Ambitious Mumbai nightclub aims for premium experience with dampb
Published: ASIA
INDIA: An award-winning nightclub in Mumbai has been installed with a d&b audio system as part of a highly ambitious design that has even seen it architecturally isolated from the rest of the hotel in which it is housed. Named Trilogy, the venue is described as possessing ‘literally a box within a box structure’.
Since its recent opening, Trilogy – opened by sisters Neha and Minal Gundecha – has fast become one of Mumbai’s highest profile venues, winning the Best Nightclub award from two television stations and a recommendation in the Times of India. Located within the Hotel Sea Princess in Juhu, the club is sandwiched between a coffee shop beneath it and the hotel’s most expensive ocean-facing VIP suites above, necessitating extreme sound isolation of the kind more normally associated with orchestral concert halls.
‘The imperative for sound isolation was absolute,’ confirmed Milind Raorane of Soundframe Consulting, who designed the space. ‘But we also had to provide that ‘premium experience’ of sound within. Working in combination with Digital Advantage, the d&b audiotechnik distributor for India, we devised a complete acoustics and audio design, presenting the owners with acoustic prediction data and 3D sound mapping.
Music is relayed throughout both floors of the club, with Digital Advantage having installed a distributed system comprising mainly d&b E-Series loudspeakers. ‘The dance floor area is totally enveloped with high energy sound; a quad configuration, an inward facing four corner array of E12 loudspeakers each with a pair of B4-SUBs and an E12-SUB,’ explained Mr Raorane. ‘The B4 subwoofers are so aligned as to significantly reduce the amount of low end energy on the rear walls – it’s a zero fatigue environment.’
Elsewhere in the club, the 183 sq-m mezzanine between floors, and the approximately 457 sq-m lower lounge are covered using a variety of E8, E3 and E0 loudspeakers, with the lower floor again employing a quad design based on E3 and E12-SUB combinations.
Meanwhile, the floated ceiling, floor and walls are enhanced by an air-lock entry lobby, double doors and vacuum sealed double glazed windows. The ceiling has also reportedly been treated with cellulose spray for internal reverberation control.
Following the installation, Neha Gundecha commented: ‘Mr Raorane and Digital Advantage were helpful, prompt and responsible for the entire sound installation at Trilogy. Mr Raorane’s suggestions were extremely valuable for the sound isolation and acoustics of the installation.’