NORTHRIDGE, California – The new Tequila Club at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Sofia has become one of the new flagship destination venues in the Bulgarian capital. Situated beneath ground level in two separate areas, the bar / nightclub has independent lounges, and is aimed at the city's affluent and VIP clientele, serving a variety of drinks and cocktails.
Owners, T.Q. Partners Ltd. Investment Group, wanted the quality of the sound system to reflect the opulence of the environment, and HARMAN's JBL was one of their preferred brands. Having worked previously with Factor TC, who have been distributing HARMAN Professional's brand portfolio in the country for nearly two decades, they were quickly in contact.
After a series of meetings and live product demonstrations with the owners and architects, a JBL VRX Constant Curvature line array loudspeaker system was adopted. “The owners were already well aware of the advantages of VRX and we were also convinced that this was the best solution,” said Vesselin Todorov, president of Factor TC.
The integrators were also conscious that they needed to preserve the cachet of the new-look Tequila Club, since the original venue bearing that name—formerly situated two blocks away — was a huge favorite in the 1990s with local cutting-edge DJ's and clubbers.
Factor TC specified 12 JBL VRX932LA and eight VRX918S subwoofers as the main PA, powered by five Crown XTi6002 amplifiers. Four Control® Contractor 24C ceiling speakers and four black Control 25 enclosures were deployed for the peripheral sound in the bar and ancillary areas, aided by a Crown 180MA mixer/amplifier. The dance system is under the control of a dbx DriveRack 260, which ensures that the performance is fully optimized.
The architects from design studio Idea of Sofia, in particular expressed their delight with the 100-degree horizontal x 15-degree vertical coverage achieved by placing the VRX enclosures above the bar areas.
“Given a choice of several leading brands, it was the long-term relationship we have with the client, their goodwill towards HARMAN products and the quality of JBL sound they experienced at the live demo that proved conclusive,” Todorov explained.
“We are very happy to be working with Factor TC again,” responded Boris Stefanov, manager of Tequila Club. “They always offer us the best possible products, and for our luxury club I personally chose JBL VRX as the best sounding compact system. Although we have installed industry standard DJ equipment, there are no separate reference monitors for the DJ because with the VRX system he doesn't need it.”
With the club open seven nights a week the new sound system will certainly be put through its paces in the coming months.
HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets — supported by 15 leading brands, including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson®. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 13,000 people across the Americas, Europe and Asia, and reported net sales of $4.3 billion for the twelve months ended March 31, 2012.