Hurrairah bin Sohail discovers how Soho Sound Design’s approach to integration shaped the AV deployment at The Calile Hotel in Brisbane, Australia.
Located on the gentrified James Street in Brisbane, Australia, The Calile Hotel is one of the latest additions to the hospitality sector in
the city. Soho Sound Design
was appointed as the integrator
responsible for providing it with
the required AV systems to
function.
Jason Roesler, owner of Soho
Sound Design, talks about how
the integrator won the job: “We
previously worked on a project
for a football club, West Bulldogs
out of Toowong in Brisbane. That
particular project had a similar
DNA to The Calile Hotel as it
involved the same architects,
builders and project management
and it turned out to be a good test
run for the hotel.”
Soho Sound Design was
engaged early on in the project
and Roesler details: “We were
brought in even before the
previous building was torn down
and we had the time to come up
with the designs and be part of
the conversations regarding
cabling, power and data as the
construction proceeded.”
The design brief from the client
was one that should be familiar to
AV professionals working in the
hospitality sector. Roesler says:
“They wanted the AV to be felt
but not seen and they wanted
high-quality audio. After that,
we had a clear canvas to proceed
as we wanted. We started with
creating a technical brief for the
hotel and then moving forward
and discussing our options as
they came up.”
Roesler and Soho Sound
Design’s philosophy and
approach to integration guided
the selection of AV technology.
Roesler says: “I’m reasonably
technically minded, and I know
how to take an abstract idea and
make it work with the products
available. I think we didn’t end
up buying two products from the
same supplier for this job.”
Seeing that quality audio was
high on the priority list of The
Calile Hotel, Meyer Sound
MM4XP speakers and MM10XP
subwoofers have been chosen to
provide sound across the various
spaces of the hotel. A total of 104
Meyer Sound speakers have been
used across the premises.
Roesler says: “We chose d&b
audiotechnik speakers for the
West Bulldogs football club. But
at the time those were only rated
as IP34 which by definition
means they are suited only for
temporary, common outdoor
applications. Since the speakers
at The Calile Hotel would need to
be used outdoors, at places like
the pool area, any product we
chose would have to be able
to handle the harsh Brisbane
weather. Meyer Sound provided
us with a five-year warranty for
outdoor use and that was the
tipping point.”
In addition, the MM4XP
speakers can be mounted on
U-brackets which allowed Soho
Sound Design to perch them in
inconspicuous locations while
also complying with the
Australian building codes.
Ashby 5C in-ceiling speakers are
used in places where the Meyer
Sound MM4XP units could not
be mounted.
Roesler adds: “Another big
advantage of using the Meyer
Sound speakers was the fact that
we didn’t need to allocate space
for amplifiers in the rack. We
ended up not having a single
spare RU in the comms room
and no space to spare either due
to architectural design.”
Interestingly, Soho Sound
Design chose to pair the Meyer
Sound speakers with BSS
Soundweb London DSPs. Once
again, the performance of the
whole audio system was at the
forefront of the integrator’s mind
when making its choices.
Roesler says: “We chose the BSS
because it was eminently suited
for the job. I take audio very
seriously and the BSS was the
best DSP option. It fits in one
RU which helped us save on rack
labour and I’ve never had a BSS
Blu DSP fail on me.”
To add, BSS DSPs offered The
Calile Hotel an option to expand
and scale in the future by adding
more inputs and outputs that can
be linked via Blu Link. The BSS
DSPs also fit in with Dante which
was used for the distribution and
zoning of audio.
Lastly, Powersoft amplifiers
and Audac in-ceiling speakers
are used in the restroom and
changing room areas. Roesler
narrates: “Originally, we wanted
to use low impedance speakers.
But one of the few cabling
mistakes during the course of the
project meant that microphone
cable was run from the rack to
these spaces. It is a really thin
gauge and it was a fairly long run
so redoing the cabling was not
an option. So, we decided to go
down the rout of a 100V speaker
installation and chose the
Powersoft amplifiers due to their
native high impedance support.
It sounds great and you can
hardly tell the difference.”
Video at The Calile Hotel has
been provided for the function
rooms, business centre and
amphitheatre. Christie projectors
are used to project visuals.
Roesler says: “We equipped the
function rooms with projectors so
that they can function combined
together or uncombined. There
are six projectors in the rooms so
that you can arrange seating in
any orientation. There are input
boxes in the floor and the walls
so you can connect laptops and
other devices.”
Video signals are distributed
by Just Add Power encoders and
decoders along with Luxul
switches. Roesler says: “At the
start we were going to go with
HDBaseT. But as the project
progressed so did the scope of
the video deployment. Just Add
Power was the star of the show
as it allowed us to have signal
transmission split across several
racks connected via fibre.”
Providing The Calile Hotel
control over the AV systems is an
RTI system. Roesler says: “RTI
has been absolutely unbelievable.
The level of control it offers is
great. It is extremely reliable and
never crashes and provides a high
level of configurability for the
touch panels. With the GUI we
have built and the functionality
available we barely had to provide
any training to the hotel staff on
how to operate it.”
Apple iPads are used as input
devices for the control system.
Roesler firmly believes that his
approach of integrating the most
suitable products for the job was
the right path. He says: “I don’t
like products that claim to do
everything. I preferred to take the
BSS DSP and add RTI control and
transmit video by Just Add Power.
There are manufacturers that can
offer a complete solution, but I
think the integrated solution we
have delivered is better.”
An unforeseen consequence of
Soho Sound Design’s integrated
approach was the fact that a
distributor shuffle in Australia
caused challenges. Roesler
details: “When we started on this
project, Meyer Sound was selling
direct in Australia and Harman
was with Jands. And then all the
distributors shifted. Thankfully
it didn’t cause any major issues
with the project. I reached out
to the new distributors for the
brands and showed them the
quotes that I had previously been
given and they accepted it.”
To conclude, Roesler says:
“In my opinion, there is no other
hotel in the world like this. The
level of attention that has been
paid to the selection of the AV
products and systems shows in
the performance."