A High-Level Avalon Solution At Tia Juana's By Micworks
One of the oldest buildings in Orange County, California now features one of the newest (and certainly best) sound systems in the region thanks to leading system provider Micworks, which chose to implement EAW Avalon Series loudspeakers at Tia Juana's Long Bar, a thriving nightclub and restaurant in Irvine.
Mike Shelton headed up the project for Micworks, also based in Irvine, meeting multiple needs that include background music during daytime hours, high-impact dance music at night, and a Salsa band performing live at least one night each week. The overall goal was significantly improved sound quality for all of these applications in addition to overcoming an unusual challenge presented by the building's location.
Housed in a former produce production facility dating back to the early 20th Century that's constructed of corrugated steel, Tia Juana's is immediately adjacent to railroad tracks (they run just a few feet beyond the rear wall), with Shelton charged to develop a system loud enough to drown out the distraction of rumbling trains passing by hourly each night.
"The prevous system had a dozen full-range boxes, so when I proposed replacing them with just four Avalon loudspeakers, I believe management thought I was a little crazy," Shelton says. "That all changed as soon as they heard Avalon. They were simply blown away."
Specifically, Shelton specified two Avalon DC2 loudspeakers at each end of the venue's 60-foot by 30-foot dance floor, with two more Avalon DC4 loudspeakers centered on each side. Pulsing low-end energy is provided by four Avalon DCS2 subwoofers grouped at one end of the dance floor. Originally he'd planned on positioning the subs in a two over two configuration, but this changed to a one over three arrangement at the request of management with respect to space considerations.
"This is the first time we’ve worked with the Avalon Series, and I'm amazed with it. In this application, we were able to go with just four main loudspeakers rather than the previous 12, getting headroom to spare and with much better overall sonic performance," he adds. "I was already a fan of EAW loudspeakers, yet the Avalon boxes surprised me in terms of just how much output can be attained. I don't quite know how EAW engineering figured it out, but the bottom line is that these cabinets really deliver."
In fact, during the system tuning process, handled with an assist from EAW Smaart, the system would not go into clip mode. However, it did succeed in annoying several other tenants in the building who operate businesses during the daytime hours.
"Someone called the police because we had the system up to about 132 dB, and it was shaking the entire steel building, knocking things off of walls," he notes. "So we never really found the 'breaking point' for the system, and thus set the limiters at that high level attained before the police arrived. One thing's for sure: this client will never need to worry about having enough system for this application."
Another benefit is the aesthetics of the loudspeakers. "They really fit the look of the place, and kind of disappear at the same time," Shelton explains. "Using far fewer loudspeakers to attain better results also saved a lot of floor space; so much, in fact, that the club was able to open up a new VIP area. That's great for business."
Micworks also built in capability allowing management to quickly reconfigure the system via a touchpanel that provides access to password-protected presets in the system's digital processor. Application choices are dance (all loudspeakers utilized), live (the rear DC2 shut off) and background music (very low level), and they also have the ability to raise or lower overall levels.
(Thanks much to Alan Geer of Audio Geer, the EAW sales rep firm serving Southern Califonia and Southern Nevada, for the great images that accompany this post.)