Mickey's Black Box Integrates Cohesion PA for an Audio Upgrade

	"The CO10 feels more in line with what you expect a show to sound like. They're cleaner, and you don't have to fight much. They give you more depth," says Bampton.

When Michael "Mickey" Tait envisioned his eponymous venue, he communicated a single mandate: "He told us it needed to be accessible to the community for community events," says Jimmy Gaio, general manager of Mickey's Black Box, a 650-capacity live performance venue on Lancaster County's Rock Lititz campus. "Local acts, regional acts, almost every musician and artist that has come through here has never played through a PA like this."

Gaio refers to the recently upgraded audio system at Mickey's Black Box, installed by Clair Global, which also calls Rock Lititz home.

"One of our major motivations is sound quality. We're sitting at the table with some incredible companies and minds at Rock Lititz, so it needs to sound incredible. If we're not honoring that portion of our legacy, we'd be doing a disservice to the community," says Margaret Cooper, director of Mickey's Black Box. "We're carving out a niche with our fidelity. It's not typical for a room our size to have this level of quality. It's important for us to lean into this, and we were excited to up the ante."

The newly integrated PA features eight Cohesion CO10 per side, a center pack of three Cohesion CSB218i flown in cardioid configuration, plus a ground stack of two CSB218i. Four Cohesion CF24 or CF28 fill speakers, depending on the size of the event, are placed along the stage.

"I've been in production for thirty years, and I know when a venue just sounds good," says Gaio, who also serves as a production manager for Live Nation and Philadelphia's venerable Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts. "With the CO10 and the hung subs, the dB levels we're pushing versus what we're feeling, it's like House of Leaves: it shouldn't be possible. Honestly, I think the room is near-perfect." Cooper adds, "When artists come by and hear our room, we love to brag: CO10, baby." The CO10 system features interchangeable horn inserts that enable the precise adjustment of horizontal coverage to align with diverse venue geometries. This adaptability optimizes sound distribution while minimizing unwanted surface reflections.

"The CO10 feels more in line with what you expect a show to sound like. They're cleaner, and you don't have to fight much," says Casey Bampton, A1 at Mickey's Black Box. "They give you more depth."

The configuration tailors consistent coverage in the venue by utilizing 120-degree horizontal dispersion horn inserts on the top four enclosures of each array to cover the wide upper balcony seats; simultaneously, 80-degree inserts on the bottom four enclosures narrow the dispersion to match the tapered seating near the stage, effectively avoiding highly reflective side walls and eliminating the need for outfill speakers.