Nestled among Scottsdale's world class restaurants, luxurious spas, and magnificent desert backdrop is Livewire, a new 14,000-square-foot club that has already attracted internationally touring artists like DJ Steve Aoki, The English Beat, and Blues Traveler.
- The two-story facility, which opened in January 2015 and has a capacity of 1,100, features classic, old-school design elements combined with modern technology touches, including a massive LED display, intelligent lighting systems, and an audio system consisting of more than 200 speakers driven by Powersoft. Livewire worked with Los Angeles-based Fyxx Entertainment, which specified the entire audio system, including four Powersoft X8 amplifiers and one Ottocanali 8K4 eight-channel amplifier.
When Fyxx Entertainment's Adrian De Pamphiis met with Livewire, the objective was clear. "They wanted to have the best sound, lighting and video system in Arizona," said De Pamphiis. "Even though Scottsdale was a major international tourist destination, it was often looked over by international touring acts. They wanted to change that by creating a top-shelf entertainment space."
Fyxx Entertainment was tasked with delivering an audio system that would cater to a broad range of live entertainment, from prominent, internationally touring DJs, to established and emerging rock acts, and even comedy acts. The venue needed to provide a premium AV experience from all points of its interior. In the main hall, Fyxx installed two primary loudspeaker arrays set in a stereo configuration to cover live-instrument scenarios, while providing a 4.0 surround addition for DJ performances.
"This venue is going to be here for many, many years, and I was intent on having them invest in top-notch gear so we would not have to change anything in near future," said De Pamphiis. "We have great mics coming in at FOH, which are coming into a nice Avid console. Then the signal is going directly to the processors before finally hitting the Powersoft amplifiers. We also specified high-gauge cables between the amplifiers and the speakers to maintain the integrity of the signal."
De Pamphiis says there was no second-guessing when it came to driving the speakers. "We chose Powersoft because it is the best amplifier on the market," he said. The Fyxx Entertainment team also chose the X8 because they wanted to network the entire audio system with Dante. "We are in Los Angeles and this venue is in Arizona, so by integrating a networked solution, we can simply log in remotely and still maintain full control over the performance of the amplifiers. This way, we never get a phone call that something is wrong or not working. And if we do get a call, we can simply go online and see what is going on."
One X8 is being used to drive the entire FOH system, including six dual 21-inch cone subwoofers, a high-output mid/high range driver and other loudspeakers. Another X8 is being used to drive the monitoring system, consisting of 18 small-format, two-way stage monitors, and a separate high-output DJ monitoring system comprising 15" cone drivers, also being driven by the X8s. The club maintains a fourth X8 that it is not in use, to ensure redundancy in the unlikely event of a system failure.
