The World Cup has put South Africa high on the world's must-watch list, and the capital city's nightclub scene is up to the task, thanks to the VDP Group's club designs and great sound from EAW®'s incredible Avalon Series. The newest jewel in VDP's global crown is Clapham Gold, which opened earlier this year in Johannesburg. The sound system, designed and installed by Johannesburg-based Surgesound, is the fourth of VDP's South African locations to use the same Avalon Series components in the same system configuration. Other VDP Clubs include the Manhattan Club in Johannesburg and the Clapham Grand in Durban.

 

The sound system consists of four EAW Avalon Series DCS2 Bent Horn Dance Subwoofers and four Avalon Series DC4 Medium-Format Dance Club Loudspeakers in the dance floor area, powered by Lab.gruppen C-Series and FP+ Series amplifiers with all processing handled by EAW's UX8800. Four CIS400 Ceiling Loudspeakers serve the club's reception area, and four Avalon Series SMS5 Surface Mount Loudspeakers provide sound for the outdoor bar are and are controlled by a EAW UX8800 Digital Signal Processor with proprietary EAW Focusing technology.

Andrew Rowan, Founder of Surgesound, says the EAW Avalon series components have provided consistently exceptional performance at all of the VDP venues. "We are happy with the way the system has performed in all the clubs," he states. "The system in this configuration, used in Clapham Gold, has become a standard in most VDP Group venues. The Clapham Gold is the fourth venue from the Group to employ this setup. It's a powerful, reliable and sophisticated system that delivers on its promise superbly."

Guy Baranyay of VDP noted, "The EAW system is performing magnificently. Within the club environment it is generally very difficult to attain the utopia of soul shaking power on the dance floor combined with quality/fidelity of sound in the more social areas of the club. It's incredible to see the EAW system meet this ideal. It's very pleasing to see customers talking to one another with ease around the bars and tables before shouting out the latest tunes on the dance floor moments later."

Not surprisingly, the EAW Avalon Series has been a hit everywhere it's been implemented. Numerous groundbreaking EAW technologies form the core of the series, including advanced horn and phase-plug technologies found in the flagship KF700 Series line of concert loudspeakers. Another technique employed to great effect is Tuned Dipolar Array (TDA), which provides the most focus control of low-frequency energy devised to this point.