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Hatch – For the curious

Manchester's award winning pop-up retail, food and drink destination. At Hatch you'll find over 30 creative independent businesses who put their heart and soul into their products.

I was introduced to Suzanne Bryant and Charlie Entwistle from Bruntwood/Hatch via Justin Crawford at Electric Box (Bar owner at Hatch) and Jim Bane from Eastern Bloc records/Contrast DJ agency (Jim looks after the DJ bookings for Hatch). We have worked with both Justin and Jim on numerous projects over the last 10 years plus and I had done a gig in the courtyard at Hatch last summer for another client.

Once phase 2 of the Hatch project was underway Bruntwood decided to invest in a background music system for the whole site across 4 zones. Phase 1 of Hatch consisted of several container units around a central courtyard with 4 trees, 1 in each corner. For me this provided the initial inspiration for the design idea with the Aura system and an opportunity to use the i3 speaker in this manner.Collage Hatch. CE

We decided to incorporate an 800mm base plate with a 3m quad truss together with a custom top plate to house 4 * 4 * Aura Audio i3 speaker arrays to provide 360 degrees of sound above head height. We added an Aura Audio XD10 sub on the base plate and matched the bench seating around the base of the truss with the existing seating in the courtyard. Finally we added an IP rated LED par inside the bottom of the truss as an up lighter on a slow colour change.

 

We repeated this 360 degree truss idea across zones 1-3 and added pairs of i3's in zone 4, behind the stage and elevated terrace area.

 

I have to say I am surprised by how well the concept has turned out both from an aesthetic and sonic perspective. The coverage is good with very little phasing between each i3 array. The XD10 subs are as close to the i3's as possible. This was also a consideration in the design process as our filtering and eq for the system is done in the analogue domain within the amplifier. Staff at Bruntwood have been complimentary about the look and the sound of the system and had an open mind from the outset which was refreshing to be a part of.

I'd like to thank Sarah and Charlie for their assistance and Tony and the guys who run the show. It's all come together nicely folks!

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