092 VENUE
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’
CALIFORNIA, USA The Americas
NOBU RESTAURANT Nobu Japanese restaurant opened at the Malibu Country Mart in 1999 but recently transitioned to a new beachfront location, giving its diners spectacular views of the Pacifi c Ocean from almost every seat. Featuring fl oor to ceiling windows, outdoor patio seating, and an exterior lounge; Nobu combines high-end furnishings, fi ne Japanese cuisine, and a picture perfect setting to bring class and elegance with a laid-back Californian vibe to Malibu beachfront. Russ DuBrow, who has run his own installation company Electronic Technology since 1984, was asked to be involved in the project by General Manager Gregorio Stevenson and while the ‘vision’ of the restaurant and its audio requirements changed as the project was realised, there was one constant throughout, the decision to have perfect sound in every section of the restaurant including the front patio and garden entrance. “This project was almost four years in the design/build phase,” said Russ. “Since their expectations were high, I chose to use Tannoy Defi nition Install loudspeakers in many places where the loudspeakers are built into the millwork or hiding behind HVAC ducting. There are fi ve Tannoy DC12i loudspeakers hidden behind the horizontal ducting that spans the sushi bar and dining room and four DC8i loudspeakers that circumnavigate the upper soffi t of the bar. “At the other Nobu restaurant in Los Angeles there are on-wall speakers throughout the space, something I try to avoid as from an architectural standpoint, loudspeakers on the wall are already ugly, big loudspeakers on walls are really ugly. This is a 5-star restaurant and I pride myself on high quality nearly invisible sound, i did my best to hide as much as possible but still create a huge sound fi eld with extended low end and crystal clear highs. The architectural team at Studio PCH and I worked very closely to not only hide these large
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loudspeakers, but also make them perform as specifi ed within the confi nes of the space.” While the brief may have changed from an architectural perspective, Russ still had to make sure the sound remained of a high quality, even when it was heavily amplifi ed for private events and so on. The system had to have high power capability while remaining mindful of the fact the venue is a restaurant and not a club. “I’m a huge fan of Tannoy loudspeakers, I use them wherever possible,” continued Russ. “It is one of my favourite go-to brands because of the sound quality; they’re some of the best speakers I’ve ever worked with. I used two pairs of Tannoy Di6 DCT loudspeakers in both of the special event rooms. These speakers when corner loaded really made each of the rooms come alive. All this was combined with 26 Soundtube CM500i in-ceiling loudspeakers installed in the lower bar ceiling, entrance, bathrooms, and soffi t above the sushi bar and grand dining table; as well as eight Soundtube CM800i in-ceiling loudspeakers placed in the lower ceiling on the patio. There are six TIC GS3 omni-directional loudspeakers throughout the garden area; all the loudspeakers are amplifi ed by two Crown CTs 8200 amplifi ers.” For Russ, the biggest challenge the Nobue restaurant brought was one all installers will have had some experience of at some point in their career; the on-going battle over aesthetic design versus good audio. “From the architect’s perspective this venue was completely different to what I was thinking about,” he said. “Loudspeakers were eliminated because they interfered with what the architect wanted the restaurant to look like. I was trying to create an even platform of music throughout the restaurant, so that wherever you were seated it sounded great, with no hotspots or dead areas.” Whenever the design was challenged, audio was one of the fi rst things to go, which made things interesting for Russ, as there wasn’t
© Ivan De La Luz
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