Nexo P8s provide fills around the perimeter
HAVING BEEN NOTICEABLY ABSENT IN THE MIDDLE East market for several years, Nexo’s recent partnership with Dubai-based distributor Thomsun is already beginning to pay off for the French loudspeaker brand. Located on Bank Street inside the Majestic Premier Hotel, Moksha by BarBaar recently opened its doors, serving as a new flag bearer for the brand in Dubai. Moksha’s description as a bar and lounge doesn’t really do it justice, and as soon as you step inside, that becomes immediately apparent. Beyond a long, thin, central seating area is large stage adorned with various live instruments. The main attraction here is the music, whether that be live or from a DJ, and it’s obvious that a great deal of effort has been put into making that music experience the best it can be. This extends to the visual aesthetic, a blend of unique Middle Eastern traditional styling paired with futurist rave-style accents. A balcony VIP area flanks the upper level throughout. Thanks to its previous work at other BarBaar outlets, systems integrator Spectra Displays Technical Services LLC once again teamed up with Thomsun to help deliver a new audio solution for the refreshed Moksha nightclub, subsequently making it the first nightclub in the UAE with Nexo-powered audio. “Moksha is a brand-new space.
L–R: Dinesh Kumar, Glenvin D’souza, Atul Lanjudkar,
Justin Aloysius, Mohammed Parvez and Nikil Babu
It’s a live concept venue
especially for the Asian audience with a focus on new music coming
into the genre,” explains Moksha general manager Sudananda
Poojari. “One of the key nights is Plus 91 Studio, which features
two Dubai-based local bands performing at the same time as
two bands all the way from India. Then on Saturday we have a DJ
evening, a high-energy night where we invite renowned Indian and
Bollywood DJs. As a result, the speaker system has to be able to
handle both of these very different functions. Given that this is
very lively bar, the owner was also keen to explore more powerful
solutions than in our previous venues, all of which led us to Nexo.”
“The client approached us for Moksha following work we had
done at Virgo Dubai,” explains Spectra owner Justin Aloysius.
“They were also familiar with Thomsun from the original BarBaar
project and were aware that the Nexo system was now available
locally. I was also very familiar with the brand as I used to manage
Nexo many years ago when I worked for their distributor at the
time.”
Given that the type of music being played at Moksha depends
heavily on the crowd, “we’ve configured the audio system so it
can bring good quality music to every nook and cranny, regardless
of if it’s a completely full house or not,” notes Spectra project
manager Melo Navarro. “It’s a relatively small area, but they
run a serious operation, and it can get pretty lively as the night
progresses, with people moving and dancing around.”
With ceiling-hung main arrays formed of six Nexo GEO M12
line array cabinets placed on either side of the stage, low-end
reinforcement comes from six GEO MSUB18 subwoofers hidden
under its front lip. Eight Yamaha DHR12M foldback monitors allow
musicians onstage to clearly hear their own performances. The
cabinets are connected via Dante to a single NXAMP4X1 and two
NXAMP4X4 amplifiers, with DSP from a Yamaha MRX7-D.
Extending distribution to the upper level are additional Nexo P8
point-source speakers spaced around the exterior walls. Four
more mounted downstairs bring coverage to the VIP booths and
bar area. Control is managed by the venue’s live sound engineer
via a Yamaha QL5 mixing console with iPad control. This takes
inputs either directly from the DJ booth or from a blend of wired
vocal and instrument mics onstage, alongside Sennheiser
Evolution Digital EW 100 G4 wireless systems.
While audio has clearly been the focus when getting Moksha
off the ground, no less attention to detail has been paid to the
visual aesthetic. An overhead lighting rig adorned with multiple
Pangolin lasers works in tandem with videowalls covering the
central columns and the rear of the stage. Everything is managed
by an Avolites Titan Mobile control surface. “The Pangolins are
really great lasers,” notes the project manager. “They’re capable
of creating some pretty cool effects.”
Video content and graphics are being fed from a Novastar H2
video sever into a desktop computer at FOH running Resolume,
which in turn feeds four HDMI outputs to the displays. “We can
slice content up and map it onto any of the LEDs,” explains
Navarro.
While Spectra first got involved with the venue four months
before Moksha opened, because all parties were familiar with
both each other and the Nexo family of products, installation was
completed in less than two weeks. “Beyond the fact that it is the
first new Nexo nightclub in Dubai for quite some time, the system
sounds great and is plenty enough for their needs,” concludes
Aloysius. “Initially we had concerns over how the columns and
some of the reflective surfaces would affect the audio. Some of
our guys visited the Nexo HQ for training and following that we
modelled the space in Nexo’s NS-1 system configuration software.
This left us fully confident in our design and that we had given
enough delay speakers to compensate. We modelled everything
again afterwards and I’m 100% satisfied with the Nexo setup
here. It ticks all the boxes and sounds simply amazing.”
Poojari notes that the reception from the first guests through
the door at Moksha has been exactly what he was hoping for.
“People have been telling us when they come in that the sound is
amazing. For us the sound really helps to create the right overall
vibe that we were looking for.”
“Impressed by our previous work at BarBaar and other venues,
Moksha by BarBaar trusted us to deliver their audiovisual needs,”
explains Nikil Babu, Thomsun product manager. “It was pleasure
to be able to bring Nexo CEO Jean Mullor to Moksha when he
came to Dubai recently and experience just how good the system
there sounds.”
www.instagram.com/moksha.dxb
www.thomsunmusic.com
Article from : Pro AVL MEA
