Restaurant Anker is a brand new eatery right on the waterfront in Nordhaven, Aarhus. Describing itself as the ‘least French’ French brasserie in Denmark, the focus is on great food in a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. High quality audio plays a very important part in creating the right ambience, and Restaurant Anker took no chances – the owners decided on a Genelec system throughout based on the compact, installation-specific 4020C loudspeaker installed (along with the rest of the AV system) by local AV specialist, LK Backline.
LK Backline’s Lasse Kirk was brought in after a successful demonstration convinced the owners that Genelec was the right solution for the restaurant – which required a flexible, high-quality solution that could be zoned into three different areas. “Restaurant Anker is a new venue in Aarhus, and they wanted to ensure that they are attractive to as wide a public as possible,” explained Lasse. “The restaurant can cater for up to 150 people, but it can be divided into smaller ‘rooms’ of 50 people each for private parties and corporate events. Each space has its own AV system including screens and projectors. The audio system therefore needed to be flexible enough to cater for any zoning possibility, and of sufficiently high quality to remain crystal clear at low levels. Genelec was the ideal choice.”
Lasse and Genelec Denmark’s Jonas Olsen specified a total of seven 4020C loudspeakers in a black finish and a further four 4020Cs in white along with a Soundcraft UI16 mixer for distribution and control, MIPRO wireless microphones and customised audio playback from My Instore Radio. “We went for the 4020Cs as they suited the spec perfectly,” recalls Kirk. “They are ideal size-wise being nice and compact – we had a few restrictions with ceiling and door heights so anything bigger would have been an issue – but still with enough power and low-end energy for everything the restaurant wanted to achieve. Coverage is excellent and the calibration controls on the back of the loudspeakers enabled us to perfectly optimise the performance of each speaker in relation to the room.”
Restaurant Anker aside, Kirk uses Genelec loudspeakers for a number of reasons, the first being that he finds it’s the most flexible way to plan an installation: “I often see clients changing stuff on the fly or at the last minute – if your installation is a standard 100V line with traditional amplifiers, it’s much less scalable. However, as Genelec’s installation loudspeakers are active, it’s easy to add more if necessary and you don’t have to worry about finding more room in the amp rack!
Also, Genelec makes great-looking loudspeakers, and yes, for some clients, the way the speakers look is just as (if not more) important than the way they sound! However, fortunately they also sound fantastic. In my opinion as far as sound quality is concerned, Genelec is the best value for money you can get. They also have a vast range of well thought-out accessories – the products are easy to use, easy to install and all of them are nice quality. Finally, Genelec Denmark will ALWAYS go out of their way to help me. Recently I had a client who only accepted the order the day before we were due to start. Genelec shipped the speakers from Finland to Denmark in under 36 hours – now that’s what I call great service.”
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