The Client

The Arcade Food Theatre is a unique all-day food theatre located within the iconic Centre Point building, bringing together London’s top food and drink concepts under one roof. Centre Point sits between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street and houses some of London’s most Instagrammable restaurant and bakery brands.

In addition to seven kitchens and eateries, the ‘food theatre’ brings drama to the preparation of food and allows customers to watch chefs at work as they prepare food in style.

Project Brief

Having already completed a number of successful projects in central London for this client, we were pleased to be asked to undertake the sound system installation for the Arcade Food Theatre – another prestigious central London site. The initial project design began late in 2018 with the project reaching its conclusion with the official opening launch party in November 2019.

We carried out extensive A/B loudspeaker testing to ensure client satisfaction and the suitability of our proposed solution for this acoustically challenging, busy and vibey food hall.

System Solution

Architecturally this project presented a number of acoustic challenges as it is a cavernous space with lots of hard, reflective surfaces of glass and concrete. To overcome this, we specified a distributed audio solution across eight separate audio zones with the ability to control each zone separately.

We deployed satellite/sub-bass loudspeaker combinations from the Vue Audiotechnik high performance i-Class range with multiple, smaller, discrete loudspeakers strategically positioned to provide uniform coverage across each zone. Where it was appropriate, we supplemented with Martin Audio’s excellent C-Series ceiling loudspeakers.

The first five audio zones comprise the main dining area; the bar; the upper dining floor; the coffee bar; and juice bar. The first floor mezzanine dining area and island bar make up the sixth audio zone whilst the cloakroom lobby and separate cloakrooms account for audio zones seven and eight.

Splitting the audio solution up in this way allows for independent level and source control in each zone via a custom iPad interface, allowing for a tailored response to customer requirements.

For occasions requiring a real party vibe, there is a portable DJ console on the ground floor and an additional DJ plug-in point on the first-floor mezzanine allows the DJ set up to be moved to the lounge area too.

The Result

“This project presented a few challenges, both logistically and technically speaking,” says Sound Division MD David Graham. “From a logistics point of view, we’re very used to working on large projects of this size and scale in central London, and we always manage to find a solution. From an acoustic and technical point of view, the building uses lots of reflective glass and concrete surfaces, which is a different kind of challenge. We overcame it by taking a distributed audio approach across multiple zones, using a high number of smaller loudspeakers to provide an acoustically pleasing ambience, yet still with enough headroom to be able to turn up the volume when required. The client has individual control over each zone and the possibility to ramp things up to party levels with the portable DJ set. I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved here, and the client is more than satisfied.”

• Interior Designers: Macaulay Sinclair
• Project Management: Morgan Carr
• Main Contractors: Interior UK