The past 25 years have seen Southampton’s The Brook establish itself as one of the south of England’s favourite independent music venues by placing audience and artist experience as its top priorities. This philosophy is reflected in the installaton of a new sound system from TW Audio.
Opened by founder Bryn Lewis in 1994 as a 300-capacity music venue, The Brook has welcomed many artists at every stage of their career to its intimate stage – relying on the same secondhand sound system since its opening, even after the capacity doubled to 600 in 2004.
‘It had become a little bit like running a car with a classic engine where you have to drive it carefully and look after it,’ says venue Director, Nick Lewis. ‘It had got to a stage where you weren’t able to replace a lot of its components.’
‘When we first came in, it sounded great,’ adds fellow Director, Dylan Clarke. ‘When it moved to 600 it was still the same rig, and ever since that time, I’ve thought that it’s been running right at the top of what it can do.’
Following a system failure that left the venue without sound for a week, the team at The Brook worked closely with the Music Venues Trust and Arts Council England to secure funding to invest in a new system. ‘Having hit 25 years, we were thinking “how do we make sure we’re here for another 25?”’ and that’s what we’re trying to do in trying to find a new system,’ says Lewis. This led to the venue trialling a number of different options from various brands before opting for a complete TW Audio solution.
‘Working with Sound Advice AV, we initially brought in a demo system to trial it in the space, then working with the team at The Brook we fine-tuned this to ensure it was the best solution for the venue,’ says Greg Oliver, Sales & Technical Support at TW Audio UK. ‘We have used various different cabinets from across the range.
‘We’ve got the T24N downstairs, coupled with the T20s upstairs that use the same compression driver, so we’ve got continuity there. We have a double 21-inch BSX sub and then we have two single 18-inch B18 subs to go either side of that. It’s chalk and cheese to what they had before. It’s a modern system that has all been time aligned and set up correctly. From our point of view, it’s a great install.’
The result has been a transformation from the former system: ‘It’s amazing, it’s breathed new life into the venue,’ reports Edd Higdon, Production Manager and in-house sound engineer. ‘We’re trying to make it so that everyone gets the same experience when they walk in the room, no matter where they are. The new system means the sound is now a lot cleaner, there’s a lot more top end and a lot more mid band as well, and it is now a lot more uniform in the room. That has been so important for us, because it is all about customer experience.’
‘We can now hear frequencies that have never been heard in this room,’ adds Clarke. ‘We’ve had engineers come back who have worked here before and didn’t enjoy working with what we had, come in and listen to the new system before gigs and be really impressed with how it now sounds. It’s a real compliment to the TW system.’
‘TW Audio have come through really well,’ Lewis reflects. ‘I think in terms of their customer relationship, the way they’ve personally come and got involved and got to know us, got to know the venue and what it was we were actually looking for and how we needed to set it up. I think that they’d been great on that front. Along with other recent improvements, the sound system further propels this unique building with an unrivalled view up the ladder of world class venues.’
