Manchester Lane is one of Melbourne's oldest & well-known jazz venues. After many years of operating with a difficult acoustic and average sound the owners decided it was time for a major renovation. Venue owner, Robert Wise of The Adidem Group (also owners of the The Body Shop in Australia) & architect Luke Mackley contacted Stephen "Stig" Moor of 'Centre Stage Australia' to design & install a sound system that would compliment the new look Manchester Lane.

After much research into budget, venue format & impact on the ever-increasing number of nearby residents Stig presented four designs, primarily based on cost. An afternoon was arranged for Robert to listen to each option. Robert only got as far as Funktion-One (the first stop) and declared that he'd heard enough. Funktion-One was exactly the sound he was after & the purple cabinets even matched the new colour scheme.

When considering the system design Stig & John O'Donnell (of Funktion One Australia) really wanted to provide the best overall solution to the venue, taking into consideration room aesthetics and sightlines as well. What was important here was the nature of the venue. This is not a club, but a live jazz music venue. There is no heavy bass requirement. We needed clean full-range high fidelity sound.

The room starts off, quite narrow with a low ceiling. The stage is quite small and about 14" high - enclosed on 3 sides. Skeletal Res 4s were flown horizontally either side of stage as the main system. As there was no room for either F218s or F118s, two 212-minibass cabinets were mounted in a cavity at the front of the stage. The Res 4s project about 55' to the first delay speakers. At this point the room gets wider and has a rake up to a second level. The AX88 has the perfect vertical dispersion to cover this area. Two AX88s were flown in a Left/Right configuration from the ceiling, with an F118 flown in the centre.

In some instances small groups will perform from this secondary area, so the system was designed to have two operating modes; one with the whole system aligned to the stage, and the second with the main system off, and the secondary system on a zero delay time.

Past the raked seating area is a smaller third level. Whilst they get plenty of sound from the AX88 system, a single F88 was installed, centre, to even out the sound pressure level and to enhance the articulation.

The final result is best desribed by the General Manager of the venue, Gavin Wall:

"Compared to our previous system it's like going from a '52 Morris Minor to '03 Ferrari"
"Sounds awesome & the bands, many of whom have been playing regularly here for years, just love it"