The recently opened Hotel Indigo includes a rooftop bar and restaurant called Mr Purple, which has an audio system designed by EL Media Group and featuring Tannoy loudspeakers and Lab.gruppen amplifiers.
The hotel, created by Gerber Group and designed by Crème Design, is located on the Lower East Side of New York and Mr Purple bar and restaurant is on the 15th floor spread across indoor and outdoor areas.
Although Ernie Lake of EL Media Group designed the audio system, Scott Gerber, principle and CEO of Gerber Group drove the choice of Tannoy and Lab.gruppen. “We have a relationship with Scott because we did the Viceroy Hotel and consulted on other projects for him, and maintain some of his other bars. We’ve used Tannoy and Lab.gruppen in other venues and they work well for him, so it was an easy sell,” said Lake.
“It’s great that EL Media use Tannoy and Lab.gruppen in so many installs, and it’s really cool when the products get called out by the end user,” added Sam Spennacchio of Audio Associates, who represents Tannoy and Lab.gruppen in NYC. “That doesn’t happen very often.”
In all, eight Tannoy VX 8.2s, powered by two Lab.gruppen C28:4s, are deployed in Mr Purple. Another C28:4 is deployed for the restaurant/bar’s third party subs. Additionally, four Tannoy VX 5.2s are used as fill speakers, located in a bookshelf in the bar.
For the outdoor decks and pool adjacent to Mr Purple, Lake opted for 14 AMS 5DCs and four AMS 6DCs from Tannoy’s AMS Series, driven by Lab.gruppen C20:8s. Tannoy AMS 5DCs, also powered by Lab.gruppen amps, were deployed in the hotel’s entryway.
“About two years ago we opened up a restaurant called Kingside Restaurant at the Viceroy Hotel,” said Gerber. “We used the same equipment there and were very, very pleased. So when this came up we, and EL Media, were comfortable with it.”
On the choice of AMS loudspeakers, Lake commented: “But the AMS is also a speaker you can easily hide. They obviously wanted good sound, but didn’t want to see any speakers on the terraces. Scott also wanted to contain the sound, so we placed the AMS 5DCs low on the perimeter of the outdoor deck. They’re small, but give us more than enough sound and coverage.”
As for the Lab.gruppen amps, Lake added: “We love the fact that they are easy to set up, have the option for 70V applications and we know they’re reliable; they’re a workhorse.”
Some areas of the bar also required acoustic treatment due to reflections from windows and hard surfaces. Lake explained: “That’s a big problem because audio is always last because, often, the client is dealing with an electrician who might not understand what good audio is. But we’re seeing a change in the industry, where people want companies like ours to come in early, and explain to the client that, if they want to achieve good sound, this is what they need to do.”
