The King’s Head is popular pub in the village of Bwlchgwyn, not far from Wrexham in North Wales. As well as serving high-quality food and drink, the pub stages a variety of events, ranging through karaoke, live performance, bingo, televised sport and quiz nights. Providing a valuable focus for the community, owners Eddie and Abbie always strive to deliver the best customer experience possible, and recently took the decision to upgrade the pub’s sound system, which they no longer considered fit for purpose.
Specialists Pivotal Sound & Lighting of Wrexham were engaged to design and supply a solution for The King’s Head. Pivotal cover every facet of audio for live events, hire and installation, and their vastly experienced team has a reputation for excellence across the region. Pivotal recommended an Optimal Audio system to meet the pub’s varied programme.
Darren Hughes, Director at Pivotal Sound & Lighting describes the brief:
“The existing system comprised a number of loudspeakers driven by a home cinema amplifier which was running as a single zone, including in the outside area. Given the range of events that the pub hosts, a zoned system was essential. This would allow for example, a ‘loud zone’ around the bar area, a ‘quieter zone’ in the snug, or perhaps keep the outside area audio-free during karaoke or DJ sets. They also wanted the facility to input audio from their TV screens. Ultimately, it was about having better quality audio and better control.”
Pivotal have worked on many projects supplied by distributor Audio-Technica, and were aware of the Optimal Audio ecosystem. Darren immediately settled on the Zone 8 controller for the new system because of its flexibility, internal DSP, HDMI in/through (for the local TV input) and WebApp for easy operation on staff members’ phones. He continues:
“I chose the Optimal Audio Zone 8 controller straight away, but to be honest I’d looked at using another speaker brand we regularly use for this kind of job. As it turned out, there was an availability problem with those, so I went back to Audio-Technica and they suggested Optimal Audio speakers which came in right on budget. Now I’ve used them, they will definitely be my commercial install speaker of choice moving forward.”
For complete coverage of the pub, including its outside covered area, Pivotal installed two Cuboid 3, four Cuboid 5 and three Cuboid 8, two-way, full range loudspeakers (3”, 5” and 8” respectively) as well as a single Sub 10 low-profile sub-bass unit. A Zone 8 8-zone audio controller completed the picture, with the pub’s staff confident in its operation via smartphone and tablet.
Co-owner Eddie is pleased with the new system:
“The Optimal Audio system that we’ve had installed has been fantastic. It was really noticeable during the Christmas period when we had lots of different events going on. We’re extremely happy – the sound quality is unbelievable, and the install does Pivotal great credit.”
Darren concludes:
“The system sounds great and actually surpassed my expectations. Optimal Audio will definitely be my first thought when it comes to installations of this kind!”
