Australia is home to a veritable plethora of cuisine and fine dining, but few reach the calibre of Melbourne’s Kisumè restaurant. Situated in the heart of Flinders Lane, Kisumé features three levels of dining excellence, including a sushi counter, restaurant, Chablis bar and private dining rooms. Designed by renowned architects Wood Marsh, the building’s clean lines veer toward minimalism, pulling back the mood and heightening the senses. An important sense not forgotten amongst Kisumé’s fusion of dining and design, is one of an auditory nature- The restaurant features a 3-level-wide networked audio installation by Factory Sound, Australia’s largest supplier of professional audio equipment.
In keeping with Kisumé’s approach of precision and minimalism, Factory Sound chose Quest Engineering’s MX series of installation loudspeakers to provide the restaurant with a system capable of delivering a full-range audio presence, whilst remaining compact and unobtrusive.
The MX series is comprised of two variations of high-fidelity weatherproof monitor speakers- a 6″ driver version, the MX601, and an 8″ version, the MX801- as well as a ceiling mount variant, the MXC601 and companion concealable subwoofer, known as the MXS10. The monitor speakers are ultra-compact, offering Hi-Fi quality audio reproduction without compromising on aesthetics. Both the MX601 and MX801 include an installation-friendly “aim and clamp” mounting bracket system, featuring a high strength, tool-less locking mechanism with no capacity to slip over time.
Factory Sound installed a mixture of the complete range inside Kisumé, totalling 60 x MX speakers, 16 x MX subwoofers, as well as a back-end for power and control. The back-end consists of 16 x Quest Q1k compact amplifiers in an aesthetically-pleasing ‘brick wall’ layout, fed via a rackmount zone controller managing the 16 zones of audio spread over 3 floors. There are also 12 x tracking microphones used to automatically keep volumes at their nominated level.
Factory Sound’s Projects Manager, Jonathan Sinclair, reveals the client was very pleased with the setup. “The client’s parent company, the Lucas group, is very particular, and they were absolutely wrapped in how we were able to keep everything well hidden, not blow their budget, and get a great result. The MX series sound better than anything in their price range, and better than many twice their price.”
