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