[ATTACH=CONFIG]199022.vB5-legacyid=10075[/ATTACH]5/12/2014 Korea’s newest mega-club Vanguard opened its doors to an eager young clientele on St Valentine’s Day featuring one of the largest TURBOSOUND sound reinforcement systems ever to be installed in the entire Asia Pacific region.
Situated in the Ramada Hotel in the heart of Seoul’s Samsung District, but run as an entirely separate business, the owners of the Vanguard Club set out to create an elite high end clubbing experience that would rival some of the world’s best nightclubs, and took more than a little inspiration from another of TURBOSOUND’s pinnacle installations that’s more than 6,000 miles away across the globe – in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 10,000 sq. ft. multi-tiered Hakkasan nightclub that occupies multiple floors of Las Vegas’s MGM Grand Hotel is kitted out entirely with the award-winning UK brand’s Flex Array loudspeakers, and is a completely different twist to the conventional nightclub format.
Vanguard’s owners, having checked out several of the famous clubs in the world and considered many professional loudspeaker brands with a track record in nightclub installs, were impressed by the concept at Hakkasan and, following a meeting with TURBOSOUND’s Korean distributor, decided that TURBOSOUND’s Flex Array was the best possible choice for the Vanguard Club.
According to Di Au Tech’s CEO Mr. Ahn, the selection of the three-way Flex Array line array system incorporating combined Polyhorn and Dendritic waveguides was two-fold: not only for purely audio quality reasons but also because it was appropriate to Vanguard’s future business direction in Korea’s very active and competitive club market. Although the basic technical specification for the main system was modeled closely on the Hakkasan rig, Flex Array proved itself crucially adaptable to the slightly different taste in Korean musical culture, particularly in the bass frequencies.
TURBOSOUND’s senior technical specialist Howard Smart was responsible, along with installers Di Au Tech, for the set up and commissioning of all the audio systems at Vanguard. Each of the four dance floor main speaker hangs consists of two TFA-600L single 18” flown bass cabinets, four TFA-600H 75° dispersion three-way line arrays and four TFA-600HW 100° dispersion line arrays, supported by FB-600 flybars and CF-600 conversion frames. Ground stacked directly underneath the speaker hangs are eight TFA-600B bass cabinets, arranged two wide by four high. A mono ultra-bass stack made up of eight TFS-900B double 18” Flashline subwoofers is positioned in front of the DJ, configured four wide by two high. On top of these are four Flex Array TFA-600H front fills.
“As the main system is configured over five discrete frequency bands I designed custom five-way presets for the LMS-D26 controllers,” says Smart, “in fact a total of 13 TURBOSOUND LMS series controllers are used throughout the installation so that every group of speakers has its own individual DSP capability.”
The side and VIP areas are catered for by TCS-122/96 12-inch two-ways with the HF Dendritics rotated for a landscape orientation, and TCX-12 12-inch passive two-ways.
There are also ‘ultra-VIP’ rooms equipped with Milan M10 powered two-ways for a more discreet atmosphere. TURBOSOUND T-series amplifiers are used throughout to power the entire system.
“The final positioning and tuning of the system was basically done in one evening,” comments Smart, “in terms of coverage it’s very even, with not a blind spot anywhere on the dance floor. Being five-way it’s got plenty of frequency extension, and it’s certainly pulling its weight when it comes to SPL – without a trace of distortion when cranked. The low and sub-bass frequencies pressurize the whole room beautifully, and on the opening night Frankfurt DJ/producer Sven Vath summed it up in just one word: ‘Amazing!’
“It’s probably one of the best sounding clubs in all of Asia, if not the world, and puts the South Korean capital firmly on the map with a super-club status venue and a sound system to match”
As well as Sven Vath, among the many well known international DJs that have played at Vanguard since February and will visit in May are Detroit Swindle, Stefano Noferini, Alecs Marta, Darren Price, Mix Architekt, Eddie Halliwell, Monashee, FergiE DJ, Stacey Pullen, and Steve Aoki.
Vanguard’s owners are justifiably proud of their latest $18 million investment in what they fully expect to be just one of a large franchise of high end nightclubs across Korea. The word on the street is that Vanguard’s popularity with Seoul’s clubbers is growing daily, with the number of guests increasing noticeably each week, fuelled by the reputation of its no-compromise TURBOSOUND audio system.
Turbosound is a leading designer and manufacturer of professional loudspeaker systems. The company’s award winning designs are defined by a harmony between high technology and an instinctive approach to the art of acoustical and electronic engineering. Since inception a number of principle patents have been awarded to Turbosound including three Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement in 1987 and 1997, and for Innovation in 2012, which recognise the success of two ground-breaking design concepts — the Polyhorn and Dendritic waveguides. Both now form the heart of Turbosound’s core product ranges — Aspect, Flex Array and Flashline loudspeaker systems. Turbosound has also applied its design principles and patented technology to the specialist requirements of the fixed installation, theatre, worship, corporate and A/V markets.
Turbosound is owned by Music Group.
