With food, cocktails and a welcoming environment, the Urban Cowboy Bar has added an ‘elevated cowboy experience’ to the Nashville Arcade, an historic landmark spanning nearly five acres and covering two city blocks.
Before opening, venue staff contacted Joseph Hazelwood, founder of Hazelwood Laboratories, to design an audio system for the venue’s music zones. The bar wanted audio capabilities for DJs, Apple AirPlay, house music, and local zone control in each area. Out of the gate, Hazelwood knew amplifiers from LEA Professional were up to the task.
The Arcade was Nashville’s first enclosed shopping centre, constructed between 1902 and 1903 in the heart of downtown, and has long been a hub for the city’s commerce and culture.
Over the years, the it has housed retail shops, restaurants, offices and art galleries. Urban Cowboy Bar is now an anchor tenant and a distinctive addition to Nashville’s nightlife.
The space features a mix of high-energy and laid-back areas, each with its own character. The upstairs boasts a high-design cocktail lounge with velvet details and mirror-backed bars, while the downstairs saloon offers a more rustic ambiance with wooden elements and eclectic decor, including taxidermy and vintage signage.
‘I try to use LEA amplifiers for every project because I’ve found them to be well-suited to my installations, and there are more than enough products in the Connect Series line, so I don’t need to look elsewhere,’ Hazelwood says. ‘The addition of the half-rack amplifiers is exciting and made the decision even simpler for me.’
He chose Connect Series 704 and Connect Series 354 amplifiers, plus new half-rack models including Connect Series 124 and Connect Series 64 for the expansive bar. The IoT-enabled 4-channel CS704 provides 700W/channel, while the 4-channel CS354 offers 350W/channel. The smaller 4-channel CS124 delivers 120W/channel, and the 4-channel CS64 60W/channel. All support Hi-Z (70V or 100V) and Lo-Z selectable by channel and feature Smart Power Bridge technology.
Additionally, the Connect Series features cloud connectivity. With LEA Cloud, A/V teams can remotely control and monitor the amplifiers regardless of their location or the time of day.
Hazelwood used LEA’s free SharkWare software to configure a base profile and push it out to all the pre-staged LEA amplifiers. SharkWare includes amplifier grouping, offline design, granular user access control levels, locked speaker tunings and a graphic EQ. The software allows users to view and adjust channel settings for all LEA Connect amplifiers.
Hazelwood also installed eight custom HazeX wall controllers, allowing staff to select zones, control the volume and change sources separately. These combine the tactile experience of analogue hardware with the capability of smart technology, providing users with simple, independent control of multiple zones and sources through API calls to the LEA amplifiers.
‘The Urban Cowboy Bar is a unique and fun environment,’ Hazelwood says. ‘The different vibes around the space – some more mellow, others high energy – for different moods and personalities. I think LEA amplifiers were the perfect choice for the venue, and I can’t wait to use them again on my next install.’