Martin MLA @ The Marquee: BYO iPod

The biggest, most ambitious, most expensive club audio install we’ve ever seen in this part of the world is complete – based on the highly desirable Martin Audio MLA PA – and the DJs’ iPods have taken over.

One mustn’t be too dismissive of DJs and their craft, but when one of the world’s highest profile DJs rocked up to the launch of the Marquee at The Star with his iPhone, asking to be plumbed into the PA via BlueTooth (so he could press ‘Play’ and stream his ‘set’) you have to wonder how exactly he’s earning his inordinately fat paycheck.

Or it just could be jealousy kicking in.

ONCE UPON A TIME

For those at the back of the class, Star City Casino is no more. It’s now ‘The Star’. Tabcorp has devolved its casino business, calling it Echo Entertainment, and brought in some American heavy hitters to inject more than a touch of Vegas to Sydney.

Although not entirely complete, the ~$1b refit has changed the old Star City out of sight. World-class restaurants, bars, live venues and more have turned The Star into a ‘destination’. Part of the mix was to have a full-blown, glamorous nightclub. The Marquee is that nightclub and it’s spec’ed to impress.

AV was all ears when we heard that a Martin Audio MLA system was to be installed. MLA has been on the market for over a year now, but it’s Martin’s Rolls Royce touring rig and didn’t cause much of a blip on the Australian radar. So to hear that 12 MLA boxes (plus subs and other speaker systems) were to be installed, into a nightclub, well, that’s interesting.

EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

Technical Audio Group, as the Martin representative in Australia, was given the thumbs-up to supply a Multi-cellular Line Array (MLA) PA system into the largest of the three areas inside the club – imaginatively called the Main Floor (the Boombox and the Library being the other two). The challenges for the MLA rig were, let’s say… interesting. Dance clubs aren’t exactly known for ‘ambient’ SPL levels out on the floor and the Marquee was likely going to take this factor up to a whole new level (please admire the pun). Many DJs tend to regard red lights on the sound system as added lighting effects for their personal benefit. Joking aside, a real issue is the wide variety and disparate quality of the media content that a lot of high-profile DJs bring with them. They all crunch, mash and mix their favourite tracks to extremes, yet there’s little consistency between the different operators and as TAG’s Technical Director, Anthony Russo, explained you have to expect the unexpected – and you have to expect it loud. So Russo shouldn’t have been surprised (but he was) when the aforementioned world-famous DJ rocked up with his iPhone setup, adamant it was necessary for him to do his world-famous thing. Yes, maybe it’s time to get a fresh handkerchief.

TAG’s involvement with the Marquee went well beyond a PA system for the Main Floor. Apart from the Boombox and the chill-out Library there are small, segregated areas of entertainment everywhere. Even the large, unisex toilet has its own DJ booth so the punters can continue movin’ and groovin’ while they do whatever you have to do in a unisex bathroom (Ally McBeal has a lot to answer for). The cleaning staff must love it. During the gala opening nights there was even a snake charmer performing in the toilet, which again you’d have to imagine would have an adverse effect on what most people are hoping to achieve in a bathroom.

And okay… yes, Paris Hilton was there. ‘Nuff said about that.