Jet’s softer side.

Goldie Box
Jet is a unique beast in Vegas, not only because of its location and offerings but also for the custom product rocking the main dancefloor. The club features the Avalon DCX loudspeaker, a custom product built to Lyons’s specification by EAW. Lyons worked with EAW’s engineering and product development teams for several months to produce the DCX, a box that incorporates EAW’s AX series CSA technology as well as elements from the Avalon series DC1 and DC2 loudspeakers. The DCX also features a new enclosure shape and grill design made specifically for Lyons. “The DC2 is a nice size but was not enough output for what I needed,” he notes. “The DC1 works well but only in a big room. The DCX is a hybrid. Compact, but high output.”

The six DCX boxes are augmented by a total of eight EAW Avalon DCS2 subwoofers built into soffits on each side of the dancefloor. Lyons made special arrangements with Rich Frembes and Jamie Anderson of EAW’s product development team to properly tune the system. The duo used the board processing capability in the club’s Crown ITech amplifiers to create a quasi-hypercardioid sub array pattern to restrict the low end energy and lessen the spillover from the dancefloor into the bar area.

Away from the dancefloor, Jet offers rich, powerful sound without a lot of boxes thanks to the JL12, another custom product developed by Lyons and EAW. Three dozen JL12 custom 12-inch coax ceiling speakers are installed over the two bar areas in the main room and used as the main PA in both side rooms. The ceiling speakers go along with the club’s clean lines and modern décor. “When not on a dancefloor, you need surround sound. To do so, you need lots of boxes, but you can also run out of space and money in a hurry,” says Lyons. “I previously used an 8-inch coax device but it wasn’t enough output for Jet. With the JL12, I developed a box that is invisible to the eye but keeps up with the dance system. The room is heard but not seen.”

Jet’s booth is a DJ’s Mt. Olympus.

Love The DJ
Any club worth its weight in salt must also consider the needs of its DJs, so Lyons designs DJ booths that are user-friendly. “Jet’s DJ booth is close enough to the floor to feel the vibe without getting bumped or bugged with requests all night. A lot of clubs spend a ton of money on the furniture, bars, lighting, and sound, and then put whatever was on sale in the DJ booth,” says DJ Scotty Boy, who along with Eddie McDonald, Neva, and Crooked is a resident DJ at Jet. “I don’t know how many clubs I have opened only to switch out the mixer or CD players in the first month. The booth is very important to the DJ. Yeah, sure we can get by with anything, but give us what we need and you will never hear us bitch again!” To keep the residents happy, the main room’s DJ booth employs two Avalon DC4s and an EAW SB250 subwoofer for the monitor system.

Video Heads Up
“When I approached the design, I looked at it as a sensory experience where all the elements are integrated,” Lyon says. “For example, part of the sensory experience is bass that goes through you but doesn’t fatigue you and lighting that totally blows you away” Jet’s 15-foot ceiling limited what Lyons could install. Instead of moving structures and long-throw lighting, he was inspired to use low-profile ceiling panels with individually addressable LED pixels.

Richard Worboys, who works with Lyons at Avalon, as lead LD, helped with the lighting design programming. Originally, Lyons had fabricated his own LED panels but wasn’t quite satisfied with the result. A fortuitous meeting between Worboys and a lighting company called Traxon Technolgies (traxon-usa.com) at PLASA has resulted in the coolest light show on the Strip.

Tony Carella from Traxon worked with Lyons to provide the panels in enough time for some slight modifications. “Our product hangs like a louver with grommets on the back,” explains Carella. “We sent John the panels in advance so he could modify to them flush to the ceiling on pipe rails.”

Each Traxon Tile 64 panel measures two feet per side, weighs nine pounds, and features 64 tri-color nodes for a total of 192 nodes per panel. Multiply that by the 120 panels installed at Jet, and you’ve got 23,000 individually addressable pixels. Although the original intention of the Tile 64 product was for low resolution signage or residential mood lighting, it fits perfectly into the design and functions as Lyons envisioned. Besides being capable of a stunning light show, the ceiling can also function as a giant projector using a Hippotizer media server.

“The biggest challenge was how to come up with a system with that much DMX. We needed 60 universes of DMX, which is pretty much pushing the limits of what’s offered,” says Lyons. “We used a control platform from a company in Germany called e:cue that can talk to that many universes. Right now the ceiling plays video beautifully, but in the future it will be able to talk to each pixel individually.”

In addition to the ceiling panels, Jet also has six High End Systems Catalyst DL.1 automated lighting and video projectors. The DL.1 functions as both a moving light and a digital video projector for even more effects possibilities when projected onto the room or on the ceiling panels.

The club opened on December 30, 2005 to rave reviews from DJs and club kids alike. “Jet feels like the club was built around the sound system,” added Scotty Boy. “I love the overall experience. My biggest fear is getting bored by playing at the same room every night, which is one of the reasons why I accepted the offer. I can jump between any of the three rooms if I feel like switching it up. All four of the resident DJs can play all three rooms at any time and kill it!”

According to Lyons, the key to the successful design is attention to detail. “My inspiration comes from watching people on a dancefloor and seeing what works,” he maintains. “It comes from living it and knowing every aspect of the business.”

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