Nestled among Scottsdale's world class restaurants, luxurious spas and magnificent desert backdrop is what some are calling 'the best venue in Arizona". Livewire, a 14,000 square foot club which has already allured internationally touring artists like DJ Steve Aoki, The English Beat and Blues Traveler, opened in January to the delight of both locals and destination tourists seeking the ultimate, premium live sound experience. The two story facility, which has a capacity of 1,100 persons, features classic, old school design elements combined with modern technology touches: these include a massive LED display, intelligent lighting systems and a world class audio system consisting of more than 200 speakers driven by Powersoft. Livewire worked with Los Angeles-based Fyxx Entertainment, who specified the entire audio system, including (4) Powersoft X8 amplifiers and (1) Ottocanali 8K4 8-channel amplifier.

Audio Oasis in the Desert
When Fyxx Entertainment's Adrian De Pamphiis met with Livewire, the objective was clear: "They wanted to have the best sound, lighting and video system in Arizona," he says. "Even though Scottsdale was a major international tourist destination, it was often looked over by international touring acts. They wanted to change that by creating a top shelf entertainment space."

Fyxx Entertainment was tasked with delivering an audio system that would cater to a broad range of live entertainment: from prominent, internationally touring DJs, to established and emerging rock acts and even comedy acts. The venue needed to provide premium A/V experience from all points of its interior: from the main floor, to the second story mezzanine, to other interior elements including bars, hallways and VIP lounges. In the main hall, Fyxx installed two primary loudspeaker arrays set in a stereo configuration to cover 'live instrument' scenarios, while providing a 4.0 surround addition for DJ performances.

During the planning stages, Fyxx was careful to specify only high-end components within the entire audio chain. "This venue is going to be here for many, many years and I was intent on having them invest in top notch gear so we would not have to change anything in near future," De Pamphiis says. "We have great mics coming in at FOH, which are coming into a nice Avid console. Then the signal is going directly to the processors before finally hitting the Powersoft amplifiers. We also specified high gauge cables between the amplifiers and the speakers to maintain the integrity of the signal."

X8: Standing Out from the Crowd De Pamphiis says there was no second-guessing when it came to driving the speakers: "We chose Powersoft because it is the best amplifier on the market," he says. The Fyxx Entertainment team also chose the X8 because they wanted to network the entire audio system with Dante™. "We are in Los Angeles, and this venue is in Arizona: so by integrated a networked solution, we can simply log in remotely and still maintain full control over the performance of the amplifiers. This way, we never get a phone call that something is wrong or not working. And if we do get a call, we can simply go online and see what is going on.