Chris Gunton of CGA Integration observes a distinct trend in the city's fine dining rooms: "We've recently worked at several venues where the traditionally high standards applied to cuisine, service and décor have now been transferred to audio-visual aspirations: AV is no longer the poor relation in a prestige hotel or restaurant project, but has come of age with the benefits it offers both the finished venue and its bottom line."
After successfully installing EV-based background music systems in China Tang and The Crystal Bar at The Dorchester Hotel, CGA took on complete responsibility for providing audio to match the standards in cuisine and service set by the Alain Ducasse and his team in the prestigious new restaurant development, the first in London for arguably the world's greatest chef.
As with many spectacular venues, high ceilings and differing finishes challenge audio designers to achieve intimacy, quality and even levels of crystal clear sound. The Ducasse restaurant has been given a zoned background music system featuring Electro-Voice's distinctive EviD ceiling loudspeakers, which provided a solution for the different specifications of each zone and the capability to match voicing across a range. The Park Lane room was catered for with C8.2HC high ceiling variants, while C8.2 speakers are concealed in lighting features in main room, cellar and private dining booths to give separate audio zones or a full-range quality sound across the entire venue. Mediamatrix control offers wall-plate selection of presets for the amp supply, fed by an 8-track HD music playback unit for brand consistency.
CGA Integration also applied its audio expertise to Michelin-starred Mayfair restaurant Tamarind. Manager Jespal Soor reviewed the market place and asked CGA Integration to remedy the sound deficiencies in his venue. Arriving at the end of trading on Friday night, installation of a discrete EV ceiling speaker solution was achieved before the chefs arrived the next morning. There was no impact on existing décor; in fact Jespal initially thought the work had not been done as he could not see the speakers, proving that dramatic sound enhancements do not need to incur major disruption, say CGA.
(Lee Baldock)
