Project Description
This swanky Seattle steakhouse is a great commercial audio, video and live music system design and install by Theater Design Northwest in this fantastic space by Mallett Design Build. Butcher’s Table is an ambitious project with a large and reflective 2 floor restaurant space, multiple private dining rooms with presentation capability, 12 independent audio zones and live music every night.
Did I mention reflective spaces earlier? The main floor of TBT is an actual glass triangle with concrete floors- right where the live music is! An acoustic environment like that requires innovative solutions or major sq ft coverage of industrial grade acoustic treatment, which was not an option aesthetically. We spec’d 3 Tectonic Audio Labs DML loudspeaker panels paired with 2 Bag End concert subwoofers to deliver enjoyable hi fi sound that works equally well for live performance and the TBT lossless audio playlists from a hard disk on the server.
The Tectonic DML panel is an industry leading new loudspeaker technology that works with a different type of physics than a conventional pistonic loudspeaker. Instead of producing the sound in waves which bounce and echo when they strike a hard surface, the Tectonic bending mode audio de-correlates when it hits a hard boundary and does not bounce around the space. We were able to achieve sublime, fun audio quality in this space using no acoustic treatment. Read more on Tectonic here.
The lower floor of TBT is a more cozy, intimate steakhouse feel with acoustic treatment so here we used JBL Control 65P/T pendant speakers paired with Artison inwall subs for great audio with even coverage in every seat. The basement also has 3 partitioned PDR spaces which use the JBL pendants with a Symetrix wall panel to select sources and control volumes independently of the house system.
In such a large space with so many potential use scenarios on any given night, intuitive and reliable control is paramount. The multiple systems are tied together and controlled with an expanded Symetrix Radius DSP unit. For live music, system control is automated on an iPad using custom IP code sets written by Theater Design Northwest for the URC Total Control system. Musicians come in and setup during dinner service while house music is playing for diners, do a discreet sound check through their stage monitors and hit “live music” on the iPad when they start playing their set and the Total Control automation switches to live music throughout the entire restaurant. For musician break times they hit “house music” which seamlessly switches everywhere over to the TBT playlist.
Wireless mics are also available for presenters through the automation choices in addition to having the option of different music sources for each floor.
Photos by Seattle event, architecture and food photographer Suzi Pratt.
