Pro c/c dmx and shutters Optikinetics Static Slide Gobo Holder

Spotlights:

ETC S4 Ellipsoidal
Lamp - HPL 750/240
Socaspider
"Monitor - Dell 17"" flush"
DVD Player
DVD Recorder
HD Recorder
Rack Trays
4 Way Displays
Datavideo TLM 702 LDC Twin monitors
Rack Cage 10 U
LCD Display Mount
Video Mixer - Edirol V4
Freeview Box
Camera Static Lox Lux
Camera Static Lox Lux IR
Sony EVID D70X
Scan Convertor
Hippotiser Stage