Singapore's Hippest New Music Venue Relies on d&b to Power the Region's Most Talented Rising Acts

In early March, Singapore's Tin Box: The Live House -- a music venue that focuses on local up-and-coming talent -- opened to the public. Tin Box, with help from prestigious concert and event management company IMC Live Global, offers a performance space to some of the region's best artists.

Residing below Singapore's historic Chijmes building complex, the space is compact, yet equipped with tour-standard staging, lighting, and audio. In order to give audiences and performers the best possible sound quality, the venue installed d&b audiotechnik A-Series augmented arrays to fit comfortably in the intimate 250-person room, providing the listener with a state-of-the-art audio experience.

IMC Captasia group director of artist management and development, Joy Yong, spoke on why the A-Series was the obvious choice to power the venue.

"d&b is our trusted, go-to brand for our live shows and concerts," Yong explains. "The A-series is more suited for smaller venues such as this live house in comparison to the other models used in large arenas. The sound is in no way harsh and the audience is not subject to fatigue when there are high volumes."

Being a basement venue, Tin Box has low ceilings and is only about 240 sq. m. in size. Yong admitted that one of the challenges they initially had was the low ceiling height, making it difficult to provide even and complete sound coverage. However, the installation challenges were not so much technical as they were aesthetic, with the main concern being that the sound system would block views to the stage. Fortunately, after the installation process was complete, she revealed there was no obstruction and that the audience has a very good view of the stage no matter where they are in the club.

The A-Series has cemented itself as one of d&b's most sought after products, the company says. Combining variable splay angles and acoustic optimization in a compact format, the A-Series addresses a broad range of applications where coverage flexibility is paramount. Together, the AL60/ALi60 and AL90/ALi90 modules form a d&b system that can scale from a single loudspeaker to a full sound reinforcement solution.

The loudspeakers ability to be displayed eclectically is another one of its biggest draws and a feature that helps make it work so well. Arrays of two to four loudspeakers can be deployed horizontally or vertically, covering areas of 50 to 150-degrees. Variable splay angles allow arrays of up to four A-Series loudspeakers to adapt precisely to venue shapes in five-degree increments from -10 to +10-degrees. Midrange directivity control provides acoustic optimization directly from d&b amplifiers. This function uses fewer amplifier channels than ArrayProcessing, while keeping lower midrange directivity symmetrical at every possible splay angle.

So far, the response has been nothing but positive. Unfortunately, the club is not able to hold any live music events currently due to COVID concerns, but prior to that, Yong had praise for the results.

"The entire show experience is of top-notch quality, not just for the audience off-stage, but for the performers on-stage," says Yong. "Musicians and singers are able to deliver a high standard of performance, and the audience, from right upfront to the back of the room, enjoys an equal richness of sound."

This bodes well for a club that books incredibly diverse acts. As the venue features genres from alternative rock to jazz, d&b's systems are proving they can handle the job. Lauded for being effective at larger venues such as concert halls and arenas, d&b products are demonstrating excellence in more limited venues like the Tin Box as well.

While reflecting on her experience with d&b, Yong had plenty of positive feedback, "Their support was great! We will without a doubt continue to use their products for future endeavors."

As for now, Yong waits patiently for live events to be able to safely resume so the club can continue to provide locals with some of the region's best new music.