Ipanema at Orchard Towers in Singapore is considered an icon in the Singapore entertainment world.
The venue has provided great entertainment over the years. The owner of Ipanema has always been forward looking and the venue has always reinvented itself every few years so as to ensure that they are at the top of their game. Most recently they opened an outlet on the floor right above their venue and built an internal staircase within Ipanema to offer easy access to both venues. The venue at the top offers a more chilled out feel compared to Ipanema. Nevertheless Ipanema itself has been given a turnover in terms of its audio quality over the past few months as that’s where the main crowd is. Now visiting the venue has become that much more enjoyable for patrons who can now enjoy clear, crisp sounds with the installation of Singapore’s first emPad speakers.
Acoustics & Engineering Pte Ltd (A&E) who represent emPad, were responsible for the specification and installation of the emPad speakers. The venue also features the other products represented by Acoustics & Engineering such as the Crest Audio HP-8/48 Mixing Console, ALTO Digital Signal Processors, outboard gear and Audix microphones.
Going by the emPad Installation at Ipanema it definitely tops for efficiency. For Ipanema A&E has emPad installed at Ipanema World Music Bar Singapore only using 2.5 amplifier channels, each channel rated @ 750 watts rms (20 Hz – 20 kHz)/8 ohms. This 2.5 amplifier channels are driving the entire Front-of-House emPad speaker system, which comprises 8 units of B7 Satellites in 2 Vertical Arrays and 3 units of triple 15” LF cabinets in an end-fired coupling configuration.
The 15” drivers are exceptional in that their cone-excursions are extremely short which maintains the integrity of the entire drive mechanism, yet delivering the great mass of air required for sound reinforcement applications,
something naturally occurring with acoustic instruments. emPad diaphragms emulate this natural state of acoustical music instruments so that the speakers’ delivery of speed in terms of both the attack and decay times are pretty much the exact replication of the drum skin per se, albeit much louder.
The LF Cabinets are mathematically and physically arranged in such a precise way as to deliver a front-ended cardioid pattern bass response. Because of this, the amount of spillback onto the stage area by the long wavelengths associated with low frequencies is minimized by at least an attenuation of 10 dB or more.
There is no horn loading for all frequencies. This is critical because, with all types of horns, due to the multi-various deflections in the horn passage, some amount of the extrusion energy is mixed and/or cancelled; and this causes a lobing effect to the audience – something akin to the cancellation-type ripples commonly referred to as the comb-filter effect. Also, since the very critical mids below 5 kHz are completely unobstructed, no such ripples occur. Another plus is that the “radial” energy emitted from the emPad full-range speakers, such as the B7s in Ipanema, does not beam onto pre-designated “hot spots” within acute Horizontal and Vertical angles. In this important regard, emPad displays, naturally, a very broad H+V beamwidth. This can be noticed when you are within the boundaries of Ipanema’s dance floor proper – you still get to hear every single detail in the music – even though neither one of the emPad full-range Arrays are directly pointing towards the dance floor.
You will need to visit the venue to appreciate the emPad speakers.
Congratulations to Thomas Chua, the system designer, and the rest of the A&E team for their excellent performance on this unique project.