One of Chicago’s newest fine dining attractions, BLVD draws inspiration from Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard in the 1950s – Hollywood-style glamour, luxury and decadence provide the backdrop for contemporary cuisine, cocktails and background music. To deliver music and announcements, systems integrator Encompass Audio Visual designed and installed a custom sound system built around a Symetrix Prism-series DSP.
‘The restaurant contacted us to begin designing an audio system from architectural renderings, prior to establishing a general contractor,’ says Emmett Kelly of Encompass AV. ‘There is have a private dining room upstairs, a downstairs bar, and an upstairs bar. At full capacity, the space probably holds 200 people. So we set up a system with five zones.
The entertainment sources are limited because the focus is on dining. The single TV is used for private functions and the occasional major Chicago sporting event.’
All loudspeakers in the new system are Martin Audio’s CDD6, except for the rest rooms which have Martin C6.8T 6.5-inch ceiling speakers. ‘There are custom enclosures for the speakers, including the Martin Audio subwoofers in the ceiling,’ Kelly reports. ‘There is custom woodwork and milling throughout the space, so we worked closely with the contractors to adapt our design.’
To manage the system, the Encompass AV chose the Symetrix Prism 8x8 DSP, which provides 128 Dante channels (64x64), enabling reliable audio networking over IP. For BLVD’s system, there is a Symetrix xOut 4 Dante-enabled analoguue output expander, giving the 1U rack-mount Prism 8x8 a total of 12 analogue outputs. An Attero Tech unD610-BT Dante-networked audio wall plate connects to the Prism DSP to give the BLVD staff convenient stereo analogue input and output, as well as stereo Bluetooth audio input.
‘We specify Symetrix DSPs for all of our jobs like this because we’re impressed by the lack of audio coloration,’ relates Encompass AV President Tim Pickett. ‘Symetrix processors provide the cleanest sound on the market. They’re also really geared for installations, rather than for touring. The analogue connections are bare wire with screw terminals, not XLR connectors, which fits our projects very well. We like their programmability with Symetrix’ Composer CAD software, and we like their accessibility from a control standpoint; they’re easy to use with our control system. They’re just solid processors that we can rely on.’
A year-and-a-half after the project’s beginning, BLVD is thriving and winning accolades. Its new Symetrix Prism-based sound system is doing much the same. ‘The sound system is a real success,’ reports Kelly. ‘The Prism DSP is flawlessly managing the audio throughout the space, it sounds great, it was easy to program, and the client is very happy. This is why we consistently choose Symetrix.’
More: www.encompassav.com
More: www.symetrix.co
More: https://martin-audio.com
