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DriveRack 4800’s Pilot New €6m Penthouse Complex
Five DriveRack 4800 processors from dbx Professional Products, a Salt Lake City-based manufacturer of professional signal processing products and a division of Harman International, have been selected to control complex sound reinforcement system settings in a new €6m multizone nightclub in Stuttgart.
The advanced processors form part of a complete Harman Pro HiQnet/Ethernet solution, proposed by the company’s German distributors, Audio Pro Heilbronn, and sold and installed by locally-based ZF Pro Audio.
Christoph Keller, who headed Audio Pro’s project group, confirms that it was the need for a highly-versatile system with the ability to optimise a sound reinforcement system within the most difficult of acoustic environments, that made the choice of the 4800 axiomatic.
Stuttgart is the centre of the German automotive industry, and the Penthouse building could easily pass as another massive car showroom in the city’s industrial area, given the huge amount of glazing used in its construction. Situated on top of the Selgross cash and carry supermarket, the 2000 sq metre post-modern rectangular building is awash with hard surfaces, and is thus an acoustically-hostile environment.
The building had remained empty since its construction four years ago (despite earlier attempts to operate it as a Chinese restaurant). However, when the City of Stuttgart offered incentives to bring this industrial area alive after dark, well-known multiple nightclub operator Dietmar Gaa moved in, and rented the building.
Audio Pro Heilbronn have worked with Gaa on previous projects and a realistic budget was set for the audio. This enabled ZF Pro Audio to design the six-zone system around five DriveRack 4800’s (4-in/8-out) and a DriveRack 260 (2 x 6) digital controller.
From the powerful 96 kHz DSP engine and standard analogue and digital I/O, to the QVGA display and multiple control surfaces, the 4800 provides all the processing, flexibility and control necessary for a venue such as this — as well as an intuitive menu set-up and GUI.
“It offered the venue the best solution as the 4800 is easily the most versatile of the dbx processors,” said the project manager. “We used EASE acoustic simulations for measurement in the two main rooms, and the DriveRack allowed us to connect over Ethernet and enable all measurements to be conducted from a laptop over HiQnet. We spent a lot of time adjusting the rig.”
In addition to the hard surfaces and vast amounts of fenestration, which clad the 100m long x 20m wide building, the architects (Brückner Architekten) were reluctant to allow acoustic baffles or screening to intrude on the design.
Each of the three main areas is equipped with its own booth but the programmed sound needed to be isolated in each area, with minimum spillage. “This proved another difficulty as the venue is completely open, and one area leads straight into another,” said Keller. They have thus designed the system directionally, and programmed the 4800’s with an EQ curve that makes the system perform at its optimum when the venue is crowded — which is most of the time.
Safety also assumes high priority at Penthouse. Its conversion to nightclub/restaurant use necessitated the provision of a massive emergency exit leading right up to the restaurant floor, while each zone is protected by a dbx ZC Fire safety interface, which automatically mutes the system in the event of an alert.
Entering at restaurant level, the activity passes at Gallery and Ground levels via the Discotheque (aimed at an older crowd), the Café/Entrance, the themed Marrakesch, with its ornate wrought iron balcony and the full-on glass-surrounded house music location known as The Club, where the revelers are dancing under the stars in a world of multi-coloured perspex.
While Marrakesch and Club are serviced from one rack room (containing four of the DriveRack 4800’s), the Restaurant, Disco and Entrance are covered by a second (housing the remaining DriveRack 4800 and the dbx 260). There is one interconnection between the two machine rooms since the Entrance/Café is not serviced by its own dedicated sound source and thus takes its feed from Marrakesch, with a programmable dbx ZC1 provided for local volume control.
By midnight the venue is generally crowded — with anything up to 2,500 people coming through the doors on a Saturday night.
ZF Pro Audio owner, Markus Zeiher, countered the two-level ceiling height in the Club by running four JBL AM6125/95’s under the gallery, precision-angled on chains, and likewise the Control 28 infills. The general policy has been to specify more enclosures than would normally be the case to gain a more focused sound, and enable them to be underrun to counter any reverberance.
The two main dance rooms use a combination of JBL AM6215/95s with SRX728S floor-mounted subs, infilled with Control 28’s and powered by Crown CTs series amplifiers. In addition, six MS26’s provide further infill in the Club.
Piloting the control booth are Soundcraft UREI 1605 seven-channel mixers, while AKG WMS400 radio mics and JBL EON reference monitors are also provided.
With its enlarged balcony area, Marrakesch, which specialises in R&B and soul classics, is serviced by 13 Control 28 loudspeakers.
Of the other areas, the main Entrance/Café is covered by eight Control 28’s, Discotheque uses a pair of JBL SRX718S subs and four AM4212/95’s under-balcony, where the horns are rotated, with Control 28’s. Here the UREI 1605 is accompanied by a wired AKG D3700 microphone.
Finally the ultra-modern Restaurant, with its exposed industrial ducting, receives its sound coverage from seven JBL C29AV’s, suspended on tension wires, supported by four Control 28’s. The UREI 1603 4-channel mixer presently takes its feeds from a pair of CD players.
The entire complex is presided over by managing director, Klaus Kübler, assisted by Sonja Botterhuis, who are delighted with the sonic infrastructure and the effect it is having on trade.
Summing up, Christoph Keller says: “I am pleased we have been able to take a complete Harman Pro systems approach — right down to the AKG K181DJ headphones!
“The DriveRack 4800’s are the engine of the whole design and as a result we have been able to present the venue with enormous versatility, an optimised gain structure and high-quality signal performance and control over Ethernet.”
17th September 2007
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