The owners of Joan’s Café in Sweden set Genelec a challenge to create different audio experiences at different times of day. During the day the café acts as a restaurant with low-level music for dinner and conversation, but later in the night they wanted high-energy audio for late night live band and DJ sessions.
Joan’s turned to specialist systems integrator, Lefflers AV Partner AB, based in Norrköping to design and install a system that would meet the high standards required by the restaurant and be easy for restaurant staff to use. Lefflers AV’s Mattias ‘Matti’ Björkman explained the challenge: “Joan’s wanted a system that would sound great at low volumes during dinner or drinks with friends, but powerful enough to handle a proper DJ set or small live band without going into overload,” explained Matti. “During dinner you want a full, warm sound albeit at a low, unobtrusive level – there’s nothing worse than having to fight with the sound system in order to carry on a conversation with the rest of the table – but in the evening when the DJ or the band come on, you need to be able to turn it up and still have it sound vibrant and detailed but at much higher levels. Genelec’s 4000 Series installation loudspeakers were the ideal solution for this application.”
Furthermore, Joan’s café has an extremely high standard of finish, and they required the system to perfectly match the architecture of the spaces.
Lefflers AV installed a total of eighteen powerful yet compact Genelec 4030C loudspeakers in a zoned, distributed system throughout the restaurant managed by a Control4 control system combined with an audio matrix from Triad.
The audio system is distributed throughout five zones (the bar, front restaurant, rear restaurant, the stage, and outdoor terrace), all of which can be controlled separately via a central touchscreen located behind the bar. This enables staff to select different sources and manage volume levels for each zone as required.
The loudspeakers take advantage of Genelec’s 4000 series ability to be painted in 120 RAL colours. The gold loudspeakers look stunning.
The ability for the system to adapt between even, low level coverage and high energy music, all from the same system is unusual. Normally two separate system are required to achieve this. In both uses, the quality is higher than any normal audio system, having been designed on Genelec’s heritage of studio monitors.
“The reaction we’ve had to the new system, both from Joan’s staff and visiting DJs, has been amazing,” confirmed Matti. “The staff are happy because it’s really easy to use and performance is excellent, while certain DJs have commented that it’s the best system they have ever played on anywhere, which is high praise indeed! From an integrator’s point of view, it’s always reassuring to work with Genelec because the quality of their products is outstanding – you know that it will be an extremely low-maintenance system that will last for years and years – and in the unlikely event of a problem, the support from Genelec is always first class. It makes Genelec an easy choice.”
