Light fantastic

The immediate reaction when walking into Club Se7en in the Park Regis hotel in Dubai, is that it is a bit like being inside a giant illuminated Rubik’s cube. An LED panelled dance floor is complimented by a range of LED lighting fixtures that cover the back wall and DJ and technical booth, all lit in shades of blue, yellow, orange, pink and green. The club’s owner invested big bucks in the interior, explains Sethu, the club manager, who estimates the cost of the LED lighting to be close to AED 500,000.

But for Mark Legaspi, MD of technical installation firm Liberty Acoustics and Services, the sound system and show lighting are the factors that will ensure Club Se7en is able to regularly host large crowds as well as a series of live rock nights the venue is scheduled to be home to.

“I tell my clients, in clubs especially, invest heavily in the sound system. Because that’s what brings people in, that’s what people are listening to. Lights are just for aesthetics, you may attract people with lights initially, but if you have bad sound, no-one will stick around,” he says.

Liberty was engaged by the venue’s management early on in its development to design and install the sound system and show lights, as well as providing a six-month service contract.

“Usually these days, when people are trying to economise on building a club, they call us to come when the venue is already finished. And often it turns out that the speaker locations are not in the right place and it doesn’t sound good,” says Legaspi. “But here, we were involved from the start, at the design stage of the whole sound system.”

He says software programme Ulysses was used for acoustic measurements in the space - with excellent results. “As you move around the room, you get exactly the same level of sound in every area.”

Ulysses was developed with the intention to be a very fast, precise and really easy to use acoustic calculation, simulation and sound system design tool and features true 3D CAD-based calculation, simulation and design routines for room acoustics and sound system design.

Legaspi says relative free-reign from his client meant he was spoilt for choice when it came to implementing his technical vision. “When the management told us to create a club from scratch, it struck us to use as much technology as we could, and we’ve put everything into one place – lasers, LED, lights,” he says.

But the real star of the install is the Dynacord P65 wireless processor, according to Legaspi. “It’s our third installation with this wireless system and for this system, we’re the first in the Middle East to install it in clubs,” he says proudly, going on to explain why he remains loyal to the audio manufacturer.

“We never use anything else because there are zero failures. We started five years ago and since then, out of all our contracts, we’ve only had to replace three drivers. And none on the main PA, only the monitors.”