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Winning Chef Christian Petroni From “Chopped” Chooses FBT For New Restaurant

AVS Production Group equips latest of four locations for former DJ with Archon loudspeakers and Mitus subwoofers.

If you’ve heard of Christian Petroni, you already know he’s a winning chef from the popular show, Chopped. What you may not know is that, prior to becoming a master of creating great food, he made a living as a DJ who was passionate about music.

It’s no surprise then, that he wanted all four of his restaurants, Fortina Armonk, Fortina Rye Brook, Fortina Stamford and Fortina Brooklyn, to be equipped with quality sound. His latest restaurant, located in the Dekalb Food Market in downtown Brooklyn, has been fully outfitted with FBT loudspeakers – something that appeals to his heritage as well as his ears.

For each of his restaurants, Petroni has turned to Jerry Kaufman, who runs the installation division of AVS Production Group, to design and install his sound systems. The two met years ago, when Kaufman was charged with upgrading an existing system in a restaurant where Petroni worked as a DJ; since then, Petroni hasn’t relied on anyone else.

“Christian and I both go beyond what music should sound like,” says Kaufman. “We both have a sense of what music should ‘feel’ like. FBT ‘gets it, they’ve mastered quality sound. I’ve demoed their boxes right next to other brands in the same price range for clients and it wins, hands down, every single time. Between the Italian craftsmanship of the box and the B&C components they use, there’s just no comparison. You can’t beat their clean, natural sound, especially for the price.”

For the Fortina Brooklyn location, which seats about 130 people, Kaufman used five Archon 108s, 8 Archon 106s, two smaller FBT ceiling speakers for the bathrooms and one Mitus single 18 unpowered sub. The result has been music to Petroni’s ears, for more reasons than one.

“Christian is very involved with every aspect of the restaurant,” adds Kaufman. “He’s very dedicated to providing diners with an enjoyable experience by paying attention to everything involved with that experience – the design of the space, the menu, the service and sound. He’s also very proud of his Italian heritage; his ovens are from Italy, he imports his cooking oil from Italy, now he can also say that the great sound in his place is because he has speakers imported from Italy too. He’s all about quality and so is FBT, so that’s one very big appeal for him. It’s something they have in common.”

FBT

AVS Production Group

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Linea Research is a leading designer and manufacturer of high performance power amplifiers and DSP controllers for the entertainment, live sound, installed sound and commercial sound markets.