Recently awarded a grant as part of the Leeds Tech Hub Fund, Dukes Studios allocated some of the funds toward upgrading the sound, lighting and projection facilities in its Sheaf St venue to support the venue’s transformation from conference space by day, to music venue by night.

The Audio Group was appointed to install a high quality, flexible solution to cover the events space, cafe and the outdoor terrace or ‘Yarden’ as it is known.

Commenting on the install, Duke Studios director, James Abbott-Donnelly said: “We wanted to dramatically upgrade our existing sound systems across the three Sheaf St spaces, so that we no longer had to hire in equipment for larger events.

"Our focus was on installing a market-leading system to complement state-of-the-art projection and lighting, which would be of the highest quality and flexible enough to cater for a whole range of events but also  as unobtrusive as possible.

"We required that the three spaces could be quickly programmed for various uses and also that we could distribute sources from one area to the others. This was all to achieved with the minimum of disruption to our existing bookings and adjoining space” The main event space was equipped with 4 x Pioneer XY-122 for left and right mid-high clusters, 4 x XY-81 for rear and front fill and 4 x XY-218S delivering the low end. The DJ area is served by 2 x XPRS12 as monitors.

The system is powered by Powersoft K10, K3 and M50 amplifiers utilising Armoina  control software. The cafe space, which by night transforms into a second club room benefits from 4 x XY-81 and 1 x XY-215S as well as 2 x XPRS12 for DJ monitoring and the Yarden is served by 4 x XY-81 and 1 x XY115S.

Paul Adamson, managing director added: “I think we got to grips very quickly with interpreting the brief for the job, which was about delivering a genuinely flexible solution that met a wide range of requirements. There is no doubt that the Pioneer Pro Audio XY Series offered exactly the audio flexibility required by this multi-use venue.

"The install was pretty straightforward – it’s clear that Pioneer have given a lot of thought to XY’s flying and mounting solutions and its aesthetic works beautifully in both the main space and characterful cafe. The control software allowed us to programme the system to take care of the diversity of applications and XY works an absolute treat!”

Abbot-Donnelly added: “We’re delighted with the system. We have exactly the range and flexibility we wanted and have had super positive feedback from our audiences. The Audio Group guys were great throughout the process – nothing was ever an issue and they worked quickly and professionally under our quite specific constraints.

"Pioneer Pro Audio were equally helpful – always on hand to offer advice and we’re quite proud that we have the same system (albeit a smidge smaller) as the one in Fabric Room 2!"