Johnny D’s Serves Up A Superior Sound Experience with HARMAN’s Soundcraft Si Expression 3

SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts – For a 300-seat nightclub that is 45 years old and doubles as a restaurant in David Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, Johnny D’s required a renovation of its outdated sound system. While MJ Audio integrated the front end of the new system, which features HARMAN’s Crown amplifiers and BSS signal processors, Technical Manager Dana Westover has installed a Soundcraft Si Expression 3 to improve upon its existing analog consoles.

Given the popular area in which Johnny D’s is situated, its stage enjoys many touring bands and guest engineers in addition to local artists. Therefore, Westover needed a reliable console that is not only within the venue’s budget and able to accommodate the various performers, but also one that is user-friendly for the various engineers working at the club.

“We’ve been running analog mixers up until now, and have had a slow transition towards digital technology, because we get a lot of guest engineers who come from the analog world,” said Westover. “However, the Si Expression 3 is perfect as an upgrade, because it helps people transition to digital due to its logical layout and ease of use. For example, we had a guest engineer who has never worked on a Soundcraft board before, and within 15 minutes, he was ready for the show.”

The room housing the new equipment contains no parallel surfaces, thus leading to unique acoustics and an intimate layout of the venue. With a Soundcraft Si Expression 3 console, a sound engineer can ensure that guests enjoy the most distinctive sounding shows. In addition, FaderGlowTM illumination of the faders prevents any unwanted mistakes in dark club environments that might hamper the audio experience.

“I think the audio quality is very solid, especially considering the price of the console,” said Westover. “I’m very happy that we have a great sounding venue, and now we have a great sounding board that any traveling engineer can do well with. I especially like how FaderGlow allows me to identify everything clearly, but I can also adjust the intensity of the LED’s depending on the lighting of the venue.”

HARMAN designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and integrated control solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson ®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a global workforce of 15,200 people and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last 12 months ended March 31, 2014.