Outdoor Speakers | - Part 3

Boston’s Post 390 blanketed with SpeakerCraft speakers and Crestron automation.

Providing audio, video and automation for a bar and restaurant is rarely easy. It’s even more difficult when the restaurateur has various and specific goals in mind.

Take Post 390, for example, which is located steps from Boston’s most bustling office buildings, making it an after-work cocktail location. It’s also located a couple of blocks from Boston Back Bay’s bar scene, making it a night-on-the-town location.

But Post 390 is located a stone’s throw from Boston’s trendy South End restaurants, making it an up-scale eatery.

In other words: Post 390 needs to be a chameleon, adjusting to the needs of various guests – and its audio, video and automation need to reflect that.

“One of our early marketing slogans was ‘Find your Post,’” says Paul Dias, senior VP of operations for the Himmel Hospitality Group, which runs Post 390. “We looked at it as a place for a casual lunch, for a business lunch, a place to meet for beers, a place for a formal dinner. So every part of the restaurant had to be able to [reflect] the ‘Find your Post’ theme.”

Photos: Integrator Serves Up 87 Restaurant Speakers

Sound Approach

Dias enlisted North Easton, Mass.-based Audio Video Intelligence (AVI) to design and install Post 390’s electronics.

The restaurant is two floors, with a bar area on each floor, and the dining rooms blend into the bars. There are two areas that can be dedicated for private parties, complete with drop-down Epson projectors and Da-Lite screens, that require separate automation and audio zones.

The biggest challenge for Jim Shapiro, president of AVI, was providing seamless sound – a dilemma he describes while walking across the length of the restaurant and listening for hotspots. “In a restaurant, more speakers are generally better. If there are too few, the system has to play louder and that’s when people get upset.”

As such, AVI installed 87 SpeakerCraft speakers and subwoofers, mostly in-ceiling, in the 12,000-square-foot space.

AVI’s design called for even more speakers. “Yeah,” Dias recalls. “You [as a restaurant integration client] really have to come to terms with the number of speakers. You have to compromise. You only have as much money as you have to spend.”

Automation Made Easy

Speaking of money, Post 390 didn’t skimp when it came to automation. Post 390 staff use Crestron automation to control audio, video, motorized screens, lighting and climate. It’s always a challenge anytime various employees need to interact with a control system, so Dias wanted it to be as simple as possible.

During the design phase, Shapiro sent Dias screen captures of the customized Crestron interfaces AVI programmed for Post 390. He liked what he saw.

Dias, whose Himmel Hospitality Group runs other prominent Boston and Cambridge restaurants, has been burned before by difficult-to-use automation systems.

“Paul knew he needed reliability and it needed to be simple to control,” says Shapiro. “He had experiences with systems that aren’t as powerful and fast for switching.”

Post 390 demonstrates extreme confidence in its Crestron automation system by including in-wall touchscreens in the two private dining areas. Nothing is stopping a customer in one of those rooms to select music, turn down volume or even lower the projector and screen – although it’s obviously not encouraged.

The private rooms are only private when Post 390 designates it so. The larger of the rooms includes a large glass door that can be opened when that room is simply used for dining space and closed when privacy is needed.

The audio zones need to reflect the rooms’ usage and Post 390 staff uses Crestron audio switching via touchscreen to change on the fly.

Staff training was a snap, Shapiro recalls. He remembers being on-site for a soft opening and waiting for employees to ask questions about how to use the automation system but hardly getting any. For him, that’s a measure of success.

For Dias, he measures success by reflecting back on his initial goals. “We were trying to create a certain kind of environment here and we wanted a sound system that would help us do that. And we wanted consistency.”

Walking through the restaurant, Dias says his goals were met. Then he adds, “See? No dead spots.”

by Tom LeBlanc

http://www.commercialintegrator.com/article/integrator_serves_up_87_restaurant_speakers?utm_source=ci&utm_medium=topic

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Charlotte, NC’s Source For Restaurant and Sports Bar Audio/Video Sales, Service and Installation

CIS: Installing Outdoor Speakers in Charlotte, Boone and Surrounding Areas

This three-zone system’s horsepower covers the pool, patio and the owner’s two ponies.

The ponies have their own music, 24/7. It could be pop music, classical or even talk radio.

They also have their own security system. Cameras inside and outside of their barn are visible on touchscreens and TVs in the main house. And when their gate is opened, a voice prompt over the security system alerts the homeowners.

“They wanted to do something really nice outdoors. Then we found out they wanted to have pony barn out there,” says Netzer Martinez of Sixth Avenue Electronics, the installation firm for this northern New Jersey project.

“They wanted to make sure ponies had music,” Martinez says of the homeowners. Apparently, the two Shetland ponies, Summer and Autumn, like company. The family also wanted to option of what the ponies would listen to.

So the ponies have their own independent audio zone, one of three that is outside of this home, delivering a constant stream of an FM station. (We just hope they don’t really have to endure talk radio.)

The other two zones cover the pool/patio area and the cabana, which features a 50-inch Panasonic plasma TV.

The cabana is enclosed with glass doors, making it a four-season entertainment retreat. There are no independent speakers in the cabana, however. The family just uses the audio from the TV. Though if they’re watching a baseball or football game, they can route that audio to several hidden speakers in the pool and patio area.

The ponies, however, don’t have to listen to the big game if they don’t want to. They have their music. (We hope.)

The pool and patio area get their sound from Rockustics OmniPlanter and Rock series speakers that—you guessed it—are designed to look like flower planters and rocks. The two pairs of Planter speakers fire their sound downward and out of ports on their bottoms, while flowers bloom merrily on top. One pair is on the patio, while assorted Rock speakers surround the pool, spa and waterfall area.

All of this audio comes from an Elan System12 multizone audio system, with the homeowner’s music collection is stored on an Elan VIA!dj hard-drive-based system. Elan also provides control with a 4-inch N800 touchpanel remote outside and touchpanels in the house.

One of the challenges faced in an extensive outdoor electronics project such as this is planning and running the cables to all the speaker and video locations. (See sidebar below.) Sixth Avenue used separate 2-inch conduit for each of the power, security, and audio/video wiring to the pony barn and cabana. From a closet in back of the cabana, connections to the pool area speaker locations were added later.

The carefully planned prewire allows one more TV in the offing outside. Guess where? Yep, the ponies were smart enough to wire for video ahead of time. They may end up with a better A/V system than that in the cabana.

Outdoor Plans

What to think of when you’re planning to have electronics systems outdoors?

Have an idea ahead of time. “The best jobs I’ve done come from the customer’s ideas, and if you really want to do something, stick with it. The end project much is usually much better than what I envisioned,” says Martinez.

Run the wires now. This is a good idea, even if you’re not going to do something for years. The pony barn on this property is already wired for video, for instance. “We went back and forth on this project several times, and ran several different conduits to the barn, pool and cabana,” Martinez says.

Be flexible. The pool in this project got moved, and Sixth Avenue had to be ready for it. Not knowing quite where the pool area speakers would be located, the electronics installer ran conduit with speaker wire to a closet behind the cabana and later made connections from there to the speaker locations in the mulched garden areas.

Protect your electronics. The Rockustics speakers in this pool and patio area are made to be outdoors. Make sure any electronics that will exposed to the elements or even splashes from the pool are weatherproof or waterproof (there’s a difference). The plasma TV is not made for the outdoors, but Sixth Avenue made sure it would be protected from the weather.

by Steven Castle

http://www.electronichouse.com/article/backyard_music_system_pricks_up_ponies_ears/D2/

Custom Installation Services, LLC – Charlotte and Boone NC’s Source For Outdoor Speaker Sales, Service & Installation!