Bristol, England–When Andrew Costi and Jim Dee realized their 120-cover Bar-Celona restaurant in the Kingswood suburb of Bristol was drawing more of a club crowd gathering for drinks at front of house, they had a brainstorm.

As Andrew tells it, “My business partner owned the building two doors down and so we converted it from an Italian restaurant and then purchased the building in between to create an entertainment venue.”

Now they have one giant piece of real estate with a roof terrace. And they can bridge between the restaurant and their dynamic new live and dance venue via a conservatory area that‘s used for wedding receptions and private events.

The Bar-Celona owners brought in local installers CPM to specify and design a sound system built around Martin Audio‘s stylish AQ Series, finished in a sleek, factory-fit mid-grey. This would not only service the needs of the DJ‘s, who play out to the 350-capacity club from Thursday to Sunday, but also the Wednesday night karaoke/open mic performers and occasional live bands.

Within this long narrow rectangle, CPM has installed a pair of two-way AQ15‘s, flown left and right of the stage, reinforced by a pair of S215 subs. Further down the room a combination of AQ8‘s and AQ5‘s have been installed, while the system presets satisfy the decreasing volume requirements back towards the door.

Visually the venue is brought alive by LED décor lighting, providing a striking feature down the long bar front and the DJ console, while LED spots off the front truss provide production lighting for the stage. A Sanyo projector fires DVD footage and sports events from terrestrial TV onto the back wall, and the owners have wisely provided Nintendo Wii games as an added form of entertainment.

Andrew Costi says the conversion cost the owners in excess of £250,000, but with Bar-Celona looking to build on its 2am weekend license, the spend has been more than justified.