Since opening its doors last year, Grey Bar in midtown Manhattan has quickly become a popular neighbourhood spot. The restaurant’s kitchen has been receiving stellar reviews, and the dining room has been perpetually full.
The Grey Bar’s sound system – installed by Rego Park, NY-based Starview Satellite and designed by Rich Trombitas of Cardone, Solomon, and Associates – is designed to keep pace with the club’s ambience, whether it’s the midday lunch crowd or the more upbeat dinner hours. The system comprises a dozen Renkus-Heinz TRX81 two-way complex conic loudspeakers, with four cabinets across the bar and and eight more covering the dining areas.
One of the reasons for selecting the TRX Series for this application is its a tight pattern control, which enabled the sound to be focused away from many of the room’s abundance of mirrors, glass, and other reflective surfaces.
Starview’s John Paturno commented: “We were impressed with the flexibility of the TRX81 as well. Initially, we had planned on mounting all the cabinets horizontally, but due to some last-minute architectural changes, it became necessary to reorient a few of them vertically. We were impressed with how easily we were able to rotate the horn to achieve the coverage we needed.”
Powersoft amplification drives the system, with Symetrix DSP also providing Web-based access to the system. “The owners can adjust the source and volume, even from off-site,” added Paturno.
The Grey Bar has received praise both for its menu and its ambience – and the TRX Series has been a big part of that ambience, said Paturno: “The uniformity and flexibility of the TRX81s provide the perfect non-intrusive backdrop for the lunch and dinner crowds, with the capacity for a more high-energy sound for the later night Manhattan crowd.”
