LAS VEGAS — The Dolce Group added some thump to the mix at its Rare 120° steak house at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino with a Symetrix ZoneMix 760 DSP. Richard Rutherford with Rutherford Design, an occasional contributor to FOH, designed and installed the multi-input, triple-zone, 70-volt system.
Rutherford used five of the ZoneMix 760’s six outputs for the main dining room loudspeakers, the main dining room subwoofers, the lounge loudspeakers, the lounge subwoofers, and the bathrooms. In addition, two loudspeakers in a cozy “VIP” dining room take their feed from the main dining room system with a simple attenuator to get the volume right. All of the loudspeakers come from Tannoy’s series of 70-volt and coaxial loudspeakers with support from additional Tannoy subwoofers both in the dining room and lounge.
Because of their proximity, all of the zones receive the same input source. The separate outputs and their associated equalization and dynamics processing tune each element of the system for optimum effect.
“We could have run everything together,” said Rutherford, “but the end result would have been noticeably less smooth. For example, the ZoneMix 760 contains a nine-band parametric EQ on each input and output. By separating the restaurant output from the lounge output, we were able to apply slightly different — and tremendously precise — EQs to compensate for their different acoustics.”
To control the system, managers use a Symetrix ARC-SWK wall panel with push buttons, menu, and knob to select an input source and change its volume. Available inputs include a DJ system, an iPod dock, a DVD player and a satellite receiver. “Training the staff on the new system took all of 30 seconds, literally,” said Rutherford. “We like that.”
When asked whether price factored into their decision to center the system on a ZoneMix 760, Rutherford replied, “Price always factors into it. But we don’t just look at price. We look at price versus function, price versus ease of programming, and price versus quality of sound. The 760 is not expensive by any measure, but its function set, intuitive GUI, and pristine sound quality make it a very good investment for modest, but important, installations like Rare 120°.”
For more information, please visit www.SymetrixAudio.com.
