Located near the entrance of the University of Arizona campus, No Anchovies became a go-to spot for students, owing to its delicious pizza, diverse selection of drinks, and penchant for delivering a great time any night of the week. As such, the restaurant quickly outgrew its original 2,000-square-foot space, prompting owner Nelson Seamans to set his sights on a major renovation and expansion, which would need a powerful sound system to deliver the multi-faceted experience he desired.
Seamans reached out to longtime collaborator Jon Qualls of Arizona Communications Experts to design a system to meet those needs. Even though it’s 10,000 square feet, the new space had a few restrictions. “We were dealing with a historic building, so we would have to situate our wiring, cables, and rack with that in mind,” Qualls says. “We had a 6ft. x 8ft. room in the basement for our racks, and that was it.”
Qualls had already decided on using Martin Audio speakers, which led him to connect with Los Angeles-based Marshank Group’s Paul Hugo. “Paul introduced me to Powersoft amplifiers, and my mind was blown by what they could do,” he says. Ultimately, Qualls required 24 channels of Powersoft X8 amplification (a total of three amplifiers) to drive his bevy of Martin Audio speakers.
Two of Seamans’ goals for the renovation were great sound in every space, and to have the ability to tailor the experience in each to the desired vibe of the night. The nightclub is just one of three lounges located on the building’s second floor. Qualls equipped it with four Martin Audio CDD12B 12in. coax loudspeakers and four CSX218B-F double 18in. subwoofers, with an additional pair of CDD6BTX-WR loudspeakers on its outdoor balcony. The club’s speaker selection was designed to deliver the pumping low end required to get the party going.
With three DJ hook-ups, two stereo programmed music sources, and eight stereo video sources that can all be routed wherever they’re needed, the rest of No Anchovies has Martin CDD6, CDD8, and CDD10 as appropriate supplemented by CSX112 or CSX118 subs depending on the application. The three Powersoft X8 amplifiers allowed Qualls to power the entire system with just 6U of rack space.
“We didn’t have a lot of space in the audio rack, so getting that much power from so few amps was really critical and saved rack space for our control and playback equipment,” he says. The X8 amps’ combined 24 channels of output allowed him to take advantage of the Rane HAL1X DSP matrix, EXP3X and EXP5X expanders he specified to give Seamans the routing and control to and from each individual space that he desired, all at the touch of a SaviControl4 touchscreen interface.
