1 SOUND audio has been installed throughout Chasing Rabbits, a new nightlife and entertainment venue within the Solaris Plaza in Vail, Colorado. The 13,000-square-foot concept comprises four spaces—the restaurant, the library, Moon Rabbit an intimate speakeasy cocktail bar, featuring live jazz and international DJs, and Rabbit Hole an arcade with karaoke during the week and DJs on the weekends.
Owner, the Solaris Group asked Rockwell Group, an interdisciplinary architecture and design group, to bring to life the storytelling experience of chasing rabbits. Rockwell Group partner, Shawn Sullivan described the interior as “a maze-like series of distinct experiences that unfold as you move throughout, where you are ‘chasing’ the rabbit to another world”.
Anthem Productions was contracted to take on the venue’s installed audio integration and chose 1 SOUND for all of the rooms. The Restaurant utilised the smallest model in the Cannon Series, the C4i which has a 4-inch coaxial and is special for its extended low-frequency down to 100 Hz. The C4i’s were distributed throughout the Restaurant utilising the C-Clamp to mount to the walls and ceilings.
For bass, 1 SOUND’s Floor Subwoofer FSUB45’s, were distributed underneath the booths, resulting in a consistent distributed sound design and hidden subwoofers for easy listening. The Library, a more elevated dining room for special reservations, or versatile space used for private events, utilised Cannon C4is and Tower LCC44 because of their controlled narrow on the vertical, but wide horizontal dispersion pattern and also because of their SPL output in the case of private parties. These loudspeakers were hidden on the bookshelves in the room. SUB310s were used for bass coverage.
Moon Rabbit, a sophisticated intimate cocktail lounge with weekly live jazz nights and international DJs, utilised Tower LCC44’s that were mounted and aimed with the Tower Wall Bracket and SUB310s hidden in the room.
Chasing Rabbits also invested in a portable Contour System that is used as a PA in Moon Rabbit for DJ performances and is shared for headlining DJ monitors that perform in Rabbit Hole.
“From our live Jazz nights in the Moon Rabbit, to our DJs in the Rabbit Hole, Lou – founder & designer of 1 SOUND – and Angelo – CEO of Anthem Productions – have created a uniquely detailed integration concept for an emotional audiophile experience that inspires our guests and musical artists,” said Todd Scheurich, director of AV and IT, the Solaris Plaza, while commenting on the loudspeakers audio quality and the heard experience of the audio design.
For the Rabbit Hole, the livelier space in Chasing Rabbits that features an arcade, Tower LCC44’s and SUB310s, were initially selected. After the success of this bar, however, Anthem, and 1 SOUND suggested upgrading the sound system to support hosting bigger parties.
“Sure enough, after the first ski season, we took their lead and made the upgrade to Contour CT28’s and SUB2112’s.” continued Scheurich. When the venue had their first headlining DJ, John Summit, book to perform, Anthem made sure to level up the DJ monitors to a portable CT28 and SUB215 Contour system, in the expectation that this wouldn’t be the last big event. This portable system doubles in the cocktail lounge, Moon Rabbit, so it has custom red grilles to match and can be easily transported into that space for weekly DJs.”
He added: “The main challenge in designing the audio for Chasing Rabbits was due to the four main rooms all having independent feels and goals while being situated close in proximity to each other and being connected by short hallways that were meant to transition an attendee into each new space. The audio design had to consider the positioning of loudspeakers and their dispersion patterns so that unwanted sound didn’t bleed into outside spaces as well as their sonic quality and tonality to create a smooth transition as attendees are likely to experience more than one space in a night. Anthem and 1 SOUND even spent time doing acoustical measurements and designing for the auditory experience of people walking through the hallways that were meant to transition people into each space. “
