Franchisee Pru Naik has 24 McDonald's restaurants, mainly around West London and Berkshire. His McDonald's feature stylish dark bamboo and cream colour schemes, flowers on the tables, free wi-fi in every restaurant and now a new sound system.
Brand & communications manager Rico Pieri investigated the sound options and found Bose to be both quick to respond and helpful. Bose put Pieri in touch with one of its leading Bose Pro-Partners, PEL Music & Media, for the system design and installation.
PEL was asked to design and install a system initially for McDonald's London Victoria restaurant which was the first to be kitted out as part of the high spec refurb. The existing sound system hadn't been changed since 1999, but the restaurant had been refurbished and the layout changed, which affected the overall sound quality.
PEL designed the system using a Bose 4400 Business Music System with digital processing and ambient noise sensing.The latter was particularly important for a restaurant like Victoria as large customer groups often arrive in one go, raising the ambient level to the detriment of the music. With ambient noise sensing the sound level adjusts automatically, leaving staff free to continue to serve customers rather than continually breaking off to adjust the music volume level.
PEL installed the entire sound system over two nights, enabling the restaurant to operate as normal in the day. In addition to the equipment installation, PEL also secured the contract to provide the music, creating and regularly updating the play list.
This is supplied on CD at regular intervals and loaded onto the hard drive in the restaurant, although McDonald's is looking to switch to Broadband for simpler delivery, as recommended by PEL. The playlist has been designed by PEL to change throughout the day, starting with mellow, quieter music in the mornings.
Pru Naik notes: "It now feels like one zone of sound rather than pockets. The ambient noise sensing is also a great feature as it doesn't require attention from my staff which means they can focus 100% on the customer."
(Jim Evans)
