When Wahid Makhaiel tasked Essex Sound & Light with creating a spangled interior for his Isis membership club in Mayfair’s trendy Dover Street two years ago, the club owner ended up with one of the most technically advanced LED graphics walls in the country.

But then the club went through a series of metamorphoses — first to ’50 Dover Street’, when it became a dedicated Lebanese nightclub/restaurant, and now the exclusive 210-capacity table dancing club (The Mayfair Club).

Mike Glover’s Southend-based integration company has been at the fore of all three conversions — but his latest is his most adventurous yet.

Moving the interior into a world of purple velvet banquettes, plum and aubergine colour combinations and chrome balustrading, ESL have arranged LED colour-changers to equip each booth with sultry blues and bordello reds, while the existing LED panels have been completely reconfigured into new shapes.

Now the main X-Panel is split into a 7 x 20 panel widescreen displays over the dancefloor, with two 8 x 5 portrait panels up on the podium. Pixellated dancers have been added to the graphics palette, displayed by the Hippotizer media server, while the pre-existing Funktion One RES-2 sound system has relocated to Blush (Wahid Makhaiel’s long-standing Middle-Eastern club near Selfridge’s) to be replaced by a KV2 sound reinforcement rig.

This is the second KV2 system to find its way into a high-profile London location in the past few months, and Mike Glover is understandably excited — as is the club’s front man, Hervé Canavet. “The sound operates well within its limits and provides great sound definition,” he says. “In fact I am surprised it delivers such a high SPL when asked to. Clients looking to hire the venue comment on how small these active speakers look and are amazed when we fire them up.”

To achieve the effect Mike Glover has specified eight Active two-way compact EX6’s, which are sufficiently discreet to blend effortlessly into the surroundings. The system is variously fed from a computer hard drive, twin CD player and occasionally a DJ. “It certainly gives us a fair level — loud enough for the girls to dance to but with sufficient transparency to be heard.” The enclosure features state of the art components including the company’s NVPD compression driver, Trans-Coil 6in woofer and complete on-board control with electronic crossovers, phase alignment, equalisation and speaker protection integrated into the EX6’s amplifier module.

Bass extension is provided by just two floor-mounted EX2.2 active subs, one under each of the portrait graphics panels.

The control and configuration structure is programmed into a BSS Soundweb London BLU160; the sound levels are preset and the master gain can be adjusted — loudest by the poles on the raised podium, quietest by the bar. “Everything is designed to make the technology as user-friendly as possible by non technical personnel,” says Mike.

Although the interior has changed dramatically, with the four-dance booths discreetly curtained away via sash cords, ESL’s inspired technology remains.

There is LED tape providing edge lighting to the smoked black polycarbonate surfaces, LED halo effects, fibre optic chandeliers and Pulsar MR16 downlights all contributing to the atmosphere.

Explaining the change of direction, Herve Canavet says, “It is tricky to run a nightclub. We had the 6am license for a couple of years and so we decided to change to a lap dancing club, which has brought a more selective clientele and fewer problems on the door. It’s a good spot for this type of business — there is nothing like this close by other than hostess clubs.” The conversion cost, he said, “had run into six figures”.

But thanks to the reworking of the technology he believes The Mayfair Club now has a lot more potential. “We are available for private hire during the day and we can stage everything from photo shoots to catwalk and fashion shows,” he says.