Set in upstate New York, the Bar-Bill Tavern had long been known for its incredible AV experience (in addition to its fare). However, despite the impressive suite of audio and video systems in place, it wasn’t until the owners brought on Park Place Installations, that the bar owners had a proper means of controlling the speakers and TVs scattered across the combined 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor dining space.
Prior to the project, the management team had to service all the AV via rudimentary handheld remotes. According to Leah Shul, Account Manager of systems integration firm Park Place Installation, coordinating everything across the property was like a juggling act that “only the owner of the restaurant had mastered.”
This often led to the owner being pulled between the three different Bar-Bill Tavern locations to assist staff with getting the AV to cooperate.
To fully nip this issue in the bud, the Park Place team covered all three Bar-Bill Tavern locations, starting first with the Clarence and East Aurora locations, and finishing with the Rochester location, as this latter restaurant would receive the lion’s share of the upgrades.
Choosing to stick with a Control4 solution across all properties, when the time finally came to renovate the Rochester location, the owner wanted to see how much he could get out of the system having been plenty satisfied with its performance at the East Aurora and Clarence spots.
Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.
“The Bar-Bill owner was ready to push the envelope a bit,” says Shul.
In total, the bar at Rochester included 26 4K TVs from SunBrite and Samsung, a massive 110-inch video wall, five zones of audio that included LAR and Episode speakers, Triad amplifiers, a Binary 4K Media-over-IP (MoIP) distribution system, and Hikivision surveillance cameras all being managed by the Control4 system.
To help keep consistent control across the entire facility, the Park Place team also included three Control4 touchpanels at strategic positions, with all three having both hardwired and wireless connections delivered over an Araknis network.
“This was huge for the owner, who was still a little skeptical about handing over complete control of the AV to his employees, based on past experiences,” Shul explains. “
Plus, via the Control4 system, the owner and our own AV experts can manage and monitor everything connected to the Control4 processor remotely. It’s the extra assurance a busy restaurant needs to stay fully operational at all times,” Shul concludes.
For as much control as was being offered through Park Place’s solution, a level of autonomy also needed to be present in the system to help free up the owner’s time.
Given that the bar runs long hours, there was very little room left for error in the event of an outage. Park Place included a WattBox IP-controlled surge protector to mitigate system snafus.
Park Place also programmed the Control4 system to activate the AV systems automatically every business day at 10:50 a.m. From there, the staff can visit a Control4 touchpanel to select from one of several customized presets; for example, tapping Bills to play the Buffalo Bills game on every TV inside and outside on the patio.
Via other presets users can even control specific zones individually, like choosing to play music in the lobby and dining areas, while the patio and bar get game commentary.
This simple, largely hands-off process of managing the environment at the three New York-based Bar-Bill Taverns has freed up the owner’s time so much, he’s looking to expand into Florida.
The post 2024 Lighting Controls and Fixtures Report appeared first on CEPRO.