Restaurateur Trevor Davies opened the £2m Circus cabaret diner in London's Covent Garden in early 2010.
Designed by Tom Dixon, the venue features a unique quartz dining table running the length of the club which transforms into a dance platform later in the evening (with trapeze rings). The main room is surrounded by ancillary lounge, restaurant and bar areas.
For Davies, it was important that the AV technology lived up to the striking design. In order to fulfil his dream of having the venue entirely under computer control, with full recording and four 'virtual' deck mixing, Davies enlisted the Sound Division Group.
The Sound Division Group decided to fit the UK's first Allen & Heath Xone:DX mixer (with Serato ITCH DJ software) in the venue. This new software controller is compatible with various input formats and the system is routed via a 20-channel USB soundcard featuring total integration of the full 4-deck software. This provides the ability to send up to 168 individual MIDI control messages and connect to multiple external devices, all via Davies' laptop.
"With this system DJ sets can be mixed and saved, while I can also restrict DJs to playing what's on the hard drive," said Davies.
Via the Zero 88 Jester 24 lighting board, seven ETC Source 4 Junior profile spots and four Martin smart MAC moving heads project patterns and graphics onto the pelmet under the conservatory roof. The perfomers are illuminated by two powerful 400W UV cannons.
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