The Fleece

Housed in a former sheep-trading market, and now a grade II listed building, The Fleece is Bristol’s largest independent music venue that has welcomed the likes of Radiohead, Oasis, Muse, Jeff Buckley, and a wealth of other stars. During the pandemic, the club was forced into temporary closure, which provided them with the opportunity to refurbish the club and upgrade the sound system, which had been untouched since 1982. For the new system KV2 specified a couple of VHD2.0 cabinets, supplemented by eight VHD4.18 passive 18’ subwoofers and a pair of EX12 infills – which deliver a dynamic, and especially loud range of sound.

The Technical Manager at The Fleece, Rich Munday, sought to differentiate themselves from other similar venues, where line arrays are predominately selected. However, Munday preferred the well-defined high ends and punch of a point source system, so the challenge was to provide a system which delivered the best of both worlds.

With their previous system, The Fleece faced audience coverage issues – particularly at the front of the audience. Therefore, one of the main challenges with this installation was to provide a PA system which distributed uniform, high-quality audio to every corner of the room. Importantly, the new system needed to be visually unobtrusive, to leave more space for the performers on stage.

Old, historic venues like The Fleece often have unique acoustics, and it is a challenge to find the right equipment for the job. To solve this, before installing the system, a digital 3D model of the venue was rendered, so that KV2s loudspeakers could be virtually inserted to check the precise fit and audio coverage requirements, saving time and costs when it came to the actual installation.

After consultation with KV2, they opted for a system that included a pair of VHD2.0 3-way mid/hi cabinets. With these units, the system possessed better coverage than a line array would, with all the added benefits of a point source loudspeaker.

In this instance, KV2s VHD2.0s were the perfect fit, as the state-of-the-art 3” Nitride Titanium compression driver allows for much higher output, combined with exceptionally low distortion and extended frequency response. Alone, these would fill the space, but KV2 also installed an additional infills to ensure total coverage, and subwoofers for the low end. To round it off, for their high output, the VHD2.0s are surprisingly compact – so the choice to go with KV2 offered a visual upgrade as well as an audio one.

– Audience coverage solved (the VHD2.0 can handle crowds of 20,000).
– Uniform sound no matter where audience stand.
– Compact form factor of the loudspeaker systems means that the PA doesn’t dominate the performance area.
– The soundstaging is second to none.
– Improved feedback rejection + stability.
– Utilised cutting-edge 3D sound modelling software to ensure that the system would fit well.

Housed in a former sheep-trading market, and now a grade II listed building, The Fleece is Bristol’s largest independent music venue that has welcomed the likes of Radiohead, Oasis, Muse, Jeff Buckley, and a wealth of other stars. During the pandemic, the club was forced into temporary closure, which provided them with the opportunity to refurbish the club and upgrade the sound system, which had been untouched since 1982. For the new system KV2 specified a couple of VHD2.0 cabinets, supplemented by eight VHD4.18 passive 18’ subwoofers and a pair of EX12 infills.

The new KV2 solution solved several issues that existed with the club’s previous PA system – namely the audio coverage of the venue. With the new system, the audio output sounds the same no matter where you stand. Feedback has been resoundingly positive from audience – they feel immersed and notice the difference

The soundstaging is remarkable and has received positive comments from visiting artists – a lot of which can be attributed to the high-detail of the KV2 system, which delivers accurate audio at all volumes; capable of handling everything from whisper-quiet spoken word to the most extreme death metal show.

Testimonial:

“I’d first heard the KV2 PA in action at a demo in PLASA 2019. The sound was head and shoulders above everything else I’d heard, and I made a mental note that if the opportunity to get a new PA for the Fleece ever arose, this is what I’d recommend!”
– Rich Munday, Technical Manager, The Fleece

“We’ve been using the KV2 PA for seven months now and have no doubts that we made the right decision – It’s incredible detailed at all volumes and hugely powerful, with an extraordinary amount of headroom.”
– Rich Munday, Technical Manager, The Fleece