Blackstock Market

Blackstock Market is an ambitious, multi-use hospitality and events venue in Liverpool, home to the world-renowned Hot Water Comedy Club and a broad live events programme spanning music, comedy, and hosted experiences. The team approached Adlib to deliver a fully integrated audio and lighting system across a diverse range of spaces, including bars, a main atrium, a food court, a performance stage, and rooftop terraces.

The brief required a zoned solution capable of supporting both background music and live performance, with consistent audio quality and seamless control throughout, while remaining intuitive enough for non-technical staff to operate day-to-day.

Adlib approached the Blackstock Market project by treating each zone individually, designing tailored audio solutions based on the specific layout, acoustic characteristics and intended use of every space, before unifying them within a single, coherent control infrastructure.

The L-Acoustics platform was deployed consistently across the venue, scaled appropriately to each environment. The Front Bar received a flown system of A15 Wide and Focus loudspeakers with KS21 subwoofers and LA4X amplification, providing clarity and headroom for DJ sets and late-night programming.

The Main Atrium, the venue’s central hub, was treated as a full performance space, with left and right hangs of A15 Wide and Focus boxes, four floor-mounted KS21 subwoofers, and LA12X amplification capable of handling live band reinforcement. Balcony and bar areas were covered using a combination of X12 delay speakers and A15i units, while the Top Bar utilised compact X8 speakers for discreet background audio.

The Roof Garden presented the additional challenge of outdoor use, addressed through weatherised A15i Wide loudspeakers, KS21i subwoofers, distributed X8i loudspeakers and EV weatherised stage monitors, ensuring full-range coverage for rooftop performances and gatherings in all conditions.

The result is a venue in which every space, from the most intimate bar to the main performance stage, benefits from the same standard of audio quality, scaled and tuned to its environment. Touring productions arrive at a system that meets rider expectations, while everyday guests experience consistently premium sound regardless of where they are in the building.

Lighting at Blackstock Market was designed to serve two distinct but equally important functions: supporting live performance at a technical level and enhancing the venue’s atmosphere and identity across its everyday operation. For a venue of Blackstock Market’s ambition, hosting world-class comedy, live music and a diverse events programme under one roof , the lighting infrastructure needed to be as versatile as the programming it supports.

The Roof Garden presented the most technically demanding lighting challenge, given its exposure to the elements and the need to support live performance in an outdoor setting. IP-rated Chauvet fixtures, including COLORdash PARs and COLORado wash units, alongside Rogue Outcast Spot profiles, were selected for their resilience and performance. These were mounted to a custom powder-coated black truss structure integrated into the surrounding steelwork, providing a visually discreet but highly functional rig that complements the rooftop environment rather than dominating it.

In the Front Bar, the lighting design balanced feature and performance requirements. COLORdash Batten Quad 12 fixtures delivered roof-panel washes, while Ovation E-910FC profiles with interchangeable lenses highlighted the venue’s waterfall feature and artwork, an acknowledgement that lighting in a hospitality environment must serve the space aesthetically as well as functionally. Four Maverick Force 2 Profile movers and six Rogue Outcast 2 Hybrid units provided the dynamic capability required for DJ sets and late-night programming.

The Central Atrium stage received a full performance lighting package built around COLORdash PARs, COLORado washes, Strike Array blinders and Ovation front light, with Amhaze Eco haze units providing the atmospheric definition that makes lighting design legible during live sets. This ensures the space is genuinely performance-ready for touring acts with demanding technical riders.

Across all zones, control was unified through QuickQ racks and Chauvet Net-X-II infrastructure, with SnakeSys scene wall plates providing local control at zone level. This means venue staff can adjust lighting environments intuitively and independently without specialist knowledge, while the full system’s capabilities remain available when productions require them.

The central challenge of the Blackstock Market project was the sheer diversity of the spaces involved. Designing a system that performed consistently across a live performance atrium, multiple bars, a food court, and a rooftop garden, each with different acoustic characteristics, usage patterns, and aesthetic requirements, demanded a highly considered approach rather than a single universal solution.

Adlib addressed this by treating each zone on its own terms. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all specification, the team designed individually tailored audio solutions for every space, selecting loudspeakers scaled appropriately to each environment. This zone-by-zone approach ensured that the Top Bar’s compact X8 speakers delivered unobtrusive background audio, while the Main Atrium’s LA12X-powered A15 hangs could handle the full demands of live band reinforcement, with every point on the spectrum between those two extremes addressed with equal care.

The outdoor environments presented a specific technical challenge. The Roof Garden required a system capable of delivering full-range coverage for live performances and gatherings while withstanding the demands of an exposed outdoor setting. This was resolved through the selection of weatherised loudspeakers and IP-rated lighting fixtures, ensuring longevity and reliability regardless of conditions, a particularly pertinent consideration for a rooftop venue in the north of England.

Rigging presented further complexity. Both the Main Atrium and Roof Garden required bespoke structural solutions to support audio and lighting equipment in spaces not originally designed with performance infrastructure in mind. Custom L-shaped and integrated truss structures were designed and installed using M290-HD Milos truss, with the Roof Garden solution built into powder-coated black steelwork to remain visually discreet while providing a robust and functional mounting platform.

Finally, the operational requirement that non-technical staff be able to manage a complex, multi-zone system with confidence was addressed through the design of the control infrastructure itself. QuickQ racks, combined with SnakeSys scene wall plates, allow individual zones to be operated locally and intuitively, without specialist knowledge, ensuring the system serves the venue as effectively on a quiet Tuesday as during a headline event.

Blackstock Market is one of Liverpool’s most ambitious entertainment destinations, home to the world-renowned Hot Water Comedy Club, a thriving live music programme and a diverse events calendar that draws audiences from across the region. Underpinning all of it is the technical infrastructure that Adlib designed and installed, and it is that infrastructure, its quality, versatility, and operational accessibility, that make this project worthy of recognition.

The brief was genuinely complex. Delivering consistent, high-quality audio and dynamic lighting across a live performance atrium, multiple bars, a food court, and a rooftop garden, all within a single unified system operable by non-technical staff, required a level of design intelligence that goes well beyond a standard installation. Every zone was treated individually, with solutions tailored to its specific acoustic character and intended use, before being integrated into a coherent control infrastructure. That balance of bespoke detail and system-wide cohesion is not easily achieved.

The technical specification reflects that ambition. A consistent L-Acoustics platform, scaled appropriately across all environments, ensures the venue meets touring riders’ expectations while delivering a premium experience for everyday guests. The outdoor environments were addressed with the same rigour as the indoor performance spaces, with weatherised loudspeakers, IP-rated lighting fixtures and custom trusswork ensuring the rooftop is as capable and reliable as any other part of the venue.

What makes the project particularly noteworthy is the operational outcome. A system of this technical complexity has been made genuinely accessible to the people who run the venue day-to-day. The result is a venue team that can confidently and independently manage multiple zones, directly supporting the commercial success of a space with serious ambitions.