project team
design: Sam and Rob Franchina
av: Frank Prowse Hi-Fi

featured venue > xo lounge, perth
  

XO Lounge
Exchange Plaza, 2 The Esplanade, Perth
08 9325 5000
 

Aimed at the over 25 suit crowd, XO serves only the best top shelf spirits and exclusive cocktails to its sophisticated clientele of business people and the like.

The venue’s central feature is the glowing onyx marble bar, and with granite and marble from head to toe, as well as luxurious bathrooms; state of the art surround sound system, crockery from Dubai, Italian glassware and French cutlery, it’s evident no expense has been spared at XO.

XO Lounge was designed by Sam and Rob Franchina, drawn by Anthony Casella, and built by Frank Paratore.

Audio visual elements were designed, supplied and installed by Frank Prowse Hi-Fi. From the outset the primary objective was to create an acoustic environment that was considerably better than people were used too in a bar or nightclub and with a quality of sound that would enhance the experience of patrons. All of this needed to be achieved without compromising the lavish interior design of the bar. During the day the system would aim to provide quality background music whilst on special occasions such as Friday evenings the system had to be able to play loud and clear and with adequate bass emphasis to energise the room.

The space itself was a challenge given the high ceilings and the abundance of marble and glass surfaces. Their first task was to use acoustic treatments to reduce the amount of floor-to-ceiling slap echo and reduce the perceived brightness of sound in the room. A slimline one inch thick 2ft x 2ft square fabric covered panel from Auralex was

chosen as it features excellent absorption of mid and high frequencies
but blends visually onto a light coloured ceiling in a way that compliments the décor of the room. With these panels dispersed across the ceiling the end result is an acoustic environment that is comfortable to be in where you don't have to strain to hear someone speak (even in a crowd) and which allows you to appreciate the music without it being overpowering.

To achieve good uniformity of sound throughout the space an eight inch in ceiling speaker from Speakercraft that has a wide dispersion and a good bass response was used. Eleven pairs of are distributed
evenly across the ceiling as well as installing some in-ceiling subwoofers from Velodyne to give greater low frequency extension. As there were offices located directly above Dynabox enclosures
mounted over the back of the ceiling speakers and Dynamat Dynil mats across the back of the subwoofers were used to prevent sound leakage. Single stereo eight inch in-ceiling speakers were used in the
bathrooms where space was at a premium. The speakers were driven by a high power, high quality multichannel commercial amplifier from German company, Lab Gruppen. The resulting sound has a detailed, effortless quality and can be driven loud without straining.

Source music is provided via a Sonos system. By using Sonos the owners have the choice of using music streamed from the online Rhapsody streaming service or their own music digitally archived on a
NAS drive. They can create their own playlists using tracks from either of these sources and produce a tailored, continuous feed of music that is appropriate for any occasion.
 



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