Shopping for sound

The iconic Dubai Mall has had a new background music system installed to cover some of its newer areas. James Ling goes shopping...

The Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping and entertainment destination, is the very symbol of modern Dubai. It is record-breaking in scale, its plush and luxurious boulevards are filled with every brand imaginable and entertainment is at its heart. From the waterfall to the Dubai Ice Rink, via Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo and The Dubai Fountain show in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, there is a sense of wonder created by this iconic venue. In short, nothing sums up the Emirate better.

As the ‘must visit’ attraction for residents and tourists alike, this is about as high-profile as it is possible to get in Dubai – and that is saying something. As such, only the best will do and the prestige that goes along with having equipment installed here for any project means that there is fierce competition to get The Dubai Mall as a reference.

Meyer Sound is hardly a stranger to The Dubai Mall. Its speakers have long been used to cover the Dubai Ice Rink and provide the music for the ever-impressive fountain show. However, it jumped at the opportunity to add more equipment into the venue with a project from local systems integrator, Systech Middle East. The project, working alongside renowned consultant Mediatech Design Group, was to install a sound system into the newer areas of the mall, and combine that with the older original PA and BGM system.

In many venues around the world this would be a simple, small project. However, for The Dubai Mall, covering the new areas required over 1,000 speakers, more than 60km of cabling and around a year of work. ‘There are about 1,024 MM4 speakers, over 100 power supplies and some Galileo processors,’ recalls Systech’s Malek Ghorayeb. ‘What’s good about the MM4 is it’s small for Meyer Sound. We were also able to do it in the colours the mall wanted. We did maybe five or six custom colours to blend in with different areas of the mall.’

The MM4 speakers were installed on custom-made brackets over three floors of the mall and required more than 60km of cabling from Belden. ‘We used Belden cabling for this due to the availability. There are three storeys and we needed to find a way to go from one floor to another keeping the cables at a minimum length,’ explains Mr Ghorayeb. ‘It was hard to get all the cables around because of the power supply and where to put it. With the MM4, the power supply can power eight speakers and then from the power supply you go to Galileo as the controller. What is good about Meyer though is that you don’t have to run into any amplification. This makes it less work for the installer.

Of course, whenever retrofitting is involved there are always a set of unique challenges for the systems integrator. ‘Working in an existing mall is hard because it’s not a work site, it’s open,’ notes Mr Ghorayeb. ‘We had to work from midnight until 7am or 8am, so it was not normal working hours. We had to come when they closed and we had to be out before they opened. Everything has to be cleaned before you go and you have to take care of the decoration.

‘It was a challenge to retrofit a system into this large and iconic structure,’ continues Mr Ghorayeb. ‘The main challenge was we needed to start on time and we needed to finish on time. Every day it took us around one hour to clean up and make sure everything was back to normal before they opened the mall. We had a group of 14 people working over there, some pulling cables, some doing the labelling, some doing the connectors, some in the control room.’

Following the installation, Systech was joined on site by Meyer Sound for commissioning the new BGM solution. ‘The main key for this was how to tune the system. This was done with the help of the Meyer guys who were here for the fine tuning,’ recalls Mr Ghorayeb. ‘I’m definitely happy with how it sounds. Anyone who walks around the mall now will notice the difference. It’s pure, it’s all balanced. Even walking down a 200m corridor you will not notice the sound level changing. It’s all equal, it’s perfect.’

Despite this confidence in the system and satisfaction with the way it sounds, unveiling it to the client for the final sign off was a long process. ‘When we did the demo with the guys from Meyer, it took us three days to do, with even senior executives of The Dubai Mall coming to listen,’ says Mr Ghorayeb. ‘Everyone was happy and it went through and the sound now is really perfect.’

While on a larger scale than most and presenting its own share of challenges, this portion of the project actually turned out to be the easiest part. After Systech had installed the areas that were not covered, it needed to connect the new Meyer Sound solution with the old BGM system and configure it to run as one integrated whole.

‘Initially we were supposed to just do the installation of these speakers and cover other areas, but then we ran into many other things,’ smiles Mr Ghorayeb. ‘We changed the AMX, we added Biamp modules and we changed almost the entire configuration of the mall.’

On the Biamp side, Systech utilised the existing AudiaFlex CM units previously installed at the mall. The integrator needed to add some new cards to the Biamp audio platform and reprogram the units to run the new BGM system.

More reprogramming came with the AMX system that acts as control for the whole mall. According to Mr Ghorayeb, this was the most challenging part of the project. To connect the new solution to the original BGM system, Systech needed to do some large-scale recoding. ‘We had to connect to the AMX system that they have. This was the hard part and involved a lot of programming from our staff but we managed it,’ smiles Mr Ghorayeb. ‘Now we can consider that this is done successfully as everyone is happy and we are looking forward to working with them again in the future, because they have more things to come.’

The project took a little longer than initially planned due to the usual modifications and variations that you would expect with any job of this scale. However, according to Mr Ghorayeb, everyone involved is very happy with the end result.

He puts this down to one major factor. ‘It is perfect, but then you’re working with Meyer Sound. They are really very good in terms of supporting a project,’ smiles Mr Ghorayeb. ‘They were here all the time with us, any customisation that needed to be done they were really supportive. They have a great product and they were really easy when it came to customisation.’

With background music now filling all of the luxurious confines of The Dubai Mall, it is easy to see why this kind of reference project is critical for manufacturers and systems integrators alike. Much like the shops in the mall itself, every brand wants to be here, and only the highest standards are acceptable.

www.mediatech.ae
www.meyersound.com
www.systech-me.com
www.thedubaimall.com