Semi Soet is a new music venue which opened its door in Centurion in 2018. The owners turned to DWR Distribution for their audio and lighting requirements and the effective solution included Quest loudspeakers, a DiGiCo console and Robe lighting.
Audio has the loudest voice when it comes to priorities for a music location and Jaco Beukes from DWR recommended 4 Quest HPI110 Compact High-definition loudspeakers and 2 Quest HPI18BP Bandpass 18” Subwoofers as the main system. “We had to install a system that would offer quality, and it certainly helped that Quest comes at a reasonable price,” said Jaco Beukes from DWR.
The HPI110 is a lightweight, high powered compact speaker system that has a number of key technical innovations to improve performance in real venue environments. One consistent problem found in live music venues is reproducing an intelligible voice. Vocals suffer from the degrading effect of wall and ceiling reflections so that the audience hears more sound from the reflected (reverberant) field than the primary sound system, loss of clarity in speech is the result of such degradations. This location in the room is known as “beyond the critical distance.”
This why Quest and the HPI system comes highly recommended in live music venues as it extends the “critical distance” by utilising a custom HFwaveguidee to direct the sound away from the walls and ceiling towards the listener area.
The audio installation also included 2 Quest QM450A Lightweight Active 12 Loudspeaker for the monitor requirements. The centre fill and out fills comprise of 2 Quest HPI111 Compact High-definition speakers. To cater for the audio upstairs, 3 HP15 5” High Output Loudspeakers was a perfect fit as its small size made it very unobtrusive without compromising in SPL or tone.
Semi Soet decided to invest in the popular DiGiCo S21, a compact console with a huge punch for the venue. A DiGiCo D-Rack provides 32 microphone inputs and 16 outputs for PA and additional monitor sends.
For the intimate stage and lighting requirements, Schalk Botha from DWR headed the project. Besides the installation of 2 lighting bars (4m each), the new fixtures 2 Robin Spikies for fast LED Wash beams, and 2 Robin LEDBeam150s for sweeping beams and wide, far-reaching washes. A Showline SL Nitro 510 creates LED Strobes with bursts of lights and dynamic effects. The rig also includes Longman F4Ups, F8Ups and FacePar 900A LED flat par lights.
Geared towards small to large size venues, the Le Matire MVS Hazer was the answer for the haze stream.
Semi Soet’s investment into a quality sound and lighting system were born out of the need to ensure the audience has a good time and with their set up this venue will certainly do this well.
“This was a really great project to work on,” said Jaco. “We were very pleased with the end result and would like to thank the Semi Soet team for allowing us this opportunity.”
