Rocking all over Sentosa

While Resorts World Sentosa (RSW) was officially opened earlier this year during Chinese New Year in February, development of the 49-hectare area has continued, with restaurants, shops and more gradually moving in to the gaps that lingered between the main hotels, the casino and Universal Studios. Among them is the Hard Rock Hotel – just one notable example. Preceded by the Hard Rock Café near Orchard Road and a smaller outlet in Changi Airport’s Terminal Three, RSW now boasts the third Hard Rock Café in Singapore at the 24-hour Festive Walk, and this too recently opened its doors for the first time. Of all the themed restaurants jostling for the attention of hungry tourists, this globally renowned, high profile diner stands out.

Following in the footsteps of several other Hard Rock locations in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bali, Beijing, Penang and Pattaya, Hard Rock Café Sentosa is owned and operated by Hard Rock Café Holdings and is a subsidiary of Hotel Properties Limited and Hard Rock’s franchisee in Asia. Seating up to 175 diners and commanding 650 sq-m of space, the restaurant incorporates a café, bar, rock shop and a stage for regular live performances, all of which are enhanced by the chandeliers that grace the bar ceiling area, capturing the eyes of visitors as they enter. Naturally, the walls are bejewelled by rock and roll memorabilia that dates back over four decades of popular music, including guitars, stage-outfits and gold discs signed and donated by the likes of Aerosmith, Madonna and Simple Minds. The extensive food and drink menu – consistently good, but keeping the spreadsheet in good shape – is almost a distraction.

Audio is very much a critical component of the ‘Hard Rock’ experience. The chain’s restaurants are famed for vibrant and powerful in-house music played in the background but with a foreground mentality. This presents something of a challenge every time a new Café opens. Not only has the music got to deliver a consistent note to the diner in keeping with the chain’s brand image, but it has to do so at decibel levels that are higher than most other restaurants from late morning to early morning seven days a week. Reliability and consistency are therefore vitally important criteria – not for nothing does the Hard Rock Café promotes its audio and video system as being state-of-the-art on its website and in its marketing literature. As such, the choice of equipment within the RSW restaurant was critical.

Electronics & Engineering (E&E) Pte Ltd was asked to design, supply and install the entertainment system, which encompasses sound reinforcement, stage lighting and video systems. E&E has commanded a monopoly on Hard Rock Cafés in the region, clearly suggesting that its proven experience over the decades has helped build the brand from Beijing to Jakarta and many points in-between. The company’s 60 year pedigree stands it in good stead for most engineering contracts of this nature in south east Asia, and with the Harman Pro and Shure brands among others at its disposal, the installer can offer its clients the most reliable and current technology available on the market.

The café’s management asked E&E to create a high impact sonic environment that would fit the Hard Rock template and so a high performance stereo system was selected to enhance the sound field in three designated zones – the dining area, the bar and the rock shop retail outlet. Serving these three zones, the distributed sound system is delivered via 34 JBL Control 25AV wall-mounted speakers powered by two Crown CDi1000 amplifiers. The 150W rated Control 25AV speakers operate within a frequency range of 70Hz to 20kHz, and so E&E boosted the sound system’s lower frequencies down to 42Hz by discretely adding four ceiling-mounted Control SB210 dual 10-inch subwoofers. Two Crown XTi2000 amplifiers power the SB210s, providing 1,000W per channel in 2Ω operation. A dbx ZonePro 1260 12-input, six-output digital zone processor manages the DSP of the distributed sound system, providing gain control and EQ for all the inputs. The duty manager can use it for specific functions such as selectable paging and microphone processing in addition to gating, de-essing, auto gain control, compression and feedback suppression. The routing module offers primary source selection for BGM and public announcements as well as emergency override should an evacuation be necessary.

A JBL VRX system was selected as the main component for the sound reinforcement system on stage. Owing to the relatively low ceiling and long dimensions of the new Hard Rock Café, two L-R line arrays consisting of two VRX 932LA 12-inch speakers have been ceiling mounted to provide a wide horizontal pattern of approximately 100° and a narrow vertical pattern of 30°. Operating within a frequency range of 57Hz to 20kHz, the VRX 932LA speakers are powered by two Crown XTi6000 amplifiers with integrated DSP allowing quick configurations of the crossover, EQ, limiting and delay functions. Driven by a single Crown XTi6000 amplifier, two JBL SRX 728 dual 18-inch subwoofers have been neatly recessed underneath the stage, extending the low frequencies of the subsequent three-way system to 27Hz.

Equipped with 48-input channels and four monitor sends, a Soundcraft Si2 digital live console is employed for FOH and monitoring duties when live acts are performing. The recall feature with its switching and resetting functions has particularly come into its own at the venue, having vastly sped up soundchecks which would otherwise interfere with the experience of diners prior to a show. A Rane SM26 splitter is connected to the Si2 console, which is then routed through to a dbx Driverack 260 processor and onto a Crown XTi6000 amplifier for complete system management, while a second SM26 is connected to the distributed sound system via the dbx ZonePro260. The four monitor outputs on the Si2 are connected to four JBL MRX512M 12-inch monitor speakers on stage. Powered by two Crown XTi2000 amplifiers, all four monitors boast signal processing by two dbx 166XL compressor, limiter, gates in addition to two dbx 231 dual graphic equalisers.

The lighting system comprises of a Eurolite splitter, a Martin Professional Light Jockey 2, eight Koroma LED par cans, four SGM PHS260 moving head spotlights and two Futurelight PSX-250 scanners. The video system has been built around an Extron IN1508 eight-input A/V switcher, providing seamless switching between RGB and video inputs, and is capable of scaling standard and high definition video as well as computer-video signal resolution. A Remaco Pro-2727C 108x108-inch motorised screen receives its images from a Sanyo XU106 4500 Ansi Lumens projector, which is connected to an Extron P/2 DA4 Plus distribution amplifier. Whilst maintaining the original signal’s integrity, the P/2 DA4 Plus splits an incoming signal and distributes it to six separate outputs, which are all individually buffered and amplified with audio interference eliminated.

E&E was one of the last contractors to enter the site prior to the official opening in April 2010, with all of the cabling, terminations, tuning and commissioning conducted within a two week period. Such an installation may be standard fare for E&E, but just like the Hard Rock Café’s menu, what may appear to be an ordinary signature dish to those in the busy kitchen, is a feast to those taking in the exhibits, audio playback and video images.

www.enepl.com.sg

www.hardrock.com.sg