Heart Weho

The celebrated LGBTQ+ district of West Hollywood plays host to Heart Weho, an immersive dance and night club with a 1500 capacity is one of the ‘best-sounding systems’ in the US. It is located on Santa Monica Boulevard in the ‘heart’ of the ‘Rainbow District’ and is owned by club operator Rocco’s (which is part-owned by Lance Bass, former singer with N’SYNC).

Jason Ojeda from New York-based integrator Global AV Group fulfilled the brief for a high-energy, high SPL audio system with definition and clarity. Global AV Group has worked with Void Acoustics for over 15 years, and with a brief embracing the club’s focus on electronic music and fully au fait Void Acoustics’ dominance of sound systems for this genre, Jason recognised immediately that the high-end audio brand was the perfect solution, ticking all the boxes for the project’s brief.

By specifying Void Acoustics Tri Motions and Arcline 218s across the space, Jason and his team delivered a well-thought-out design. This offered a dynamic solution for a club system delivering a high SPL but one which was finely balanced to ensure the club-goer has a smooth and well-adjusted audio experience from wherever they are located throughout the club.

Supporting the perfect collaboration of the Tri Motion and Arcline speakers, the club’s system is supplemented by the audio dancefloor favourite – Void’s Air Vantage loudspeakers; the versatile and ever-reliable Venu 10 V2 speakers and Bias amplifiers.

The result is exemplary without question– with no dead spots throughout the extensive club space – from the main room and the VIP areas to the balconies. The owners of Heart Weho were previously unfamiliar with the Void Acoustics brand at the beginning of the briefing, delivery and installation process, but now focus heavily on the sound system as a massive part of their USP, and an essential part of the experience they offer to their club-goers.

One of the key challenges was ensuring the distinct areas of the club had unique setups, and configuring the sound design to ensure it was completely fit for purpose.

For the dance floor; the bar area; the VIP area; it was imperative each area be tailored for a time back to the DJ with a softer or louder voiced EQ, thereby providing the clubgoer with the best audio experience whilst in that area of the club.

This required an enormous amount of attention to detail and a depth understanding of Void Acoustics products in order to provide excellence in the audio delivery whilst being conscious of the club goer, the DJ experience, and bringing satisfaction to the club owners.

The challenge was to make sure the Void speakers were deployed in the right places for the best audio delivery. The team designed each area with individual channels and controls so every single speaker could be aligned back to the main dance floor for seamless coverage, with its own equalisation to optimise comfort as well as fidelity.

To help execute a seamless system integration into the building, Global AV worked in close collaboration with Void Acoustics who came into the space during the installation period to fulfil some precision time alignment as the system consisted of six main areas that radiated out and away from the main dance floor.

With the time alignment and tuning this ensured that the music sounded great everywhere throughout the club, and people didn’t actually ‘think’ about the audio.

Heart Weho holds a very important legacy with the iconic space it occupies. It sits on the site of one of the first gay nightclubs in West Hollywood, and so it has significant resonance for the city’s community – sharing the experience and taking it to the next generation. It really does sit right at the beating heart of the ‘village’ society of West Hollywood.

Paul Nicholls, co-owner of Heart Weho summed up his appreciation for the work undertaken by Global AV at his high-end nightclub: “I expected the best from Jason and the Global AV team gave their stellar reputation and what we received was even better! They are truly setting a new standard for sound and creating an experience that can be heard and felt in every square inch of the club. The pride they take in their work is unmatched and their dedication and follow-through makes this sometimes feel like more of a marriage than a sound install! Our heart beats loud for Jason and his team!”

Specifying Void Acoustics was the perfect solution for supplying audio throughout this special nightclub project, and the endorsement from the club’s co-owner is a worthy one – proving that whilst the reach of the Void Acoustics marque now extends across many other market sectors, there is no doubt the brand is still top of its game in the high-end club sector.