Blowfish has long been established at the elite end of Jakarta’s nightlife. Originally opened in 2003 as a Japanese style lounge, ten years later owners the Ismaya Group decided to undertake a complete AV upgrade, in order to freshen the club’s image, and improve the ambience.
Heavily involved in the refit has been Powersoft’s Indonesian distributors, PT Citra Intirama. The company has enjoyed a long relationship with the owners, beginning at one of their other upmarket venues, Dragonfly, more than six years ago.
According to the PT Citra Intirama’s Eric Haslim, the relationship with Powersoft is also a long-standing one, and when the owners set a brief that the new sound upgrade was to be “without compromise” — but at the same time fit discreetly into the interior scheme — it wasn’t long before PT Rhema Multi Perkasa, the third party consulting company, were appointed by the distributor. Under the project coordination of Dax M. Wenas, Powersoft control was specified to optimise the enhanced Martin Audio AQ and Blackline+ systems throughout the club’s five distinct zones (and adjacent Puro Italian restaurant and club overspill area).
“We added the Powersoft amps to complement the additional speakers,” confirmed Haslim. “It was great to have two world-renowned brands, and Powersoft provided a perfect complement to the speakers and sub-woofers with their light weight, efficiency, power and excellent sonic amplification.”
The interior itself was divided into Lounge & Bar areas, two separate VIP rooms and the main dancefloor, with PT Rhema Multi Perkasa providing consultancy, acoustic design, installation, commissioning and training/after sales support. In addition, Vincent Lee of Vertical Acoustics, was introduced to the project in order to advise on sound proofing and design bass traps and diffusers/absorbers to achieve the ideal acoustic conditions.
“One of the biggest challenges faced by the sound teams was to ensure even distribution while obtaining high intelligibility — even on hard hitting electronic dancefloor tracks the vocals need to be clear and crisp.”
Eric Haslim emphasised that Powersoft had provided a “tremendous boost” in delivering the sonic experience desired in a club environment.
“We most certainly took full advantage of Powersoft’s inherent electronics,” he said. “One of the key features, for instance, is the availability of damping control inside the Powersoft amplifiers, where we can adjust the power delivery to complement the extended speaker cable lengths for subwoofers located as far as 100 metres away.”
In terms of deployment, they assigned two Duecanali 5204 2-channel amplifiers to two single 18in subs, while seven Duecanali 3904 drive a further seven 2 x 18in subs. Powersoft M50Q’s are assigned to a further seven full range speakers, dispersed throughout the club and powerful K3 amps are designated to six further higher potency full range speakers. Meanwhile, next door in Puro, further Duecanali 5204, 3904 and M50Q can be found powering the speakers.
Meanwhile, supported by Powersoft’s legendary DSP and electronics, Duecanali 5204 and the Duecanali 3904 are the outcome of an efficient and reliable energy saving design in a compact 1U rack space — which still maintains high-output wattage and crystal clear audio. In fact the design offers 40% to 60% savings on operating costs over traditional amplifiers of the same power rating.
PT Citra Intirama and PT Rhema Multi Perkasa also had to overcome a further sonic challenge which was provided by the variations in ceiling height and floor levels, as well as the existence of corners and pillars. “We had to carefully time delay he set-up we dialled into the system and it took the best part of three weeks to adjust he settings to meet the DJ’s preference.”
Eric Haslim is in no doubt that Powersoft played a major role in providing an irresistible combination with the loudspeakers. “Powersoft offers a truly exceptional value for money in terms of investment,” he assures. “In addition to the features already mentioned their designs also have excellent circuit protection in terms of dealing with voltage fluctuations.
“I would have to say that it is without doubt one of the best power amplifier companies in the market today.”
In conclusion he cites the close cooperation between all parties as being the key to delivering the desired sonic experience. “I would like to thank Ismaya Group’s Bram Hendrata in entrusting me with designing the best audio system for Blowfish, and to Powersoft and Martin Audio for building such excellent products and providing wonderful factory support.”
info: www.powersoft.com