The Kadwa Patidar Centre (KPC) in London recently became the first venue in the UK to be equipped with TW AUDiO ELLA line arrays, provided London-based AV specialists Flipside Soundsystem.
Located in the North West London borough of Harrow, the venue is popular as a wedding venue within the Hindu community as well as celebrated for its work to support local education and charitable causes. Established in 1993, it offers two large, spaces with a maximum combined capacity of 950 seated guests.
Until recently, the venue was reliant on an aging in-house sound system that had deteriorated to the point of obsolescence. Rather than use it, event organisers were increasingly relying on hired portable gear with less than satisfactory results. For the venue’s Maintenance Director, Mahendra Dedakia, and Lettings Director, Hasmukh Patel, the need for a new audio solution was urgent.
“When we started out on this journey, Mahendra looked at a lot of different ideas and directions that we could consider,” explains Patel. “We wanted to know what our options were. We host so many different kinds of events here – not just weddings but also corporate functions and things for the local people who live in this area.”
Among the considerations were the shape of the large main room – a 26 by 26-meter box with reflective surfaces on all sides and a wide, shallow stage framed by a low proscenium. Similarly, the 25 by 14-meter annex hall is highly reverberant with floor-to-ceiling windows.
Dedakia sought advice from Flipside Soundsystem, whose Managing Director James Cooper proposed two potential solutions. “I suggested ELLA as the ideal solution, with a back-up variation of a more traditional point source system,” Cooper explains. “For a project like the Kadwa Patidar Centre, a full-size line array would be ridiculous in the space and although a point source solution works, it still has its downsides… TW AUDiO’s ELLA is simply perfect for the many, many installs that are just like this one.”
Flipside Soundsystem worked closely with TW AUDiO UK both on system design and the staging of a demonstration of the proposed solutions, after which the KPC committee immediately chose ELLA. Now the center’s main room is equipped with five per-side arrays of ELLA6, all painted white and mounted on the proscenium for maximum discretion. Two TW AUDiO B30i subwoofers are positioned beneath the stage for low-end support while power is courtesy of Powersoft with a single Quattrocanali and single Duecanali. In the annex, four extremely compact TW AUDiO C5 enclosures are mounted in each corner, driven by a single Powersoft Duecanali.
“I pushed to do a demonstration for KPC because I wanted them to hear why ELLA is so ideal for the space,” continues Cooper. “And it went brilliantly. We just hung it up, turned it on and it sounded great. It’s an insanely good system. As an installer that uses a lot of different equipment from different manufacturers, there isn’t anything else close to ELLA.”
