EVENT FOCUS
FUNKTION-ONE MEETS B3 IN MELBOURNE Sheltered in the concrete underground of the Etihad Stadium carpark in Melbourne’s central business district, B3 arrived on the city’s clubbing map in late-2018 with the promise of three special events per year, each one welcoming around 7,000 people.
B3 is the brainchild of Daniel Teuma, Director of Novel Tours & Events. In the lead up to its launch, Teuma explained the rationale behind the pop-up nightclub: “One aspect sorely lacking in Melbourne’s nightlife is an inner-city location suitable for largescale, indoor events,” he said. “To ensure each occasion is truly special, B3 will only host three events per year and feature artists who have transcended their respective niches to become full-blown scene icons.” The first of those events featured DJ Koze, Charlotte De Witte and Gerd Janson, as well as a Funktion-One Vero sound system from Full Throttle Entertainment. Full Throttle’s Managing Director, Adam Ward, explained: “We’ve been providing audio to Novel for over five years now and we are always happy to support them in their projects. B3 was one of the most interesting events yet. The concept was to hold a dance party in an underground car park. We needed to take a unique approach to the sound in order to deal with the acoustic properties of the space as well as the
extremely low ceiling while at the same time delivering high fidelity audio to the 7,000-plus patrons.” Before the sound system went in, Full Throttle highlighted how important acoustic treatment would be to the audio quality. Ward said: “The ceiling went up and down in waves from 3.8m at the lowest point to 4.3m the highest and oscillated between these two heights all the way down the room. Needless to say, the reflections were atrocious and would have been a nightmare if left untreated. We sought out the help of Greenspec Solutions with a new acoustic product. Thankfully the promoter was gracious enough to give us the latitude with the budget to do the job properly. Greenspec Solutions hung almost 4,000 linear metres of acoustic panelling that ranged in a depth from 300mm to 1200mm. It was a massive undertaking but completely worth it in the end - the deadness of the space was astounding and the final response from the crowd made it all worth it.” 20
