The funky emporia of all that's hip and trashy lining WeHo's bohemian Melrose Avenue have lately been joined by a newcomer that wouldn't look out of place in the more rarified air of nearby Beverly Hills.

After former speakeasy J.Sloan's at Melrose and Huntley closed after 70 years in the same building, its place was taken by Monroe's, an upscale neighborhood bar that's the brainchild of Peter Garland, owner of Porto Via, and Frederik Sutherland, designer of Deep and Forty Deuce.
A magnet for the arts and media industry crowd, frequented by the rich and beautiful (Demi Moore was spotted there recently), Monroe's blends '40s retro kitsch with New York decadence, with DJs and occasional live guest bands heating things up as the night wears on. Zebra prints, glass walls, and pink and blue accents set the tone, and the two-story space has room for lounging, dancing, watching games, ordering exotic coctails, and just being seen. The upper story also has private lounges, and every part of the space is linked by a complex A/V system with a Renkus-Heinz-based PA system that's designed to be operated by non-technical staff.

"Fridays and Saturdays it's crazy in there" says Steve Bigas of LA-based system integrator N1 Custom. "It's packed, the line is out of the door, and there's a lot of celebs. It's really hip and cool: a Beverly Hills vibe."

DJs play every night, but there's some live music too. "It's not really a live venue as such, but if someone cool is in town and wants to play the bar you might walk in and get a real surprise" - says Bigas. The opening night set the tone when two players from Poul McCartney's band took the tiny stage: other faces have already included Mike Campbell from Tom Petty's band.

Monroe's space was designed for complete flexibility to make maximum use of the available real estate. Theupper story overlooks the first floor which contains the bar area and stage, and each part of the space has its own preset A/V modes that turn it from, say, a stage-focused session, to a big screen lounge in one button press. "The whole objective" comments Bigas, "was that anybody could use the system without needing to be an engineer or a rocket scientist".

IN THE ZONE(S)

"Owner Garland had a clear concept of what he wanted to achive", says Bigas, and N1 Custom's design and build team of Tom Won, George Panagopoulos, and Neil McDonald, was given a free hand to develop those ideas into a workable solution. The firm has been in business for around a year, but the young team has solid backgrounds in audio design and engineering - and a common love of playing and recording music. "We were just kind of fed up with the way people were doing systems, and wanted to make them more user-friendly" - explains Bigas.

To make the environment all that it could be, Bigas expanded the owner's original ideas for their systems. "First, they were talking about distributed audio with individual volume control for the private lounges, with a plasma screen behind the bar to show games, and acouple of other screens around the place. What we proposed was a full-scale distributed audio system with comprehensive source selection in each zone."

This would enable occupiers of the private lounge to choose their own entertainment at will - and opt for chilled background music levels, or pumping volume.

The next trick was to raise the bar on the visual front. "Instead of putting a plasma behind the bar, we suggested that they have a projector come out of ceiling with a screen that drops down over the mirror behind the bar." What really made this idea fly was that by combining the left-center-right speakers mounted up behind the bar, with the left-right under-balcony speakers sited opposite the bar, they had created a 5.1 cinema surround system for movie screenings.

After the final credits roll, the PA is switched over to "DJ PA" mode, which is focused on the L-R cluster. Finally, for a live band in "full PA" mode, the subs are brought in and all attention is focused on the stage. A/V sources at Monroe's are the DJ booth, the live stage, and DVD and satelite play-in. Specifically, bands get a 24-channel Midas Venice console, dbx EQ and compression, Prosonus compressor/gate, TC Electronics digital reverb and delay and Shure mics.

The distributed system comprises Tannoy CMS65-ICT ceiling speakers distributed audio processor and amplifier, with Crestron Xpanel, control computer and keypads in command. In the rack are dbx 1066 stereo compressors and Sherwood Newcastle DVD and 5-disc charger.

However, it was never Garland's intention to maintain a full-time technical staff, so simple operation is the order of the day. N1 Custom combined its experience in pro A/V and residential automation with the Crestron-based automated switching solution, controlled from a laptop with a custom X-panel, and keypads via LAN. As you'd expect, a single mode-change button press will raise or lower the projection screen, zone and fine-tune the PA, and switch A/V sources. Luckily for LA bartenders, it doesn't mix coctails as well.

"In the end we did a two hour class with all the staff and the bartenders" - says Bigas, "and everyone went, "Wow, it's so easy to make it fly", and that was the objective. We turned the manager into a sound person in a hour: she figured out how to mix a band in that time".

CUSTOMIZED PUNCH

Monroe's space is fairly lively acoustically, thanks to the two glass-walled lounges on the upper level, but it's rarely empty and only gets really loud when a band is cranking. "We're not real dead room guys" - says Bigas. "We belive a room should have a life of its own".

With a brief to shoot for fidelity, punch, clarity, dynamic range and smoothness, N1 Custom opted for loudspeakers from the Renkus-Heinz PN (powerNet) range. These compact, high powered speakers are well-suited to this type of application and are designed for customization in terms of their dispersion angle and horn alignment. Likewise, the low end is delivered by a built-to-order product, the CT8SUB dual 15-inch subwoofer, a potent, 400 Watts RMS beast that it delivers peak power of 136 dB from 32 to 100 Hz.

"Why Renkus-Heinz?" - asks Bigas. "Fidelity, really, and they were really cool with us, which kind of helps. We needed specific ohmage, specific boxes, not just off the shelf solutions: and everything we asked, they did. One of us (at N1 Custom) is still a live sound engineer, and we know that everything out there is pretty good these days - no one makes anything that sucks. But a few of us have personal choices and Renkus-Heinz is known for its quality, pattern control and clarity rather than just straight-up volume. Because the place is small and we had a good budget, we could go for a good sounding box. The R&D guys brought some boxes down and we'd heard everything else by then, but they sounded real good and their people were really cool aand accommodating. Like theirs are four ohms as standard, and they made them at eight ohms for us,m so we ended up with custom boxes. As a company I guess they're not so big where they just put out product, and not too small - you can ask for special things and you get them".

The main L-C-R, band, and flown systems consist of Renkus-Heinz PNX151 two-way speakers, with a pair of CT8SUB dual 12-inch front-loaded custom subwoofers. More PNX121 speakers and two TRX82/9 boxes provide stage monitoring. All the systems are powered by Crest amplifiers, and distributed via a Crestron Audio Matrix and Theatre Digital Surround Processor.

So what does the proud new owner think of progress so far? "Thus fas, it's working out great and really picking up momentum" - says Garland. "We have a lot celebrities and entertainment industry people, and it's bussy! Early in the evening it's more of a lounge, and as the night progresses it becomes more the DJ's domain, more of a club. The sound system works great: Last Friday night I was saying goodbye to a guest who she said she'd had a great time, and she actually commented it was really cool that the music was playing real loud and she could still have a conversation, it was so clear. I guess that tells you how great the system is: You can still understand each other's conversation even at a high level. It's a groovy spot, and hopefully we'll be here almost as long as the 70 years of J.Sloan's!"