The original Dan Rooney’s Cafe & Bar was established in Pittsburgh in the early 1900’s by the Rooney family—the same family that owns Empire City Casino today.
This lively Pittsburgh watering hole has been recreated at Empire City Casino to bring the Rooney family spirit, culture, and story to the people of Westchester and the tri-state area.
Recently the nightspot installed a new sound system based upon D.A.S. Audio loudspeaker components to add to the atmosphere of the venue.
Pittsburgh, PA-based Dobil Laboratories was contracted to modernize the sound system at Dan Rooney’s Irish Pub.
Conor W. McCaskey, Project Manager for Dobil Labs, was tasked with managing all aspects of the project at the veritable establishment. He ultimately installed a D.A.S. LX-212A self-powered band pass sub bass system, four Convert 12A powered, curved source array enclosures, and two Road 12A powered stage monitors.
“Dan Rooney’s has a well-deserved reputation for being a great place to eat, kick back, and enjoy quality entertainment,” says McCaskey. “Dueling piano players is the main source of live musical entertainment and the pianos sit very close together.
“The patrons gather all around and this creates a lively, intimate environment. The four D.A.S. Convert 12A’s serve as the main loudspeakers. Because of the space limitations, these are positioned directly overhead the two pianos—suspended from a compact, circular trussing system we had manufactured for the project.
“Each performer has their own Road 12A stage monitor to ensure they can hear clearly, and for low frequency support, the D.A.S. LX-212A – with two 12-inch low frequency transducers – is recessed into the ceiling, so it’s completely hidden.
“The room has hardwood flooring, so it’s quite lively from an acoustics perspective.”
With all loudspeaker systems being self-powered, McCaskey and his crew were assured the power amplification was ideally matched to the loudspeakers. Similarly, there was no need to find a place to house any power amplifiers and system cabling was streamlined considerably.
In addition to these factors however, McCaskey was particularly impressed with the system’s sound quality, SPL performance, and the D.A.S. rigging hardware.
“The D.A.S. product was very easy to work with,” he explained. “The process of rigging each Convert loudspeaker to the truss and getting power to it was virtually a plug and play affair.
“We were also very impressed with the system’s sound quality—and it has tons of power to attract people from the gaming floor into the closed pub to see what’s going on.”
When queried about D.A.S. Audio’s customer and technical support services, McCaskey reports the project went very smoothly and, as a result, he required minimal assistance.
“Steve Trimble, our sales rep, was very courteous and monitored the project throughout to ensure everything was meeting our expectations,” says McCaskey. “Steve was very easy to communicate with and he was able to answer any and all questions I had. It was a very positive experience.”
The new sound reinforcement system at Dan Rooney’s Irish Pub has now been in operation for a few months and, according to Mike Rooney, Director of Media Convergence at Empire City said club management and patrons alike couldn’t be happier.
“The new live system is working flawlessly,” he said. “We literally just turn it on and give the performers a place to plug in and do their thing. We’ve received positive feedback from everyone who’s come in contact with the new system.
“This was the first time I used D.A.S. products and I look forward to working with the company again in the future.”
