With chef Chris Galvin at the helm, the restaurant quickly became one of the most talked about in London, as patrons either headed right into the restaurant or left into the elegant cocktail bar on exiting the lift.
However, the one aspect of the bar's infrastructure that was found wanting was the sound system, and in due course general manager Fred Sirieix decided that in order to complete the perfect atmosphere this would need to be upgraded. "The old ceiling speaker system was not sufficiently powerful for our private events and there were 'pockets' where there was no coverage," he said.
Sirieix had worked with the Sound Division Group in a previous guise - back in his days as general manager of another London bar/restaurant, Noble Rot, which had also been equipped by the technology suppliers.
He was aware that back on the hotel's ground floor, the Sound Division Group had also recently fitted out the chic Whisky Mist, operated by Piers Adam and Nick House, on the site of the famous Zeta Bar.
Sirieix invited David Graham's company to provide a demonstration of suitable JBL speaker products. He was aware of the performance of JBL's Control 29s in Whisky Mist, and the same speakers were demonstrated, along with JBL Control 26CT ceiling speakers. The result was that this combination was specified as part of a complete sound package.
Sound Division retained the existing cabling to the old ceiling speakers, which were replaced with seven JBL Control 26CT ceiling speakers. Meanwhile new cabling was run to the four Control 29 speakers - with one positioned discreetly into each of the four corners - while a Martin Audio AQ210 floor-mounted subwoofer is enclosed in its own special discreet housing at the back of the lounge.
Sound Division has also installed a separate plug-in point for a flightcased portable DJ system - housing a pair of Pioneer CDJ 1000 Mk3s and Allen & Heath XONE:62 mixer) when the venue reverts to party mode (or for private bookings). An EV SX300 has been provided as a portable DJ reference monitor.
The existing sound equipment hardware running the background music system was reconfigured to accommodate the new JBL system with the addition of two new Crown XLS series amplifiers and a dbx Drive Rack PA, which processes the system, ensuring full sound optimisation and speaker protection.
(Jim Evans)
