Kricket Television Centre is the group’s largest restaurant to date
UK - When Elliot Patterson from Evolve Install embarked on his third fit-out for the Kricket restaurant chain at the BBC Television Centre in White City, he worked in a new building with an industrial theme. This gave him the opportunity to suspend a series of down facing JBL pendant loudspeakers in the three open-plan zones and direct the sound away from the offices upstairs.
Owned by Will Bowlby and Rik Campbell, Kricket Television Centre is also the group’s largest restaurant to date, offering 100 covers inside and 40 outside. It features an open kitchen, booth and banquet seating, and a garden terrace with views of the studios.
Like the other two venues (in Soho and Brixton), Patterson turned to the Harman Pro audio catalogue for his solutions, sourcing the materials from their UK and Ireland distributors Sound Technology.
“It’s always nice to be involved with a new building as there’s more freedom with what you can do with the speakers,” he says. “The building was just a wide open space when we first saw it, but theme is very industrial, with overhead ducting and cable trays.”
The installer knew instinctively that the JBL Control 67P/T would provide the right solution, incorporating a large enclosure and high-power 6.5” transducer for extended bass response, and 120° dispersion for even coverage pattern. “These speakers have a nice LF response and so deliver a really warm sound without the need for additional subs. Fed by the right music you get the benefits of the full frequency range.”
The three-zone venue is divided into Bar (where two JBL Control 67 P/T are located) and the main restaurant (with a further four Control 67 P/T), while in the bench seating down the side of the open kitchen sees a pair of the slightly smaller Control 65 P/T installed.
“These are particularly effective for those sitting alongside the dining area, providing a nice blanket of sound,” says Patterson. The music extends to the toilets where it is played out through JBL 8124 4” ceiling speakers.
The different volume level presets during the trading pattern are stored in a dbx ZonePRO 1260m DSP, which Evolve Install has also specified in the other Kricket sites. The entire system is powered by a Crown CDi DriveCore 4|300 4-channel amplifier, and while the dbx ZonePro handles the main routing the CDi 4|300 takes care of all processing and limiting.
Kricket head of marketing, Ali Earl-Gray, says: “The Television Centre had been a major project for the company - it is a special building and we are excited to be here. Along with the surrounding areas, it has been redeveloped in what we hope will be a new centre of gravity for West London.”
(Jim Evans)

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