The multi-million-dollar Firdaus Studio in Dubai opened its doors in early 2022.  Van Damme’s distributor in Dubai, NMK Electronics, supplied Van Damme Tour Grade Classic XKE microphone cables, Blue Series Studio Grade speaker cables, Tourcat Cat 6 Single cables and Black Series Tour Grade UP-OFC Overall Braid Multicore as part of the build.

Based at the Expo 2020 site, now called Expo City Dubai, Firdaus Studio is the only music studio in the region to be mentored by Grammy- and Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman, and Dubai’s only certified Dolby Atmos HE studio.

Equipped with best-in-class audio equipment and in-house instruments, Firdaus Studio’s breath-taking Live Room is able to accommodate and record up to 80 musicians at once (a full orchestra). It has been uniquely engineered and designed for multiple formats and use cases including; cinema mode, orchestral recording and live performance venue.

This space is also the home of the Firdaus Orchestra and is where it practises and does most of its work. Mentored by Rahman, the 50-woman-strong orchestra is made up of 23 nationalities from across the Arab world and aims to be at a par with institutions such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Symphony Orchestra and Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

Adam Jafrabadi, export director at VDC Trading, commented: “It’s been a pleasure to work with Rocky and Sithara at NMK Electronics on this.  When we were over in Dubai recently, we were privileged to have a tour of Firdaus Studio and get a glimpse of the magic that goes on behind the scenes.  It’s a well-lit, first class facility with spectacular glass panels that looks out onto manicured green spaces.  It was amazing to see Van Damme cables put to use in such an outstanding facility.”

Rocky Solarta at NMK Electronics, said : “As Firdaus’ translates to ‘Paradise’ in Arabic, it was imperative that we were able to provide the very best products on the market to help create a sonic paradise.  Firdaus Studio is an excellent orchestral recording facility with superlative equipment including top-of-the range microphones, preamps and consoles – and Van Damme cables.  It was an exciting project to be involved in.”