Hard Rock Hotel

Acoustic & Lighting System, RCF distributor in Malaysia, with Rental Company RetroAve, installed a complete RCF audio system for the entire building.
By Daniel Woon of Acoustic & Lighting
The newly-opened Hard Rock Hotel in Penang is practically a living museum of rock memorabilia. Rock legends and music icons are celebrated and their unforgettable tunes are played throughout the entire venue at all time.
Located by the breathtaking seaside on the coast of Batu Ferringhi, this 250-room hotel also houses the world famous Hard Rock Café, an all-day dining restaurant known as Starz Diner, a VIP lounge (appropriately named the King’s Lounge), a multi-purpose ballroom and a luxuriously stretched swimming pool.
While music is prominently referred to as its “heart and soul”, the whole sound system can be considered the hotel integral “spine and backbone”. Without it, the whole Hard Rock experience cannot be channelled out symbolically to its guests. Thus, it is integral for them to maintain and develop a good system to complete and deliver the whole Hard Rock experience.
“RCF sounds really nice and it is perfectly suitable for our hotel”, explains Mr. John Primmer, Hard Rock Hotel General Manager, “our sound and audio consultant from Bali, Vision One, recommended RCF to us. Once we tested the system, we knew that RCF is the one. With RCF, there is definitely no compromise in quality. Now, RCF is installed practically everywhere in this hotel”.
In the exclusive King’s Lounge, a different type of RCF system is installed. “There’s this amazing tiny speaker by RCF. This impressive tiny fellow can give quite a dispersion and good sound” With depth of 104 mm and width of 104 mm, the RCF HS 1026W can easily be mistaken as a ceiling ventilation hole. Mr. Sridevan Sriniwass, the Director of RetroAve (Rental partner of Acoustic & Lighting System), rained praises on it as well. “At the end of the day, we need to get the right kind of system in places for what is required. The HS 1026W is neat and lightweight. This coincides beautifully with the exquisite nature of the lounge”.
In the prominent Hard Rock Café, RCF Acustica Series were installed. Utilizing both the C 5215-W and C 3108 speakers, Hard Rock Café will never be short of power and performance. Usually a live band will perform there every night to live up the atmosphere of the entire dining experience.
In addition, the double storey café also houses the stylishly rocking souvenir shop, RockShop for guests to purchase a piece of tangible Hard Rock memory.
For the vast and spacious hotel lobby area, the powerful MQ 50C ceiling speakers were installed. Facing the beach and sea, the hotel lobby is also the perfect premise for concerts or showcases to be held. Abundant number of MQ 80 P speakers was installed around the pool area to provide soothing tune for guests to rejuvenate by the pool side. “The sound system complements the acoustic sound really well. It really brings out the tune and enlivens the entire atmosphere”.
The whole audio system integration took about a year to complete.
In a hotel where rhythm is its main heartbeat, one cannot help but wonder what will happen to a world without music. It is difficult to envision the world today if influential masterpiece like “Imagine”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” or “Born to Run” were not recorded. They said, music is what feelings sound like. Judging by that phrase, I can “hear” the guests in Hard Rock Hotel smiling from their heart and having a time of their life.