Situated in the suburb of Fourways, it is South Africa's first truly comprehensive décor and design retail centre - a vibrant hub for lovers of cutting-edge décor products and design services, industry trend setters, socialites and restaurant patrons.
Kitchen Bar is a key feature of the development, presenting new standards of culinary excellence influenced by international trends. A crucial element in the new venue is having AV facilities to equal these standards. Harman Pro products distributor, Wild and Marr were called to the challenge.
Since Kitchen Bar was designed to be a restaurant, cocktail bar, lounge and night spot - all happening in various parts of the building simultaneously - a sophisticated DSP/routing solution was necessary. While people dining in the restaurant didn't want loud music being played, conversely, Kitchen Bar wanted the bar/venue to have precisely that in order to create a vibe.
Thus Wild and Marr devised an inventive preamplifier source routing system using a dbx ZonePRO 1260 and two dbx ZonePRO 1261's, in conjunction with dbx ZC8 remote wall panels. The ZC8 panels were installed in the various zones enabling Kitchen Bar to choose which input to play and handle its own local volume control. "In other words," said Wild and Marr's sales engineer, Justin Mamulis, "the ZonePROs have taken a very complicated input/output scenario and simplified it into a source selector and a volume control."
Using a wireless access point in the roof, the installers were able to connect to the ZonePRO units using WiFi Ethernet technology. "This afforded us the opportunity to set limits, gates, compressors and equalisation while standing in the specific areas in order to create the perfect sound," he explained.
Under the control of the ZonePROs are a downstairs dining area, lavishly decorated with plush fabrics and rich décor, requiring a loudspeaker with minimum visual impact. JBL Control 126 loudspeakers along with high power JBL Control SB210 subwoofers were installed along with two DJ booths, each booth using JBL Control 1's as monitors.
A mezzanine level adds visuals and space elements to the design. Control 126's, with their own wall mounted volume and source selection panel, handle the audio requirements in this area as well as the day bed area.
The upstairs areas have a balcony and patio area with weather-resistant, colour-matched (gun metal grey) JBL Control 25 AV's. Three-way colour-matched Control 30's were used in the cocktail bar, while the SB 210 subs are hidden in the ceiling voids.
The main bar houses the second DJ booth, along with JBL Control 128's, together with four Control 30 three-way loudspeakers and two JBL Control SB210 dual 10in subwoofers.
Justin Mamulis says: "By using the dbx ZonePRO 1260 and 1261s to facilitate the selection of source as well as volume levels in each zone, we have been able to design an elegant distribution system across the nine venue zones - all linked by a LAN Network with a server and two wireless routers."
(Chris Henry)
