Part restaurant, part wellness retreat, part beach club, Moyo Drymades on the Albanian Riviera spends its days as a place to eat, swim and slow down, before turning its beachfront over to international DJ sets, live performances and large-scale events after dark and setting the brief for a recent audio upgrade.
One system had to sit low, warm and unobtrusive across the restaurant, loungers and wellness areas through the middle of the day, then find full-range weight and headroom for a Saturday night on the same stretch of sand, on an open-air site with almost no walls to contain it and salt air working on it all year round.
A complete L-Acoustics system, designed and installed by L-Acoustics Certified Partner Prosound, now does both.
Prosound is an Albania-based systems integrator with a track record in premium hospitality, entertainment and large-scale event audio. The company supported Moyo from acoustic design through to installation, commissioning and system optimisation, with Endrit Veleshnja leading the system design and Henri Balla the installation
‘Moyo wanted powerful, impactful low frequencies, excellent definition across the entire frequency spectrum and consistent coverage throughout the venue,’ Veleshnja says. ‘The system needed to perform equally well for background music and DJ programming throughout the week before stepping up to substantially higher SPL and headroom demands during Moyo’s weekend events.’
Audio definition is as important at 11am as at midnight – at daytime levels, competing with the sea rather than with a crowd. The A15 Wide coverage lets lunch service, conversation and the wellness programme share the beach without the music being pushed to make itself heard.
Moyo’s second constraint is its site – on the sand, open to the sky, with very little between the loudspeakers and the water. ‘The system had to withstand years of exposure to sea spray, salt air, humidity and rain,’ says Veleshnja. ‘Weather resistance came as standard rather than as something we had to engineer around. A15 Wide, KS21 and SB18 IIi are rated IP55, and that gave us the protection and the reliability a coastal site demands with no compromise on performance.’
Moyo is not a neat rectangle of a room. Dancefloor, dining, lounge and perimeter areas all had to be covered at once, from positions dictated by a beach rather than by a building.
‘Soundvision enabled us to model SPL distribution, system angles and audience areas across all of Moyo’s different spaces before committing to a position on site,’ Veleshnja adds. ‘The finished project file aims each of the eight X12 at its own site and azimuth angle, tailored fixture by fixture to the shape of the venue rather than repeated around it. That let us balance the main dancefloor against the fill and zones, and catch coverage inconsistencies on screen rather than by ear once the system was live.’
The main system comprisestwo hangs of two L-Acoustics A15 Wide, flown either side of the performance area, with four KS21 subwoofers split two per side groundstacked below. The A Series delivers the definition and the directivity the brief demanded while carrying the low impact Moyo wanted for electronic programming, and KS21 supplies the headroom to push that impact across an open-air site with nothing to help contain it.
Coverage extends out to eight X12 working as satellite and fill loudspeakers across the dining, lounge and perimeter areas, alongside six SB18 IIi that keep low-frequency energy consistent well beyond the main dancefloor. In the DJ booth, two X15 HiQ and two SB18 IIi sit either side of the console.
Two LA12X and three LA4X amplified controllers power and process the system from purpose-built enclosures that Prosound designed to keep them clear of rain, direct moisture and the beach environment, while preserving the ventilation and thermal headroom amplified controllers need and keeping them accessible for routine servicing.
Since the system went live, Prosound reports that Moyo Drymades has become a reference point for audio quality on the Albanian Riviera. Feedback from visiting engineers, artists and production teams keeps returning to the same point: the low end arrives with real physical weight while the mid and high frequencies stay fully intact, at any hour of the day.
‘We engineered headroom into the system for the big nights while keeping the directional control that everyday programming depends on, so the venue can move between registers without affecting coverage at either end,’ Veleshnja says. ‘We’re delighted with the final result, and with the equipment, system design and optimisation that made it possible.’
‘Guests notice the new system the moment the first track drops,’ says resident DJ, Tatu. ‘The power and the clarity we now have on this beach are exactly what we set out to build, and they are part of what keeps people coming back.’