Electro-Voice the winner at Revesby Workers Club
The main showroom, known as the Whitlam Room, at Sydney’s Revesby Workers Club has had a spruce up including an upgrade of its technical equipment with Saltec supplying and installing a new Electro-Voice PA system.
Phill Webb, AV Technician at Revesby Workers, reveals that there were four speaker brands being considered for the upgrade but the Electro-Voice system promised to deliver the best ‘bang for buck’ and he hasn’t been disappointed.
“I’ve used the EV XLC system at The Cube in Campelltown, which hosts similar acts, many times and I think it’s a great system,” said Phill. “I really like that our system has FIR filter drive and offers the ability to network the amplifiers so that they can be monitored front of house. Plus of course it sounds great! It certainly has more than enough grunt for the room.”
 Due to the age of the room it was difficult to find load bearing points in the roof so Saltec had HME engineer and build a ground support system for the arrays to hang off. The main PA hang comprises of six EV XLC DVX 90 deg boxes and two EV XLC DVX 120 deg boxes per side with two EV X-Subs per side mounted below the stage.
For fill there are four Dynacord VL 262 boxes; two are mounted on the inside of the proscenium and two are brought out and sat on the stage lip when required. Delay consists of four EV ZX1i 90W which are mounted above the balcony.
Drive for the main array is by nine Dynacord H5000 amplifiers with RCM 26 DSP cards loaded. The bottom two 120 deg boxes are shaded 6db to smooth out the near field. Two Dynacord H5000 amplifiers, again with RCM 26 DSP cards loaded, drive the subs. A Dynacord H2500 with an RCM 26 DSP card loaded drives the fills whilst another drives the delays.
“The RCM 26's are loaded with the latest EV XLC factory settings with FIR filters applied,” explained Phill Webb, AV Technician at Revesby Workers. “In addition there is a UCC1 can bus interface at the FOH mix position to allow for the amplifiers to be monitored and controlled remotely. It also allows for a full impedance sweep of the system prior and after shows to ensure that all components are operating correctly and that each side of the system is responding the same.”
The first serious gig that utilized the system was held on New Years Eve with leading Australian Abba tribute show Abbalanche performing to a full room. Since then the venue has hosted the opening night of Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walkers first national tour and a gig from Aussie Hip Hop act 'Justice Crew'.
“In addition we have had a seniors concert featuring Neil Hanson that drew over 1000 people into the room,” added Phill. “This gig also featured the Club President and local federal Labour member Daryl Mellham welcoming the audience to the re-vamped room and talking briefly about the new sound system and how the club expected that this would lead to a greater enjoyment of the entertainment. The duty manager commented after this gig that it was the first time that she had not had one complaint from a member of the audience!”
More recently the club held two sold out shows from leading Aussie comedian Carl Barron with the legendry Ian 'wardie' Ward at the controls. Ian had recently returned from mixing 'Men at Work' in South America and he is noted as Cold Chisels long standing engineer amongst other acts.
“Ian came into the room and looked at the system, checked what cabinets were in it and then commented that he had recently done a Jimmie Barnes tour where he had exactly the same system doing 10,000 plus outdoors - he loved it and felt right at home,” commented Phill. “His main problem was arranging his gain structure so that the system ran quiet enough to be comfortable!”
The XLC install at Revesby complements an existing foldback system of EV T221M foldback wedges that were purchased ten years ago and still provide a sterling performance. In fact the club still has four EV S15ME foldback wedges from the early nineties in service – a testament to the serviceability and reliability of the brand.
In rounding out the purchase the Club also invested in an inventory of Electro Voice microphones including Ravens, Cardinals, N/D468’s, RE 510’s as well as the legendary N/D967 vocal microphones and the acclaimed RE 320 kick drum microphone.
A recent performance at the Club by iconic Australian rock band The Angels was totally handled by an EV inventory from microphones through to wedges, amplifiers, processing and FOH system.
“The N/D 967 came to the fore on lead vocal when the bands engineer advised that the lead vocal microphone would need to be changed half way through the set due to the amount of moisture lead vocalist Dave Gleeson inflicted upon it,” related Phill. “This of course was based on experience with an alternative brand. I was doing monitors for the gig and kept an eye on the mic throughout the gig and it survived with no issues at all – a testament to its stainless steel dual grill.”
Bosch |
