THE VANGUARD REVAMPED

The Vanguard is a live music venue holding about 150 people and is located in the Sydney suburb of Newtown, on King Street. Originally opened in 2003, The Vanguard is part of the inner western fringe and alternative scene, offering a wide variety of live events which include anything from burlesque shows through to stand-up comedy, jazz nights, and live bands. It also features a restaurant serving a unique style of modern Australian cuisine.

With an assortment of heavy metal bands playing on Friday the 19th of October, The Vanguard reopened its doors to the public for the first time in just over two months. It had just undergone an extensive renovation. The refurbishment covered all aspects of the venue including remodelling, new bathrooms, new bar, new lighting, new carpet, and new décor. Also included was an overhaul of the audio-visual systems.

Beau Neilson, the owner of The Vanguard since April 2024, commissioned the refurb. Silver Bullet Projects specified and installed the lighting, audio and video components.

 Audio

From a strictly audio-visual perspective, audio took the biggest share of the budget. Previously, The Vanguard was running a DiGiCo console with Dynacord COBRA PA boxes. The upgrade includes a full d&b audiotechnik system with an Allen & Heath console and stage box.

The new d&b audiotechnik sound system includes four ALi60 on main L/R, four Bi6 subs, four E8 delays, one M4 drum fill and six M6 monitors, powered by 5D and 30D amps.

The d&b audiotechnik ALi60 speaker is the installation variant of the d&b audiotechnik AL60 augmented array. The ALi60 loudspeaker module is passive and has a 60° constant directivity dispersion pattern in the horizontal. In The Vanguard, it makes for a good flown array speaker that remains in place.

For audio control, the venue is now run off an Allen & Heath dLive C3500. It has 24 faders, six layers, and two built-in touch screens. Also in the mix is a new stage box, the Allen & Health CDM32, boasting 32 mic/line inputs, 16 line outputs, XCVI 160×64 FPGA core, and a 96kHz sample rate.

The main aim of the audio upgrade was to get the best sound possible in the space. This went beyond just purchasing new speakers and a desk. Extensive acoustic treatments were also installed which included things such as new draping, baffles, new carpet, and remodelling to soften the space and improve the overall sound quality.

Lighting

The old lighting set up in The Vanguard was run off a single laptop. The lights were old, noisy, and some ran off an old dimmer system.

The new set up consists of 22 static LED fixtures, specifically 10 ShowPRO LED FusionPAR H VIIs and 12 ShowPRO LED PixPAR 2 Plus. There are now also eight moving lights; two ACME Pulsar S2 Beam/Wash hybrids and six ACME AECO 5 hybrid profiles.

The ACME AECO 5 profile is a 4-in-1 hybrid LED moving head light with a high CRI (Colour Rendering Index) 450W light engine.

Capable of doing spot and wash functions with gobos and a shutter kit, it makes for a good workhorse fixture in a smaller venue.

The entire lighting rig is run off an MA Lighting MA2 on PC set up that is run through a touch screen laptop with an MA2 command wing.

The goals of the lighting upgrade was to have everything controllable via 5 pin DMX on the same system and network, have a full set of LED fixtures both moving and static, and to have a control system that featured buttons, faders and a touch screen whilst maintaining a relatively small footprint at the ops area.

Vision

The old vision projector set up was well outdated and struggled to be seen from the back of the room with lights on.

The new vision set up is a projector and a switcher/scaler. It features a motorized 1615mm x 2585mm screen, which gives a 1.6:1 aspect ratio. Shooting onto the screen is an Epson EB-G7500UNL, a 7,500 lumen Laser source WUXGA projector.

WUXGA is an acronym which stands for ‘Widescreen Ultra eXtended Graphics Array’. WUXGA displays have a resolution of 1920 x 1200. It’s a great resolution for an application such as this one in a small venue that sees a lot of use.

For vision control, The Vanguard now has a four SDI input HD Switcher, HDMI/SDI scaler and an Apple Mac Mini running QLab, a software for designing and playing back sound, video, light, and show control cues.

QLab supports sending both LTC (Linear or Longitudinal Timecode) and MTC (MIDI Timecode). In a venue like this it allows the option to sync up audio, vision, and lighting to run together with a single operator.

The goal was to have a low maintenance, yet powerful projector coupled with a system capable of anything, from projecting a holding slide to running a movie, all the way through to triggering a whole show. All of this, yet still simple and user-friendly enough to just plug in a laptop and go. Vision at The Vanguard is typically there as a compliment to the lighting and sound.

All three systems are more than capable of comfortably handling well in excess of the normal range of gigs held at The Vanguard. Putting in a digital audio system, an LED lighting rig and a laser projector have helped to future-proof the venue. A digital audio desk, a lighting console with a touch screen laptop plus a command wing and a four input switcher feeding one projector makes for smoother, more intuitive operating and much more versatility.

With a big commitment to the quality of audio, lighting and vision equipment in The Vanguard, it now shapes up to be one of the best equipped venues of this size in Sydney.