Hutong & Aqua Shard

Sound Division on top at The Shard's premier restaurants

Advanced distribution system for Hutong and Aqua Shard.

Sound Division has installed a fully integrated audio solution, designed around industry reference tools, to breathe further atmosphere into London’s most iconic building.

On the 31st and 33rd floors of the spectacular Shard, the tallest building in Western Europe, David Yeo, founder of Aqua Restaurant Group, has opened two diverse restaurants — Aqua Shard, a contemporary British restaurant on level 31and Hutong, a northern Chinese restaurant on level 33. Situated halfway up the building, they offer panoramic views over the London skyline.

Having earlier worked at Aqua London in Regent Street, David Graham’s specialist AV company was awarded the contract to provide sound reinforcement and control at the new venues — along with a full CCTV package.

Stated Aqua Restaurant Group Operations Director, Tony Geary, “I was very pleased with the set up Sound Division had produced earlier for us at Aqua London in Regent Street, so I contracted them to install and produce all our sound requirements at Aqua Shard and Hutong. The music, systems and sound quality have all worked really well and I am delighted with the result and their service.”

To achieve this, the system integrators designed highly specified background music systems, with facility for a punchier system at the Aqua Shard atrium bar, using BSS Soundweb London digital processers, located in the central comms room on the same floor. These distribute feeds to top brand JBL and Martin Audio loudspeakers over an extended matrix, while at the same time offering independent zone control.

“The client wanted a high quality music system to provide multi zone sound, with separate source selection,” said Graham. “The brief was specifically that the speakers needed to be positioned in such a way as to totally blend in with the aesthetics, without obscuring any of the spectacular views over London. It was logical to use the established combination of JBL — a brand selected by the client himself — and BSS Soundweb, as we have many times in the past. At the same time we have also integrated other familiar brands, such as Martin Audio and Camco — as well as Cloud four-channel amps — as these were considered most cost-effective and best fit for purpose.”

Future-proofed via an infrastructure network of CAT 6 wiring, and offering expandable functionality via a number of plug-in points, the company has provided options for laptop, video or other music (such as live sound and highly specified DJ set-ups) to be imported and plugged straight into the digital infrastructure.

Graham said that designing a complex, but intuitive system, all within a carefully zoned layout, was based on previous working experience of the client’s requirements at their first London venue in Regent Street.

The budget had allowed the integrators to design a ‘flagship’ central rack, he said, populated with a BLU-100 12 x 8 main processor, and a BLU BIB input and three BLU-BOB output breakouts to give multiple I/O options. Six BLU-8 remote touch control panels are strategically placed (three on each level) for easy source select/volume control operation by non-technical staff. “It’s a great product, as aside from its ease of use, the beauty is that it can control four zones from a single panel,” notes Graham.

Playing out through the speakers is sophisticated, low level background music based on customer profiling, programmed and delivered by 8 Track Music Solutions.

The interior at Aqua shard’s 220-cover contemporary British restaurant spans two wings, linked by a three-storey high atrium bar. With its drop, low-level plasterboard ceiling, Sound Division has opted for multiples of JBL Control 26CT flush ceiling speakers and JBL Control 19CST sub bass ceiling speakers across the seven main (and private) dining rooms, with higher output JBL Control 26C’s and 19CS’s for the main bar. The eight zones are powered by a combination of 100V and low voltage amplifiers, with Camco’s Q-Power Q4 (4 x 840W) amplifier being chosen as the most efficient and dependable.

The punchier sound within the atrium lounge areas area is created by a pair of Martin Audio AQ8’s , and three AQ28 (2 x 8”) speakers sunk into the high facing bulkhead. These are further supplemented by a Martin AQ212 (2 x 12") sub, discreetly floor mounted under the main staircase, to further extend the low frequencies. Camco D-Power D2 (2 x 1200W) amps provide the necessary power.

The integrators have been careful to build in a number of plug-in points on the Cat 6 ring to take various feeds. “By doing this we have future proofed the venue and at the same time enabled system EQ to be carried out remotely from a laptop,” notes David Graham.

One of the most regularly used plug-in devices is the fully integrated, state-of-the-art portable DJ booth used for private events (an identical version of the DJ booth they earlier built for Aqua Regent Street). This houses a pair of CDJ-900 professional CD turntables and DJM850 DJ mixer, with Mackie SRM350 DJ monitor.

Two floors above Aqua Shard, David Yeo himself conceptualised every detail of the dramatic 130-cover Hutong, which serves Northern Chinese cuisine.

This time the aesthetic is entirely different, with no ceiling and exposed duct work and piping. Here Sound Division has specified over 20 of JBL’s Control 67 Pendant speakers, adding SB210 sub woofers where necessary (in the main bars and dining rooms). “We have used this combination before — they work extremely well and were the perfect choice for this environment,” said Graham. The system is again powered by Camco D3 (1500W per channel) amplifiers.

To achieve this challenging task and implementation had required a momentous design and install effort by the Sound Division fit-out team, as David explained. “We were faced with load-in restrictions for security purposes and all equipment needed be transported up to site via the heavily used service lift. But the result has been the delivery of our latest and highest flagship project,” he concluded. “We feel extremely privileged to have been chosen to work in this prestigious building.”

The main contractors on both projects were WFC, while Aqua Shard was designed by Jestico + Whiles and S&Y Architects were responsible for Hutong.

April 2014