Run to the hills
Published: ASIA
INDONESIA: Translating to ‘beautiful mountain’ and located to the south of Jakarta, Gunung Geulis rises to an elevation of 500m above sea level. Tucked away in this remote area, a luxurious 5-star retreat hotel has just opened in Puncak Ciawi with the aim of attracting both leisure and business customers. With its vista of Bogor and fresh mountain air, the Royal Tulip Gunung Geulis Resort & Golf is furnished with 173 luxury hotel rooms, spa and health facilities, sports facilities, bar, lounge and restaurants. PT Gracia Auvindo dutifully took a paid vacation away from the congestion and heat of North Jakarta to provide the new resort with its varied audio requirements.
From the five corporate meeting rooms to the grand ballroom, the resort is fully equipped with facilities that can cater for corporate meetings, events and weddings. The meeting rooms – Iroom, Cloud I, Cloud II, Focus I and Focus II – are located on the ground floor and can accommodate groups of up to 14-18 participants. All five rooms and a pre-function area are equipped with A/V technology including projectors, whilst the addition of dual Tannoy CVS4 ceiling speakers enhance speech intelligibility during video playback and conferencing. Powered by three Lab.gruppen E4:2 amplifiers, the 12 4-inch models receive their output via a Symetrix Solus 16-in/eight-out processor. Whilst the DSP configurations and audio routing have been programmed, the facility manager or meeting facilitator can configure the source, volume and presets via the Symetrix ARC-2e menu driven wall mounted remote controls.
For larger events such as weddings, guests enter via a separate entrance into a 300 sq-m pre-function area before being shown into the 600 sq-m St Andrew's grand ballroom. To maximise its appeal, this can be divided into four separate rooms that face north, south, east and west. Although the lower ceiling area of the pre-function area is equipped with six CVS4 ceiling speakers, the main ballroom is capable of producing higher SPLs courtesy of the 24 CVS8 speakers that have been unobtrusively integrated into its interior design. Whilst a Lab.gruppen Lucia 120 amplifier powers the CVS4 models, two E8:2 amplifiers ensure BGM and speeches are clearly audible in the main ballroom for the 60W rated 8-inch coaxials. Once again, a Symetrix Solus 16 processor lies at the heart of the system, for which individual DSP settings can be manually configured from individual ARC-2e wall controls.
The PT Gracia Auvindo team has replicated similar designs based upon the Tannoy and Lab.gruppen combination in the all-day dining area, bar, lounge, pool area, gymnasium and spa areas. The bar and lounge can host live performances for which a DDA DM12 console can be output to a portable speaker system when required. Sources such as an iPod normally provide the BGM to the eight CVX4 and two CMS801 speakers powered by a Lucia 240 amplifier.
Abbreviated from ‘Localised Utility Compact Intelligent Amplification’, the Lucia amplifiers promote a de-centralised system design. Weighing less than 2.0kg in a half rack width unit that is 1U in height, the dual 120W model is not only capable of providing ample power to the 10 ceiling speakers, but also offers processing and control. Additionally, the ultra-compact form factor also allows easy placement next to a projector or integrated into a reception counter, podium or bar area, whilst all input and output connections are on Euroblock screw terminals and level setting is available on front panel potentiometers. ‘They save us a lot of time installing systems on site,’ confirmed project sales engineer Brian Ikhsan. ‘Our clients also like them as they can be discretely placed anywhere.’
The all-day dining area includes an outdoor zone equipped with IP55-rated Tannoy DVS6T cabinets, which in addition to the indoor ceiling speaker solution is powered by a Lab.gruppen E4:2 amplifier. Like the bar and lounge area, a DDA DM-12 console can once again be employed for live performances. The pool area is equipped with a combination of eight Tannoy DVS6T and eight FBT cabinets powered by a single E4:2 amplifier for its three zones. ‘It was a straightforward design and we enjoyed a great relationship with our client,’ furthered Mr Ikhsan. ‘It was a very remote location, which in many ways made a welcome change for our installation team. However, on the rare occasion that we forgot to take anything to site, it could pose a problem.’