Design
Operating brief, sonic strategy, room and finishes review, loudspeaker coverage, zoning, and the operating states the system must support.
Hospitality audio design
Atmosphere, designed into the room.
Sound systems for restaurants, bars and members’ clubs, designed around the architecture and around how the venue actually trades, from the first cover to the last.
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Hospitality in practice
Designed around service, not just the room.
Audio is often designed around the empty room shown on the drawings. A venue is never that room. Tables fill, conversation builds, a private dining room closes its doors, a DJ arrives, and the system is asked to do something completely different from an hour before.
Our founder, Tariq Ibrahim, has spent more than 20 years as a DJ and producer, including long residencies in London's clubs; seven years at Maddox took in renovations and new rooms with different requirements. That gives us the performer's view, the operator's and the front-of-house team's: what the system has to do as service changes, where it comes under pressure and what staff actually need to control.
We bring that understanding to the design itself. It shapes our decisions on coverage, zoning, headroom, source routing, control and how the system moves between the different uses of one space.
That thinking carries into members’ club and bar sound and into choosing a sound system for a hospitality venue.
Performed at venues including
- Café de Paris
- Cipriani
- Crystal
- Maddox
- Movida
- Pacha
- Scorpios
Operating states
The room changes as its use changes.
A hospitality space rarely has one acoustic condition. The same room can host a quiet lunch, a full dinner service, a DJ and a private event in a single day, and each asks something different of the system. We design for those states from the outset, so the system adapts with the venue instead of simply getting louder.
One system. Several functions.
Illustrative venueAt concept design the venue is a plan: walls, openings and furniture. This is the point to design the audio, while ceilings, joinery and services can still move.
- Stage
- RIBA Stage 2
- Drawings
- Plan and furniture layout
The installed system: loudspeakers, integrated subwoofers and acoustic treatment, coordinated with the architecture. Every operating state that follows runs on this same equipment.
- Sources
- Playlist and DJ
- Routing
- Either source to any room
Music sets the character of the room without leading it. Even coverage and consistent level matter more than output.
- Source
- Scheduled playlist
- Preset
- Background
- Control
- Automatic
A private room separates for a dinner, launch or speech, then returns to service, without the team needing to touch the technical system.
- Source
- Playlist, private room independent
- Preset
- Event
- Control
- Private room panel
Where the brief calls for it, playback hands over to a DJ or live performer, with inputs, routing, monitoring and low-frequency support already designed in.
- Source
- DJ input, playlist off
- Preset
- Performance
- Control
- DJ or performer
Source
Active
Available, inactive
Speakers
Wall-mounted speaker
Integrated subwoofer
Bass trap
Coverage
Lower energyHigher energy
Complex behind the scenes. Simple during service.
We plan the handovers between states during design: source priority, input routing, zone presets and level relationships, with scheduling and automation where the brief warrants it. None of this is achieved by turning a background system up. The architecture behind the system can be sophisticated; what the team sees should not be.
Technical design
How the room is resolved
In hospitality, audio competes for the same ceilings, walls and service routes as lighting, HVAC, sprinklers and joinery. Loudspeaker position and directivity, coverage, zoning and infrastructure have to be coordinated with the finishes and geometry while those decisions can still move.
Resolved early, the system can disappear into the scheme or become a deliberate part of it. Resolved late, it becomes something the design has to work around.
Room acoustics are designed alongside the system. We assess materials and finishes, integrate acoustic treatment and account for reverberation and low frequency behaviour, then measure and commission the finished room. Where a project needs formal building acoustics, environmental noise assessment or statutory reporting, we work alongside a qualified acoustic consultant.
Delivery
From brief to opening night
RIBA Plan of Work
01 Design
02 Technical delivery
03 Commissioning
01234567
Strategic definitionPreparation and briefConcept designSpatial coordinationTechnical designManufacture and installationHandover and close outIn use
- RIBA Plan of Work
- 0Strategic definition
- 1Preparation and brief
- 201 DesignConcept design
- 3Spatial coordination
- 402 Technical deliveryTechnical design
- 503 CommissioningManufacture and installation
- 6Handover and close out
- 7In use
Technical delivery
Specification, loudspeaker selection, infrastructure and input requirements, control strategy, design-team coordination, and equipment supply where it is part of the scope.
Commissioning
Installation oversight, DSP configuration, calibration and zone balancing in the finished room, operating presets for each mode of the venue, and handover to the team.
The evidence
The goal is not a quiet room. It is the right one.
Busier means louder
Full rooms
Reverberation raised the sound level in the room, and the effect grew as the restaurant filled. Guests talk louder to be heard, and the room gets louder again.
Steffens, Wilczek and Weinzierl, Frontiers in Built Environment, 2021A deliberate balance
Comfort vs energy
Research on restaurant acoustics describes a trade-off between comfort and liveliness that depends on the character the venue wants to have.
Steffens, Wilczek and Weinzierl, Frontiers in Built Environment, 2021Silence is not the answer
Too quiet fails too
As one chef put it in published research, the only thing worse than a restaurant that is too loud is one that is too quiet.
Lindborg, Applied Acoustics, 2016The room does not need to be quiet. It needs enough control for energy, music and conversation to coexist.
Sources are independent published research. Figures describe the studies cited and are not projections for any individual venue.
Drag to compare. Press play to hear the treated room against the original.
Sound coverage coordinated to the floor plan, from the first drawing.
Sonic methodology
How hard is this room asking people to listen?
Where acoustic comfort and listening effort sit at the centre of a brief, we can use the Cognitive Load Index to assess individual rooms as they fill and change through service. Focused system design and specification work proceeds directly from the architecture, the operating model and the brief.
Explore the Cognitive Load Index →- Acoustic Interference Load
- Environmental Design Score
- Population Vulnerability Index
- Temporal Load Risk
Operations
Before the venue goes live
Why can a restaurant become uncomfortably loud even when the music is not?
Music is only one source of energy in a busy room. Hard finishes, conversation and reflected sound can build on one another, and as the room gets louder people naturally raise their voices, increasing the level again. This is known as the Lombard effect. The design response may involve controlling reverberation, improving loudspeaker coverage and reducing the need for the system to compete with the room.
What do you need from the operator and design team before you can design the audio?
We need to understand how each space will be used, how the venue changes through the day and what atmosphere the operator is trying to create. Architectural plans, reflected ceiling plans, finishes, furniture layouts and operating information then allow us to develop the loudspeaker, zoning and control strategy around the actual venue.
How do you design one system for lunch, dinner and late-night operation?
We design for the operating cycle rather than one fixed listening condition. That can include separate zones, different level relationships, appropriate system headroom and control presets so the venue can move from quieter service into a more energetic evening without relying on staff simply turning everything up.
Can you improve the sound of an existing venue without a full refurbishment?
Often, yes. We can review the existing loudspeakers, amplification, DSP, zoning and the interaction between the system and the room. Some problems can be addressed through redesign, repositioning and commissioning without rebuilding the venue, although the existing architecture and infrastructure will determine what is realistically achievable.
When does a hospitality project also need a specialist acoustic consultant?
Where the brief includes formal building-acoustic design, sound insulation, environmental noise, planning requirements, licensing assessment or statutory testing, we work alongside the appropriate specialist acoustic consultant. Sonic remains responsible for the architectural audio, system design and the acoustic considerations that directly inform that work.
Do you use the Cognitive Load Index on every hospitality project?
No. We use the Cognitive Load Index where acoustic comfort, occupancy and listening effort are central to the brief and a structured room-by-room assessment will add useful design information. More focused audio-system design or specification commissions can proceed directly from the architectural conditions, operating requirements and intended use without applying CLI as a scored assessment.
Do you only design the system, or can you supply, oversee installation and commission it too?
We can work on a consultancy-only basis or continue through equipment specification and supply, installation oversight, DSP setup and final commissioning. The level of involvement is agreed around the project rather than imposed as a fixed package.
Tell us how the venue needs to work.
Send us the plans, the operating model and how the space changes through service. A 30-minute Audio Strategy Review will show where the audio needs resolving while the design can still move.
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