Blummenfeld committed a million euros to convert the former restaurant and discotheque, with Philippe Starck furnishing and decor forming the centrepiece of the predominantly blue interior design. Around 20% of the budget was allocated to the sound, lighting and video system, which was specified and installed as a fully-integrated system by Lisbon-based Audium, who had worked with Blummenfeld on a previous installation, Rock City, back in 1994.
The 1000-capacity club trades on two levels - the ground floor space and an upper level mezzanine around the dance floor. While the ground floor is open to the general public, the upper floor operates as a kind of private club for VIPs, special guests and private parties.
Serving up a fare of mainly House music, O2 Lx currently trades from Thursday to Saturday. The heaviest activity in Lisbon occurs between the hours of 1am and 4am, and shortly the club will also open on Wednesdays from midnight until 6am. O2 Lx clearly has its sights set on achieving superclub status, and has already hosted DJs such as Josh Wink, Chus & Ceballos, D.T.P.M., Geoff Roy, Michelle Weeks, X-Press Tour and Satoshi Tomeii.Coemar lighting dominated the stage and dancefloor. Audium avoided using conventional truss, instead adapting the equipment to the size and shape of the room by creating custom trussing. The 13 Coemar ProSpot Lx 575s form a kind of 'H' shape, enabling it to work in both concert and disco modes. "Knowing the client, and taking his needs into consideration, we believed that the Coemar ProSpot 575 LX offered the best solution," remarked Audium's Raquel Fevereiro.
Audium specified a Zero 88 LeapFrog to run the concert/show lighting, while a Compulite Rave, installed on the upper floor, handles all the dancefloor lighting for the disco sessions. These can operate either independently or simultaneously. The company has also equipped a highly-specified sound cabin for visiting DJs. This includes three turntables (2 Vestax PDX2000 and a single Technics SL1210), as well as two Pioneer CDJ-1000 CD players, a Vestax R-1 Premium pro mixer and Vestax DWG-X1 and Vestax DDG-X2 sound effects.
Electro-Voice components provide the sound reinforcement. The FOH concert system comprises a pair of RX212 and four RX218s per side, with a single RX215 per side as additional fills and four T221Ms for stage monitoring. In addition to this, a pair each of E-V's RX215, RX112 and RX218s switch in when the club reverts to disco mode. (In case the name doesn't sound familiar, the RX Series is the European version of Electro-Voice's QRX Series). To handle the processing, Audium has installed a Peavey MediaMatrix X-Frame 88 DSP (plus BoB MM8802 control), which manages and integrates the entire disco and show sound set-up. Audium has also installed monitoring EQ, signal processing and signal source systems.
With O2 Lx, John Blummenfeld believes he has created something entirely unique. Asked how it will fit into the Lisbon scene, the club's Marta Casqueiro says simply that it does not. "And this is its triumph. O2 Lx is one step ahead in Lisbon's panorama of nightlife. It immediately imposed itself as a reference and in just two months has become one of the most popular clubs of the city."
