Exclusive Maldives Island Sets the Scene With Snap One

Tucked away in the stunning Raa Atoll, JOALI Maldives is an immersive art-led resort on a pristine island in the Maldives. Following the success of JOALI Maldives, which opened in 2018, JOALI BEING began to welcome guests in 2021 as the first wellbeing island in the Maldives. Surrounded by lagoons and brimming with lush coconut palms, JOALI BEING is home to a range of spaces designed for reflection, exploration and growth, created in collaboration with wellbeing experts.

In addition to stunning guest accommodation that comes with private pools, customised Wellbeing Bar setups, meditative musical instruments and wellbeing games, the public areas of JOALI BEING include gorgeous decks, restaurants, bars, pool areas, learning spaces and an expansive wellbeing centre.

When it came to the network and automation systems for the guest, public and outdoor areas at JOALI BEING, Turkish owners Gürok Group turned to Izmir-based aSAY VAD Automation Technologies for help. The company had been instrumental in setting up the infrastructure on JOALI Maldives, handling the main wireless and wired network, CCTV, TV infrastructure, music distribution, room automation and more.

Serkan Yilmaz, founder and general manager at a SAY, explains: “The owners were very happy with the first island, so when they developed the second island, they asked us to do the same again, with a couple of differences. JOALI BEING is a wellbeing island, so they have lots of  massage rooms and special treatment places. This means there are multiple music distribution points and everything depends on a reliable network infrastructure.”

The company handled all the public area music, distribution and automation. Interestingly, though, despite the scale of the project, the whole public area of the island runs on a single Control4 CA10 controller.

“We currently have around 6,000 lights controlled on that CA10, plus, there are 12 channels of music distribution to more than 50 zones,” continues Serkan. “The setup has been constantly running on the CA10 for four years, without a single issue.”

This is a change from the first island where each area such as the restaurants, bar and fitness centre all have their own controllers and run separately.

As Serkan explains. “We didn’t have a device as powerful as the CA10 when we did the first island, and yet to control every part of the system at JOALI BEING with a different controller seemed tome something hard to do. Also, with this project we had to distribute those 12 channels of music to 50 locations on the island. Using a single controller would keep things simple.  We do have a physical standalone device, which is sitting next to the CA10 without running on power, which is there just in case and can be switched over quickly if ever it’s needed.”

Indeed, the CA10 is controlling an extensive audio system that spans the fitness centre, wellbeing centre, massage rooms, dining areas, bar, poolside and more. A combination of in-wall, in-ceiling, surface mount and outdoor speakers were chosen. One area of note is Areka, the eye-catching entrance to the Wellbeing Centre. Here, Designer Series full-range speakers from Snap One brand Triad are mounted within the striking archways and a small hole has been created to allow the music to be heard. “It was a very tough installation for us,” he continues. “The speakers are totally hidden in the main Wellbeing Centre. But the Triad Designer series have been a great solution.”

Triad speakers and subs were also installed in the outside area, including in a spacious pavilion. “The acoustics here are very good,” adds Yilmaz. “It's very enjoyable to play music there. All those parts are running smoothly, and it all happens on the network, nothing is done locally.”

Outside, the dining and bar areas areserved by Episode Landscape Series Satellite Speakers and Burial Subwoofers, while the unobtrusive nature of the technology continues around the pool, where speakers have even been hidden in trees.

“There's very good quality music here.We have speakers all over these areas so it can become like a nightclub. It performs very well. The owners are very happy,” he continues.

aSay implemented an audio-over-IP solution using Snap One’s Binary brand for the resort, for both simplicity and copyright reasons, as Yilmaz explains: “The island has to be licensed to distribute music in a public area, but guests are able to choose the music they want to listen to. For example, in each massage room, guests have the option to choose from five music channels and all channels have a mood - one can be more relaxing, while the other may be more energetic, for example. But, users select the music themselves and we have to stream it. There are 50 different end points and anyone can choose any of them so we had to make a music matrix. Because the speakers and amplifiers are at the end site, but the sources are at the centre, we have to split it. So that's why we use Binary Audio IP products.”

aSay opted for Binary 900 Series 4KMedia over IP Audio receivers and transmitters and an IP controller. “There are12 transceivers in the centre and then there are receivers at the end -depending on how many rooms we have, we have that many receivers. So, the receivers select one of the sources, that's the simple idea behind it.”

“The great thing behind this is that everything works on the network,” he reiterates. “The music streaming needs a good network setup to enable smooth streaming. The island is using multicast packages, so we did the VLAN planning and it's running well, with no conflicts with any other device. JOALI BEING is using the same network for their own use as well. Everything depends on the same network.”

This is all the more impressive given there’s just one CA10 controlling the system and the end devices are spread all around the island. “The reliability is amazing,” he concludes.

aSAY also handled in-villa automation for each of the 68 villas, with lighting, air conditioning and blinds controlled via Control4 keypads or portable touchscreens.

More information on Snap One can be found at www.snapone.com. Details on aSAY VAD Automation Technologies is available at https://asayvad.com.tr and on JOALI BEING at https://www.joali.com/joali-being/.

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