Hotel Castor, Champoluc ski resort

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We were approached to design, and commission a sound system for a hotel bar in the delightful Italian ski resort of Champoluc, in the alpine mountains of Aosta.

High up the mountains

The owner sent us pictures of the bar layout from his digital camera back to the UK, along with a plan and measurements.

The design was quite specific; the system had to be capable of both background music, and high level PA reinforcement with sub-bass to keep the punters happy with the many ‘theme’ nights they held.

Only a few major problems hit us with this design. The existing (and rather inadequate) sound annoyed neighbours, yet the party revellers wanted a ‘club’ feel. How could this be achieved in an odd shaped room that consisted entirely of wood?

We came up with a clever ‘zoned’ system tuned very accurately to the natural room frequency in each zone. We kept sound well away from the neighbours, using directional speakers, and hid the sub-bass systems at floor level.

Hotel Castor Bar

The results were ‘amazing’ in the words of the owner. Unwanted sound transmission is now drastically reduced, the punters get more sound on the dance floor where the volume is needed, and the system is flexible enough to be used as a background system at low level, or driven at 100dB for that ‘party’ feel.

We provided a mixing desk for visiting musicians to plug into, along with compressors and limiters to keep a watchful eye on overall levels.

In the daytime, the system runs at low level with CD music, livening up at nights for the après ski atmosphere.

Thankfully, the peaceful tranquillity of Champoluc remains intact, or at least for the time being!

Party and theme nights