While the original Pittsburgh Dan Rooney’s Cafe & Bar may now be gone, it is certainly not forgotten. The lively watering hole has been recreated from its early-1900s roots at Empire City Casino (which is owned by the same family) to bring the Rooney family spirit, culture, and story to the people of Westchester and the tri-state area.

At the revived Dan Rooney’s, patrons have 35 flat-screen TVs for sports viewing and its own take on live music, accompanied by Irish beer and pub fare from a menu created by Michelin starred chef, Christopher Lee. The accompanying audio system has recently been updated by Dobil Laboratories, with Project Manager Conor W McCaskey managing all aspects of the project.

The installation calls on four DAS Audio Convert 12A line array enclosures supported by an LX-212A band-pass sub bass system. Onstage, there are also two DAS Audio Road 12A stage monitors.

‘Dan Rooney’s has a well-deserved reputation for being a great place to eat, kick back and enjoy quality entertainment,’ McCaskey says. ‘Dueling piano players is the main source of live musical entertainment, and the pianos sit very close together. The patrons gather around to create a lively, intimate environment.

‘The Convert 12As serve as the main loudspeakers – because of the space limitations, these are positioned directly overhead the two pianos, suspended from a circular trussing system we had manufactured for the project.

‘Each performer also has their own stage monitor, and for low frequency support, the LX-212A is recessed into the ceiling, so it’s completely hidden. The room has hardwood flooring, so it’s quite lively from an acoustic perspective.’

With all loudspeaker systems being self-powered, McCaskey and his crew were assured the power amplification was ideally matched to the loudspeakers. Similarly, there was no need to find a place to house any power amplifiers and system cabling was streamlined considerably. In addition to these factors however, McCaskey was particularly impressed with the system’s sound quality, SPL performance, and the DAS rigging hardware.

‘The DAS product was very easy to work with,’ he says. ‘The process of rigging each Convert loudspeaker to the truss and getting power to it was virtually a plug-and-play affair. We were also very impressed with the system’s sound quality – and it has tons of power to attract people from the gaming floor into the closed pub to see what’s going on.’

The new system has been in operation for a few months and, according to Mike Rooney, Director of Media Convergence at Empire City, the club management and patrons couldn’t be happier: ‘The system is working flawlessly,’ he reports. ‘We literally just turn it on, and give the performers a place to plug in and do their thing. We’ve received positive feedback from everyone who’s come in contact with the new system. This was the first time I used DAS products and I look forward to working with the company again in the future.’

More: www.dobil.com
More: www.dasaudio.com