Rosebank has a new luxury club in a recently redesigned venue: Harem.
The club in Rosebank’s Design Quarter formerly known as Hush is now called Harem
and has a completely remodelled look and feel along with a brand new audio
system from local audio equipment brand Hybrid, supplied by local distributors and
manufacturers Viva Afrika and installed by Mayen Pather of Maysat Audio Visual.

A harem, in former times, was a room specially reserved for concubines. Another
definition is a group of female animals sharing a single mate. Whatever this says
about the club itself remains to be seen but if my hunch serves me correctly club
Harem exudes a certain appeal that members of the opposite sex might find aids in
the distribution of pheromones.

Viva Afrika has a relationship with Harem going back to when the venue was Hush.
According to Bernard Pienaar, director at Viva Africa, because the Viva Afrika retail
store is right across the road from the building that Hush/Harem is located in, it
was convenient for them to hire equipment from them in the past, which led to a
burgeoning relationship.

“We then decided to kit out their club with a brand new Hybrid/Hybrid+ system,
which they were very happy with,’ says Pienaar. “Subsequently, we did the same
deal with KONG (the club upstairs), as they have the same owners. When Hush
closed down and was revamped to Harem, we were the ones who were approached
to supply the new club with a PA system.’

KONG, of course, was a feature article last year in Pro Systems and will be
remembered for its Earth shattering Hybrid+ sound that has to be experienced to
be believed. Hybrid+, of course, is Viva Afrika’s professional range of loudspeakers.
Mayen Pather of Maysat Audio Visual, who also installed the system at KONG, has a
long standing relationship with Viva Afrika and their preferred installer for churches,
restaurants and clubs. Additionally, Pather has the contract to install systems in
Spur Steak Ranches countrywide. For these reasons he was the man for the job at
Harem.

“We have a long-lasting, positive relationship with him,’ remarks Pienaar.

The audio system

Harem has multiple zones that get fed music from the DJ box including the entrance
section, two VIP areas, sitting booths, the smoking section and the main dance
floor. It is one of those clubs aimed at high rollers so the predominantly dark decor
is very dimly lit with velvety material as the furniture covering throughout. The DJ
booth is emblazoned with a large Belvedere Vodka logo and is trimmed with blue
LED light while the rest of the club is washed in neon blues, purples and ambers and
features branding from Moet and Chandon, Glenfiddich and Dom Perignon for that
up-market feel.

Starting at the entrance section, a single 300W, two-way, 10′ coaxial Hybrid+ 10CX
speaker was mounted into the roof above the cloakroom. Pather explained that
since this area doesn’t close, the security of that speaker installation was
paramount to prevent vandals from tampering with it.

“That speaker’s not going anywhere,’ says Pather with a devious smile. “It’s
epoxied into the ceiling structure.’

The 10CX is an ideal choice for a single roof speaker as it provides two-way, full
range sound in a single enclosure.

The main dance floor is where the heavy lifting is done. Never to skimp on bass in
a place like that, no less than four Hybrid+ EXS121 subwoofers were placed in
ground stacked arrays of two. These behemoths feature 21-inch drivers and handled
1600W RMS each. As if that wasn’t enough bass, a further dual-18-inch, 3000W RMS
Hybrid+ EXS218 was strategically placed further down the west end of the dance
floor for a bit more low end fill.

Differing from its sister club KONG, three Hybrid+ PRIME212s were strategically
placed above the dance floor in a triangular configuration. These unique looking,
two-way dual-honeycomb shaped speakers that feature an external horn that is
somewhat reminiscent of a gramophone horn are biamped at 800W for the dual 12-
inch LF drivers and 100W for the 1.4-inch HF compression driver.

The DJ booth, which is the centrepiece of the dance floor, received two Pioneer CDJ
2000s and one Pioneer DJM 2000.

The smoking area is an arched room with velvet walls that is washed in a blue hue.
Four 250W, two-way Hybrid+ BT8s were installed horizontally oriented – two on
either side – within the wall itself, strategically placed angling slightly downward.
They feature an 8-inch LF driver and a 1-inch exit HF driver running full range.
“At first when we installed the BT8s I realised that the HF wave guides were firing
in the vertical plain which made the dispersion very narrow. So, I removed them,
opened them up and rotated the wave guide so as to take advantage of a wider
dispersion,’ says Pather.

To handle low end duties, a single Hybrid+ EXS121 was installed in a wall recess
behind the bar.

The two VIP areas, considering that huge sound is probably not the aim since guests
are most likely to want to converse with each other easily, each simply received
two BT8s. The sitting booths, which lined the two back walls of the club, received
eight BT8s.

In terms of audio amplifiers and processing, the club received two amp racks. Rack
one, which powers and processes the dance floor system, was loaded with five
5400W (4Ohms, bridged) Audiocenter DA 12.2 amplifiers were supplied along with a
single DBX Drive Rack PA+. The second rack received six 2500W (4Ohms, bridged)
Audiocenter DA 6.2 amplifiers and two DBX Drive Rack PA+ units to power and
process the rest of the zones.

The wrap

In an industry where big international name brands are the norm, it’s a pity that
more clubs like Harem and KONG don’t look to our local boys to supply their sound
systems. If you’ve ever been to KONG or Harem, you would be hard pressed to find
a flaw in the audio quality presented there. After all, if a high roller club like Harem
chooses local products designed by local people, that says more than enough about
the quality that is bred right here at home. Viva Afrika, indeed.