CASE STUDY
WEST WOOD CLUB LEOPARDSTOWN
Requirement
West Wood Club Leopardstown in Dublin, Ireland is one of six gyms and health clubs around the city operated by West Wood Club CLG. The facility, located at Leopardstown Racecourse, spans six exercise studios, two swimming pools, a boxfit gym, a ladies’ gym and more, offering state-of-the-art fitness equipment across an area exceeding 2,300m2.
As its owners sought to further enhance the experience of club users, the limitations of the existing audio system became increasingly apparent. The old system did not permit sufficient independent control in individual zones, resulting in a lack of flexibility, poor intelligibility and inconsistent levels throughout the venue. The incumbent system also lacked the power and functionality needed to accommodate visiting DJs and other occasional live events hosted at the gym, necessitating the hiring of external systems.
The decision was taken to commission a completely new system for announcements and music playback, capable of delivering a unified experience in all fitness areas and in secondary zones such as restrooms, showers and reception. Excellent speech intelligibility for advertisements and paging was a key requirement, while the main cardio zones needed to be able to host DJ performances in a nightclub-style environment. Local audio control and connectivity within fitness zones were also required.
Solution
Established AV sales, hire, and installation specialist, Sound Lease Hire and Sales Dublin won the contract to specify and install the new audio system for West Wood Club Leopardstown.
The project was led by Sound Lease Hire and Sales Director, Eoin Keating. Eoin selected more than 80 loudspeakers from FBT’s ARCHON range for sound reinforcement across the gym’s four floors and multiple fitness zones. Passive eight-inch ARCHON 108 and six-inch ARCHON 106 cabinets were installed in most studios, with eight ten-inch ARCHON 110 speakers and a pair of SUBLINE 118S subs facilitating live performances in the main cardio area. Sound Lease Hire and Sales had employed the ARCHON series on several previous projects and chose them for their combination of audio performance, reliability and price point. For the peripheral areas, Eoin opted for a mix of 100V CIRA5, CIRA7 and CIRA8 ceiling speakers from Audac.
Amplification for all loudspeakers is provided by seven APEX CloudPower CP704 amplifiers housed in a central rack, each offering 4 x 700W. Amplifier channels are switchable between low impedance and 100V, making it easy to cater for the mix of speaker types employed at the gym without wasting amp channels. Equalization to compensate for the acoustic properties of each room was configured using CloudPower’s integral DSP toolkit, remotely controlled with the IntelliCloud web interface. The ability to control CloudPower from a phone or laptop using the IntelliCloud allowed Eoin to set levels and EQs from within each exercise space, working with the gym manager to discuss and implement their requests in real time.
Sources are routed to the amplifiers via a Cloud Z8MK4 eight zone mixer, while a Cloud paging microphone installed in the reception area allows announcements to be targeted to any combination of zones. Cloud LM-2W wall plates provide gym staff with source selection and level control within individual fitness areas, plus local inputs for connection of mic or line sources. The solution is completed by a Cloud BT-1 wall plate for Bluetooth streaming in the swimming pool area.
Feedback from the client has been enthusiastic and Sound Lease has already been enlisted to supply an updated audio system for another of West Wood Club CLG’s Dublin sites.
“A key advantage with CloudPower is the simplicity of the IntelliCloud software, which really speeds up the installation process compared to other amps we’ve used. The ability to connect to the amplifiers remotely is another major plus. Once the amplifier is in the rack, I can do a lot of the setup from offsite.
Now that the installation is complete, I can monitor the amplifiers remotely and quickly respond to requests to adjust the system without needing to send someone out to the gym. Perhaps most importantly, we have installed CloudPower in a few different projects where they are in near constant use, and they have proven very solid and reliable.”
Eoin Keating, Director, Sound Lease Hire and Sales
Project Details
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Application
Sports / Fitness Venue
Integrator
Sound Lease Hire and Sales Dublin
APEX products
7 x CloudPower CP704
Loudspeakers:
8” FBT ARCHON 108 passive 350W
6” FBT ARCHON 106 passive 300W
8 x 10” FBT ARCHON 110 passive 700W
2x FBT SUBLINE 118S subwoofers
AUDAC CIRA5, CIRA7 and CIRA8 100V ceiling speakers
Other Equipment
Cloud Z8MK4 8 Zone Mixer
Cloud LM-2W wall plates
Cloud PM series paging mic