Installation: Blending with the DQOR

The German-born and Adam Hall owned LD Systems have been slowly raising awareness of their audio products line in Australia, which includes the successful Maui range of portable line array ‘stick’ PAs. In business for 20 years now, LD make everything audio from battery powered speakers, through to DJ gear, to install speakers. The cleverly named DQOR range (the letter ‘d’ is pronounced ‘day’ in German) are a new series of surface mount loudspeakers for the savvy integrator, and are finding their place here in Oz.

Disco Techs Australia, founded in Melbourne in 2016, have become the go-to repairers for pro DJ equipment from Technics, Allen & Heath, Pioneer DJ, and Denon. With a certain notoriety in the DJ and nightlife community, they also provide on-site AV support and maintenance for hotels and nightclubs. This often includes installations of all sizes, including the modest but cool job that they’ve just deployed LD’s DQOR range in.

“We’ve just installed a nice little DQOR system in Harvie Wine Bar in Armadale,” explains Lukas Brock, Managing Director at Disco Techs. “The owner is a long-standing client of ours and runs a number of hospitality venues around Melbourne. He came to us with a small budget install for his new café and wine bar. Nothing terribly elaborate, just good clear sound over three floors, and outdoor areas he wanted activated with the same products as indoors for consistency.”

The customer was drawn to LD Systems DQOR because of its inconspicuous, easy-to-camouflage design. “Harvie is in a nice, white art deco building and these small point source boxes don’t take up much real estate on the wall,” relates Lukas. “They manage to express a lot of sound without being visually intrusive. The coverage is really wide at 120° horizontal and 80° vertical, so you don’t need many to get the job done.”

Used purely for BGM, the total installation currently includes four DQOR 3” in the main bar and four DQOR 5” on the excellent rooftop space, which boasts a city skyline view. There are plans in place to install six DQOR 5” in the rear beer garden when the post-COVID timing is right. All DQOR loudspeakers are rated IP55, so there’s no issue with being exposed to the elements.

“The DQOR range is quite flexible,” continues Lukas. “They’re available as a standard 8 ohm box, or as a 16 ohm with a 70/100V line transformer. But it’s the mounting system I’m most impressed by. You wire up the speaker cable to the bracket itself, which flush mounts on the wall. Then there’s two metal contacts the speaker slips onto, so the speaker itself has no wiring. You screw it tight and that’s it. Their tilt angle is 27° and they can go 45° horizontal. They’re installer and maintenance friendly; if a speaker goes down, you can pop it off and slip a new one onto the bracket; no wiring required. An end user could do it in a pinch. I’ve spoken to other installers and they agree it’s the way to go.”

Supplied by Australian LD Systems distributor AVECorp, the DQORs at Harvie are powered by two LD Systems XS 400 2x200W power amplifiers. “For the DQOR’s size the fidelity is phenomenal,” remarks Lukas. “There’s a couple of other venues we’re now putting forward these products for, including another by the same owner as Harvie. We’re looking at projects that include four to six storey bars, with control systems, processing, and lots of I/O.”

discotechs.com.au

www.ld-systems.com

www.avecorp.com.au