LOS ANGELES — Since it opened here in 2011, the Icon Ultra Lounge has emerged as a nightlife hotspot, with guests reveling to DJs supported by rented sound gear within the 8,000 square-foot lounge and also on a similarly sized rooftop.
More details from RCF (www.rcf-usa.com):
The Icon rooftop lounge offers views of the Los Angeles skyline and the adjacent Staples Center. The lounge features private VIP cabanas, and full menu from five-star Michelin Chef Marcus Hayes.
After Arthur Guzman, general manager at Anaheim, California-based ACI Pro Audio, provided gear for an event at the lounge, he left with ideas on how different systems might fit the venues needs better.
After sharing those ideas with Icon’s owners, it was decided that he was right; it was time to install something permanent and hard-hitting for both dance areas.
“Right off the bat, I knew a RCF system would fit their budget and their system requirements,” said Guzman. “We did a demo of HDL 20-A line array boxes with the SUB 8006-AS subwoofers, and they were really, really impressed.”
Guzman specified a total of eight HDL 20-A boxes for the main dance floor – four on each side hung from the ceiling in clusters of two. The active boxes are loaded with two 10-inch woofers and a 3-inch compression driver. With a max SPL of 135 dB the system exceeds all sound level demands.
“One of the keys was demonstrating the SUB 8006 subs in a cardioid pattern,” added Guzman. “The old system had double 18-inch subs that shook the entire building. The RCF subs offered a much more musical experience even at a high SPL – so they could be loud but still sound great.”
The system now features six of the dual 18-inch SUB 8006 subwoofers. Stacks of three flank both sides of the DJ booth for driving low end.
On the rooftop it was important that the system meet both the customers and neighbors expectations. Because the building is surrounded by multi-story condominium complexes, the sound had to stay contained to the dance floor with minimal spill-over into the night air.
For this application, Guzman chose RCF’s P Series all-weather loudspeakers. Six P5228-L weatherproof full range, two-way line array speaker modules are utilized around the dance floor – three per side, mounted on ceiling height trusses. Four P4228 loudspeakers are mounted on columns throughout the nearby seating area to expand the music experience. Low end was provided by four more SUB 8006 subwoofers stacked in twos on each side of the DJ booth.
“The P5228 doesn’t have a super-wide coverage pattern making it easy to cover the dance floor and not much else,” Guzman said. “They also wanted the outdoor system to be as inconspicuous as possible – the P5228 are compact and fit perfectly on the trusses without hanging down. The sound was contained without any sacrifice of SPL.”
QSC PLX series amplifiers, rack mounted by the DJ booth, power the passive rooftop system.
“The owners are absolutely thrilled with the sound quality,” Guzman concluded. “They have the option of easily adding on if they feel they need more volume – but right now they think it is perfect. The audio quality maintains even when pushing the system. I could not have asked for more out of a club system.”
