APG provides full-throttle power for biker shop
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Located on the outskirts of Rennes, the 450m² Morex Custom House includes a bar/restaurant and concept store designed to showcase the best Morex Custom offerings. Customised motorcycles and cars take pride of place in both the bar area and the boutique shop, where customers can also pick up apparel, accessories, motorbike helmets and custom-made surfboards.
Given the brand’s association with the roar of the road and sea, it was crucial that the new venue had had a powerful yet versatile sound system, according to Kévin Morel, co-founder of Morex Custom. “The sound environment in a venue like ours is very important - our customers need to feel the music and enjoy it,” he explains. “The acoustics for the shopping experience of the customer is very important.”
To realise this vision, local systems integrator I.S.A. (Ingénierie Scénique et Audiovisuelle) - whose parent company, Groupe Sonowest, is a long-term partner of APG - specified an all-APG install speaker set-up featuring compact coaxial loudspeakers from the French manufacturer’s new iX series, as well as its SB115-M2 compact subwoofer.
The advantages of this system, which includes both iX6 (6.5” driver) and iX8 (8” driver) models, are manifold, according to Mathias Collin, works supervisor for I.S.A., who praises the APG speakers’ “ease of integration, high efficiency, small size, and simple yet effective visual appeal.”
For Morex Custom, it was essential that the speaker system be able to handle a range of applications - a key strength of the iX range, which is as at home in a large entertainment venue or convention centre as it is in a club, bar or restaurant. “The important thing for us was to have a powerful but pleasant sound, so that our clients can talk without shouting,” continues Morel, who adds that the sound system also needed to offer “sufficient power to accommodate more festive occasions and DJ sessions”.
The client’s specifications also included audio zoning with independent level management, which was accomplished using Powersoft’s ArmoníaPlus software. The user can manage the zones, including the volume of each area, using a wireless touchscreen interface connected to a Yamaha MTX digital matrix.
I.S.A. also turned to Powersoft for the amplifiers used in the installation: one eight-channel Ottocanali 4K4 DSP+D and one two-channel Duecanali 804 DSP+D. Both came recommended by APG, which has developed specific amplifier pre-sets for its loudspeakers.
Morex Custom House opened last autumn, and the team have already had “very good customer feedback on the audio” says Morel, both “during the daily rush hour as well as big events.”
“The customer experience in retail and hospitality has become paramount over the past couple of years, with stores like Morex Custom House serving as experiential destinations that go above and beyond the traditional retail environment,” says APG’s sales engineer Alexis Reymond. “With high-quality drivers and innovative No Diffraction Baffle (NDB) technology providing superior sound in a compact footprint, our iX Series speakers are perfectly suited to these kind of premium-quality, next-generation retail destinations.”
