Optimal Audio zones in on Boudica
- Details
Music will play a key role in precisely establishing the right ambience for Boudica’s changing moods, and with audio reinforcement in mind, co-founder Ed Allingham sought advice from Mark Damon, director at installers Cosmic Electronics.
Damon recommended an Optimal Audio solution for Boudica, having been impressed with its commercial audio offering since attending the company’s launch in 2021:
“The Optimal Audio package caught my attention from the off - its emphasis on simplifying commercial audio for the benefit of installers and end-users, whilst maintaining audio quality, was very appealing. Having used elements of the ecosystem on several jobs now, it’s certainly lived up to its billing. When the Boudica project arose, I had no hesitation in recommending Optimal Audio.”
Boudica operates across two floors, with the main downstairs restaurant comprising a bar to the left of the space, rear seating and side seating, while the upstairs space is reserved for private dining. The brief required a zoned audio system that could meet the varying requirements of the spaces, from low-key background music at one end of the spectrum to DJ sets at the other.
The system was divided into six zones, namely bar, dining area, entrance, upstairs dining, terrace and toilets, and deployed an Optimal Audio Zone 8P at its heart. The Zone 8P is an eight-zone audio controller with DSP, amplification and WebApp. The unit incorporates eight channels of 100W integrated amplification at 4ohms or 8ohms. The onboard WebApp unlocks the full potential of Zone, providing easy access to EQs, speaker presets and time-of-day routines, and is compatible with any device to make for a straightforward setup.
Cosmic installed six Cuboid 8 two-way, full-range, passive 8” on-wall loudspeakers mounted on UB1-B horizontal brackets, and 3 x Sub 15 high-power subwoofers for the bar and restaurant, with two Up 6 two-way passive full-range 6” ceiling speakers for the upstairs room. A single Up 6 was deployed in each of the venue’s two rest rooms. The system is powered by two Optimal Audio SmartAmp 30 (4 x 250W amplifier with integral DSP).
The installation proved to be as quick and straightforward as Mark Damon had expected: “As has been the case each time we’ve used Optimal Audio products, the job was quick and easy. Such is the intuitive nature and ease of use of the Zone 8P controller, I’d estimate that within 30 minutes of starting the routing/setup process we had sound coming through the system, much to the client’s delight - very impressive. Being able to hide unwanted zones and sources means that the user is presented with an uncomplicated simple-to-use interface. For small to medium-sized venues like this, Optimal Audio’s Zone will now be my go-to controller.”
Boudica co-founder Ed Allingham states: “Having made a significant investment in interior design, it was vital to us that we had an audio system that not only sounded great across the volume spectrum, but also had a pleasing aesthetic. The system is sleek and unobtrusive but definitely matches our ambition to provide an authentic club sound when required - the cuboid speakers achieve that very impressively.”
“It was also very important that our team felt confident about using the system to best effect without being intimidated or bogged down by something overly technical. The Optimal Audio Zone controller is brilliant in that respect. I’m sure that there’s a lot of hi-tech stuff going on in the box but the user interface is so simple! It really was up and running in no time.”
