Brighton is home to some of the highest concentrations of pubs and bars per head
of population of any city in the UK outside London it is said, more than one for
every day of the year and in sharp contrast to the national trend there is something
of a pub revival happening on Brighton’s Seafront, which attracts large crowds of
locals and visitors especially in the spring and summer months.

Spearheading this revival is a brand new venture with a distinctly nautical flavour,
the Tempest Inn. And perfectly complementing this innovative concept is a new
TANNOY and LAB.GRUPPEN sound system installation, completed by Brighton based
Pro Audio Installation.

In conjunction with Tannoy’s Paul McMullan, PAI’s Alastair Dixon specified a high
quality background music system that can also comfortably cater on the weekends
for the occasional DJ slot. The sound system consists of TANNOY VX 5.2 dual 5-inch
passive wall mount loudspeakers the majority horizontally mounted due to the
limited ceiling height and Di8 DC architectural loudspeakers plus VSX 8.2
subwoofers, VSX 15DR bass cabinets and LAB.GRUPPEN IPD series amplifiers.

Taking its inspiration from the Shakespearean play of the same name, The
Tempest’s formula is right on the money: after a couple of beers on the patio in the
warm afternoon sunshine, there’s no need to head for town as the evening cools
down when you can simply move indoors to the dozen or so intimate cave-like
snugs, enjoy the chef’s highly regarded meat, fish or vegetarian dishes from the full
kitchen, and chill out to the background music or DJ sets.

With its two discrete 5-inch transducers one is a two-way Dual Concentric unit while
the other is a dedicated bass driver for low-mid extension the VX 5.2 provides
exceptional clarity, precise definition, and balanced response from a footprint small
enough to blend successfully and unobtrusively into the Tempest Inn’s cosy snugs.
On the ground floor the wall-mounted VX 5.2 units are supplemented by two VSX
8.2 bandpass subwoofers, equipped with dual high efficiency 8-inch bass drivers, to
extend system response to below 40Hz and provide solid low frequency support.

As well as the three arches comprising the ground floor, there is a mezzanine level
upstairs with a floor-to-ceiling picture window affording incredible views over the
sea and the remains of the West Pier. Here additional VX 5.2 units are deployed
together with four VSX 15DR bass cabinets two positioned in the bar arch and two in
the middle of the room to provide even low frequency coverage.

Immediately outside, four Tannoy Di8 DC weather-resistant surface mount
loudspeakers, grouped in two pairs, cater for the patio area.

Five LAB.GRUPPEN IPD 1200 amplifiers and five LAB.GRUPPEN IPD 2400 amplifiers
power the entire system. Housed in a space saving 1U rack height, both IPD models
feature on-board DSP in the form of the software-controlled Speaker Protect
Limiter, while the factory presets for the VS 5.2 speakers are quickly accessible
from LAB.GRUPPEN’s included LoadLibrary, making the setup of the speaker system
very intuitive.