Apart from a place to indulge in delicious food and refreshing drinks, a restaurant is an establishment that relies on good service, quality wares and a lively, comfortable atmosphere to attract and subsequently keep its patrons. Part and parcel of the atmosphere is of course background music, and therefore an adequate system is required; one that is flexible and provides total coverage with high fidelity. Greg Bester reports.
Mythos restaurant in Irene Village Mall is no exception. Since this is lively, up-market, al-fresco restaurant that can get quite boisterous at times, a flexible system was specified to provide anything from subtle background music to a pumping soundtrack for when the party gets going.
Naturally, system installer and designer Riaz Omar from R & F Audio Visual was called upon to design and install the system, along with Johannesburg-based distributors iLED that supplied the components and consultation, coordinated by account manager Derick van Tonder.
Riaz is no stranger to the restaurant audio business and has installed systems in high-profile eateries and bistros such as Mythos in Brooklyn, Cofi, Baobab and Cappuccinos. He has always used iLED products for his installs and considers them to be of utmost quality.
Riaz comments on the system specified by him: “[The owner] wanted something that could pump a little bit so I gave him a low impedance system as opposed to a 100V line system. Most restaurants run a 100V line system for background music.’
The system
To maximise flexibility the audio system for Mythos Irene was divided up into three distinct zones which include outside, inside right and inside left.
Antwerp, Belgium-based Apart Audio components were selected for their robust construction, high power and high quality sound. Apart Audio offers such contractor audio solutions as automatic level controllers, mixing, power and modular amplifiers, pre-amplifiers, speakers, music source control and microphone systems. They have a massive distribution network spanning the globe and iLED proudly handles their distribution in South Africa.
Inside, a total of 16 Apart Audio CMX20T ceiling speakers (eight per zone) were employed. These 8′ speakers are two-way and supply 100W at 16Ohms or 20W at 100V.
For outside Riaz utilised eight Apart Audio MASK 6T-BLs. These are high fidelity pro-design enclosed speakers, handling 150W at 16 ohms or 60W at 100V. He decided to go with these cabinet-enclosed models because of their aversion to weather.
Riaz explains. “We usually install ceiling mount speakers where we can because aesthetically it looks neater, but the MASKs are weather proof so I use them for a lot of restaurant installations on the outside. They sound brilliant.’
A single Apart Audio Champ 2 power amplifier powers each zone, totaling three. These stereo amplifiers can drive 350W per channel at 4 Ohms, which was crucial to accomplish the low impedance system Riaz was aiming for. Taking this approach, four 16 Ohm speakers per channel were chained in parallel; therefore impedance matching the load down to 4 Ohms and optimising system performance and quality.
The wrap
Restaurant audio is a tricky affair which differs from other installations for the simple reason that background music is there to create the atmosphere and not be too upfront.
After all, no restaurant owner wants any of their customers to be short-changed in any way, and that includes soaking in the vibe. Complete control of all the relevant zones and a high fidelity system, therefore, must be of paramount consideration and considering what R & F AV and iLED have done at Mythos, I doubt any patron will leave dissatisfied for years to come.
By Greg Bester
