AV Case Study: Harrigan’s Cameron Park
Harrigan’s delivers lives sport (and music) in a way you can’t hope to emulate at home, thanks to big screens, big sound and big atmosphere.
11 March 2025
Story: Christopher Holder
Around 15 years ago Cameron Park became Newcastle’s newest suburb. A big community tavern was always part of the plans but only opened its doors late 2023. Harrigan’s Cameron Park couldn’t come soon enough for the locals. The opening weekend saw their beloved Knights NRL team in action and Harrigan’s was instantly embraced by a capacity crowd.
“Live sport is as important as live music, in my opinion,” comments Harrigan’s Cameron Park, Venue Manager, Nick Thorne. “But with Kayo and big TVs at home, you need to make an effort to compete. We’ve done that with three big LED screens and venue-filling sound. We’re creating an atmosphere you can’t hope to get at home and the locals have responded by supporting us.”
The three large Absen LED displays are eye-catching. The TAB gets one, which can handle up to 12 individual feeds thanks to a powerful Novastar H2 video processor. The Sports Bar get the second LED screen, and can display up to six feeds simultaneously. The third big LED screen is installed behind the live music stage.
During a quiet period without live sport (is that even possible?!), a feed of the live music can be sent to the other two LED screens via a PTZ camera — although it’s hard to see the TAB crowd being too happy about that!
TOTALLY COVERED
If the screens are big, then the audio is bigger. More than 100 Bose Professional loudspeakers fill every last nook and cranny of the venue. Included in the inventory of loudspeakers is a full array of the DesignMax speakers — from baby three-inch in-ceiling model in the bathrooms, all the way to the larger eight-inch DM8S surfacemount models — and the specialised EdgeMax in-ceiling range:
“EdgeMax addressed a tricky situation for us,” comments AVX Technologies’ Technical Director, Dillon Murphy. AVX Technologies has been working with Roche Group (the owner of the Harrigan’s franchise) for a decade or more and was naturally entrusted with the AV design and installation of the Cameron Park iteration. “Edgemax is an in-ceiling loudspeaker designed to be installed near the corners of the room and provides a superior surfacemount-type performance. We placed it between the Sports Bar and the TAB and it provided us with a curtain of audio that demarcated the two open-plan areas. EdgeMax is invisible, maintaining the desired aesthetic, while also providing the clarity people expect from Bose Professional.”
BACKGROUND TO FOREGROUND
Bose Professional is AVX Technologies’ loudspeaker of choice for hospitality installations such as this. “The range of Bose Professional’s installation loudspeakers means there’s a product for every possible situation,” explains Dillon Murphy. “Bose Professional has a big catalogue that includes surfacemount, in-ceiling, and pendant models with a good range of matching subs. Everything comes in black or white and in a good variety of driver sizes.”
The use of the larger eight-inch surfacemount DM8S models in the higher traffic areas ensure Harrigans can transition from background music mode to providing a more forthright foreground audio experience when required.
“The Bose Professional system has the guts to be the foreground audio system when the venue has live music or a DJ. The DM8S is a powerful loudspeaker and we complement them with the Bose Professional MD210 subwoofer. We actually have six of the subs mounted in the peak of the roof concealed behind lighting features. We didn’t have any banquettes or bulkheads to conceal the units so that’s where they ended up — tuned accordingly. The result is an even coverage of low-end.”
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The Bose Professional system has the guts to be the foreground audio system when the venue has live music or a DJ
AUTO AMBIENCE
As an audio ‘glacé cherry’, AVX Technologies designed an ambient sound compensation system for Harrigans, which means the audio levels respond to the level of background noise from patrons. “It’s a great system!” enthuses Nic Barnett. “I’ve spent years trying to train staff to maintain music levels at an appropriate level, and finally I have a venue that does it automatically. Love it!”
A microphone in each audio zone with the system sends level to the Q-SYS DSP core, which is programmed to respond to the ambient noise level and raise the volume of the music as the room fills with patrons, and vice versa when things are quieter. “You’ve got to have background music in your pub,” explains Nick Thorne. “Even when things are quiet — especially when things are quiet. I can hardly think of anything worse than a pub without some background music. It’s soulless.”
FLAGSHIP CONTROL
Rounding out the audiovisual aspects of the Harrigans project is the RTI control system. AVX Technologies prefers RTI, appreciating the way it plays nicely with other systems, including Bose and Q-SYS. Designing the RTI interface is straightforward and it’s easy to use commodity touch technology like an Apple iPad as the interface for staff. “It’s just a one-size-fits-all option for us,” confirms Dillon Murphy.
All up, it’s a landmark project for Dillon and his team: “This is our flagship project. Pubs and clubs are our sweetspot and Harrigan’s demonstrates what we’re capable of as a company.”
Venue manager, Nic Barnett sums up the project’s important to the Roche Group: “We provide atmosphere, and a group experience. Getting to watch the football with a crowd when you can’t be at the game, I think it’s the next best thing to being there.
“We’re doing it on a big scale – 800-plus people – with large screens and great sound, and it creates an ambience that draws the crowds in.”
CONTACTS
AVX Technologies: avxtech.com.au
Bose Professional: pro.bose.com
AV Distributors (Absen): avdistributors.com.au
TAG (Q-SYS): tag.com.au
RESPONSES