Rebound – a new £1m trampoline park in Hull, offering 75 trampolines, tumble tracks, foam pits and a cafeteria – is the latest indoor play centre to be opened by specialist, Monkey Bizness. The first such centre in the city, it also boasts Martin Audio sound systems to cover all activities.

Part of a complete integrated audiovisual and lighting package, the sound system was provided and installed by Old Barn Audio (OBA), who were awarded the contract after carrying out work in previous venues for director, Nick Stevenson. The brief from the client was for the sound system to be as if specified for a nightclub, and should not be bettered by anything else in the area. OBA looked to the Martin Audio CDD Coaxial Differential Dispersion installation range...

First, they equipped the ceiling of the large 35m x 40m industrial unit with 28m box truss, flown from the apex of the building. Mounted on this are six CDD15, complemented by six matched CSX118 (1 x 18-inch) subs, and four further CDD8 Downfill – as well as 44 automated moving lighting heads. In a separate Induction Room, where the training videos are presented on 55-inch LCD flat screen TVs, sound is reinforced by a further four CDD8 (8-inch) speakers.

‘The CDD15s are angled so they hit the balcony, and therefore the CDD8s are pointed directly down to fill the hole in the coverage pattern. It works very well,’ says OBA’s Phil Clark.

OBA has quickly become one of the largest UK customers for the new CDD series and in Hull they ensured the sound was fully optimised, using Smaart software to delay the subs and tune the room. ‘Because it’s a trampoline room, it would have been impractical to put the subs on the ground,’ Clark says. ‘Also, the overhead rig had to go in right at the start because once the trampolines were in place it would not have been possible to access the roof.

Presets are stored in Symetrix Radius 12-input/12-output DSP, with two 22-inch GUIs offering intuitive touchscreen fader banks, designed for non-technical personnel. These offer multiple source selection via serial port control for lights and sound.

There is a BGM plug-in point at Reception and DJ input on the mezzanine balcony, while the client also requested a series of pre-recorded messages stating, for instance, when time is up. ‘This required a bespoke design for audio, lighting – which is programmed to operate via serial output codes from the Radius to a ChamSys desk – messaging and control. ‘

‘I asked OBA to “lift the roof off the building” with the sound system as I wanted to attract a more teenage market as well as youngsters with the sound levels,’ says Monkey Bizness General Manager, Wendy Donnelly. ‘They have done that and more; in fact we’re probably not reaching a third of the system’s capacity.

‘OBA are an amazing bunch of people to work with. It’s phenomenal what they have given us and we’ve received a number of highly positive comments – including one from the owner of a local nightclub who was extremely impressed with our sound system.’