Since opening its doors last year in midtown Manhattan, Grey Bar has quickly become a popular neighborhood spot for the midtown crowd, with a sound system installed by Rego Park, NY-based Starview Satellite and designed by Rich Trombitas of Cardone, Solomon, and Associates that’s designed to keep pace with the club’s ambience, whether it’s the midday lunch crowd or the more upbeat dinner hours.
The system is headed by Renkus-Heinz TRX81 two-way complex conic loudspeakers, with four cabinets across the bar and and eight more covering the dining areas. As Starview’s John Paturno explains, the TRX Series is well suited for this application, with a tight pattern control that enables sound to be focused away from many of the room’s abundance of mirrors, glass, and other reflective surfaces.
“We were impressed with the flexibility of the TRX81 as well,” Paturno says. “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,” explains Paturno.
As Paturno points out, the TRX Series has been a big part of the Grey Bar’s ambience. “The uniformity and flexibility of the TRX81s provide the perfect non-intrusive backdrop for the lunch and dinner crowds,” he concludes, “with the capacity for a more high energy sound for the later night Manhattan crowd.”
