Laudio Technology recently outfitted the newly-opened Voodoo Bayou restaurant with JBL Professional, Crown and BSS audio solutions, providing high-quality sound with total coverage and seamless control.
Presented by True Grit Hospitality Group, the organisation behind the successful Calaveras Cantina, Voodoo Bayou serves southern Cajun cuisine and unique craft cocktails in a vibrant atmosphere reminiscent of classic Louisiana architecture. The restaurant consists of a main first-floor dining room with a bar and stage for live performances, as well as a mezzanine level with a second bar overlooking the main dining area. To provide high-quality sound throughout the facility and enable staff to easily adjust levels in different areas, Voodoo Bayou required a sophisticated audio system with a simple, portable control interface.
To achieve these goals, Laudio Technology equipped the restaurant with an assortment of JBL loudspeakers powered by Crown amplifiers and a BSS signal processor with the HiQnet Motion Control app for convenient iPad control.
“They wanted background and light foreground music for the regular house system, with future goals of expanding into a stage set up for live music,” said Tim Law, Owner, Laudio Technology. “They wanted a customisable solution where, down the road, we’d have some room for expansion.”
Faced with a variety of ceiling heights and surfaces that presented a challenge when mounting loudspeakers throughout the space, Tim deployed a wide range of JBL Control Series loudspeakers suited to different applications. For full-range sound in the main dining area, Law hung Control 67 P/T pendant loudspeakers and Control 60PS/T pendant subwoofers from the 18-foot ceiling. In the areas under the mezzanine, Control 65 P/T pendant speakers provide additional coverage. On the mezzanine level, Law installed in-ceiling Control 47 C/T loudspeakers and Control 40CS/T subwoofers for discreet sound coverage.
In the outdoor patio area, weather-resistant Control 28-1 and Control 25-1 wall-mounted speakers provide full-range sound while being protected from the elements. The bathrooms feature compact Control 14C/T ceiling loudspeakers, while the kitchen sports a single Control 28-1 wall-mounted speaker for staff communication. Finally, Law equipped the stage with four JBL PRX835W powered three-way PA loudspeakers, positioning one pair to cover the first level and a second angled upward toward the mezzanine level.
“The mounting surfaces dictated the speaker selection, and JBL had the right mounting solutions for each surface,” said Tim. “Where we had ceilings, we went in with the in-ceiling speakers and in-ceiling subs. The main dining area was pretty tall, with no real structure to attach to, so we hung pendants about five or six feet down. Underneath the mezzanine was just steel beams and pipes, so we needed either surface-mount or pendant loudspeakers, and the pendants had better coverage. And then outside, it was all surface-mount.”
Two four-channel Crown CDi 4|600BL amplifiers power the majority of the house loudspeakers, while a single two-channel JBL CSA 240Z amplifier powers the kitchen and bathroom loudspeakers. Signal is sent to the amplifiers by a BSS BLU-101 signal processor, which features separate inputs for background music, TV audio and outputs from a stage mixer. An additional input for the kitchen microphone is fed only to the kitchen loudspeakers. Law grouped loudspeakers into multiple zones for discrete volume control in the main dining area, mezzanine, under-mezzanine, patio, kitchen and bathrooms. An additional two zones control the two sets of stage PA loudspeakers. Using the HiQnet Motion Control iOS app, staff can easily adjust levels for individual input sources and speaker zones as they walk around the restaurant.
“There’s a house iPad on site that has the Motion Control app loaded and registered to the system,” said Tim. “Some of the managers with iPhones have the app as well. In the previous restaurant, the installers had them using the gain on the front of the amplifiers for level control, so the thing they loved about this setup was being able to physically be in the zone and adjust the volume without having to radio back to the office for adjustments.”
True Grit Hospitality Group liked the new sound system and convenient control so much that they subsequently hired Laudio Technology to retrofit their previous restaurant, Calaveras Cantina, as well. Additionally, True Grit Hospitality Group commissioned Laudio Technology to equip their next two restaurants, another Voodoo Bayou and Calaveras Cantina, with similar HARMAN Professional audio systems.
