case study

fabric Room Two
LondonSeminal London nightclub, fabric, chooses
Pioneer Pro Audio as its new audio partner

I
Fabric room two
Lon d ont takes a special nightclub to make a significant
impact on a musical genre over a sustained
period of time, and that’s exactly what
London’s fabric has done. Since opening its
doors in 1999, the team behind the club has
worked tirelessly to promote, and in turn help todevelop, boundarypushing dance music. Nevercompromising on their strictly undergroundpolicy, they’ve made fabric more thansomewhere to dance. In fact, the club is so highly
respected that people travel across the globe tohear the world’s most innovative DJs and artists
play on its famous sound systems.

INSTALLATION AT A GLANCEPAAMPS• XY-152 15-inch two-way
loudspeaker x 4• Powersoft K10 DSP x 5• Powersoft K3 DSP x 1• XY-122 12-inch two-way
loudspeaker x 12
• XY-218S 18-inch twin bassreflex subwoofer x 10

• Powersoft K2 DSP x 3• Powersoft M20DH DSP x 1• GS WAV-TWPOD x 2

DJ Booth• XY-122 12-inch two-way
loudspeaker x 4• Powersoft K10 DSP x 1• Powersoft K3 DSP x 1

Premier music, premier sound and premier light is our ethos.
There are few sound systems around the world thatare always commented on. Fabric’s has always been one of them.

Andrew Blackett | Promotions Manager | fabric• XY-118S 18-inch bassreflex subwoofer x 2• Powersoft K2 DSP x 1

Live stage set-up Room 1

Live stage set-up Room 2• XY-122 12-inch two-way
loudspeaker x 2• XY-122 12-inch two-way
loudspeaker x 2• XY-215S dual 15-inch quasibandpass subwoofer x 2• XY-118S 18-inch bass reflex
subwoofer x 2• Powersoft K10 DSP x 1• Powersoft K3 DSP x 1• Powersoft K3 DSP x 1• Powersoft K2 DSP x 1

The challenge

My biggest concern was the time; were we going to be able
to do it in the time we had? The club didn’t want to close.

T HE HI G HE ST A UDIO E XPE CTA TION S
Keith Reynolds | Technical Manager | fabricU

nsurprisingly the decision to replace thesound system in fabric’s Room Two wasn’t
taken lightly. But, having been in use for
14 years, it had become tired and needed anoverhaul, says Keith Reynolds, Technical Manager
at the club. “Even though it was a full-range
system, there were limitations in getting a fullrange sound out of it. We were starting to getto the point of losing a lot of sound quality.”

The fabric team were clear about what they wanted
from a new install. “We were looking for that dancemusic sound, which is lots of sub-bass, lots of kickdrum and then a good full range after that,” explains
Reynolds, adding: “I didn’t want a line array system. I
still wanted a point-source club sound system, whereyou’ve got a lot of sound pressure from all around.”The brief may sound simple, but the unusual shape ofRoom Two and the construction of the building
present a number of audio challenges that canchange as often as every half an hour when the clubis open. Housed in a Victorian cold store, fabric’s
brick structure and railway arch ceilings create
reflections that are difficult to control, while thenumber of people in the room, the temperatureinside and even the weather outside can all affectthe performance of the sound system, too. Even theself-contained DJ booth had its issues. “I call it theBass Cave because we’ve got brick walls
around it. We always had trouble with soundreverberation around there,” says Andrew
Blackett, fabric’s Promotions Manager.

THE SOLUTIONF I VE DAYS, T W O TE A MS, ON E OUTSTAN DIN G SYSTE M

Blackett had stayed in touch with Pioneer Pro Audio’s Manager, Alex Barrand, since the pair worked together at
another famous London nightclub, Ministry of Sound, over a decade ago and invited him to demo a systemin fabric’s Room Two. Barrand chose the XY Series for its versatility and relatively small cabinet sizes, whichallowed his team to position speakers anywhere necessary to ensure even coverage in the awkwardly shaped room.
And, although there were just two hours to get a system in place and tune it, the relatively flat voices of the XY
speakers meant that “we weren’t adding more processing to what was already there,” explains Barrand. “We weresubtracting processing and EQ points based on the measurements of the room. So we were able to get a really
good sound pretty quickly.”

The team at the club was impressed. “We listened toa handful of systems and gave them two demos each,and Pioneer won every single demo hands down. It
blew your socks off and none of the other systems
had that initial impact,” remembers Blackett, while
fabric’s Founding Partner, Cameron Leslie, adds: “Itpurely came down to the sound that was right in thisenvironment, and that was our choice. It was the rightsystem for this venue.”
At that point, Pioneer Pro Audio was selected as theclub’s new audio partner but, despite this monumental
achievement, the hard work was just beginning.
Barrand and his team had just five days to install
and tune the entire new system, which needed toachieve even coverage in the tricky space and avoid
the troublesome reflections caused by the building’sconstruction.
The system comprises 26 speakers from the XY Series,
including 10 XY-218S twin 18-inch subwoofers and12 XY-122 12-inch full-range speakers. “Putting theXY series in there and having clusters around thedancefloor created total coverage. You also hear a
lot more definition and detail because, instead of fourcompression drivers that were previously in the room,

there are twelve now,” explains Pioneer Pro Audio’s
Barrand, adding, “We installed clusters of two XY-152sleft and right of the stage. We rotated the horn to get
this amazing 120-degree dispersion and a 60-degree
vertical dispersion, which gives great coverage at thefront where the crowd are leaning up against the stage.”
Powersoft amplifiers with AES digital connections drive
the entire system, including five K10 DSP amps, three
K2 DSP amps and one K3 DSP amp for the speakers
around the dancefloor, and they’ve been hugely
popular with the club’s team. “They’ve been amazing.
I absolutely love them,” enthuses Reynolds, who cannow use Armonía software to tune the system from alaptop and adapt to the conditions in the club at anytime. “The amps are all intelligent. You tell the amplifier
which speaker it’s speaking to and it’ll set itself up forthat. Then you can fine-tune it from there. It’s very
flexible,” he adds. With the clock ticking from Monday
morning until the club opened on the Friday night, how
did the tight time frame work out? “I was scared about
that,” admits Reynolds. “But the guys from Pioneer
came in and did it in three days. We were ready by
Wednesday and we spent Thursday just tuning andsmiling. It was some feat.”

You could see everybody looking at
each other and just nodding as if tosay, ‘Yes, that’s perfect’.
Cameron Leslie | Founding Partner | fabricT h e R E S U LT
A SYST EM SPA RK IN G A PA RTN E RSH IP

Keith Reilly (left) and Cameron Leslie (right) | Founding Partners | fabric Keith Reynolds | Technical Manager | fabricIf the team at the club were impressed by the XY Seriesdemo, it’s safe to say they were bowled over by thefinished system. “You get goosebumps. It just hits theright note,” says Leslie. And, according to Blackett, the point
source system ticks all the boxes in terms of delivering fulldynamic range and even coverage in the awkward space.
“Everything points in on you, whereas the old system fired
at you. The power beats the awkward shape of the room,
but it has the warmth in the bass and the mid-range tostill fill the room,” he explains, adding that even the issue
of unwanted reverberation in the Bass Cave DJ booth has
been solved. “With Alex and the Pioneer team installing thenew monitor system in the booth, they’ve beaten that andmade it sound good in there.
But it’s not just the fabric team who’ve raved about thenew system. After performing at the club for the first timesince the install, international DJ Jackmaster said: “I always
really liked the system in Room Two, but to my surprisethey’ve made it even better. I really noticed the differencein there. The energy seemed to really step up a notch.” Andlegendary electro artist Egyptian Lover commented that,“It’s the best sound system I’ve played on since 1984.”
Now that the new system is in place and delivering
the fullrange sound that Room Two needs, it’s just thebeginning for the relationship between the club and Pioneer
Pro Audio, who has been named official audio partner for
Room Two. And as fabric’s Leslie explains, it’s a partnershipto be excited about: “Pushing the boundaries a little bit
would be where I’d love to see fabric going, both in termsof line-ups and in terms of the infrastructure and systems
that they’re presented on. Advancing the technologies thatPioneer has at its disposal – that’s the future for us.”I always really liked the system in Room Two, but
to my surprise they’ve made it even better. I really
noticed the difference in there. The energy seemed
to really step up a notch.

Jackmaster | International DJ

About AlphaTheta Corporation (former company name: Pioneer DJ Corporation)
AlphaTheta EMEA Limited is the subsidiary of AlphaTheta Corporation responsible for sales and marketing in EMEA. For more than 20 years, the Pioneer DJ
brand has been a market leader in the design and production of innovative DJ equipment and software. The company works closely with DJs and clubs todeliver next generation products that inspire and shape the global dance music community and has recently launched a new range of musical instrumentsfor production and live performances. Its portfolio includes brands such as TORAIZ, Pioneer Pro Audio and Pioneer DJ Radio as well as social platforms KUVOand DJsounds. AlphaTheta Corporation is a privately held company headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, and is led by President and CEO Yoshinori Kataoka.

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