‘In the winter, they keep the glass walls to the balcony closed, but as soon as the warm weather arrived and they opened up. the neighbours began complaining about the noise…’
The problem facing Bar National in Beirut is hardly unprecedented but not the less difficult for that. In fact, the bar opened as recently as early 2012, and is already reviewing its audio system as a result of the complaints. Music Manager for Bar National, Gunther Sabbagh, called in Youssef Aoun from sound specialist, Seebeck Audio
‘He came up with a tricky but effective solution,’ Sabbagh reports.
‘This is a roof-top bar with live DJ and music playback,’ Aoun says. ‘Beyond removing the existing system I could see two immediate problems – the only way to keep low end at moderate levels to the surrounding buildings was to use a cardioid sub that didn’t spray low end all over the place. For the rest of the frequency range I used Ease to model a system design that faced backwards into the bars’ interior.’
While the DJ area was straightforward (‘a pair of Max12s powered by a D6 proved ideal’), Aoun took elements from d&b audiotechnik’s White range for the main system – specifically, 27A-Subs and 10AL two-way line array modules from the xA-Series.
‘The 10AL is a great full frequency, and in the arrays I devised had the ideal pattern control for a twin stereo solution,’ Aoun erxplains. ‘Being an installer system, it is also available in weatherproof version that is ideal for the balcony.’
A small array of 10AL boxes was hung at extreme left and right against the sliding glass walls within the bar’s interior, and an identical array was mounted outside on the balcony, also facing inward.
‘This meant two timing settings – summer, where point zero was from the balcony system when in use, with the room system delayed to it, and winter when the inside system could be run at zero. The room is not so big, and the distance between balcony and room system is just eleven metres, but that’s no reason not to make the alignment perfect.’
‘I understand from Youssef that the subs are cardioid – who knows what this means?’ says Joe Keyrouz who, with brother Rami opened the Bar National. ‘I’m a successful business man not a sound technician, but certainly the leakage to surrounding buildings has been greatly reduced, which has made my neighbours very happy.
‘The sound from the main system is also contained, but of even more importance to my customers it tht it sounds ten times better than what I had before. Seebeck has done a wonderful job and Bar National is well on its way to becoming the most popular bar of this type in Beirut.’
More: www.dbaudio.com
More: www.seebeckaudio.com
