A ‘unique spin on rooftop entertainment’, SOHY Sky Lounge is a striking addition to Ho Chi Minh City’s nightlife. Its need to accommodate a wide range of DJ and background music requirements across a large 10,000sq-ft floor plan – including outdoor areas – were among the challenges facing the project’s provider, DesignLive Technologies.
‘SOHY includes an outdoor Sky Lounge, rooftop Champagne Garden, Star Dining Room, and Zero Gravity Cigar Room,’ says Pham Tran Pham Phu, founder of DesignLive. ‘This project required a high performance DSP processor that could individually manage each zone’s distinct musical needs and route audio via Dante to a distributed amplifier topology. The venue is large by Vietnam’s standards, and there was a need for an interface to control the system on the go.
‘Symetrix processors are among the highest fidelity audio processors in the market and offer native Dante connectivity, while the ARC-Web interface is a highly intuitive, zero-cost network-based control solution’ he adds, ‘One of the aspects that the venue’s resident sound engineer, Mr Anh, is delighted about is that he can walk around the venue adjusting volumes and audio sources via his smartphone using ARC-Web. It gives him a great deal of flexibility across the site.’
Meanwhile, the Prism’s audio processing capabilities met the challenge of an acoustically daunting mix of contemporary finishing materials. ‘The interior design concept was very heavy on aluminium, glass and stone components with minimal acoustic treatment, but the Symetrix EQ processor gave us the tools to tighten up the fidelity of the system and solve a lot of the acoustic problems associated with those surfaces,’ Pham says.
Several months after completion of the project, the SOHY team is ‘delighted by the performance and convenience of the audio system’, Pham reports. ‘It has been able to handle everything the client has thrown at it, from a grand piano and vocal performance during the venue’s grand opening, to fine traditional Vietnamese instruments during a cultural show, to headliner DJs over a range of programme material. It is fulfilling all of their many needs in this exciting venue.’
