London’s Ronnie Scott’s Soho jazz club has opened Upstairs at Ronnie’s, built from the ground up to create the greatest small live music venue in the world. ‘We wanted a space where artists and audiences could feel even closer to the music, with every element of the design focused on sound quality, comfort and connection,’ says Technical Manager, Charlie Dale.
Designed to seat 140 guests, Upstairs at Ronnie’s combines world-class technical specification with intimacy, pairing a Yamaha S3X Grand Piano and d&b audiotechnik sound system with a digital Shure microphone and monitoring signal chain built around SLX-D+ and Axient Digital PSM.
The redevelopment gives the club the platform to support a wider range of performances than would traditionally be associated with a small jazz club.
Monday nights host a classical series presented by violinist Lizzie Ball and the club’s Artistic Director and House Pianist James Pearson; Wednesdays focus on jazz vocal performances followed by a vocal jam night for emerging and established singers alike; and the venue’s long-running Friday night Cuban music session continues a tradition stretching back well over a decade. Audio quality was central to the brief from the outset.
‘The quality of the audio for both audiences and musicians on stage was of utmost importance to us when designing the venue,’ Dale says. ‘For many of the shows, our goal is to make the PA as audibly invisible as possible, while also needing the ability to have a more vibey and in-your-face sound for shows that require it.’
Reliability was equally critical. The club is open 362 days a year, often staging between two and four shows daily, placing significant demands on every piece of equipment in the building.
‘We needed to make sure the equipment we chose was as robust as possible,’ Dale continues. ‘Working with trusted brands within the industry such as Shure, d&b and Yamaha was essential to achieve these goals. All these brands have proven track records of providing high-quality gear that is built for the rigours of everyday use, in a small footprint but powerful enough package for a 140-capacity room with as varied a line-up of acts as we get Upstairs.
‘Shure was the obvious choice to work with,’ he says. ‘No musician or engineer from anywhere in the world will be upset if you offer them an SM58 or SM57 as a first or second choice of microphone for most applications.’
Upstairs at Ronnie’s employs Shure SLX-D+ for microphones and Axient Digital PSM for in-ear monitoring, giving the venue a fully digital signal chain from mic to monitor. There are four channels of Axient Digital PSM, with the system also allowing the team to monitor RF quality and settings directly from the console over the venue’s Dante network.
‘Using SLX-D+ and Axient Digital PSM for mics and monitoring allows us to have a high-quality, completely digital signal chain from mic to monitor, while also allowing us to monitor the RF quality and settings of the mics in our console over the Dante network – which is a must in a sound booth with limited space to have a laptop with Wireless Workbench open all the time,’ Dale says.
The venue’s Axient Digital PSM system also benefits from Shure’s recent firmware update, introducing Single Carrier (SC) Narrowband, a new digital transmission mode designed to give engineers a more familiar and dependable RF set-up without the need for complex coordination or advanced antenna configurations – well suited to a fast-paced room running multiple shows a day.
The club also praised the installation and commissioning support provided by the Shure UK team. ‘Working with the UK Shure team is always a great experience, and this time is no different,’ Dale says. ‘A huge thanks must go to Stuart Moots and Peppe Mallozzi for organising the installation, and to Jack Drury and Andrew Francis for commissioning the installation for us, including making sure we had the latest firmware on all the equipment and that our Dante network was rock solid.’
Since opening, the venue has drawn praise from artists for the quality of sound both on and off stage. ‘Having pristine audio for our artists is a key priority for us, so that every act can be confident that they can produce the show they want to put on to the highest standard possible,’ says Dale.
This includes the option of stereo in-ear monitoring, an increasingly common request even within the jazz world, giving artists greater choice over how they perform and monitor themselves within such an intimate setting.
For Ronnie Scott’s, Upstairs represents an expansion of a reputation built over decades downstairs, giving the club two venues of exceptional quality under one roof and a platform to introduce newer artists to the standard of venue more typically reserved for established names.
‘Both Shure and the club have long-standing, sterling reputations for audio quality, so working together to bring our shows to life is a no-brainer for us,’ Dale concludes. ‘For our engineers, knowing that they have the ability to offer rock-solid RF mics and IEMs to artists makes that side of gigs smooth and stress-free, and our artists know that they can rely on us and the tech we have, so they can focus on their music.’
‘Ronnie Scott’s is one of the most iconic and respected jazz venues in the world, so supporting Upstairs at Ronnie’s with our wireless and monitoring technology is a project we’re incredibly proud to be part of,’ says Stuart Moots, Director of Market Development at Shure UK. ‘Seeing our gear underpin a club with this level of heritage, while also helping it open the door to new artists and new audiences, is exactly the kind of partnership that reflects what Shure stands for.’
More: www.shure.com