Category: NST Audio

Optimal Audio impresses at Luft – The Air

Post author By ContentAdmin
Post date June 19, 2025

India: Situated in the heart of the Andheri West entertainment district in Mumbai, the Luft – The Air bar features an Optimal Audio sound system, installed by Generation AV. Sitting amongst a collection of Bollywood studios and neighbouring the Yash Raj Films studios, the venue attracts a young crowd of Bollywood stars and aspiring actors.

When Luft – The Air changed ownership, the venue began a renovation project which included the installation of new sound systems to impress its patrons. Measuring approximately 5,000m², with capacity for up to 1,500 people, the bar is split across three distinct zones which can be rented out for separate functions or combined into one space. It plays mostly DJ music, focusing on the techno and house genres, as well as hosts events such as Bollywood nights and a Sundown party.

With the owner specifying “British tonality”, Generation AV set up a demonstration of two British brands, including Optimal Audio. The team played a set of tracks supplied by the owner at Mumbai’s Gymkhana 91 Bar & Kitchen which features a newly installed Optimal Audio system.

“The owner loved the tone of Optimal,” noted Prashant Govindan, head of Generation AV India. “Within five seconds of hearing the system, he decided the brand was the right fit for his venue and asked if we could recreate the system for Luft – The Air.”

The venue has been outfitted with a three-way system featuring 20 Optimal Audio loudspeakers, including two Cuboid 15, four Cuboid 12, 10 Cuboid 10 and two Cuboid 8 loudspeakers for tops. This is complemented by two TNA2800S and four TNA1800S subwoofers from HH Audio for the low end. LEA amplifiers power the tops, with HH Audio amps deployed for the subs. NST Audio’s VMX 88 controls the entire system and all the DJ inputs are routed into the VMX 88. The entire setup can be intuitively controlled via an iPad or on a touchpanel, enabling staff to combine the three zones or separate them for different functions. Additionally, the NST Audio system features Dante processing and a 16 out option was implemented, enabling future expansion.

According to Govindan, the bar’s DJ, Goku, was one of the big influencers for choosing Optimal Audio. “Goku was very clear that he didn’t want to be messing around with knobs and fiddling around in settings,” said Govindan. “He liked the fact that, compared to analogue systems, with Optimal Audio everything is already preset.”

Another advantage offered is the LEA and NST Audio systems are completely automated and can be controlled from anywhere, meaning visiting DJs don’t need to know the intricacies of the system and can just “plug and play”.

“I visited the venue on the day it opened and, of course, Luft – The Air’s frequent customers from the Bollywood world go to a lot of parties,” noted Govindan. “While I was there, I spoke to a few people and they said that the system was by far the clearest sounding they had heard in Mumbai. For me that was a validation that the project was a success.

Click here for original article.

NST Audio

Case Study: Brewdog Brisbane

Post author By ContentAdmin
Post date July 13, 2023

Introduction

Not content with one tap-house in the city, Brewdog have expanded their offering in Brisbane to encompass a beautiful heritage listed building in the up and coming Brunswick Street area near the main train station. This building could not be more different in appearance from their other location in town – the urban utility styled DogTap bar and restaurant overlooking the river by the Gateway Bridge.

Their latest home in the city is located in Tranberg House, designed for Charles Tranberg by his brother in law, Francis Hall, and constructed in 1928. The Tranbergs had run commercial businesses in and around Brunswick Street from the 1870s, including a fuel depot operating on the site of Tranberg House in the 1910s and early 1920s. The property was constructed during the Valley’s peak period as a commercial hub and was built as an investment property, leased to various tenants.

The refit from its previous incarnation as a trio of smaller businesses, encompasses the entire property, over three floors, with a basement, a large first floor mezzanine level and outdoor terracing.

Building plan

Entering via Brunswick Street into the main bar, this area can cater for up to 130 with additional space on the rear terrace/balcony.

Downstairs there’s the kitchen, staffroom and toilets, plus the expansive beer hall at the rear of the building. This is an extension behind the original building with a high vaulted roof, tying in with the industrial taproom aesthetic.

Upstairs, there’s the level one mezzanine – still a large space in its own right, with room for a further 110, and including its own bar and a smaller balcony that overlooks the rear terrace area.

Customer Brief

The installation was undertaken by BSG (Brisbane Sound Group) – specialists in audio but additionally AV installation and sales.

Engaged by Advent Facilities Management to design an in-house PA system for BrewDog, Josiah Kerridge, BSG’s AV Installation Project Manager, explains the requirements:

“We were essentially tasked with finding an audio solution that would fit the budget and desired coverage area while performing effectively and remaining simple for staff to operate.”

He continues: “I was shown the NST Audio processors at Group Technologies last year and I was quite impressed with their capabilities. Given we had a multi-level space that required individual zone control, I decided the VMX88L would be a great option for straightforward audio routing and management.”

The choice of a VMX88L was due to its ability to act as not only a high quality zone mixer, and an audio matrix but also perform as a crossover and speaker management system. Including powerful features like individual compressors for each input, 8 bands of parametric EQ and up to 1.3 seconds of programmable delay for aligning installed sources plus full crossover filters and two stage limiting on outputs, the VMX88L is an extremely capable tool for integrators and audio professionals.

The processor can be remotely controlled using either D-Net – NST Audio’s software application – running on either a Windows or Mac laptop, or wirelessly on iPad.

Crucially, once the initial configuration has been designed and implemented (which can also be achieved off-line and downloaded during commissioning on site), hands-off remote control can be simply added via VR1 (or new VR2) remote wall panels. These PoE remotes can be individually configured to offer control of any gain point in the system (from matrix levels to input or output faders), scene recalls, or muting and routing changes.

Installation Plan

The input makeup consisted of three Foxtel streaming receivers (with digital audio output which was converted to analogue before the VMX), plus an HDMI audio output from a terrestrial TV source (again, converted externally), plus a background music source (laptop playing Spotify) and a DJ mixer input. All inputs were used as mono sources.

Josiah commented further on the installation process:
“This was my first time using NST’s VMX88, and honestly, it was very simple to set up and get everything connected on the network. The processor covered all our zones with ease – we have Foxtel streaming and local inputs for background music. This install didn’t require network audio so we were able to use the “L” version of the processor and forego the Dante inputs, which pleased the customer.”

The only additional control infrastructure needed is a small 8 port unmanaged switch to supply PoE for the VR1 remote panels. 8 port is sufficient as this will allow for a connection to the VMX88L, three for the VR1s, one for a computer for configuration, and this leaves the future upgrade possibility for connection to a wireless access point so adjustments may be made to the system via D-Net in situ on each floor, perhaps via an iPad.

The three floors of the venue were further divided into six output zones covering a total of 29 speakers – a mix of the MX801 for larger areas and MX601 for more localised coverage. Both models are rated up to IP67 and so may be additionally deployed in exposed outdoor areas.

These inputs and output zones translate directly into the channels used on the VMX88, as can be seen from the channel labelling used on the input and output tabs in the D-Net configuration:

Additionally, the matrix populates controls with the same labels automatically and this tab makes the mix fed to each zone clear and easy to adjust:

Now all the inputs and outputs (or zones) have been configured, the VR1 panels to be used on each floor can be examined in more detail to see how they have been set up.

As mentioned earlier, the VR1 panels can have as many pages of control as required to allow end users to make day-to-day adjustments to the system. These could be gain controls, preset recalls, selection of input sources, or adjustment of mutes.

In this instance, multiple gain control pages were configured for each panel.

Starting with the VR1 on the lower ground floor, two gain controls have been added to adjust the output zones local to this floor. Note that the control names (so what appears on the screen of the VR1) has been chosen to reflect what the control is doing, not just a copy of the zone name. This is very useful if the control is actually adjusting multiple gains at the same time.

The remaining controls are adjusting matrix feeds for these zones, so the user can control the relative mix for this floor.

This demonstrates the ability for a single control to adjust more than one gain – in the instance below, the control is adjusting the matrix gain for both output zones at the same time, but the user sees a single control labelled “BGM”.

Similar configurations are in place for the other two panels on the ground and first floors: two pages of output/zone level controls, and a further selection of matrix mix controls for those zones together.

Note that had there been any gain controls that were common to all three VR1 panels, such as overall input gain for, perhaps, the spare inputs, adjusting these on any panel would automatically be reflected on the other panels readouts in real time.

The VR1s are PoE devices so no wall-wart or external PSU is required and their settings are backed up in flash memory, so the system can be powered down without any risk of loss of configuration settings.

Conclusion

With the VR1s now configured, the set-up is complete.
Josiah added: “The wall controls are user friendly and simple, plus they look so slick and clean in brushed aluminium.”

Josiah sums up his client’s delight in meeting their needs with the power of NST Audio’s ease-of-use:

“The best part of this job was seeing how satisfied the client was with what we achieved. The pairing of the two brands worked seamlessly and gives BrewDog complete control over their sound without being tricky to operate. The quality and output of the speakers is excellent for their size, and being able to show the staff how easy the control plates are to use was great- it was smiles all-round!”

Further Information

Have a look at our VMX88L training video which shows, in just 9 minutes, how to fully configure a unit for a typical installation, including setting up crossovers, labelling and routing, and handy shortcuts to speed up the process.

NST Audio

Dirtybird CampInn with NST Audio

Post author By ContentAdmin
Post date July 10, 2023

The Dirtybird record label, founded in 2005, is home to a host of renowned house and techhouse artists from all across the world, including the founder Claude VonStroke and is based in San Francisco. Dirtybird hosted the increasingly popular alternative to their CampOut festival, the CampInn festival – in their own words:

“The communal experience of [a] summer camp, Dirtybird Campout, with a luxury hotel vacation. Instead of splashing in a reservoir, you’re splashing around in a huge swimming pool. And instead of building a DIY campsite with all your friends, you have your own room in the hotel with a shower and full-size bed.”

Hosted at the Wyndam Resort in Orlando. Florida, Dan Cartman from NST managed to get a behind the scenes look at the event last month whilst it was in full swing, courtesy of Jason Rault, of Nomad Sound Systems, based in Miami.

“Whilst we were exhibiting at InfoComm, Jason invited me to come and see what was happening at Wyndam, and it’s not like anything we’ve seen in the UK!”

A Vero system was used outside at the pool and was powered by FFA amplifiers with NST processing throughout (FFA amps with DSP, plus discrete processors). The ballroom system was a large scale “Resolution” system with full NST DSP at its heart.

Dan added “Nomad only got the go-ahead to provide the support for this huge event a few days beforehand, but they swung into action and pulled it all together brilliantly. It was incredibly successful and the audio was impeccable – maybe we will see more of this sort of music event become a thing in Europe!”

NST Audio

Copenhagen Den Anden Side focus on quality with NST

Post author By ContentAdmin
Post date November 10, 2022

The famous “Daddy’s Dancehall” in Copenhagen has a history of new wave and punk gigs that reads like a “who’s who” of the 70s and 80s…Blondie, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop…and then in the 90s, closed. This shuttered gig mecca has now been given a second life, reopening this month as “Den Anden Side” (“The Other Side”), and brought bang up to date as a dance club focussing on local talent and premium sound.

Featuring NST VMX processing of a four-point F1 system, powered by FFA amplification, we got the tip-off from Mr. James Newmarch, technical manager at Fold London – a club already using exclusively NST processing. James told us “I was helping out some friends in Copenhagen with building their new venue space. I got them to upgrade their audio infrastructure with NST/FFA.”

James created some HD rack porn (!) with the spec for the system and was happy to share a couple of shots with us. Nice work, we feel.

The club’s reopening on the 4th of November featured the “creme de la creme of house, techno and experimental, as music heroes like Andi Müller and djGEM” according to Soundclub mag, who featured it this month.

James is delighted with the audio and control of the VMX88s which, in addition to 8 fully processed inputs and outputs, can source and supply audio from a Dante or AES67 network and mix these into the outputs with the analogue audio.

“We’re soon to be kitting out our second and third rooms [at Fold] and more NST is on the shopping list!”

NST Audio

Tao Beach Audio Flex with NST

Post author By ContentAdmin
Post date October 17, 2022

“The venue is becoming known as the best sounding system in Vegas and has raised the bar on all venues, not just day clubs.”

The Tao Group don’t do things by halves. With a portfolio of premium venues encompassing nightclubs, dayclubs and restaurants, combining incredible culinary skills, amazing décor and architecture in all the right locations – the aim is squarely to wow visitors and give them an experience like no other.

The company can now offer this high-end entertainment in over 70 locations spanning 20 countries, including Singapore, Dubai, Sydney: Australia, London: England, and a host of stunning venues across the United States. In Las Vegas alone, we have (and this isn’t an exhaustive list) the OMNIA nightclub, Hakkasan restaurant and nightclub, Marquee dayclub and nightclub, and the 47,000 sq ft of the Tao Beach dayclub – the subject of this impressive audio installation update.

The dayclub itself resides within the luxurious Venetian complex, and hosts DJ one-off events and residencies from the likes of Allesso (Sweden), Fisher (Australia) and home-grown talent such as TYGA. If you want the best DJs and performance, you need the best sound system, and Tao Beach has truly gone high-end British courtesy of an incredible audio install refitting the luxury private cabanas and the pool area with outdoor DJ space.

NST Audio was chosen to provide speaker management and audio processing for the entire refit, encompassing over 175 individual output channels over a fully digital audio networked system, using eleven VMO16 audio matrix processors.

The entire system can be controlled and monitored in a variety of ways, from control room PCs to Macs or iPads, or even remote wall panels for very localised adjustments. Integration with Crestron allows non-technical staff to reconfigure the venue using scene changes via a bespoke touchscreen interface and make live adjustments to area levels and source levels if required.

Dan Cartman, owner of NST Audio, visited the club this summer and was bowled over by the scale and attention to detail of the entire installation – facilitated by Coherent Distribution based in Chicago and managed by Sound Investment, with Daniel Agne being lead designer and John Stevens handling installation.

“The quality of the install work, and the final outcome is so incredible, it should almost be a showpiece for the guests to see!” he enthused. “It shows that installation audio can achieve magnificent results, in terms of sound quality and workmanship.”

John Stevens commented on the practicalities of the install, and the final outcome. “We are really proud of the final result at Tao Beach – it was such a pleasure to be creating a cutting-edge system both in terms of technology deployed and performance. As far as the tech goes, we had multiple rack rooms with processing, control and amplification, and there was something very satisfying about knowing there would be no audio performance losses, especially from FOH, due to the extensive use of Dante. The venue is becoming known as the best sounding system in Vegas and has raised the bar on all venues, not just day clubs.”

Last word goes to Dan: “Tao Beach really are true to their word when they say they ‘deliver premium entertainment experiences’ “.

[featured image courtesy of TaoBeach.com]

NST Audio

VM-exico…Loto Audio specs NST for Cancún & Tulum installs

Post author By ContentAdmin
Post date August 16, 2021

Harry’s spectacular waterside outdoor space at this flagship Cancún location.

“The NST VR1 was very useful for the end users to switch inputs from the DJ and live musicians to a background music player.”

Alexander Danielewicz – Loto Audio

Three sizeable installations at three top-class restaurant venues comprising of processing and control by NST Audio:

Harry’s Cancún uses VMX88 processing and and VR1 remote control. Ilios Cancún uses VMX88 and and Bagatelle Tulum features VMX88 again controlled with VR1 remotes.

Given the expectation at all three venues for the highest quality audio which can easily switch from pleasing low-level background ambience to high SPL accurate dancefloor in a single system, and be controllable by waiting staff as well as DJs, the combination of VR1 remote control of VMX processors is perfect.

Read more about this great project at mondo* dr.com.
Photo credits mondo* dr magazine.

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