The Lion Hotel in Adelaide occupies one of South Australia’s most historic buildings and takes its name from the Lion Brewery, which was built on the site in the early 1870’s.

Brewing ceased in 1914 but the brewery continued to operate as the Lion Aerated Water and Cordial Manufactory for the next half-century. In the 1970’s the complex – incorporating the heritage buildings – was redeveloped into a diverse and successful hospitality and entertainment venue, trading under the name “The Old Lion”.

During the heady 70’s and 80’s it resumed its mantle as the premier hotel and function centre in Adelaide, echoing the reputation it had a century before. The non-trading freehold of The Old Lion was purchased by the current owners in 1996. After a massive redevelopment which included a totally new fit out within the heritage buildings, the re-born LION HOTEL opened for business in 1997 with a second major refurbishment completed late in 2008.

Adelaide’s BSS Light Audio Visual have been servicing the hotel for a number of years and worked closely with Audio Telex/Hills SVL on a design for the latest renovation. The brief from the hotel was for a high quality system for both low level background music during the day and high SPL DJ reinforcement at night.

The system is spilt into four zones allowing the staff to have music pumping in the main bar and at a quieter level in the restaurant and other areas.

The speaker system is based around a distributed Turbosound TCS Compact system including 14 x TCS101C (10”/1”) speakers finished in white and located around the bar. Each TCS101C has its high frequency horn rotated and is mounted horizontally with a Turbosound ceiling bracket. The TCS’s are powered by 3 x Lab.gruppen fP2400Q four channel power amplifiers, allowing the speakers to be zoned and controlled as such. The installation also includes a DJ system based around 2 x Turbosound NuQ12 (12”/1.4”) full range speakers and a single Turbosound B18DP (single 18” self-powered subwoofer). The NuQ’s are yoke mounted and are powered by a Lab.gruppen fP3400 power amplifier.

System processing is via a MediaMatrix NION n3 configured as 16 x 16. The NION provides all audio processing, zoning and presets. System control (audio and video) is all Crestron (also from the Hills SVL stable) and includes a TPS6LW 6” wall mount touchpanel and a CP2E processor. The installation also incorporates Crestron QuickMedia with a QM16x16 matrix switcher, plus 8 x QMTX transmitters and 8 x QMRX receivers. The transmitters are located in the main upstairs rack with a receiver located with each visual display. QuickMedia allows video and control to be distributed to the large visual displays via CAT5 cable, greatly reducing cable costs whilst maintaining the quality of the image.

BSS also provided a comprehensive visual system with 8 large screens, a small lighting rig and a CCTV system. One major obstacle for the BSS team was the time they were given to install the system. With only 10 days to start and complete the installation, and sharing the space with many other trades, the BSS team faced a number of challenges including some interesting cable runs and speaker placements due to the roof structure. The end result however is a credit to all involved.

Craig Hutchins from BSS commented: “We like to work with our local Hills SVL office as they have all the gear and support under one roof. The system looks and sounds fantastic and Crestron has made the system simple for anyone to operate, overcoming one of the main concerns that both staff and management had of the old system.”