JBL sound system for OXO Tower
- Details
London-based Evolve Install has upgraded the brasserie's existing JBL system with a bespoke JBL Pendant speaker solution and also equipped the fine dining restaurant with a similar sound system.
The work was project managed by Evolve Install director, Elliot Patterson, who saw the layout of the existing speakers was awry while surveying the site. He notes: “They were not positioned in the right area to get optimal coverage and there were a number of blind spots - the sound would reflect off the large windows and bounce around. Also it had been zoned in a clumsy way.”
He consulted the application team at Sound Technology, the UK and Ireland distributors for the Harman Pro brands, and with the venue mapped using JBL’s modelling system, the Pendants were proposed as the ideal solution.
For the main restaurant and brasserie, Evolve Install deployed seven Control 67P/T enclosures with high-power 6.5” transducer - four in the restaurant and three in the brasserie. For the bar they used three of the smaller Control 65P/T (with 5.25” transducer).
The Pendants were set at high level up in the ceiling - all speakers hanging off the H-beams on steel rope with Gripples, with secondary safety provided.
Patterson observed that since the pre-existing six JBL Control 25T still sounded excellent, it made budgetary sense to redeploy them. “We re-ran the cable and reassigned three for the brasserie and three for the restaurant but positioned them in such a way that they would cover specific areas,” he said. All speakers have been carefully tuned and equalised.
The routing matrix covering the seven zones is a BSS Soundweb BLU100 - with fixed 12-inputs/8-out. There are four sound sources, two BGM players and DJ/Live input in Restaurant and Brasserie. Two BSS EC8BV Ethernet based wall remotes - one in each bar - provide local control by the bar staff.
The installation is driven by two Crown CDi 4|300 (4-channel, 300W per channel) and the drive rack occupies just 6U. These are 4-channel, 300W per channel. The entire system is driven 100V line.
The installer says: “This is not designed as a club system - it’s all about detail and clarity and bringing the best out of Music Concierge’s background music system. But at the same time, they also host live music, so we have provided plugin points in both the Brasserie and the Restaurant.
“To optimise this, we have provided the client with different daytime and night time [BGM] presets and also a Live preset. When the Live setting is engaged it ducks the existing background system and at the end of the session it returns to default at the press of a button.”
Patterson concludes: “We have given the client full audio coverage of both their premium restaurant spaces, using an elegant JBL solution that blends in with the architecture. At the same time we’ve made it as simple and easy as possible to operate.”
