Ambience is Everything
Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group (The Meat & Wine Co, 6 HEAD, Ribs & Burgers et al) rely on Sonos music systems to help create the perfect ambience.
22 August 2022
The Seagrass Boutique Hospitality Group is emerging phoenix-like from the ruinous covid lockdowns. According to chief marketing officer, David Ovens, customer interest in dining is high but so are the head winds — short term shortage of produce and ongoing shortages in labour across the industry, chief among them. “The Meat & Wine Co, and 6 HEAD restaurants are open only five of seven nights at the moment because of the lack of staff availability,” reports David when we spoke with him mid July 2022.
Seagrass is looking forward to the searing northern summer to come to an end and welcoming migrating flocks of hospitality workers on temporary visas. This will hopefully alleviate some of the bottleneck.
The diverse portfolio of Seagrass brands allowed the hospitality group to maintain a heartbeat during the interminable lockdowns. “Our Ribs & Burgers and Italian Street Kitchen restaurants didn’t close. Admittedly, it was limited to takeaway and delivery for many months, but we were able to stay open,” remarks David Ovens. “And when snap lockdowns forced many restaurants to jettison protein and produce, we were often able to move that product to other venues in states still open and to Ribs & Burgers, as well as that, we sold products to our staff at cost.”
HIGH STEAKS
The enforced hibernation allowed Seagrass and its venue managers — brands such as the aforementioned, The Meat & Wine Co, Ribs & Burgers, Alma’s, The Italian Street Kitchen, Five Guys, Hunter & Barrel and the super premium 6 HEAD on Circular Quay — to refocus and refine their offering.
According to CMO David Ovens, one recent conference of all the venue managers focussed on the importance of restaurant ambience.
“Ambience is critical,” reflects David Ovens. “Apart from outstanding food and personable service, it’s the most critical aspect of a patron’s experience. During our conference one of the restaurant support team members who curates our music playlists mentioned how the manager at 6 HEAD was noticing patrons didn’t seem as relaxed as usual. It clicked that they didn’t have their normal music playlist on, so our guy logged into the system and quickly determined that the doof doof wasn’t 6 HEAD music. He corrected the situation, and instantly the atmosphere changed for the better — patrons were more relaxed, laughing and ordering more drinks. That’s how music and ambience directly impacts the bottom line.”
BRAND BY BRAND
Seagrass takes its music playlists very seriously. Each brand has its own curated playlists that change depending on the time of day. The restaurants are zoned such that music levels can be independently controlled for outdoor versus indoor dining, for example.
For some years now, Seagrass has standardised on Sonos music systems for most new audiovisual fitouts. CEO, Bradley Michael, is well known in the company as a music aficionado and championed the move to Sonos. David Ovens cites audio quality and ease of installation as the key drivers for the decision, and versatility: “Sonos has a range of products that means they work for small venues, large venues, high or low ceilings etc. The system can be configured easily to achieve the best outcome.” Some 35 Seagrass restaurants now rely on Sonos music systems.
Adam Waldron, Seagrass Head of IT, concurs. He loves the fact that he can run standard network cable to each speaker and have granular control over levels.
“For any new venue or refit, we can rough-in the network cable to predicted loudspeaker positions and all the cable terminates to a standard network switch. It’s a cost-effective way of preparing for audio in any fitout and can be done by the electricians with the rest of the cabling. The network cable is cheap and we can run spare cable in the event of requiring additional speakers. It makes installation very easy.”
AUDIO EVERYWHERE
Sonos is famously easy to run. The Sonos app will operate on your iOS device and allows you to select the playlist or music track and control the volume to each zone. Adam prefers to hardwire his Sonos loudspeakers via an ethernet connection to ensure the reliability of the connection. In a domestic situation, most customers would be happy to stream music via wi-fi (Sonos speakers even create their own wi-fi mesh for easy wireless connection). Otherwise, the Sonos loudspeaker simply requires a power connection — all the amplifier channels to power the loudspeaker are on board.
“We mostly rely on the Sonos Five product,” continues Adam Waldron. “They sound amazing. In the past, we’ve installed big-name loudspeakers in some of our venues, and perhaps spent up to $90,000. But compared to other venues where we might have up to 30 Sonos Fives and, in my opinion, the Sonos installation sounds much better.”
Along with the Sonos Five loudspeakers most restaurants will have an accompaniment of Sonos subs, while Sonos by Sonance weather-resistant models are well-suited to outdoor use.
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Sonos has a range of products that means they work for small venues, large venues, high or low ceilings
FINAL TOUCHES
Adam likes the fact that he can remotely monitor the Sonos system, given they’re on the network. And being able to install them like another IT endpoint is also appealing but he doesn’t entirely dispense with traditional audiovisual know-how. “We do have AV experts who will do the final tuning of the system and help with acoustic treatment and other specialised audio services. When you have 30 or more Sonos speakers in a restaurant that’s the kind of expertise you need.”
KEEP ROLLING OUT
New Seagrass venues are opening all the time, not just in Australia but also in the UK, South Africa and the UAE. “Having Sonos as a defacto standard makes it easier to train staff,” remarks Adam Waldron. “And we’ve found that the reliability is totally there. We’ve installed hundreds of Sonos speakers and they just work.”
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