Fig at Malta, a new “eco-contemporary” café, bakery and bar offering all-day dining at Malcha Marg, near New Delhi’s historic diplomatic quarter, is equipped with a multi-zone background music system driven by Powersoft Mezzo installation power amplifiers working with the company’s Dynamic Music Distribution (DMD) platform.
According to Gunbir Sing, founder and co-owner of BBW Distributors, for their second café (the original location is in Gurgaon) the Fig team desired “warm, comforting, lush” audio – “more hi-fi than pro sound” – which would aesthetically complement the lighting, climate control and ventilation systems to offer patrons “a pleasurable aural experience while in the space. Based on our experience within the food & beverage domain, we consulted with them and came up with a wish list of sorts. While they needed a multi-zone system with audio in all the public areas, they wanted equipment visibility to be minimal.”
Specifically, the design implements a DMD system comprising two Mezzo amplifiers coupled with a WM Touch control panel. Using DMD, which takes advantage of the dynamic routing capabilities embedded in Powersoft amplifiers, users can drive up to four independent zones using a single four-channel Mezzo amplifier. At Fig, the six audio zones are controlled using a single wall-mounted 4.3-inch Powersoft WM Touch screen, which offers “a level of convenience and usability which makes this the Mezzo solution a non-brainer,” says Singh.
The two Mezzo 604 A amplifiers with DSP functionality, remote control and monitoring, are paired with 12 Amphion Argon0 and two Apart Kubo 3T loudspeakers as well as a Silent Angel Rhein Z1 V2 Roon server, a Matrix Audio X-SABRE 3 DAC, Gladen Audio loudspeaker cables and Furutech interconnects. BBW designed the system around the physical attributes of the space, choosing to apply acoustic treatment to the ceiling rather than rely solely on signal processing – while the use of a Roon server, which uses machine learning to automatically play music based on Fig’s preferences, is believed to be a first in the region.
Across Fig at Malcha’s two floors, BBW split the Powersoft amplifiers into four zones each, for a total of eight audio zones – six dedicated to the Amphion loudspeakers installed in the public areas, one catering to the washrooms and common space, and one left for future expansion. The Mezzo amplifiers are installed out of sight in an equipment rack on the café’s ground floor, with the understated Amphion loudspeakers also contributing to keeping visibility of the sound system to a minimum. Singh reports that the local Powersoft team, represented by distributor Acoustic Arts, provided assistance through the install phase, “saving us some time” by helping to set up the amplifiers.
Manish Yadav of Fig says the new sound system “has completely exceeded our expectations, which were already high to begin with. The sound quality is fantastic – we find ourselves listening to the system after hours a lot. It is also super easy to use; we have never had to call them for anything major, since it seems to run on auto-pilot.”
Yadav also points specifically to the multi-zone DMD system, noting that restaurant staff “now have the capability to control amplitude levels for zones individually. So if, for some reason, we have to reduce or increase the levels for a particular zone, it is simply a few taps on a very accessible touchscreen.”
