Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the Icon Ultra Lounge has been a nightlife hotspot since its doors opened in 2011, featuring DJs that perform in the 4,000 square-foot lounge and also on a similarly sized rooftop.
Until recently the lounge and rooftop used a rented sound reinforcement system, but after Arthur Guzman, general manager at ACI Pro Audio, put on an event at the lounge he left with ideas on how to improve the situation. The venue’s ownership agreed with him, and he recently finished implementing two new systems.
“Right off the bat I knew RCF would fit their budget and system requirements,” explains Guzman. “We did a demo of HDL 20-A line array boxes with the SUB 8006-AS subwoofers, and they were really, really impressed.”
He specified dual flown arrays of four HDL 20-A boxes for the main dance floor in the lounge. The active loudspeakers are loaded with two 10-inch woofers and a 3-inch compression driver, and are specified with a maximum SPL rating of 135 dB.
The arrays are accompanied by six of the dual 18-inch SUB 8006 dual-18 subwoofers, positioned in stacks of three at both sides of the DJ booth.
“One of the keys was demonstrating the SUB 8006 subs in a cardioid pattern,” adds 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.”
Meanwhile, on the rooftop, it was important that the system meet both the customer and neighborhood expectations, the latter because the building is surrounded by multi-story condominium complexes. As a result, sound needs to be contained, with minimal spill-over into the night air.
For this application Guzman chose RCF P Series all-weather loudspeakers, with six P5228-L weatherproof two-way line array modules positioned 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, with low-end supplied by four more SUB 8006 subwoofers stacked in twos on each side of the DJ booth. QSC PLX Series amplifiers, rack mounted by the DJ booth, power the loudspeakers
“The P5228 doesn’t have a super-wide coverage pattern making it easy to cover the dance floor and not much else,” Guzman says. “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.
“The owners are absolutely thrilled with the sound quality,” Guzman concludes. “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.”