Seattle, WA (April 14, 2022)—Over the years, The Crocodile has hosted acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Beastie Boys, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Alabama Shakes and others. Now it has been reinvented as a spacious multi-venue entertainment complex, featuring a 750-capacity Showroom performance space and bar for major acts; a smaller basement level 300-capacity performance lounge (“Madame Lou’s”) for emerging acts; and theatre (“Here After”).
Tying much of the new facility’s audio together is Sommer Cable. Val Foster, technical director at The Crocodile, explained, “The basic principle is, large copper conductors with high strand count is optimal. The d&b audiotechnik V-series speaker specifications call for two conductors per V8 — utilizing array processing — and wiring up the PA with high AWG two-conductor wire would give you a functioning system. However, more copper at 224 strands per conductor results in higher sensitivity and resolution across the entire audio bandwidth. Not only do we utilize 11 AWG wire, we use four-conductor cabling and jump two conductors together to make it 2x11AWG per terminal.”
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Foster adds, “By doubling the conductors, we decrease resistance, thus we are essentially going beyond load matching that software can do in the amps by doing it the analog way. Sommer has the highest strand count per wire gauge that is readily available. In our search for lowest resistance and highest resolution, Sommer was the optimal choice.”
In all, 2,707 feet of Sommer Elephant/Eclipse Cable was integrated for the hard-wiring of the d&b amps to speaker connections throughout the venue. All of the mic/line input cabling—2,001 feet—is also from Sommer’s Galileo series.
An additional 3,800-square-foot movie theater houses a comedy club that hosts one-person shows, art exhibitions and other smaller, community-focused events. The theater space, dubbed “Here-After,” has Sommer cabling running to the stereo mains.
Dennis Maximova of TAB-Funkenwerk was the lead integrator on the project and designed Crocodile’s systems, including extensive acoustical design, the backbone building integration including electrical layout, Audio/Video signal distribution throughout the venue and access for online streaming utilizing 7,875 feet of Cat7a.
