Chasing Rabbits

Chasing Rabbits is an elevated nightlife and entertainment venue that debuted within the Solaris Plaza in Vail, Colorado. Designed by Rockwell Group, the 13,000 sq ft concept comprises four spaces—the Restaurant, the Library, Moon Rabbit an intimate speakeasy cocktail bar featuring live jazz and international DJs, and Rabbit Hole a sophisticated arcade with karaoke during the week and renowned DJs on the weekends. “The interior has been conceived as a maze-like series of distinct experiences that unfold as you move throughout, where you are ‘chasing’ the rabbit to another world,” said Rockwell Group partner Shawn Sullivan in a Hospitality Design article. Anthem Productions was contracted to take on the entire venue’s installed audio integration and choose 1 SOUND for all of the rooms.

The Restaurant utilized the smallest model in the Cannon Series, the C4i which has a 4-inch coaxial and is special for its extended low-frenquency down to 100 Hz with high-fidelity sound quality. The C4i’s were distributed throughout the restaurant utilizing the C-Clamp to mount to the walls and ceilings. For bass, 1 SOUND’s Floor Subwoofer FSUB45’s, were distributed underneath the booths, resulting in a consistent distributed sound design and hidden subwoofers for easy listening in the space.

The Library, a more elevated dining room for special reservations or versatile space used for private events, utilized Cannon C4is and Tower LCC44 because of their controlled narrow on the vertical but wide horizontal dispersion pattern and also because of their SPL output in the case of private parties. These loudspeakers were hidden on the bookshelves in the room. SUB310s were used for bass coverage.

MoonRabbit, a sophisticated intimate cocktail lounge with weekly live jazz nights and word-class international DJs, utilised Tower LCC44’s that were mounted and aimed with the Tower Wall Bracket and SUB310s hidden in the room. Chasing Rabbits also invested in a portable Contour System that is used as a PA in Moon Rabbit for DJ performances and that is shared for headlining DJ monitors that perform in Rabbit Hole. “From our Live Jazz nights in the Moon Rabbit to our DJs in the Rabbit Hole, Lou [Founder & Designer of 1 SOUND] and Angelo [CEO of Anthem Productions] have created a uniquely detailed integration concept for an emotional audiophile experience that inspires our guests and musical artists,” says Todd Scheurich, Director of AV and IT for the Solaris Plaza, while commenting on the loudspeakers audio quality and the heard experience of the audio design.

As for the Rabbit Hole, the livelier space in Chasing Rabbits that features an arcade, the Solaris Group has gone through a few evolutions discussing with 1 SOUND and Anthem. At first, the goal behind the audio design was to engage high energy bar environment focusing on background music and hosting DJ sets, “Within hours of commissioning and tuning this initial buildout in the Rabbit Hole with Tower LCC44’s and SUB310’s, that instantly set us apart from every business with “music” in the Vail Valley,” states Scheurich. After the quick success of this bar, Anthem, and 1 SOUND presented upgrading the sound system to support hosting bigger parties and to have an impressive system for the newly earned opportunity to host performances by headliner DJs. “Sure enough, after the first ski season, we took their lead and made the upgrade to Contour CT28’s and SUB2112’s.” continued Scheurich. When the venue had their first headlining DJ, John Summit, book to perform, Anthem made sure to level up the DJ monitors to a portable CT28 and SUB215 Contour system, in the expectation that this wouldn’t be the last big event. This portable system doubles in the cocktail lounge, Moon Rabbit, so it has custom red grilles to match and can be easily transported into that space for weekly DJs.

What were the main challenges during the installation and how did you overcome them? *
This elegant venue that encompasses several different rooms resulting in an overall dynamic and compelling standout experience, comes with its own set of considerations. The main challenge in designing the audio for Chasing Rabbits was due to the 5 main rooms all having independent feels and goals while being situated close in proximity to each other and being connected by short hallways that were meant to transition an attendee into each new space. The audio design had to consider the positioning of loudspeakers and their dispersion patterns so that unwanted sound didn’t bleed into outside spaces as well as their sonic quality and tonality to create a smooth transition as attendees are likely to experience more than one space in a night. Anthem and 1 SOUND even spent time doing acoustical measurements and designing for the auditory experience of people walking through the hallways that were meant to transition people into each space.

“Angelo has the innate ability to foresee ownership expectations and explain the technical integration details that developers and designers do not visually or conceptually understand when building an entertainment venue dedicated to an auditory experience,” said Scheurich, “Integrating world-class audiophile technology and one-off entertainment architecture is the hardest concept to coordinate with designers and architects. We have been able to push through those detailed design evolutions with Rockwell, 1 SOUND, and Anthem.”

The overall success is due in part to the open communication and collaboration between all parties during the design process and even after, enabling the most intentional experience for visitors, “I find myself giving a storytelling tour to guests and artists surrounding the 1 SOUND platform and how each room in the venue was crafted for specific audio engagement to the soul,” explained Scheurich.

The collaboration between 1 SOUND as a manufacturer and Anthem as the integrator, who has the client’s best interest in mind, allowed for no detail to go overlooked for the audio design. 1 SOUND and Anthem both independently offering after-sales services ended up elevating the venue and helping it evolve into a place where visitors will go to listen to music and see DJs, within the first year of opening. “The Chasing Rabbits in-house team is constantly asking me about the system and why it sounds so amazingly different from any other venue they go to for concerts and shows.” Scheurich continues, “Anthem and 1 SOUND have beyond succeeded in their mission with us, and the Solaris Group is proud to show it off at Chasing Rabbits! The Rabbit Hole at Chasing Rabbits is rapidly becoming a venue that artists are asking to play in. The guest experience and feedback has been exceptional.”