MARQUEE CLUB @ THE STAR: FULL RUNDOWN
Marquee, The Star – Sydney
80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont NSW 2009
www.marqueesydney.com
The Marquee nightclub – the latest component of The Star’s $870m redevelopment – is located on the entire top tier of The Star’s new Pirrama Road harbourside entrance and has expansive views of Sydney Harbour and the city skyline.
With a capacity of more than 1200 people, patrons can transition between three rooms and various music experiences.
The Main Room has a 40-foot LED DJ booth and projection stage and a large dancefloor. In contrast, a stylish library-style room offers an intimate lounge experience, complete with a working fireplace. Club-goers will also come across the Boom Box VIP Room, with a separate DJ and state-of-the-art sound system. There is also a chill-out area with unparalleled views of the Sydney skyline.
Furnished with luxurious interiors, the venue will have an exclusive VIP entrance for quick entry from street level.
Echo Entertainment Group CEO, Larry Mullin, said The Star had secured America’s biggest nightclub operator to manage a world-class entertainment venue.
“The new nightclub is an important part of our redevelopment as we move to fulfil our aim of being Sydney’s ultimate one-stop nightlife and entertainment destination. The last piece of this jigsaw will be the $100 million multipurpose Events Centre which is currently under construction and due for completion in 2013.
“Marquee – The Star, Sydney will have true international stature, thanks to our partnership with the Tao Group which has a proven track record for delivering the ultimate in nightclub experiences,” Mr. Mullin said.
The joint venture with The Star’s parent company, Echo Entertainment, is the group’s first venture outside the United States. Noah Tepperberg, from Tao Group, said:
“Our team is looking forward to bringing the Marquee brand to Sydney while creating a venue with a distinct Sydney style and personality. It’s been great to see The Star unfold into an impressive casino and hotel, and now dining and entertainment complex, and we are excited to work with the talented Australian based team.”
AUDIO SPEC
Technical Audio Group got the thumbs-up to supply a Martin Audio Multi-cellular Line Array (MLA) PA system into the largest of the three areas inside the club – imaginatively called the Main Floor. The challenges for the MLA rig were… let’s say, interesting. Dance clubs aren’t exactly known for ambient SPL levels out on the floor and the Marquee was likely going to take this factor up to a whole new level (please admire the pun). Many DJs tend to regard red lights on the sound system as added lighting effects for their personal benefit. Joking aside, a real issue is the wide variety and disparate quality of the media content that a lot of high-profile DJs bring with them. They all crunch, mash and mix their favourite tracks to extremes, yet there’s little consistency between the different operators and as TAG’s Technical Director, Anthony Russo, explained you have to expect the unexpected – and you have to expect it loud. So Anthony shouldn’t have been surprised (but he was) when one of these world-famous, disc-spinning chaps rocked up with all his music on an iPhone with an adapter lead to plug the phone into his own toy mini-mixer – a setup he was adamant was necessary for him to do his world-famous thing. This is a guy on big bucks and he gets to play his tunes through Martin Audio’s primo MLA PA system… using an iPhone… streamed into the system via BlueTooth! Feel free to burst into tears with the rest of us. It’s hard to decide if that’s a triumph for technology or just Apple’s marketing department.
TAG’s involvement with the Marquee went well beyond a PA system for the Main Floor. Apart from the Boombox and the chill-out Library there are small, segregated areas of entertainment everywhere. Even the large, unisex toilet has its own DJ booth so the punters can continue movin’ and groovin’ while they… do whatever you have to do in a unisex bathroom (Ally McBeal has a lot to answer for). The cleaning staff must love it. During the gala opening nights there was even a snake charmer performing in the toilet, which again you’d have to imagine would have an adverse effect on what most people are hoping to achieve in a bathroom.
Does it all sound a bit much? All we can say is it’s a bit much to cover here and we’re looking at revisiting the Marquee in more detail in a future issue of AT.
Marquee tech spec: Marquee Nightclub at The Star Sydney has just installed by far above the most advanced, cutting edge sound system in the world and by far the largest nightclub investment ever undertaken in Australia. The main dancefloor speaker system is comprised of Martin Audio 12 x powered MLA Multi-cellular Loudspeaker Array and four MLX powered sub basses with 18 VHF bullet arrays to make sure is specs all the way out to 32kHz.
MLA is more accustomed to high-end touring and crowds of 100s of thousands. At the Marquee, MLA is barely idling, delivering nightly levels of 120dB. And if you’re a SPL junky and think you have heard loud, Russo from TAG has supplied the world’s loudest ‘appliance’ to summon dance goers, a ‘Nathan AirChime’ locomotive air horn used on US trains 142dB at 1metre!
Elsewhere in the club the dance systems are comprised of Martin Audio W8LM line array, WSX subs all with VHF bullets with lower level bar areas catered for with 76 elements of Martin Audio Omniline line array and subs. With DJs even playing in the enormous unisex toilets a high-end Martin Ceiling speaker system was even installed to satisfy waiting punters.
QSC Audio QSys Core 1000 delivering 80 discrete channels to over 40 QSC Audio PL series amplifiers in over 120U of rack spacing and patching.
Phew.
MARQUEE LIGHTING
Here’s some more on the Main Room’s 40-foot LED DJ booth and projection stage.
Video wall: 9m x 2.5m main backdrop consisting of 12mm semi-transparent video wall. The wall is hydraulically operated to move the middle 3m section behind the right hand side, by having the right hand side of other wall move forward a few inches. It all aligns perfectly to reveal a 3m section suitable for go-go dancers.
There is an additional 13 panels (1000mm x 500mm) installed around the arched front of the DJ box. So a total of 58 installed panels. Control for video is via Coolux Pandoras Box Media Play Pro.
Lighting Control: Martin M1 Console (Main room); Martin MPC Control (Lounge Bar).
Laser: Martin RGB Laser system with mirrors.
Lighting: Martin MAC 250 Entours x 32; Martin Atomic Strobes x 6; Martin MAC 101 LED Wash x 14; Martin Mania EFX 500 x 4
Martin K1 Hazer x 3; 510m of ProShop RGB LED Tape and 28 Unicontrollers
All supplied by Show Technology www.showtech.com.au