Opened in 1956 as the UK’s first purpose-built TV centre, the Old Granada Studios remains a landmark of central Manchester. Once home to Coronation Street, the studios are now undergoing major redevelopment featuring event spaces and hospitality venues including Manchester’s first Soho Houseand Mollie’s Motel & Diner. London-based system integration specialists, Tateside, led the A/V installation across both the Soho House & Mollie’s sites.
‘As part of our continued relationship with Soho House, we were pleased to be involved as technical partner for the first Soho House in the North of England,’ says Tateside Technical Director, Jack Cornish.
The brief for Mollie’s sought to marry quality hospitality with surprising customer experiences. The Manchester site encompasses guest rooms, a diner, reception, co-working areas and a purpose-built basement cocktail bar and performance space, with Studio IV at the creative heart of the integration project.
‘Our remit was to deliver a range of A/V systems, consistent with previous Mollie’s installs, and lead in shaping Studio IV into a fully-fledged live performance, broadcast and playback environment,’ Cornish says. ‘This included a Boiler Room–style set-up where live performances can be streamed to TVs across the premises, including for in-room entertainment.’
Studio IV is a basement cocktail bar and club space built around a vintage-style wraparound bar and a 3m-wide on-stage LED wall to support live performances or play pre-rendered content. Audio is delivered via a Martin Audio system built around FlexPoint FP15 loudspeakers and SXCF118 subwoofers, with distributed CDD10 loudspeakers and dedicated stage monitors. Elipson XLS11 loudspeakers are integrated above the bar, while weatherised CDD loudspeakers extend coverage outdoors. The DJ set-up comprises a Pioneer CDJs, an A9 Mixer, Technics turntables, Martin Audio CDD-Live-8 monitors, Shure microphones and an Allen & Health digital mixing console.
Broadcast and streaming capability is central to the Studio IV concept. A multi-camera BirdDog PTZ system captures performances for live or recorded output. This feed can be distributed throughout the building via an IP distribution system, allowing guests to watch Studio IV sessions live from other public areas and in-room TVs. A dedicated green room provides performers and production staff with live camera monitoring and return feeds.
‘For Studio IV, we designed and fabricated retro video screens to form part of the distributed video-over-IP system. These sit flush within custom joinery above the bar,’ explains Cornish. ‘Signage and live sports can be streamed on these screens.’
A stone’s throw away, Soho House’s first northern club occupies three floors, including club spaces, a lounge, a Club Bar, and soon-to-be-completed wellness and Health Club zones.
For Tateside, the project focused on the seventh, eighth and ninth floors, including a performance space on the ninth with a glass stage boasting views of the Manchester skyline. The A/V system designed was conceived as an integrated, architecture-led solution, with Q-Sys Core processing for fully integrated control of audio and video across the premises.
The eighth floor is a relaxed club lounge environment with city views and an indoor/outdoor covered terrace. Here, the system is built around a further Martin Audio audio installation, based on CDD6B units and SX210 and SX110 subwoofers. A significant amount of Tateside’s integration effort focused on concealment of tech: loudspeakers, cabling and control infrastructure are fully integrated within custom joinery.
A motorised TV lift rises directly from bespoke millwork, maintaining clean sightlines in keeping with the Soho House aesthetic. Tateside supplied Pioneer DJ kit including CDJ3000s and A9 Mixers to support in-house DJ sessions. The indoor–outdoor boundary is subtle, with weatherised speakers extending into the terrace area.
Outside, in the pool and bar area, Origin Acoustics bollard-style loudspeakers and Martin Audio CCD6 marine-grade loudspeakers provide consistent audio, whlle the wellness floor’s BGM system uses Martin Audio speakers, Powersoft Unica amplifiers and Q-Sys processing.
Moving up to the ninth floor, members find the club’s flagship performance level. This includes a large club space and a dedicated live performance area with a full stage, wrapped on three sides by glass walls overlooking the pool. ‘For the performance area, we went for a top-of-the-line performance system from d&b audiotechnik, based on 44S loudspeakers clustered in a stacked left-right arrangement,’ Cornish says. ‘The system can operate as a traditional stage performance L/R configuration or switch to a dedicated L/R system specifically for screen playback.’
Extensive custom woodworking throughout the venue ensures that every technical element is either architecturally incorporated or completely hidden, achieving a balance between performance capability and the refined members’ club aesthetics that Soho House is known for.
‘Working on two separate projects in parallel presents obvious challenges, as does coordination with the various other contractors working on the Granada Studios sites,’ Cornish says. ‘What really shone during this project was our ability to project manage effectively and work flexibility around client needs and challenging deadlines. The scale of the two projects was vast, with us also responsible for implementing the entire network infrastructure at Soho House. It was a lot to manage, but we’re proud to have played a role in this celebration of Manchester’s broadcast heritage.’
More: www.tateside.com