Stage

66 VENUE - EMEA

STAGE

DUBAI, UAE

EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

One of the newest venues to open in the party capital of the Middle East, Stage has been designed and installed by Pulse Middle East.

Joining forces with Sunset Hospitality Group - a company that has influenced the Dubai nightlife and F&B industry with clubs and restaurants in recent years - Pulse Middle East has helped the management group to deliver its latest venture, Stage. Renowned for its existing properties, which include Black Tap, Luigia, Azure Beach, Kasbar, Chic the Club and Le Regina to name a few, Sunset Hospitality Group set out to achieve the best ‘Khaleeji’ clubbing experience in Dubai with Stage. Khaleeji refers to the local music style, and although a few Khaleeji clubs do exist, Stage has taken the experience to a whole new level. Stage Dubai has unveiled a new, stunning space with state-of-the-art audio, lighting and visual technology, ready to dazzle the most judicious

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party-goers and trendsetters in Dubai and the region. The development of both the nightlife and audiovisual industries now demands integrators to become part of the architectural aspect of all venues, which in some instances takes a major involvement in the interior design of the area. This is what Pulse specialises in - transforming any space and working closely with the clients to deliver not only projects but fully integrated audio visual and lighting experiences. With that in mind, the audiovisual design phase took the team at Pulse about a month of pre-design with weekly meetings, continuous drawings and 3D renderings, building the project with Sunset Group from scratch and hours of co-ordination between all departments to perfect every little

detail. Joe Chidiac, the CEO and founder of Pulse said: “It was a lot of work for all of us at Pulse and at Sunset Group, but the amount of mutual trust built over the years gave us extra motivation and positivity to always push our ideas forward.” The procurement and interior design phase took another three months to execute. Pulse’s designs came to life after a 15-day first and second fix installation phase that consisted of cable terminations, rigging, server setup, and bespoke support installation. Once this was complete, the challenge was installing all the audiovisual equipment including audio, lighting, special effects, screens and lasers. Joe and Greg Brown, Projects Directors at Pulse selected every product for Stage with synergy

in mind. They wanted the system to be the best quality, durable and provide Stage with the ‘a-class’ status it set out to achieve. Joe continued: “The lighting in the club was provided by Vision Pro Lighting. We used a 16R beam spot wash beam all-in-one moving head - 48 in total. The XS4’s each have three moving heads, gobos, dynamic pattern, and colour wheels, as well as a beam angle from 2º of beam up to 38º spot angles, allowing a variety of effects from each unit. “The XS4 is remarkable in the sense that it is incomparable in the market. For the dome, we needed to create something visually attractive to look at. We used a mixture of VPL 7R for beams, B7 for pixelated lighting, which has seven pixel-controlled lights and plays patterns across the moving head, VPL 04 blinders that uses

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• Above The dome is a focal point of the club, highlighted by mutliple fixtures and effects.

LED technology instead of lamps - a new technology which is energy efficient and still responds the same way a traditional tungsten lamp does. And for strobes we also added Vision Pro 3000’s.” For the LED screens, Pulse installed Vision LED P3.7 HD SMD panels. While located around the columns and the ceiling are flexible LED strips that can twist and bend in both X and Y directions. A total of 20 digital LED controllers are also installed around the venue, each receiving Art-Net and controlling 1,800 pixels each. There are also several miniature 2R beams and 360z wash lights incorporated into the ceiling on the lower areas to keep the effects running throughout the entire club. The ceiling has 180 units of one-metre RGB controlled kinetic lighting bars with the end of each bar connected to a kinetic motor to drop the fixture up to fivemetres from the ceiling. Pulse specified AL 34 custom oval truss from AluStage to rig the lighting using MOVECAT motors for installation and maintenance to bring down the entire structure. These motors were very helpful for the design since they were closefitting, they were easily hidden inside the ceiling, and the compact design assisted us to achieve the maximum ceiling height. The triangles built from the kinetic lighting are controlled by the MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console from ChamSys designed to operate at the highest level of

show control. MagicQ MQ500 Stadium enables shows to be designed from concept to reality including lighting, media, LED and scenic design. The MQ500 Stadium features dual multi touch displays in full HD with adjustable viewing angle and gesture support. It has inbuilt MagicVis 3D visualiser with high quality beam and gobo rendering and supports up to 102,400 parameters onboard and 200 universes direct from the console without

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

LIGHTING, VISUAL & EFFECTS 48 x Vision Pro Lighting VPL 16 moving head; 12 x Vision Pro Lighting VPL- 7R moving head; 18 x Vision Pro Lighting B7 moving head; 12 x Vision Pro Lighting VPL-2R moving head; 8 x Vision Pro Lighting 360Z moving head; 1 x ChamSys MQ5000 lighting console; 16 x Vision Pro Lighting 3000 strobe; 89 x Vision Pro Lighting P3.7 HD SMD LED panel; 2 x SFAT CO2 jet; 6 x DJ Power DHZ-660 hazer; 2 x SFAT Power Confetti 350 machine; 1 x Alutruss rectangular TUV full grid truss system; 1 x Alutruss tunnel shape TUV truss; 6 x Alutruss curved ladder truss; 12 x MOVECAT Ecolite320 chain hoist

SOUND 14 x TW AUDiO M12 loudspeaker; 6 x TW AUDiO T24N loudspeaker; 11 x TW AUDiO T20i loudspeaker; 6 x TW AUDiO B18 subwoofer; 4 x TW AUDiO VERA S33 subwoofer; 3 x TW AUDiO BSX subwoofer; 4 x TW AUDiO S18 subwoofer; 2 x TW AUDiO C15 monitor; 2 x TW AUDiO B15 subwoofer; 5 x Powersoft X8 amplifer; 1 x Klark Teknik DM 8000 processor ; 2 x Klark Teknik DM controller; 1 x Pioneer DJM-900 NXS2 mixer; 4 x Pioneer CDJ-2000 NXS2 mutliplayer

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the need for external processing. MagicHD media server runs onboard enabling pixel mapping to all 200 universes. The MQ500 includes an intensity wheel and 100mm split crossfaders for theatre control and incorporates 42 fader and executor playbacks for live busking. “To control all 92 universes inside the club there is no better console. The inbuilt pixel mapper made patching and programming the 500+ metres of digital

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LED strip seamless. Then on top of this incorporating the 68 moving heads; the stunning and easy to use visualiser and plots made choosing the MQ 500 an easy choice,” continued Joe. For audio, Pulse teamed up with TW AUDiO and Powersoft to create the perfect sound for this specific design; T24N loudspeakers were used for their high SPL output and crystal-clear sound. Pulse removed the front grilles to give them a more impressive look showing all the inner workings. The main area is a large space, so Pulse installed a pair of TW AUDiO T24Ns above the DJ booth, another pair far out on the side, with a further pair at the rear to cover this whole area evenly. Three BSX subwoofers are deployed for the low frequency reinforcement in this area, with one in the centre directly underneath the DJ booth, and two on the sides underneath the outer T24Ns. The outer BSX were used in infra mode, coupled with B18 subwoofers. In Khaleeji style nightclubs it’s important to cover every seat with very loud, clear sound, so in addition to the T24Ns at the

• Above A birdseye view of the venue.

front, a lot of additional loudspeakers were used to provide near-field coverage in areas with low ceilings. TW AUDiO’s T20’s were used in areas with slightly higher ceilings and further distances to the audience, and M12’s used for near-field. Additional subwoofers were placed strategically around the venue and time aligned in order to provide local reinforcement of the low frequencies without interfering excessively with the main subwoofers. Overall, the resulting sound level inside the club is very even all around, and capable of an extremely high SPL. There’s plenty of capacity left in the system, so we are confident that the system will require very little maintenance. Raising power amplification to new standards, the Powersoft X Series is the first amplifier that doubles as a system tool, integrating a large amount of functionality generally only found in separate outboard units. This includes an innovative system of channel routing, a truly universal mono, bi- and three-phase balancing power supply, from 85V AC up to 440V AC without the need for manual

selection, and a revolutionary fullyfeatured DSP. The X8 can deliver up to 5,200W at two ohms per channel, for eight channels in a 2U rack space. This worldwide AC acceptance and direct connection capability to any regional power line configuration makes sound system extremely stable and reliable. The set-up parameters of the Powersoft X Series are fully integrated into Armonía ProAudio Suite, which offers an intuitive interface for parameter adjustment, a comprehensive control over the digital audio processing and complete real-time monitoring of the system performance. Power Factor Correction, which Powersoft pioneered, reduces the section of mains cabling, reducing noise and harmonics on the power line and onto other equipment. This means smaller power generators, and thinner mains cabling. “Regarding power to size ratio, just eight Powersoft X8 amplifiers provide 64 channels of 3kW into four ohms, a total of 192kW. Flexibility is at the heart of the X Series. It can support low frequency for a

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“It was a lot of work for all of us at Pulse and at Sunset Group, but the amount of mutual trust built over the years gave us extra motivation and positivity to always push our ideas forward.”

long time. It provides the best sound in the high register while keeping superb speaker control at lower frequencies. The X Series can serve all levels of audio equipment, from the smallest front fill to a two 18-inch subwoofer,” Joe explained. A Midas M32 has been installed for mixing live performances; capable of inputting 32 channels of microphones, instruments or DJ equipment and mixing them out to the club’s stereo and surround system, as well as any monitoring requirements for the artists. The DM 8000 from Klark Teknik is the digital signal processor of choice at Stage - controlling levels in different areas of the club, compressing and limiting the DJ while protecting the whole sound system. The main challenge during the design and installation Greg described as: “The dome area and being able to incorporate this 3D design along with 2D screens and lighting. Another challenge was visualising the people, the stage, all this technology and equipment in order to make them all work together in a flawless way. And lastly, was creating a way for all this technology to integrate with each other and so we used Art-Net for digital LED, lighting and lasers, many different Art-Net receivers all conflicted to receive different information from Chamsys so with a lot of work we

were able to set it all up using IP and Art- Net addresses so that all controllers work in harmony.” Discussing the inspiration behind this particular design Joe said: “I came up with this design having the Pink Floyd: Pulse Concert in mind. The dome area was created in a way so that the people become a part of the club and its setup.” When asked about Pulse’s relationship with Sunset Group Joe concluded: “Sunset has been our client since the very beginning of Pulse. We have worked on many projects together that include Chic Club, Luigia, Black Tap, Azure Beach and now Stage. Today, we consider them as family and this trust and respect between the teams allows us to have the necessary creative freedom while designing their ideas. Putting together both efforts, we’ve created phenomenal clubs. The Sunset team always has great input to our designs, which allows us to deliver projects every party involved is proud of. They care about quality and good products and their main target is to give their clients the best clubbing experience, which is always great for us as audiovisual and lighting engineers since it means no compromise on quality whatsoever. We can’t wait for the next project together, I am sure it is going to be out of this world.”

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