Located in Manhattan’s historic Grace Building, STK Midtown is “not your typical restaurant, and this is not your typical sound system,” states Ernie Lake, chief creative operator at EL Media Group, designer and installer of the restaurant’s sound system.
He specified Lab.gruppen and Tannoy products to provide highly intelligible reinforcement for both programmed music and live DJs throughout the 9,000 square-foot space, as well as enough volume to create energy within the room without drowning out conversation.
It’s an important facet at all STK restaurants, and in particular, this latest venture, says Jonathan Segal, CEO of The One Group, owners and developers of the STK brand.
“The Midtown business corridor has never really been considered a relevant property for a high-energy steakhouse with a focus on DJ driven music and a great bar scene,” Segal says. “Music is key to establishing that atmosphere and that’s why we have DJs in all our restaurants – not because we want to pump the volume up – but because they can read the room and play the right music to maintain that energy.”
Specifically the system is comprised of 11 Lab.gruppen 4- and 8-channel C Series amplifiers and approximately 100 Tannoy loudspeakers from multiple product lines, including Di8DCs, iw62 DCs, CMS 801 DC BMs, CMS 801 subs, Di 6 DCs, CVS 6s, V15 HPs as well as V18 and V10 subs.
“The Lab.gruppen amps are super clean and provide plenty of power. When I specify Lab.gruppen, I prefer to marry them to Tannoy loudspeakers – there’s just no better combination,” Lake says.
That preference, he adds, is based as much on Tannoy’s reliability and performance in commercial settings as it is on his long time use of Tannoy studio monitors as a studio engineer and record producer. “I’m a big fan of their overall clarity, imaging and quality. In this project, I actually wired the bar in stereo using 4 V15s in the ceiling, so if you’re standing at the main bar at the center of the restaurant, you’ll actually hear the imaging and the sound flying around your head. It’s very cool.”
Based on the success of the systems installed at STK Midtown and STK in Atlanta, Tannoy and Lab.gruppen have become one of The One Group’s products of choice for future STK locations. “They provide club quality sound,” Segal says. “I think there are very few restaurants out there that have sound systems like this. We’re delighted with the speakers and the amplifiers.They’re incredible.”
Established in 2008 to augment their existing music styling services, EL Media Group’s installation arm provides audio design/install services for a variety of luxury commercial applications throughout the U.S.