The prestigious London’s Savoy Grill on The Strand has completed a comprehensive refurbishment with a new sound system from Italian loudspeaker designer K-array.
‘The previous audio system consisted of point source speakers in opposite corners of the main dining room,’ says Tateside’s Project Manager Joby Morris, ‘If you were close to a speaker you had it really loud in your ear, and in the centre of the restaurant you couldn’t hear a thing. They came to us and asked what we could do to improve things on the audio front.
‘They wanted a high-performance, high-fidelity, distributed audio system that was very discreet – the word “invisible” was mentioned – installed to a really rapid project turnaround time because with such a strong revenue stream they were keen to avoid disruption due to unnecessary closure of the restaurant.’
Frequented by celebrity diners including Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, Frank Sinatra and HM Queen Elizabeth, London’s Savoy offers an iconic British and French-inspired menu alongside an exceptional wine list.
Having acted as A/V integrator to the iconic restaurant for many years, London-based A/V technology provider Tateside was well placed to offer a new sound system design – a distributed K-array speaker system from the Vyper, Lyzard and Tornado ranges – to providing discreet coverage of all three of the venue’s dining spaces.
The interior décor of painted slab walls and bold wallpapers prompted equally stylish loudspeakers, and led Morris to K-array as the preferred choice, working with interior designers Afroditi to blend the loudspeakers into the overall design.
Initially Morris worked alongside Dave Wooster from K-array’s UK distributor 2B Heard to develop SPL heat maps of the three rooms that would give optimal coverage while remaining discreet. Having determined the optimum loudspeaker locations and aiming angles, 2B Heard then produced slim profile fixed angle 3D printed brackets in matching RAL colours to ensure unobtrusiveness.
In all, ten Vyper-KV25 line arrays have been installed using custom wall brackets around the main restaurant area, with Rumble-KU44 subs built into the banquette seating.
The intimate Wine Room has correspondingly smaller Lyzard-KZ14s finished in black with a Truffle-KTR24 sub again under the seating, while the luxurious Chef’s Table that overlooks the famous Savoy Grill hosts a pair of ceiling-mounted Tornado-KT2 loudspeakers in a custom RAL finish to match the woodwork. Power for the system is provided by two Kommander-KA18 class-D DSP amplifiers.
The project ran smoothly and on time over a six-month time period, with thorough planning taking a key role in its success. ‘Dave’s pre-determined fixed angle brackets meant that we could be confident about dispersion and coverage, but any time you’re integrating subwoofers into banquette seating there is an element of unpredictability as you’re relying on carpenters and other trades to be accurate, so there’s always a logistical and planning discussion to have,’ Morris says.
‘Even when we fired up the audio for the first time, bearing in mind none of the soft furnishings were in place and people were still running around a building site with jigsaws, it sounded pretty good out of the box. We were impressed,’ he adds. ‘It sounded distributed, it sounded equally balanced. We gave the KZ14s a little love just to tame the initial brightness.’
