Lewis CaliburnBEAR café bar spaces – which comprises five stores from Uttoxeter to Wimborne – can now transition effortlessly from day into night thanks to its recently-installed Optimal Audio commercial audio systems.
With the help of nationwide audio installation partner, York-based Rock-Tech AV, BEAR evaluated several commercial audio systems before aligning with Optimal Audio.
Craig Bunting, one half of BEAR’s founding partners, explains the appeal, “Primarily, our requirements were for a system that could handle multiple zones and provide excellent sound quality. What we achieved with Optimal is a warm, inviting sound that complements the BEAR atmosphere and so many features suit our needs.
“Simple control for the in-store teams to manage was essential and WebApp was a game-changer for us. Not only is audio control easy to manage from the bar area, but team members can walk through the space balancing the sound levels in real time to ensure consistent quality across zones.”
Whilst each BEAR store has its own individual layout and design, the most recent store in Wimborne, Dorset, followed the brand’s loose template and features four distinctly zoned areas.
The main guest area occupies the ground floor and serves coffee, brunch and cocktails. Here, four Optimal Audio Cuboid 5s are discretely wall-mounted to deliver the house audio, supplied through audio streaming service, Startle Music.
Behind the bar, an Optimal Audio ZonePad 4 wall controller is positioned within easy reach to provide control across all the zones. Located by the ZonePad is an input panel ready for DJs or live bands to simply take over the audio for the evening sessions.
The private event space upstairs has a similar separate input panel to ensure it is readily available for use across a wide variety of functions, from seminars, to live bands or DJs, or simply to benefit from the house audio system. This space features a further two of the full-range Cuboid 5s which supply high-quality audio to support any event.
The venue’s final two zones lead off the main ground floor area, and the front lobby area with no dedicated audio reinforcement, benefits from the musical overspill to create an inviting atmosphere.
Outside, the open-air seating area benefits from two sets of paired Cuboid 5s. This area operates as its own audio zone so that as the evening draws to a close the volume adjusts to a neighbourhood-friendly level.
Rock-Tech AV’s Kieran Scotchbrook was impressed with the ease of installation offered by Optimal Audio. He states, “Speed and ease of installation are critical during the shopfits where timing is everything. We thoroughly planned the system’s installation, and it didn’t let us down, so we were able to install, wire and commission the system quickly without delaying any of the other trades.”
Craig concludes, “Optimal Audio offered the flexibility, sound quality and modern technology we needed all within our budget. Optimal Audio struck the perfect balance in sound quality and ease of use, especially with its amp technology and user-friendly control systems, which feel far more modern and intuitive than legacy systems.”