Luxury and exclusivity

Located 25 minutes north of Cancun in the Mexican Caribbean, Finest Hotel Playa Mujeres is part of the Excellence Group Luxury Hotels & Resorts, which is a resort chain that provides luxury accommodation, fine dining and other services that create perfect vacation experiences.

Finest Hotel Playa Mujeres is the only all-inclusive luxury resort in Cancun that receives guests of all ages. By combining the concepts of peace, luxury and love, Finest Hotel provides an atmosphere that is unique to each guest.

Global symbiosis

Finest Hotel believes that top-notch entertainment and premier sound systems are instrumental in creating extraordinary customer experiences, especially to guests who enjoy a musical ambience during their stay. For this reason, Finest Hotel chose Bose Professional for its premium sound spaces. Estel Engineering and Works served as the integrator who made the high-performance installation possible for this dreamy resort.

Estel Engineering and Works is a group in Spain specializing in the engineering of comprehensive facilities. The group is composed of multidisciplinary teams that  provide exceptional services in fields of electricity, telecommunications, automation, hydraulic systems and air conditioning with an international presence in over 13 countries.

Estel Engineering and Works has worked with Bose Professional for many years, especially in sound systems for commercial and hospitality applications around the world. The installation for Finest Hotel Playa Mujeres was, however, the first time the two implemented a system that not only consisted of speakers, but also processors, interfaces and amplifiers. The result was a Bose ControlSpace system, which is a powerful platform of processors, controllers and software that delivers an unprecedented combination of flexibility and ease of use.

The distance challenge

"Initially, we contemplated another brand for the electronics project, but with plans in hand, we realized that the distances between the hotel buildings exceeded 300 meters, it was clear that a conventional audio system would suffer signal loss and interference. We approached Bose Pro and they suggested we design a digital audio network protocol based on Dante™, that way the distances would not be an obstacle,” said spokesman of Estel Engineering and Works.

In designing the system, the integrator worked together with the directors of Finest Hotel to divide the huge terrain and amenities into 28 audio zones. Bose worked hand in hand with Estel to consolidate an efficient, attractive and robust solution, without disregarding the legendary sound quality that has characterized the brand for decades.

Managers of Finest Hotel were clear about their goals: Supreme sound quality, control of source and level by area, and scheduling (initiation automatically at a certain time in the morning and termination in given moment of the night) without requiring manual monitoring.

"Dante was the key for this project" said integrators. "We saved a lot of trouble in all stages. Bose provided a turnkey system that greatly simplified the installation and reduced the number of cables used. In addition, the loudspeakers produce a very comfortable sound for the guests of the hotel.”

Exuberant entertainment options

Finest Hotel Playa Mujeres offers 11 specialty restaurants. Whether it’s the multifaceted The Market Kitchen, which resembles Barcelona's famous La Boqueria market, or Asian delicacies at Shoji, or a classic French cuisine in the elegant Le Petite Plasir, Finest has them all.

Meanwhile, an impressive Golden Bar, along with 16 other bars and lounges throughout the hotel facility are located on the side of the pools and near the sea shore with spectacular views.

The gym, at 1,650 square meters, provides equipment and activities to guests of all ages. For further relaxation, ONE Spa offers a wide variety of massages, facials and treatments with holistic, alternative and traditional therapies.

In addition, the hotel offers 5,000 square meters of facilities for conferences, meetings and events.

Multi-zone network-based digital audio for 389 speakers

Initially we determined to divide the hotel into five main (central main level, central lower level, beach 1, beach 2, beach 3 with pools) areas. Each area would need to be fed from an extensive network of digital audio from the heart of the system: two Bose ControlSpace processors: the ControlSpace ESP-00 II and ESP-880, both equipped with  Dante cards. These components distribute the network that reaches all 28 audio zones, translating into 389 Bose loudspeakers located throughout the Finest Hotel.

Long distances were solved with fiber optic cable, from the DSP processors to each zone. Converters were used to change Ethernet to optical fiber and optical fiber to Ethernet (Cat6). This was how Dante audio networking prevailed as the "core" infrastructure within Finest Hotel.

16,000 watts of power at just 78 kg

Another highlight was the use of Bose PowerMatch amplifiers. It took just six of these power amplifiers: two 8x 500 W amplifiers and four 8x 250 W amplifiers. The system delivers 16 kW of power throughout the resort. We also added 3 compact FreeSpace ZA-190 amplifiers (90 watts) to the pool area.

It should be noted that all the amplification operates in 70V lines. This is the most efficient way to send power to multiple speakers. At Finest Hotel, most of the speakers employ a tap setting that limits the power delivery to 16 W for each speaker.

Control options

Despite the complexity of the number of zones and speakers, the control system was designed to be as simple as possible. To do this, Estel Engineering and Works provided two centralized Bose CC-64 control centers, which are network devices that provide a simple and logical interface for the ControlSpace system. Being fully programmable, you can customize the system so that some controls are only available to a specific person. In fact, the CC-64s are installed so that only authorized persons (hotel manager or maintenance manager) have control.

For zone control, 28 Bose CC-16 wall-mount controller were used. These keypads allow source selection, volume level control of the area and can even recall specific system setups. With CC-16 controllers each space is controlled locally, so that those responsible for each area (restaurants, bars, clubs, spa or gym) can decide the type of music they want, to match the profile of the guests and the volume level  appropriate to the number of people in the space. It should be noted that the music in the gardens and common areas such as corridors share the same program material and operates from 9 in the morning to 9 at night.

Operation and supervision of the audio system and content distribution is carried out by the hotel’s Audiovisual Systems staff.

While the combination of processors, amplifiers and speakers from Bose Professional produced spectacular results, installation was made significantly easier with the ControlSpace Designer software. ControlSpace Designer is a graphical application for PC that is used for the design, configuration, operation and monitoring of real-time sound processors, amplifiers and user controls. With Designer, it is possible to configure equalization, tone control, changes in crossovers, delay or adjustment gain, activation of compressors and limiters and much more.

Separate from the audio settings, ControlSpace Designer software enabled Finest Hotel to schedule automatic and synchronized unmute of each audio area.

Curated music content

Through its Entertainment department, Finest Hotel defines the music program material content according to a study of the profile of its guests.

Enchant Music Company is responsible for the design and maintenance of musical content heard in different areas of the Finest Hotel.

Enchant Music Company delivered 12 channels of pre-programmed music ranging from deep house or EDM (electronic dance music) to inspirational, piano or new wave. During streaming, it is necessary to convert the digital signal arriving via Ethernet to an analog signal. This is done by taking a special interface, from which music is injected, into the ControlSpace ESP-880 and ESP-00 II processors.

Start up

Bose Professional collaborated with Estel Engineering and Works in the audio system installation at Finest Hotel. The first draft was drawn up in two days on software, then thanks to two months of advancement in civil works and the open- architecture of the system, it was possible to make the changes suggested by the managers of the hotel to customize the best audio experience.

Bose’s engineering team moved to Playa Mujeres to oversee installation and hardware implementation details. For those days, the team worked together with the staff of Estel on checking wiring, interfaces, keypads, as well as making final adjustments to software in ControlSpace Designer.

Thanks to the joint work of engineers and technicians from Estel Engineering and Works, the staff of Bose Professional and experts from Finest Hotel Playa Mujeres, this exuberant facility is equipped with one of the best sound systems installed throughout the Caribbean, fully expressing luxury, tranquility and love to hotel guests.

Equipment

Loudspeakers

307 Bose FreeSpace DS 16SE surface-mount loudspeakers
82 Bose FreeSpace 360P II (exterior) loudspeakers

Electronics

2 Bose ControlSpace ESP-00 II processor, with Dante cards
1 Bose ControlSpace ESP-880 processor, with Dante card
2 Bose PowerMatch PM8500N power amplifier, with Dante card
4 Bose PowerMatch PM8250N power amplifier, with Dante card
3 Bose FreeSpace ZA-190 HZ zone amplifier
3 Bose ControlSpace EP-22D Dante endpoints

Controls

2 Bose CC-64 network control center
28 Bose CC-16 zone controller