Set over three floors, Pacha Ibiza Dubai comprises The Main Room, The Red Room and The Rooftop, all kitted out to the highest standard. The cylindrical building that houses the club has been completely refurbished, with a customised audio solution installed throughout.
The sound system is based around d&b audiotechnik V Series, Q Series and White Series speakers covering all the various zones from The Main Room's dance-floor to Pacha Ibiza Rooftop's terrace. Vital components in the system's operation are three Symetrix SymNet Radius AEC Dante-enabled DSPs and SymNet xOut 12s output expanders. "These are very powerful processors but in this project, their main role is input selection and zone control," says Amrith Verghese from Lightbox Professional, the project's integrator.
The main club, Red Room and rooftop each have their own SymNet Radius AEC outfitted with selected I/O option cards to provide audio processing. These are located in the rooftop and ground floor rack rooms and all connected via an Ethernet-based Dante digital audio network. While this was the first time that Verghese has used the product, he has clearly been impressed with its capabilities.
"When I came to Lightbox, I started using SymNet. The platform has a lot of processing power and it's really user-friendly," he reports. "Right now, the SymNet Radius AECs are all linked and on the same Wi-Fi network so I just have to control them through a browser. All the zone controls are accessible through the processors."
Chadi el Masri, managing partner at Lightbox, says. "We use Symetrix in ninety-nine percent of our key installation projects. In a venue such as Pacha, zoning and connecting several venues under one platform are vital factors, and in a challenging situation such as Pacha presented, Symetrix delivers - in spades.
"User interface and sound quality are, of course, essential ingredients too. High fidelity audio is paramount and unlike with other products we have used in the past, we have experienced no sound degradation with Symetrix."
The Pacha installation also makes full use of SymNet Radius AEC's support for Audinate's Dante media networking technology. "The Dante-enabled devices allow us to achieve the scalability and flexibility needed to meet the specifications of the simplest to the most complex installations," notes el Masri. "Symetrix is now, with good reason, the established benchmark for this kind of installation project."
Pacha Ibiza Dubai opened in December 2014 and the venue has become one of the hottest tickets in town. "We have created a unique show especially for the Dubai market," notes Pacha global franchise director, Marta Planells. "We are not just bringing a nightclub to Dubai - we are bringing the spirit of the island. What Pacha has is history and soul - and great sound."
(Jim Evans)
