LONDON, UK – Tateside provided an audio upgrade at 12th Knot, the rooftop cocktail bar at the riverside Sea Containers Hotel. The new system includes 1 Sound C8i and C4i loudspeakers for the interior bar area and DJ booth along with SUB310s for the low end. The upgrade also included a new Q-SYS Core processor, Powersoft Unica amplifiers and a Netgear managed switch along with a wall-mounted QSC touchscreen controller and simplified Pragma Someo PoE wall controllers.
More details from Tateside (www.tateside.com):
12th Knot, the rooftop cocktail bar at the riverside Sea Containers Hotel, is known for its stunning city views and upscale atmosphere in a prime location on the South Bank. When the time came to upgrade its audio system, the hotel turned to its trusted technology partner, Tateside, who already provides managed AV services across various areas in the hotel. The client envisaged a new audio solution that would complement, rather than compromise, the carefully curated ambience of its popular rooftop destination.
“We’ve worked on projects throughout the Sea Containers hotel for a long time, including the cinema, background audio systems and the event space,” says Jack Cornish, technical director at Tateside. “When it came time to upgrade the 12th Knot bar, they trusted us to deliver something special.”
The existing audio system at 12th Knot was no longer meeting the evolving needs of the space. Over time, its coverage had become inconsistent, with components frequently being moved to accommodate different events, ultimately detracting from the overall aesthetics of the venue. The client approached Tateside with a clear goal: to modernize the system, improve coverage across the entire bar and make the setup more discreet and better integrated with the surroundings.
“The system wasn’t doing what it needed to anymore, and people were unplugging it or shifting things about,” continues Cornish. “It was time for a proper upgrade, and 1 Sound stood out as an ideal solution.”
Tateside designed a new sound system from the ground up based around 1 Sound loudspeakers to address both technical and aesthetic concerns. In the interior bar area, the team installed twelve 1 Sound C8i coaxial 8-inch and two C4i 4-inch loudspeakers, chosen for their small form factor and exceptional sound clarity. For the low-end, six 10-inch SUB310s, also from 1 Sound, are flown out of immediate sight lines, further preserving the all-important look and feel of the space. With triple 10-inch subwoofers, the SUB310s offer similar performance to larger models, but with a much smaller footprint. Tateside commissioned bespoke metalwork to secure this new loudspeaker system. Two additional 1 Sound C8i loudspeakers for monitoring are installed in the DJ booth, which plays host to DJ sessions every weekend.
The previous installation had placed all amplification and processing equipment in a storeroom, which led to significant overheating issues. To solve this, Tateside undertook a complete cabling rerouting, running all cabling to a nearby communications room, alongside a full backend overhaul. This included the installation of a Q-SYS Core processor for flexible and intuitive signal processing and audio networking on a Dante network, alongside Powersoft Unica amplifiers, which provide scalable amplification to drive the new audio system. A Netgear managed switch takes care of advanced signal management. Day-to-day system control is via a wall-mounted QSC touchscreen controller and simplified Pragma Someo PoE wall controllers, giving 12th Knot staff accessible control of source selection and music volume.
“The original rack location just wasn’t working. It was way too hot, which affected performance. We moved everything to a nearby comms room and started afresh,” says Cornish. “This gave us a reliable, scalable foundation.”
The installation faced several logistical challenges, particularly around working hours and preserving the bar’s daily operations. Every day, ceiling panels had to be carefully removed in the morning to access cabling routes and loudspeaker locations, with everything needing to be put back into place by late afternoon so that the venue could open as usual in the evening. This extended the project timeline significantly and required careful daily planning and coordination. Furthermore, throughout the project, parts of the old AV system needed to remain operational in order to keep the venue functional. Therefore, changeover dates had to be carefully planned to minimise disruption.
“It was important for us to commission something that just works, something high-fidelity with great coverage and a system that is intuitive for the team to use day in, day out,” continues Cornish. “This wasn’t a small job. It was a fair investment from the client, and we needed to get it right, visually, sonically, and operationally. We wanted to give them the best system they could have.”
For Tateside, the 12th Knot upgrade represented an opportunity to showcase the company’s full range of skills, from technical design to professional installation, whilst facing significant time constraints. “We’ve been working with Sea Containers as a client for a while now, and this project represented the next evolution in our long-term relationship,” confirms Cornish. “We’re really pleased with the result and the opportunity to showcase these high-end audio products along with our own expertise and skills.”
