Life chooses Dynacord
Published: MEA
LEBANON: Life, one of Beirut’s largest clubs, has opted for a Dynacord system to cover its 1,500 capacity indoor area and open air space of double that size.
Maurice Salloum sound engineer and co-owner of Life took the responsibility of identifying the right system as well as the right company to do the installation. Mr Salloum tasked Oussama Mansour Abou Faraj of Hi Fi Service with installing an ‘unparalleled system’ for the venue. ‘He wanted a system that could generate high SPLs and at the same time could produce an excellent sound,’ recalls Mr Abou Faraj.
The design criteria were not straight forward, Life required a system that could be used as indoor system for the winter season and then be moved outside during summer when the club shifts to the open air area. ‘I was determined to use a Dynacord Variline system’ said Mr Abou Faraj. ‘We have used the system in other clubs and were extremely satisfied with the results we obtained.’
A full venue analyses was undertaken including a full room model done using Ulysses, to ensure the position and speakers were right for the application. The design included eight Dynacord VL212s covering the main area and reinforced by 10 VL112 and five VL262 cabinets covering the upper tier areas. A close cooperation with the interior decorator took place giving the club a large ‘covert’ subwoofer system. A total of six Sub 28 woofers and eight Sub 18s were used in this venue. Power is from 13 of Dynacord’s new DSA 8410 4 x 1,000W amplifiers complete with the Variable Load drive (VLD) modules.
The venue itself has a large motorised retractable roof that can turn it into a semi-outdoor venue. The main area is flanked by smaller seating spaces on either side. During quieter days these can be closed using partitions. As such, the control of the whole system needed to be flexible and powerful allowing proper signal management. For this Mr Abou Faraj selected the Dynacord P64 digital signal processor and the DSA multi-channel amplifiers. Two units were used, one standard P64 and one P64-1500 configured as 8-input/32-output with the two DSP’s connected using CobraNet.
Mr Salloum also wanted a control system that could be changed as needed in the venue without affecting the acoustic output or equalisation settings. An IRISnet GUI was created to cater for this requirement, giving the DJs enough control to satisfy the venue without risking the safety and integrity of the system.
‘We had fewer than 10 days to install and commission the system,’ recalled Mr Abou Faraj. ‘My team was working 20 hours a day, and as usual they have done a great job, in record time,’ he enthused. ‘The opening was Sunday evening, and by Wednesday all the cables were laid and the speakers installed in place. It was time to install the Electronics but we couldn’t find the input, output and DSP cards. They were missing!’ he revealed. ‘The Dynacord team was contacted immediately and they arranged to ship the boards by premium rapid courier reaching Beirut on Friday morning. On Friday the shipment couldn’t be traced online, so they arranged for the boards to be sent by private courier and delivered by Saturday morning,’ recalled Mr Abou Faraj. ‘A man knocked on the doors of HI FI offices on Saturday morning delivering the missing boards. That is commitment at its best.’
When the system was ready to go Mr Salloum agreed he made the right choice. ‘The system performs better than expected. It is extremely loud, clear and has done everything we have asked of it, we have definitely made the right choice – Dynacord.’