We’re getting ready to install the restaurant sound system that we designed for the new Mad Duck restaurant location (on the northeast corner of Herndon and Marks).
If you’ve eaten a meal or had a brew or two (you know how much I love great craft brews) at either of the first two Mad Duck locations – Clovis and Campus Pointe – then you know that they build their restaurants, their menus and their brews with their customers enjoyment in mind.
The restaurant sound system at the new location is no different.
They’re working with me and my audio / video installation team to leverage all of the latest technology to make the system work great. It’s going to sound great too for every single part of their restaurant. Plus, we’re doing it in a way that would save them thousands of dollars based on what other clients have told us they’ve been quoted for similar systems.
The Mad Duck at Campus Pointe – We didn’t install the current system, although we help maintain it now.
Custom Restaurant Sound Zones
We’re putting speakers throughout the restaurant and dividing it into five separate zones. They’ll have independent control for different zones including volume and what’s playing. For example the patio could be louder or softer than the main restaurant, which could have a different volume level than the bar area.
They’re going to have a full brewery in this location too, so of course, we’re adding speakers in there. Probably so the brewers can rock out when they’re stirring the wort.
They have a fully separate banquet room which will also get its own sound system. It will be connected to the restaurant sound system, too, but can also be completely isolated so whoever’s renting it out can have their own sound.
This will be perfect for business meetings. If you hold events in restaurants, you know how irritating it is to try to present with the restaurant music in the background. There are still restaurants that have to either leave the music on or turn it all down. That’s not fun for anyone.
In the Mad Duck’s banquet room, the sound system will let the client pipe their own music or their presentation over the sound system in just the meeting room. And the presentations won’t just sound great but they’ll look great too. There’s going to be four or five TV’s just in the banquet room and probably one of them is going to be a very big screen (it hasn’t been finalized yet).
So the client in the banquet room can do a full A/V setup in the banquet room and push their own video or sound over the speakers just for that room. We’ll put in an direct-connect A/V outlet (probably HDMI but still finalizing that too) so the client can plug in their laptop or other equipment. Basically, this restaurant / brew pub is going to have one of the most up-to-date, fully-functional video conferencing rooms you’ll find in any restaurant (and maybe meeting facilities) in Fresno or Clovis.
The original Mad Duck in Clovis.
Smart Home? Try Smart Restaurant
You know how much I like where smart home automation is going. It’s also heading in a great direction for restaurants. Right now, a lot of restaurants control music in a couple of locations using old-fashioned control knobs.
They look like the light dimmer switches, but they’re for sound. So the speakers are wired up and then they have a knob for their main dining room sound, maybe one for their banquet room and one for the patio. But they’re just analog knobs on a plate on the restaurant wall somewhere.
The Mad Duck is getting a far more sophisticated but also very simple system. How’s that possible? Each zone is going to be controllable with a digital control screen that can be accessed on a keypad (or probably a tablet stuck to the wall).
There will be a nice digital layout with a volume slider for each zone along with a single button press for certain functions, for example switching the banquet room to output from the TV display or the A/V outlet.
So their waitstaff won’t have to learn how to be A/V people, they just have to be able to work the controls which will basically be a big app. They’ll even be able to install it on their phone, so they could adjust volume from wherever they are in the restaurant (just don’t call us to mediate if two people want something different!).
It’ll be a simple training process. They have a much more complicated system at their Campus Pointe location and they’ve got that one figured out, so their team is going to appreciate this one that much more.
A different sound level for the patio vs. the dining room? Piece of cake if you build the system right.
No More Oversold Restaurant Sound Systems
The owners are going to appreciate this system. We didn’t install the original sound system at Campus Point (which is a good setup), but I would have done it a little differently (of course, all system designers say that)! I like technology and the latest cool tools, but I also like simple. And simpler often means less expensive.
In my opinion, I would have tweaked or edited a few things in the old system but it’s a solid set up and we’re maintaining it to stay that way.
We’ve seen plenty of other systems, though, that were way oversold. Sometimes they sell the client what they want to sell them, not what the client needs. I take personal pride in creating high-tech, easy-to-use systems for the client without spending any more than we need to get the job done.
So when the new Mad Duck opens, take a listen, look around and think about Central Valley Entertainment Systems for your restaurant sound system (talk to me about automating it, too), office sound systems or custom home theater and home audio systems.
