Biosfera – Guadalajara’s Top Quality Sound Atmosphere

One look at nightclub Biosfera located in Guadalajara, Mexico and you can see that it is something special.

Biosfera, a 1000 capacity club that is setting new standards for entertainment venues in the area, is located in Mexico’s second largest city with a population of 8 million. With such a big population, Guadalajara offers a wide variety of entertainment centers but none as unique and stylish as Biosfera.

Roberto Godoy Sing, Biosfera’s owner and an entrepreneur in the Guadalajara nightclub industry (he owns two other nightclubs), offers this explanation for the idea behind Biosfera, “We wanted to offer a place for the upscale people of Guadalajara, but in order to attract that type of clientele we needed to create something different, something that nobody else offers. That is how we came up with the idea for Biosfera.”

That desire for both uniqueness and quality translated into a decision to install a top quality Mach speaker system. An abundance of Mach Installation Series speakers are present in Biosfera including compact M72i 2-way near field installation speakers, M125i 3-way near field installation speakers, M156i 2-way medium-throw installation speakers and M182i and M152i subwoofers. Mach M20.02 and M20.03 processors support all Mach speakers.

To help with the audio as well as the lighting side of the project, Alexander Escobar from Audio e Iluminacion Profesional was contacted, a well known installer and designer of nightclubs who was immediately interested in the project. Martin distributor Distribuidora Wagner Internacional was chosen as the main supplier. Alexander and Distribuidora Wagner Internacional have collaborated before, having worked together to design and install several other successful sound and lighting systems in central Mexico. Biosfera’s success is a combination of many factors, none more important than the cooperation between club owner, installer and manufacturer.

Alexander Escobar comments, “When I was approached by Roberto Godoy Sing and he explained the idea that he had about the club, I thought about Distribuidora Wagner Internacional right away since they are the exclusive distributors for Martin Professional in Mexico. A few months before this I had met directly with executives from Martin Professional, Juan Alegria and Morten Gjotz, who explained a new concept they call Total Club Supplier in which I could offer my client (Biosfera) a single supplier for the entire nightclub - Martin in lighting, Mach in sound and Jem in fog machines. This has proved to be a big advantage not only for the club owner but also for the installer since you only have to worry about one supplier and can therefore focus your attention more on the design and installation part.

Alexander continues, “As far as the lighting system there was not a single doubt about Martin and Jem, but that was not the case about Mach since it was a brand new line of speaker in Mexico and we hardly knew anything about them except that it was the same company as Martin Professional. The project with Biosfera took a long time, and in the middle of working on it I ran into another project in which I used Mach. The results were so positive that I wanted to use Mach in Biosfera as well and complete the entire Total Club Supplier.”

The Mach M156i is the top box used to drive the main dance floor at Biosfera. Hans Madsen, Mach Business Development Manger, explains the M156i. “Compact size and high output in a non-hornloaded box are key words for the M156i. It is built around two custom designed 15” units. They are not woofers, but specially designed low/mid units that deliver 103 dB at 1w/1m. They feature short 4” coils and a conical shaped, and very lightweight, diaphragm with linear response up to 2 kHz. In addition a single spider with low mechanical loss and low hysteresis in the surround, maximises the reproduction of detail and micro dynamics such as room information and other ambient signals. Efficient heat management of the 4” coil ensures a minimum of power compression and unchanged behavior at maximum SPL. The horn has a highly controlled coverage of 55x45 degrees and is designed specifically for the 2” compression driver. The combination of driver and horn runs flat up to 19 kHz without EQ’ing which is excellent for the 2” driver. The M156i rolls off below 70 Hz and is, as such, a dedicated top-box, but above this frequency it delivers very high output – a solid 134 dB continues or 140 dB peak - and combines high output with the clarity of a non hornloaded design.”

Jorge Rico, Product Specialist for Distribuidora Wagner Internacional, collaborated with Alexander on the installation and was responsible for the programming. He comments, “When we knew about the project we noticed that it had many different challenges. The main part of the club is the dome, which is made of poly-carbon with a metallic structure. Because of this we needed to pay special aesthetic attention to what we were about to install. We needed to install fixtures that would have the same look as the inside decoration of the club, as well as perform in all aspects. The solution to that was actually simple.  We installed all MX-4 and MiniMAC fixtures in titanium. Then we made custom hanging brackets for both the lighting fixtures and the speakers that mimic the look of the MX-4 bracket.” The club also features other Martin lighting, namely Atomic 3000 DMX strobes and Robocolor III color changers. Jem ZR33 Hi-Mass and Jem ZR12-DMX smoke machines provide smoke atmosphere.