A striking 1,600-seat music venue, the Paramount is the latest addition to New York’s live entertainment scene.
Located on Long Island, the Paramount is equipped to host major artists with a JBL VerTec powered line array system. The system was designed and installed by Maryland Sound International, led by project manager Ryan Beck.
The Paramount bears little resemblance to the the IMAC (Inter-Media Arts Center) Theater whose site it occupies. ‘The construction of the Paramount was one of the most dramatic “before and after” transformations I’ve ever encountered,’ Beck observes.
‘Previously, the IMAC Theater was a plain-looking 600-seat room that occupied the top floor of the building, with a basement underneath. The entire floor of the IMAC was demolished, along with almost all the existing interior to create a huge space with floor, mezzanine and balcony seating, a VIP box on each side of the main floor and a large lobby.’
The interior space has been gutted and renovated, and fitted with a sound system based on 20 JBL VerTec VT4888DPDA powered mid-size line array elements on each side of the stage and 14 JBL MS28 compact loudspeakers located throughout the venue as lip, under-balcony, VIP box and rear bar fills. Crown I-Tech HD amplifiers power the MS28 speakers. An additional two hangs of six VT4887A compact line array elements each are installed for use with the VT4888DPDA line arrays as part of a 360° dancefloor system. Crown I-Tech HD9000 amplifiers power the VT4887A loudspeakers.
The demolition showed the Paramount’s owners the potential of the building –revealing beautiful brick walls under an imposing arched ceiling. ‘The owners wanted to preserve as much of its character as possible, including architectural detailing like a patterned metal ceiling and stone ornamentation that dated back more than a century,’ Beck says.
That left Maryland Sound working with very challenging acoustics: ‘Those brick walls and hard ceiling made for an extremely reflective acoustic environment – and we couldn’t ruin the look of the venue with acoustic treatment everywhere,’ Beck explains. ‘We went with the VerTec VT4888DPDA line arrays for the main system because aside from sounding great, we knew their controlled dispersion would direct almost all of their sound to the main floor, without bouncing off the sidewalls and ceiling and exciting the space with excessive reverberation.
‘The layout of the Paramount isn’t typical – in addition to the floor, mezzanine and balcony, there is a VIP box on each side of the main floor, and there are bars underneath the VIP boxes with a sky bar section at the back of the hall under the balcony,’ Beck continues. ‘We had to install fill speakers in all of these spaces. The JBL MS28 speakers were ideal – they’re compact, full-range, play loud and mount easily on a wall or ceiling.
‘When it was time to fly the VerTec VT4888s, we realised we didn’t like where the plans indicated we had to hang them. In most situations you’d just have to live with it, but since we were installing the system at the same time as the main construction, we were able to ask the contractors to install new steel girders at six different points other than originally planned, and we re-did the rigging points right on the spot. That’s something I’ve never encountered before in a club environment.’
Maryland Sound used Harman HiQnet System Architect 3.0 software to tune the system and the interface between the speakers and the amplifiers. ‘It works so well that we don’t have to use any outboard EQ,’ Beck says.
‘We are really happy with the way everything turned out,’ he reflects. ‘We were able to deal with a challenging situation and install a system that sounds excellent, and does not intrude upon the beautiful interior of the Paramount.’
More: www.marylandsound.com
More: www.jblpro.com
