Don't Know What to Title This

Not many people know this, but A New Leaf only allows speakers on the Mezzanine level of their space.

Floorplan of A New Leaf:


The family next door has a baby and doesn't appreciate loud music. The rule at A New Leaf is that music can only be on the Mezzanine level. When speakers are placed further in, the sound is too loud for the neighbors. What we've done in the past is put one or two smaller speakers further down along the railing, like so:

Floorplan with previous speaker placement (green squares are speakers)


I've always done this type of arrangement and worked it out with the venue to keep the volume at a low level for cocktails and dinner, especially with speakers towards the front. Those speakers are mainly there for announcements and speeches, but also help spread the sound out. What upset me about this gig, was that we were told we had to put both speakers upstairs up against the back wall. Our layout then looked like this:

Floorplan with current speaker placement (green squares are speakers)


The speaker that was closer to the railing on the mezzanine was used to help push the sound from the upper floor into the rest of the space. The problem with this new arrangement is that speaker no longer pushes sound past the upper stairs. The reason is because of how the space is constructed, it's further away from the middle, and more importantly, anybody upstairs will block the sound from leaving that area. The drawing below shows the space a crowd will take up. Note: there is also a similar size crowd in the middle and front areas, but I didn't include them.

Floorplan with current speaker placement and crowd on second floor (pink blob is the crowd on the second floor)


Now, I understand there is a family next door. However, a good speaker placement within the space can provide great sound that everyone can hear without being too loud to offend neighbors. It's pretty simple, actually. Many times, I'm working with clients that are not aware of the sound restrictions in the space and this severely limits the flow of the evening and what happens during the night. Any announcements that need to be made, will not be heard by everyone. With my vast experience of crowd management within this space, and the help of an experienced dj who's great with rapport, I was able to make flow work for my gig here last Saturday.

Julie and Jake had their reception at A New Leaf with yours truely and Brent Rolland at the helm. Sally and Dan from Hearty Boys were bringing in the scrumptious food. This wedding was a blast. Even with the new speaker arrangement, we were able to make it work. To manage the flow of the crowd into speeches, we made three announcements. The first was upstairs to all the people on the mezzanine. The second, we plugged a mic into the speaker downstairs and pointed it into the middle section. The third was pointed towards the front. The speaker downstairs was only used for speeches and announcements, which was approved by the venue. It seems pretty simple. Right? Well, it was. When we went into dancing, we did the same thing, with one exception. Brent prepped everybody first by going up to them individually to let them know, and then I came in over the PA. It was easy as pie. I think what sets us apart from other people is that we're willing to find ways around our limitations to make an event work. Originally, speeches were to happen by the balcony on the mezzanine level. When we were told to move our speakers, I adjusted how speeches were going to happen and let the Julie and Jake know. They would not be heard in the original location and even though it looked like Julie and Jake were nervous about the location changing, I knew it was for the best and went with it anyway. It turned out to be the best place for them in the end and everyone heard them great.

As far as dancing, I've never seen prepping the crowd work so well. Almost everybody came upstairs for the first dances and stayed the rest of the night. We never had an empty dance floor. Brent and I each took a side and tag-teamed back and forth all night. The food was AMAZING! The crowd was WONDERFUL! And I've never seen a bride and groom enjoying their party so much as Julie and Jake!

Cheers!

--Jonathan Hood, resident dj & dj operations manager
also on duty: Brent Rolland, resident dj