SOUND OF THE LORDS

Qubix delivers sonic excellence across 17,000 sq.ft.

With the longest island bar in all of Asia, Lord of the Drinks, Lower Parel is the latest offering from First Fiddle Restaurants to finds a spot among Mumbai’s elite party zones. PALM technology explores the audio system integration for the venue.

One of Delhi’s most-loved restobar-cum-lounge - Lord Of The Drinks, strengthened its position in Mumbai’s nightlife scene by opening its second outlet in Mumbai, at the Kamala Mills Compound - the city’s undisputed leader when it comes to restaurants, bistros and other eating places and home to some of the best nightlife spots.

Sprawling across more than 17,000 sq.ft., this new impressive upscale outlet, boasts of the longest island bar in all of Asia at a whopping 210 ft. perimeter and has got pretty much everything you’d expect from a world-class lounge-bar - fantastic neo modern architecture, well-stocked bar, and a delectable menu.

Designed by Saheba Singh from ‘This is it Designs,’ the venue is more than just a nightclub and restobar. Nightspots in India can be a loud affair, both in terms of the sound as well as the décor, but the Lords of the Drinks (LOTD) is a crafty balance of trendy and casual.

While high-ceilings and mirrored walls create a more spacious and three-dimensional feeling, earthy fabrics and colors used for the furniture and accessories by Delhi-based home decor brand, Bent Chair, gives out a vibe of the medieval times. Quirky accents to the furniture and funky artifacts that adorn the glass cabinets as you enter the venue and other areas of LOTD, give the venue a modernized look.

LOTD is the brainchild of one of India’s most successful Indian restaurateurs - Priyank Sukhija - CEO and MD, First Fiddle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. From his first fine-dining restaurant Lazeez Affaire at Malcha Marg to a chain of other successful brands like Tamasha, JLWA, Warehouse Cafe, Openhouse Cafe, Teddy Boy, Flying Saucer, Cafe Southall and Townhouse under him, he is now on the pinnacle of the Indian restaurant business.

Conceptualising and building a 17,000 sq.ft. venue in the middle of Mumbai that boasts of the largest bar in Asia, needs business acumen and a far sited approach. Moreover, a team of professionals and experts are required to design and execute services of this scale that can cater to 600 guests at one time. There are 30 Bartenders who man the main bar, and additionally the restaurant employs a staff of about 150 people.

A venue of this scale and magnitude also meant that it needed an audio system, which was unparalleled and covered the massive 17,000 sq.ft. area perfectly.

The Plum Cafe deploys a visually minimalist sound system comprising of a combination of 8 Inch Co-axial speakers along with a 15 inch Bandpass Subwoofers

For the main bar area, Priyank in his brief was clear what he wanted - a high end bar where people could dance in a designated area and also sit and have a conversation within the same space without any barriers between the dance area and the seating area. The space in front of the DJ console had to be the hot spot for dance and music, while sound along the bar needed to be warm wherein conversation is easy, even though the sound is on the chest. The biggest challenge however was the size of the venue and challenging acoustics along with a tough brief by the venue promoters.

Rhythm Arora and his team from Qubix, Bangalore was brought on to take up this challenging project. “The Venue is really large and there are many challenges which we faced during the installation of the system. The Cable runs are very long considering the size of the place; also, most of the speakers are wired individually to a single channel of the amplifier and the DSP. As far as the design is concerned, it was very challenging to design an evenly distributed sound system in the venue,” explains Rhythm.

After a careful evaluation of the venue’s requirement, the Qubix team finally chose loudspeakers from CSC Audio powered by amplifiers from RAM Audio, Spain.

The heart of the system is the 36 DSP channels and over forty amplification channels. The Qubix team put in four days of sheer hard work to ensure every DSP channel was set up precisely to achieve the results required by the LOTD team.

Keeping in view the dynamics of the venue, the main sound reinforcement at the venue is done using a pair of highly directional bi-amped Horn Loaded, CSC CF15H Mid Tops along with 2 Reflex Loaded Dual 18-inch subwoofers. “Dedicated for the space allocated for the dance floor they get their low frequency extension from a pair of CSC CR 218 sub-woofers. The venue being 40 meters long has 16 precisely tuned fillers. CSC CF 10 (1x10” + 1” HF) along with a Co-axial 8”, CSC CC8 loudspeakers are the fillers used. A pair of sub-woofers ( CSC CR 18s ) are strapped to the ceiling on either side of the bar in Cardioid formation giving that extra low end without canceling the base from the main PA ,” details Rhythm.

On the right of the long island bar is The Plum Café – An Urban Jungle Lounge, designed by Bent Chair, which tantalizes the taste buds with Pan Asian delicacies, flaunts striking hanging plants, a city view from the huge glass windows and unusual décor which patrons can buy if it catches their fancy. Patrons can buy everything – from the chandelier to the chair, the plates or wall décor. This Jungle Lounge provides a bar and private dining room-feel and is perfect for a relaxing and humble dining experience. The area is perfect for small parties and private bookings.

A visually minimalist sound system comprising of a combination of 8 Inch Co-axial speakers along with a 15 inch Bandpass Subwoofers was deployed for this area of LOTD with a separate volume control for the area. “The brief for the Jungle Lounge was that they needed a clear yet powerful sound evenly distributed with independent controls. To ensure all customers are within the direct sound zone, a high density of CSC CC 8’s in combination with a pair of powerful yet compact 15” inch Bandpass Sub-woofers( CB 15s) are employed. This sub-woofer is deliberately chosen due to its relatively small profile. Being a cube of 15”x 15”x 48” it easily slid behind the sofa’s effectively occupying no floor space and doing their job. A Separate digital volume control running directly from the DSP helps in controlling the gain without having to fiddle with the amps. When the owners inspected the venue the toughest thing was to find the subs.”

The other section within LOTD is the Rocky Star Cocktail Bar and Rocky S Private Dining, designed by Fashion Designer Rocky S and Bent Chair. The High End Cocktail Bar is exclusive with plush gothic interiors in shades of black and copper, a world traveler’s menu representing different countries around the globe and exclusive brands in Alcohol. This area of LOTD has two separate spaces - one a high-energy bar with a DJ booth of its own and the other a low-energy space for private parties or meetings in a separate partitioned room. The high energy bar needed special attention as the demand was for quality and size without compromising on power. Keeping this in mind, the CSC CF 10 mid highs along with the CR 18s subs was chosen to deliver smooth distortion free music without compromising on power. “The system usually works along with the main system, except during special nights, when there is a separate DJ in the area. The bar has a set of four 10 inch mid tops and one 18 inch subwoofer. Going down to 35 Hz the sub-woofer in combination with the mid tops takes your breath away,” concludes Rhythm.

With Over 50,000W of Power, More than 30 Loudspeakers, over 10 Subwoofers, 12 High Power Amplifiers, 6 Digital Sound Processors – Lord of the Drinks definitely tops the list of Audio Installs in its segment.