Mania Impact at England´s Barracuda Bar

The Barracuda Bar in Newquay, England is the largest live music venue and nightclub in the area, with a capacity of 1456. The Barracuda Group have recently commissioned the services of Willow SoundVision to perform a technical refurbishment, redesign and installation of new flexible-use lighting for the venue.

Mark Pearmain, Project Manager for Willow SoundVision, explained the brief as a lighting system design and install to bring a real “wow!” factor to the venue. The lighting needed to be exciting and make a huge visual impact. The design needed to utilize a large space and also serve live entertainment events such as regular hosting of Radio 1 in the summer months, live acts such as the Levellers and its main purpose as a bar/nightclub. Budget and product reliability was a large factor in choosing Martin Professional products.

The lighting design includes two custom lighting structures with gauze material tubes, a stage goalpost truss and a stage lighting bar. The lighting rigs comprise of 12 Mania SCX700 effect lights, 4 Wizard Extremes and 4 Atomic 3000 strobes, 2 with Atomic Colors scrollers. This is supplemented by the existing 3 Wizard effect lights , 9 moving heads and a new Magnum Club Smoke system on the stage truss, all controlled via a Martin LightJockey system.

Mark explained, “The SCX700 scanners were chosen for the project mainly because of the outstanding optics and features for a low cost fitting. During a demonstration meeting with Clive Bailey (Martin UK) I was asked if I wanted to see the SCX700. I initially said no as the product seemed too small. Having been persuaded to switch one on, I was blown away by the fitting. The optics are very impressive and I can honestly say I have never seen such a light output from a CDM 150 lamp. The other products were chosen for the project from past installation experience and proven product reliability.”

Mark commented, “The project was completed in just three weeks from an initial meeting with the client to complete installation, thanks to the support and cooperation of Martin Professional and the dedicated Willow SoundVision installation team.

“In addition to the above project, we carried out a lighting roll out within the Barracuda Group estate during December installing Mania EFX600 and Mania EFX800 fittings. The EFX800 debuted for us at the launch of a Smith & Jones venue in Bedminster. The clients were so impressed with the fixture they requested them to be installed in a further nine venues over a two week installation period, including some EFX600s. All programming and control was by a Martin 2510 controller chosen for its reliability and operational simplicity.”

Willow SoundVision has recently completed another custom lighting design and installation in Barracuda Bar Bridgend consisting of 8 MAC 250 Kryptons, 4 Wizard Extremes, an Atomic Strobe and a Magnum Club Smoke system.