Buvette, Covent Garden

Supporting the build of a New York gastrothèque concept as it prepared to open in Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden, with a four-zone restaurant sound system installation designed around an all-day rhythm.

The Client

Buvette has brought its much-loved New York gastrothèque concept to London, with an all-day destination in Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden. Founded by chef Jody Williams, Buvette is known for a rhythm that runs from morning coffees and brunch through to dinner and post-theatre drinks. This site brings that same concept to a distinctive London location. Buvette is equally known for its all-day French bistro menu, spanning breakfast pastries and steamed eggs through to steak tartare, croque monsieur and coq au vin, alongside an all-French wine and cocktail list. It has built an international following too, with sister sites in New York, Tokyo and Seoul.

Project Brief

Sound Division was appointed to design a simple to operate four-zone audio system covering four distinct areas of the venue: the Saunders dining room, the London Stock and Market dining and bar areas, the private Room 1690, and the basement, each with consistent tonal quality and centralised control, ready to support the venue’s all-day rhythm from the first morning coffee through to last orders. The client and design team were clear from the outset that they wanted high-quality sound reproduction from an extremely compact and discreet system that would perform equally for daytime background music levels and at higher volume levels when required during evening services.

System Solution

With this specific design brief we decided that a Bose Freespace 3 system would be the perfect solution due to their tiny 100mm square satellite speaker size coupled with the compact Acoustimass bass module, to fill the bar and dining room spaces.

The Saunders dining area, Room 1690, and the London Stock & Market dining and bar spaces are served by Bose Freespace 3 Cube loudspeakers (100W, 40Hz-20kHz) paired with Bose Freespace 3 Acoustimass bass modules (100W, 40-230Hz) — a doubled complement of four cubes and two bass modules in the larger Market zone. It’s this satellite-and-subwoofer configuration, delivering full-range, natural sound with genuine low-end warmth from a footprint that stays out of sight, that made Bose Freespace the right fit for the brief.

The basement toilet corridor is served by a compact Martin Audio Adorn A55 loudspeaker, wall-mounted for discreet background coverage.

System management runs through a BSS Soundweb Blu50 digital signal processor, powered by Crown XLS1502 two-channel, 450W amplifiers for the main zones and a dedicated Pulse SDA40 40W amplifier for the basement. A BSS EC-8BV wall-mounted control panel, integrated with a router/switch, gives staff straightforward source selection and volume control across every zone from a single point, located behind the main service/bar counter.

The Result

Buvette’s new Covent Garden site offers a consistent, high-fidelity sound experience across every guest-facing space, thanks to a discreet, zoned, compact Bose system with easy-to-operate remote control.

“Thanks to the excellent organisation and coordination by the PM LXA, and the MC ecsec, it made our installation pretty straight forward to carry out without any real issues and meeting our PC & HO dates to schedule.”
— David Graham, Sound Division

Project Construction, Key Suppliers

• Client: WDi
• Main Contractor: ecsec Ltd
• Interior Designer/Project Management: LXA
• Electrical Contractor: ecsec Ltd
• Audio System Supplier: Sound Division
• Kitchen: Ideal Catering
• IT/Wi-Fi: Support Wizzard