The birthplace of Queen Elizabeth II and named in honour of the young Queen’s affectionate childhood nickname, Lilibet’s, at No.17 Bruton Street, London, boasts a refined menu of seafood and an equally elegant interior. Introduced to the project through an AV consultant, London-based systems integrators, Tateside, were responsible for the design and implementation of a complete background audio system based on K-array’s Vyper family of loudspeakers.
“Working in collaboration with the consultant and local distributors 2BHeard, the scope was to design and install an elegant, yet discreet, distributed background audio system that would respect the prestigious nature of the venue,” explains Joby Morris, Project Manager at Tateside. “The design did not require high SPL DJ playback, like something you’d find in a club system; it was more about creating a high-fidelity sound that would complement the atmosphere across the ground-floor restaurant level, yet with enough headroom to support live musicians.”
K-array’s characteristic Pure Array Technology (PAT), which helps ensure even audio coverage, with sound being directed into the centre of the room to avoid hotspots, was one of the key motivations behind the selection of their Vyper series loudspeakers. “K-array offers that perfect balance between performance and form-factor,” continues Morris. “To ensure an efficient installation and accurate coverage, we first plotted the system into K-array’s K-Framework software to fine-tune the configuration, which helped greatly with our planning and keeping time on-site to a minimum.”
A total of 14 Vyper-KV25 are installed throughout the ground-floor dining room, with 12 Rumble-KU26 subwoofers. Two Kommander-KA18 amplifiers power the wall-mounted Vypers, whilst a Kommander-KA28 drives the subs. “We tried to get as close as possible to a 1-1 ratio of subwoofers and loudspeaker elements, ensuring a single point of reference and low-end frequency extension throughout the 100-plus capacity restaurant,” remarks Morris. “The dispersion angles of the Vypers are narrow in the vertical field and have the ability to throw audio effectively, ensuring complete coverage to all tables.”
All loudspeakers are mounted along the perimeter walls, with subwoofers carefully hidden beneath banquettes or within joinery. Each Vyper unit is finished in a custom RAL colour, rendering the tech almost undetectable amongst the colourful wallpaper and patterned interiors. Additionally, Tateside supplied a range of DPA and Sennheiser instrument microphones to cater for live musicians. At only 40mm wide, the Vyper range has become an increasingly critical component of Tateside’s system design toolbox, offering a refined solution that lends itself to high-end applications like Lilibet’s.
“The combination of the subs and Vypers together acts as a single full-range source,” confirms Morris. “The result is not a typical background audio experience for diners; it is a very full and rich sound that suits the atmosphere of Lilibet’s perfectly.”
Harnessing the Q-Sys-certified integration of K-array’s Kommander amplifiers, a Q-SYS core processor handles all audio input processing and control, with simplified user control via an iPad. K-array’s K-Monitor software allows for remote access and monitoring of the system, providing logging of the amps and the ability for Tateside to run system health checks or make adjustments on the fly. Ongoing support from local distributor 2BHeard, combined with the tools provided by the K-array software suite, allowed the Tateside team to do a lot of the system planning and configuration off-site, helping to keep timelines on track.
“When we’re working in high-end venues and spaces where we need to balance aesthetics with performance, K-array’s loudspeakers are always a trusted choice,” confirms Morris. “Often, the design of the loudspeakers is as important as the performance of the loudspeakers, and K-array ticks that box. They’re premium products, highly customisable and with the performance you’d expect from a more traditional loudspeaker in a small form factor. They’re also straightforward to set up and control, so it is always a pleasure for us to work with these solutions on a project.”
“The Tateside team went above and beyond on this project,” confirms Ross Shonhan, chef and restaurateur at Lilibet’s. “Their precise sound mapping of the space has delivered an audio experience unlike anything I’ve heard before, and guests consistently remark on how impressive it is.” Lilibet’s has finally opened its doors to patrons, offering sophisticated cuisine paired with a complete K-array audio system that fits the demure yet powerful characteristics befitting of its royal lineage.
