Located on Palm Island, Atlantis Dubai is the world’s most Instagrammed hotel, offering restaurants and a waterpark, and zones for kids, families and adults in an all-encompassing entertainment venue that also features an indoor/outdoor stage, indoor/outdoor bar and outdoor lounge area.

Led by Managing Director and audio engineer Joe Chidiac, systems integrator Pulse Middle East provided the A/V systems based around a Dante-enabled audio system for the hotel’s Wavehouse Atlantis using two Symetrix Radius NX 12x8 DSPs and one Radius NX 4x4 DSP.

‘We were brought in to design and install a sound system for live music, background music, and non-emergency paging that would have complete flexibility for the operator to play any source in any and all zones,’ Chidiac recalls. ‘Having so many different entertainment functions, the sound system needed to be separated by function and music requirements, so Wavehouse was separated into 11 main zones for source selection and volume control. The 11 zones are then divided into sub-zones for additional volume control, allowing the operator access to 25 sub-zones to be able to cater for special events. Each individual zone can be monitored from the A/V room speakers.’

The Wavehouse system is hosted on the hotel’s network, with fibre connecting two separate A/V rooms connected to the main intermediate distribution frame. Connection points for Dante devices around the venue are on Cat6 cable. In addition to portable devices, audio sources include a Pioneer DJM900 DJ mixer with CDJ2000 multi-players, connected with an AVIO adapter; a Midas M32 console with DN32-Dante card; and several TV receivers plugged directly into the Symetrix Radius processors. On the output side, Powersoft amplifiers drive loudspeakers from TW Audio and Martin Audio.

‘The Symetrix Radius makes it easy to manage the Dante network, and it’s extremely reliable,’ comments Pulse Middle East Head of Audio ,Andy Morris. ‘Most DSP for the loudspeakers at Wavehouse was done inside the Powersoft amplifiers but it was necessary to set balancing and delays within the Symetrix Radius DSPs in order to be able to change these settings for different operation modes. Symetrix Composer software made it easy to integrate our Powersoft amplifiers and enabled us to set up the routing without having to use Dante Controller.’

The Pulse team also used Symetrix Composer’s SymView GUI authoring to create a control server. ‘We made custom control pages for each zone, plus a diagnostics page for problem solving,’ Morris explains. ‘Because it’s hosted on the hotel’s network, there is flawless wi-fi coverage throughout the venue, so the operators can sign in and control any zone from anywhere around the venue.’

‘We had to work on the installation in parallel with construction and interior design in order to finish on time but we got it all done, and the system performs fully up to our expectations,’ Chidiac adds. ‘Our customer is very satisfied.’