Kelsall Community Centre

[ChrisPointon 0]

Kelsall Community Centre, Kelsall nr Chester

 

Info

 

Good Access - Access the venue from the double fire doors at the end of the carpark, you can reverse down the ramp right up to the fire door, and from there its about 10ft from where the disco is expected to set up.

 

Power - Double 13A Socket - this is the only outlet in the entire room http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/excl.gif , apart from the single 13A sockets feeding the fixed heaters around the sides of the room. Beware:- all sockets are fed from the sound limiter, even the heater ones, more about this later.

 

Layout - No stage, but quite a large room with a high sloping celing. Capacity 150 for functions. Polished wooden floor and the room is very similar to a sports hall. Dj sets up across the back of the room, next to the fire door.

 

Now the spoiler......

 

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/excl.gif This venue is fitted with a sound limiter, and a crappy one at that http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/excl.gif

 

This sound limiter is set far too low in my opinion, and certainly low enough to give any DJ a nightmare. The indicator is the Orange Globe variety which lights (dimly) to indicate when the threshold is being exceeded, this is hidden right at the back of the room over a doorway, and is not easily seen!. We didn't even notice (or were informed) that a limiter was present until the power tripped.

 

The threshold is set so that anything over background level will cause it to enter into warning mode. This makes getting any sort of dancefloor level difficult, and twice tonight, the unit tripped purely due to the ambient noise of 80 kids and we had to get them to be quiet just to allow it to reset! - which indicates how low and badly set up this unit is. Using a mic (even with AVO) is virtually impossible especially as your audience is often louder than your PA is allowed to go.

 

The unit is also linked to firedoors and windows, and should any of these be opened then the unit will remove power, and not reset until all doors and windows are closed - remember this if you are playing there on a hot summers night!.

 

I would hate to play this venue to a full capacity - its just not possible to acheive workable sound levels for any sort of Atmosphere, and would advise any other Dj to try and avoid the venue, or adjust your terms to demand that the unit is over-ridden before considering playing there.

 

Believe me when I say that this is possibly the worst Sound Limiter I have ever come across in 18 years of discos!