AV Case Study: The Oxford Hotel, Bathurst
A big screen needs big sound. This impressive sports viewing theatre has both.
9 April 2026
Ash Lyons isn’t a local but he’s no fly-by-nighter. A Sydneysider by origin, he spotted the potential in Bathurst’s Oxford Hotel back in 2002 when it last came up for sale. Fast forward to 2026 and that judgement looks shrewd: he’s sitting on a substantial asset – perhaps as much as $40 million worth. Which is all to say, when he decided to renovate last year, Ash knew it would be difficult to over-capitalise.
MORE THAN A RACE
Bathurst may be forever tied to motor racing, but for a regional city of around 35,000 it is far more than a petrol-head paradise… it’s equally enthusiastic about sport in general.
“Bathurst is highly active, very sports-focussed and events driven,” comments Ash Lyons. “On any given weekend there can be two or three major events happening.”
Little wonder, then, that when Ash Lyons workshopped the priorities for the new Oxford Hotel, sports entertainment sat high on the list. Of course, he is not alone – pub operators across Australia are investing in high-impact viewing spaces – but few have gone as hard as The Oxford.
COLOSSEUM: CROWD AS THEATRE
The centrepiece is the ‘Colosseum’ – a two-tiered, arena-style sports bar that deliberately borrows from the grandeur of its Roman namesake. The inspiration, Ash explains, came from travel and history: the best way to experience live sport has always been in a colosseum, where the crowd itself forms a big part of the spectacle. “The crowd creates the euphoria,” he notes.
Rather than the scattered screens of a conventional sports bar, the Colosseum places punters in raked seating across two levels, all facing a single, enormous main LED screen (~10 metres wide). The design creates energy through proximity and shared reaction.
Food matches the ambition: no tired pub grub here. Diners can choose from handmade pasta, wood-fired pizza, antipasti, prosciutto and burrata while watching the game – a deliberate move to elevate the offering and broaden appeal.
SOUND THAT DISAPPEARS
The brief to the AV integrator, Total Concept Projects (TCP), was clear: deliver nightclub-level impact without the nightclub look. The loudspeakers had to disappear into the architecture, yet provide even coverage from the front row to the back of the ground-floor dining areas. TCP General Manager, Adrian Musico, sets the scene: “A big screen needs big sound. But in this case the sound had to disappear, and evenly cover the whole viewing area.”
TCP turned to Fohhn Audio as the audio solution. The Fohhn LX-600 columns – high-performance, 6.5-inch driver-based line arrays with four compression drivers per column – stand discreetly either side of the main screen. They exhibit true line source characteristics: long throw, even front-to-back SPL, excellent speech intelligibility for commentary that feels present without hot spots.
Distributed coverage into Brock’s restaurant uses Fohhn ARC-series point source surfacemount loudspeakers: AT-O7 ultra-compact 6.5-inch two-way units maintain tonal balance through the open, hard-surfaced dining space, while quieter background zones deploy AT-O5 five-inch two-ways. The result is consistent sound throughout – no drop-off as you move away from the main ring and all time aligned, as you’d expect.
Ash Lyons sums it up: “The Fohhn column arrays disappear. We wanted big sound that was easy on the eye and Fohhn has delivered.”
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pub operators across Australia are investing in high-impact viewing spaces but few have gone as hard as The Oxford
FUTURE PROOFING THE LONG GAME
Ash Lyons makes no apology for the premium spend. Sound, he argues, is not an area to cut corners: you get what you pay for, and revisiting a compromised system in a few years costs more than investing properly upfront. He should know, prior to the Coloseum, the space was at one time an award-winning nightclub, notoriously a format that lives/dies off big sound and high production standards.
“We’re here for the long haul. I wanted something fail-safe that would give us 10 years-plus of reliable performance. So far, so good. I flick on the Fohhn Audio system and it just works flawlessly.”
VERSATILE
The AV system is designed for versatility. From Thursday to Saturday at 9pm the Colosseum transitions from sports viewing to either karaoke or a DJ set. Patch points and a preset recall let the system flex without drama.
During the sports telecast, compact Fohhn AS-22 12-inch subs take care of the low end, hidden above the suspended ceiling for daily sports use; while for bigger events a roll-in DJ booth brings two Fohhn AS-40 18-inch subs that patch into the Fohhn amps via Speakon. One press of a button on the control system and the system is in performance mode.
SPORTING CHANCE
Let’s be clear: The Oxford Hotel is a big pub – by any measure. It can seat 600 upstair and downstairs. When it’s packed, the kitchens can push out 1500 meals in one sitting. The Colosseum can be seen as a big-pub flex but Ash Lyons knows that things are only heading one way:
“Five years ago I saw the writing on the wall for sports viewing and entertainment. It’s only getting more expensive to show televised sport. Sports organisations – NBA, UFC, NRL, AFL – keep demanding more from broadcasters and platforms, so costs rise. And here’s the kicker: if your pub shows the big game on a 50-inch screen behind the bar or on a 10m-wide LED in a purpose-built viewing area… it costs the same to show that game. The point I’m making is, the smaller operators will eventually get priced out of the sports bar market.” In other words, go large or go home.
TCP’s Adrian Musico would concur: “You’ve got to do something to get punters out of the couch. Betting used to be a drawcard. Now all that is moved to the smart phone. A decent sized TV used to be a drawcard, and now people can get a huge screen for their loungeroom for under two grand. What The Oxford Hotel is doing is turning the game into an event that can be shared with other fans and enjoyed with a beer and great food. The big screen and the great audio help make that all happen.”
Fohhn’s combination of power, clarity and vanishing aesthetics has helped create a sports bar that feels premium without feeling like a nightclub… until it wants to.
The Oxford Hotel: oxfordbathurst.com.au
TCP: totalconceptprojects.com
Audio Brands (Fohhn Audio): audiobrands.com.au
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