Soaring 300m over Qatar’s capital of Doha, The Torch Doha – one of
the Middle East’s newest five-star hotels – features an audio solution centred on Meyer Sound low-voltage self-powered loudspeakers.
The 167 rooms of The Torch Doha occupy 17 floors of the Aspire Tower, an iconic symbol built for the 2006 Asian Games. The hotel project – with architecture design by Karim Azzabi and interior design by Artline R+M & Associates of Doha – was completed in 2011.
Doha-based integrator AVtech was charged with the installation, which had to meet stringent requirements for full spectrum audio including extremely compact enclosures, wide frequency response with ultra-low distortion and high SPL-to-size ratio.
Ceiling systems throughout the hotel’s Three Sixty revolving restaurant, meeting rooms, health clubs, and business center employ a total of 109 low-voltage Stella-4C loudspeakers. Meanwhile a quartet of robust UPJunior VariO loudspeakers take care of the lofty cantilevered pool area and the Sky bar. Elsewhere a total of 31 sleek, surface-mount Stella-4 loudspeakers blend with the décor in the sushi restaurant, lounges, and bars, with additional MM-10 subwoofers filling in the lower octaves. The system is run from Galileo loudspeaker system management with a Galileo 616 processor optimising audio response in the acoustically challenging lobby zone.
AVtech opted to deploy ten MM-4XPD directional self-powered loudspeakers for the challenging 20m high lobby atrium, while other lobby and reception areas are served by MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers and MM-10 miniature subwoofers.
The low-voltage loudspeakers receive both audio signal and remote DC powering from rack-mount power supplies, featuring two MPS-481 and seven MPS-488HP 48V DC units, as well as 12 Stella-188 18V DC units deployed
around the installation.
”It is a wonderful system,” states Sherif Sabry, The Torch Doha’s director of sales and marketing. “The sound quality is very high throughout, and we are pleased that there is no echo in the very high lobby atrium.”
In addition to Meyer Sound products, the venue also features an Allen & Heath iDR-8 that handles mixing and matrixing of local audio sources in the meeting rooms, while AV switching is assigned to an Extron SMX System
MultiMatrix.
