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PLANO, Texas - April 2007 -- Success, as they say, begets success. For John Lyons, that formula stems from his impressive knack for designing and fabricating highly successful cocktail lounges and stunning high-end nightclubs. For maximum-impact sound, Lyons is a committed fan of Crown power amplifiers and has specified the manufacturer's XTi Series for his new Martini Park chain of concept cocktail lounges offering live bands and DJs six nights a week. The first Martini Park, co-partnered by Lyons and Chris Barish, opened recently in Plano, Texas, close to the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, with other locations scheduled to come online in Chicago and Houston during the summer. The Avalon Sound division of the Las Vegas-based entrepreneurs' design/build firm, John Lyons Systems, is responsible for the custom PA and lighting systems being used at the new Martini Park venues. To his credit, Lyons also owns Avalon clubs in Boston and New York, as well as Avalon and Spider Club in Los Angeles, and was co-developer of the Avalon Series professional loudspeakers. "My extensive experience in the entertainment industry enables me to provide visionary design concepts combined with technical knowledge and expertise," the designer says. "Sound system design for the first 8,000-square-foot Martini Park lounge was of critical importance," Lyons considers. "Audio clarity, reach and intelligibility are primary specifications I look for in a power amplifier, and, in addition to featuring those, this new Crown XTi Series offers a very effective power-versus-cost ratio. Put simply, I get more watts of power for my buck!" Designed by world-renowned architect Jeffrey Beers, Martini Park offers several different environments, including a spacious patio bar area, intimate round bar, and main room where bands and DJs perform. "Each area is covered by individual, Crown-powered sound systems," continues Lyons. Crown's XTi Series includes three models that are functionally identical except for output power. The XTi 1000, 2000 and 4000 Series offer, respectively, 500, 800 and 1200 watts per channel into a four-ohm load. Front-panel features include a backlit LCD screen that displays DSP loudspeaker presets for crossover frequencies, EQ, limiting, delay and a sub-harmonic synthesizer, plus comprehensive level, fault and clip indicators. Other features include a switch-mode universal power supply, proportional-speed fan assisted cooling, XLR inputs, Speakon(r) plus binding-post outputs, and short-circuit protection. "I specified four XTi 4000 models for the main PA systems, three XTi 4000s for the dance floor, four XTi 2000s for the stage monitors, and another quartet of XTi 2000s for the distributed-sound system," Lyons explains. "What I like most about this new XTi Series," the designer and club owner confides, "is that it does a lot of different, unique things. The onboard DSP processing is very useful--we use it for crossover settings, delays and equalization of individual speaker arrays. Also, in addition to full support of HiQnet(tm) System Architect software, each amplifier can be remote controlled via a conventional USB connection. We use [BSS Audio] Soundweb London to route sources to each power amplifier from our main digital live sound mixer and DJ console, as well as a number of auxiliary input sources, including video and TV sound playback." "Our rack of Crown XTi Series amplifiers has proved totally reliable," Lyons concludes, "and makes a significant difference to the quality of sound we offer at our new Martini Park venues." About Crown International: About HiQnet: About the Harman Pro Group: # # # Reader contact: Editor contact: Related images: |
