Zouk has reopened its three rooms at Clarke Quay, Singapore with L-Acoustics systems providing sound. The Main Room now runs on a single L2D hang per side, the first L2 club installation in Singapore, with A series and X series systems in Phuture and Capital. Concept Systems Technologies, a Singaporean integrator and L-Acoustics Certified Provider Distributor, designed, supplied and installed all three.
When Zouk opened on Jiak Kim Street in 1991, in three restored 1919 riverside warehouses, it was the first club to bring house music to a city then given over to Top 40. It has been a fixture of DJ Mag’s Top 100 Clubs for two decades, peaking at No. 3 in 2017, the highest placing an Asian club has achieved. Singapore is the original Zouk: the brand has since opened venues in Kuala Lumpur, Genting Highlands, Tokyo and Las Vegas, where Zouk Nightclub at Resorts World runs on an L-Acoustics K3i system, and it has staged the ZoukOut beach festival on Sentosa since 2000.
After 25 years on Jiak Kim Street, Zouk moved in December 2016 into The Cannery at Clarke Quay, a three-storey warehouse block across the river, with Capital added to the Main Room and Phuture the following year. In 2024 the club committed to rebuilding all three rooms, which now work independently or open into a single space for up to 3,500 people, and the brief ran well past a DJ sound system to live bands, concerts and corporate events. Capital reopened in March 2026, with the Main Room and Phuture following on 19th June.
Because the rooms were being rebuilt rather than refreshed, Zouk was specifying for a wider range of use than it had before. James Pithouse, senior engineer at Concept Systems, said: “Zouk’s brief was to deliver the low-end impact and high SPL capability a leading nightclub demands. At the same time, they wanted it to hold consistent coverage across rooms that also host performances by live bands.”
The Main Room was the hardest of the three. A low ceiling and fixed mounting positions left little room to manoeuvre on loudspeaker placement and aiming, and L2D was specified for exactly those conditions: a single element per side delivered the output the room needed from the shortest possible hang, with Panflex directivity to shape the horizontal pattern rather than add hangs to cover the floor. One enclosure per side also kept the rigging inside the positions the building allowed, and out of the sightlines.
Pithouse said: “It gave us the performance, coverage and output the Main Room needed, within a footprint that was far more restrictive than a typical install. That it also became the first L2 club installation in Singapore was a bonus.”
Concept Systems leaned on L-Acoustics Soundvision to make that footprint work, predicting coverage, SPL and loudspeaker interaction before a single enclosure was hung. That groundwork meant the final aiming and placement decisions, refined on site with calibration support from the L-Acoustics Applications team, could focus on evening out coverage across a room that gave the designers very little margin for error.
Pithouse explained: “The work was phased so Zouk always had a room open. Capital was refitted first, over eight weeks, while the Main Room and Phuture kept trading. Then a 10-week second phase covered the Main Room and Phuture once Capital was back up and running.”
In the Main Room, a single L2D hang per side forms the core of the system. Six KS28 deliver the low-end impact a nightclub of this scale demands, while four X12 cover the DJ booth and MC positions and two A15i per side handle VIP side-fill, keeping levels consistent for guests closest to the booth. Getting sound evenly to the back of the room falls to seven A10i and two X8i on delay, backed by two SB18 for delay sub, extending low-end reach across the room’s full footprint.
Phuture takes a different approach, built around horizontal coverage for a dance floor that runs long and low. Three A15i Wide line each side for the main system, spreading energy evenly across the crowd rather than concentrating it in a single throw. A single X12 covers VIP fill, four KS21i, arranged in two columns of two per side, deliver the low end, and two X12 extend coverage to the delay positions, keeping the system tight through a room shaped very differently to the Main Room.
Capital, Zouk’s more intimate premium lounge uses a fully distributed system to keep coverage even without the SPL of the dance floors next door. Three A10i Wide per side form the main hangs, with two KS21i per side for low end, one A10i per side for VIP fill, and four A10i delays per side, backed by a KS21i delay sub per side, carrying the same clarity into Capital’s more intimate environment, including its central island bar and private Green Room. The bar area within the Capital Lounge has a supplementary system comprising of 11 X8i loudspeakers and four SB15m subwoofers, all driven by an LA7.16i amplified controller.
Across all three venues, an L-Acoustics P1 handles format conversion, with the full installation networked on Milan-AVB.
Feedback from Zouk’s management and technical team has been positive since the systems went live, with particular praise for the performance, coverage and impact across all three spaces. Concept Systems continues to work with the in-house team on training, while the Milan-AVB network leaves headroom for Zouk to expand or adapt the system as its requirements evolve.
Pithouse said: “This was an exciting and technically demanding install across three very different rooms and in a live venue that couldn’t afford to go dark, or silent. Seeing it all come together, and hearing the difference it's made across the board, has been hugely rewarding for the whole team.”
Andrew Li, CEO, Zouk Group, commented: “High-quality sound has always been part of who we are, and this system takes that even further. From the energy in the Main Room to the more intimate feel of Capital, every room now hits exactly the way it was designed to, and our guests and artists feel that the moment they walk in. Being part of Singapore’s first L2 club installation, working alongside Concept Systems and L-Acoustics, is something we’re proud of, and it sets us up perfectly for whatever comes next for Zouk.”