London Club Under the Bridge Amps it Up with 66 QSC PL3s

London, UK (April 2011) – A record number of 66 QSC premium PL3 amplifiers have been specified and installed in the new London live music venue, Under the Bridge—the largest single complement of QSC PowerLights ever installed

The 600-capacity club, located at the Stamford Bridge Stadium of premier football club Chelsea FC, will specialize in hosting a wide range of music events, such as artist showcases, record launches and festivals.

Under the Bridge’s new interior was created by Jim Cafarelli of House of Blues fame, while the successful tender for the turnkey technology design and installation was submitted by XL Video’s Ian Woodall and Andrew Frengley of Matrix 9. Woodall and Frengley, who have worked together in the past, both have extensive experience with QSC amplifiers over several generations for touring and installed applications.

Nevertheless, it was the expectation of such a venue with a high attention to detail and for which little expense had been spared, that QSC’s distributors, Shure Distribution UK, first needed to participate in a shoot-out against other leading brands.

Ian Woodall was unequivocal in his reasons for preferring QSC. “Knowing that there would five 42U drive racks, alongside other technical racks, in a combined space, we were concerned about the heat output — and it was the heat dissipation of the PL3’s that firstly impressed,” confirmed the installer.

“In addition to the performance, another key issue was that the PL3’s are light weight — and that impacted heavily on the load-in.” In fact the contractors needed to have a special reinforced lift constructed to bring all the equipment in on site.

Driving the PA, monitor and surround loudspeakers is a combination of 23 x PL380 (2 x 4000W/2 ohms), 31 x PL340 (2 x 2000W/2ohms and 12 x PL325 (2 x 1250W/2 ohms).

QSC gave high priority to cooling issues when designing the PL3, developing a ‘flow-thru’ air path and solid aluminum heat sinks. In fact back-to-front airflow delivers up to twice as much long-term average power as most competitors, without dumping hot air into the rack.

With its highly-specified Green Room, state-of-the-art alcove seating, a host of rock photograph memorabilia lining the walls — and brilliant mosaics in the rest rooms (depicting Annie Lennox in the Ladies and John Lennon in the Gents) —the venue’s Creative Manager, Alan Tenenbaum, expects this to quickly become established on the London landscape.