Every resort has the same two sound systems. One is indoors, installed properly, zoned and controlled. The other is outdoors, on the pool deck, the terrace and the beach bar, and it is a set of portable speakers that the staff carry out in the morning and back in at night, because the first time they were left out in the rain they stopped working. The outdoor system is the one the guests hear all day.
A loudspeaker built for the outdoors is rated for it, and the rating is a number, not a promise. An IP rating has two digits: the first for solids, the second for water. IP56 means protected against dust and against powerful water jets from any direction, which covers tropical rain, salt spray on the breeze and the pressure washer the cleaners use on the deck at closing time. IP66 means dust-tight and the same water protection. A loudspeaker with either rating is installed once and stays installed.
The second thing a resort learns is distance. A pool deck, a garden path and a beach bar are a long way from the nearest amplifier, and a conventional low-impedance line loses power over a long cable run. Resort grounds run instead on a 70 volt or 100 volt distribution line, the same way a stadium concourse or a railway station does: one cable from the amplifier loops past every loudspeaker, each one takes the power it needs from a tap on its own transformer, and dozens of loudspeakers can share one line across the whole site.
The SSOUNDS M-12W is the resort workhorse: a 12 inch two-way coaxial loudspeaker rated IP56, 90 by 90 degree coverage, 128 dB peak and 70/100 volt taps built in, so it mounts on a wall or a pole over the pool deck and plays all season. The M-8W is its smaller brother, 8 inch, IP56 and 120 by 120 degrees for the terrace, the restaurant garden and the spaces between. Where the loudspeaker has to disappear into the architecture, the LC4.4W and LC9.4W are IP66 die-cast aluminium columns for covered walkways, entrances, courtyards and long platforms, 160 degrees wide and only 10 degrees tall, which keeps the sound on the guests and off the bedroom balconies above.
Indoors, the same resort can run its lobby, restaurant and spa on the network: the CL6HD and CL8HD ceiling loudspeakers take Dante audio and PoE power on one Cat cable, so the indoor zones and the outdoor line are designed together and controlled from one place.
If you are building or refurbishing a resort, talk to our engineers about a design for the grounds and the rooms, or see what we specify for hotels and resorts.