Penguin Media Hire were called in to provide production, sound, lighting, staging and power for this very special New Year’s Eve party at the old Evening Argus Printworks on the outskirts of Brighton. The main print hall was a cavernous space, once home to the Sussex newspaper’s printing presses – the acoustic treatment to the building to reduce noise of the machines also came in handy, post-printing!
We supplied 10 x Martin Audio WS218X subwoofers for the event, along with a Martin Audio W8L Longbow large format line array system. The venue was dubbed ‘The Factory’ for the event, as Printworks was already taken! 😉
The warehouse party brief was ‘make it loud and clear, and assault the senses’. The PA system did exactly that, using our Martin Audio IKON / Linea Research amplifiers with onboard DSP. The monitoring rig was 1 x WS18X/XD12 per side and kept up superbly.
We also had to have some warehouse party lighting! We supplied Robe Pointe moving head beams, along with Robe Robin LEDWash 300 moving heads and Chauvet ColorRail’s across the back of stage – seeing as power wasn’t a problem in the venue, we weren’t shy with adding some strobes either, 6 x Martin Atomic 3000 strobes with colour scrollers had as much juice as they could possibly need!
We also supplied all power distribution for the event. As it was a decommissioned factory, there was not an abundance of the usual power outlets like you would expect in a working performance venue. Well in advance of the date, we performed high draw load bank testing to ensure there would be no untimely drop outs and tested the electrical installation. We also provided power for site lighting, as well as the bars and entry ways.
The production side of the event was a success and there were talks of regular events at the venue, unfortunately early in the new year a bid was received for the land and The Factory was demolished to make way for a car dealership.
A big shame, Brighton would have made great use of such a great, raw performance space – we were proud to play such a large part of its first and only party!
