Chasing Rabbits, a new nightlife and entertainment venue that recently debuted within the Solaris Plaza in Vail, CO comprised of the Restaurant, the Library, Moon Rabbit speakeasy cocktail bar with live jazz and DJs, and Rabbit Hole arcade with karaoke during the week and DJs on weekends, is equipped with sound reinforcement systems utilizing a variety of 1 SOUND loudspeakers.
“The interior has been conceived as a maze-like series of distinct experiences that unfold as you move throughout, where you are ‘chasing’ the rabbit to another world,” says Shawn Sullivan, a partner at Rockwell Group, an interdisciplinary archtecture and design firm that worked the project, in a Hospitality Design article.
New York-based Anthem Productions was contracted to take on the entire venue’s installed audio integration and choose the 1 SOUND loudspeakers for all of the spaces. The Restaurant utilizes the smallest model in the Cannon Series, the C4i, which has a 4-inch coaxial and has stated extended low frequency down to 100 Hz. The C4is are distributed throughout the restaurant utilizing the C-Clamp to mount to the walls and ceilings, with bass provided by FSUB45 subwoofers distributed underneath the booths.
The Library, an elevated dining room for special reservations and versatile space for private events, utilzes Cannon C4i and Tower LCC44 loudspeakers due to their controlled narrow on the vertical but wide horizontal dispersion pattern and also because of their higher SPL output capabilities. These loudspeakers are hidden on the bookshelves in the room, with SUB310s for low-end reinforcement.
The Moon Rabbit, cocktail lounge is outfitted with Tower LCC44s that are mounted and aimed with the Tower wall bracket joined by concealed SUB310s. Chasing Rabbits also invested in a portable Contour system used as a PA for DJ performances and that is shared for headlining DJ monitors that perform.
“From our Live Jazz nights in the Moon Rabbit to our DJs in the Rabbit Hole, Lou [founder and designer of 1 SOUND] and Angelo [Poulos, CEO of Anthem Productions] have created a uniquely detailed integration concept for an emotional audiophile experience that inspires our guests and musical artists,” says Todd Scheurich, director of AV and IT for the Solaris Plaza.
As for the Rabbit Hole, a livelier space with an arcade, the Solaris Group has gone through a few evolutions in discussion with 1 SOUND and Anthem. At first, the goal of the audio design was to engage a high-energy bar environment focusing on background music and hosting DJ sets.
“Within hours of commissioning and tuning this initial buildout in the Rabbit Hole with Tower LCC4’s and SUB310’s, that instantly set us apart from every business with ‘music’ in the Vail Valley,” states Scheurich. After the success of this aspect of the project, Anthem, and 1 SOUND suggested upgrading the sound system to support hosting bigger parties and to host performances by headliner DJs. Sure enough, after the first ski season, we took their lead and made the upgrade to Contour CT28s and SUB2112s.”
When the venue had its 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, which doubles in Moon Rabbit. It has custom red grilles to match and can be easily transported into that space for weekly DJs.
The main challenge in designing the audio for Chasing Rabbits was that the four main rooms all have
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 also 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.
“Angelo has the innate ability to foresee ownership expectations and explain the technical integration details that developers and designers do not visually or conceptually understand when building an entertainment venue dedicated to an auditory experience,” says Scheurich, “Integrating world-class audiophile technology and one-off entertainment architecture is the hardest concept to coordinate with designers and architects. We have been able to push through those detailed design evolutions with Rockwell, 1 SOUND, and Anthem.”
