CLUB NOA BROUGHT TO LIFE WITH MARTIN AUDIO
The glittering new Club NOA (Nest of Angels) has opened in the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca following a major renovation of a well-known clubbing site on the Strada Republicii.
Oozing fashion and luxury, the club has a potent Martin Audio system based around the W8VDQ, at the heart of an advanced sound and lighting infrastructure costing €500,000 to put together, and boasting 65kW of sound.
The Sound and lighting systems were specified by Romanian installation specialists Simo Sound SRL (Disco Zone), with support from Martin Audio's Product Support Group. The 18 W8VDQ enclosures specified dominate the main room, combining line array and differential dispersion technologies to provide an advanced hybrid solution to the requirement of even coverage over wide angles and throw distances - the perfect response for a venue of this nature, playing everything from electronic to live music.
The owners, Kàlmàn Jozsef, Horvàth Julieta and Kàlmàn Ladislau had already received evidence of Martin Audio's pedigree and signature sound, and following a trip to the company's factory in High Wycombe, and to the holy grail of sound systems, the Ministry of Sound in London, they were further convinced, describing Martin Audio as 'the Aston Martin of sound'.
Said Simo Sound's Doru Gheorghe, 'They particularly liked the clarity and warmth of the system - it just sounded fabulous.'
The distributed set-up was designed to take account of the venue's unusual layout. In addition to the W8VDQ Simo Sound supplied ten WS218X floor standing subwoofers and four ASX subs mounted under the stage. Two XD15's were commandeered as DJ reference monitors with a pair of XD12's for infill, while the rest rooms and VIP areas are populated with eight C8.1T full range ceiling speakers.
Various Martin Audio amplifiers are assigned to driving the system, including five each of Martin Audio's MA5.2K and MA9.5K, along with MA3.0 and MA4.8Q amplifiers, all under the control of a dedicated Merlin network management system.
Although the 1500-capacity club only has a single room, it has five floating cells placed above the main dancefloor so that the stage can be seen from every point in the venue.
The club design was masterminded by Gosho Studio in collaboration with 49Studio, two architectural and interior design firms based in Cluj-Napoca. 'The main idea was to use old luxury trends, that were common in art-deco style, so that we could obtain a retro-modern look that has a fine elegant touch,' explained Gosho Stefanov.
'The biggest challenge for the designers, was to avoid the idea of a glam look and feel. They used straightforward clear shapes to reinterpret the art deco style, natural stone for the bar and table surface and reflective and glass surfaces that work well with the whole smart lighting setup. Also the club designers used materials that have a natural look so the general feel is cosmopolitan.'
The new venue is already proving extremely popular with the local clientele - and the operators themselves. 'I'm extremely happy with the outcome,' confirms the administrator Mester Liviu.