From Peking duck to peak sound, Suzie Q is serving up a premium culinary and auditory experience for its diners. Recently built by Mama’s Dining Group, the contemporary Chinese restaurant has taken Melbourne’s iconic Chapel Street by storm. With an AV fit out orchestrated by commercial construction experts Directitude, the venue is enriched by a wealth of sonic performance from Quest Engineering speakers and amps that marry perfectly with the NST Audio VMX88L Installation Processor.
For Suzie Q, turning up the heat in the kitchen, and volume within dining spaces, was always destined to be closely tied. As Mama’s Dining Group’s Lucas Gugliandolo explains, aural atmosphere was a highly considered part of the restaurant’s brief:
“Our directors are all from nightclub backgrounds, so we understand the importance of creating good ambience with sound. It’s extremely important to maintain throughout the restaurant and it creates a fantastic atmosphere for our customers while enjoying a beautiful dish of food.”
Together with Directitude’s specialisation in producing charismatic hospitality venues and its Director David Miller’s history as a DJ, Suzie Q’s genesis had placed the audio requirement firmly at the heart of its design. As David tells, the need for “a quality system with flexibility and consistent sound throughout the venue” was a must when assessing audio solutions with Group Technologies:
“I have been to the GT training and demonstration facility with various clients many times, the clients are always blown away by the products. Quality and value for money drove our speaker selection process, leading us to 6 x Quest HPI8i’s positioned in the main dining area and MX601’s in the common areas, spaced evenly throughout.”
Powered by 2 x QX4300 and 1 x QX4750 Quest Amplifiers and using an NST Audio VMX88L for zone control, Suzie Q’s sonic architecture “has delivered and exceeded the brief, and from a control perspective its simple for the end user to operate and control,” he states.
Aptly tailored to the venue’s anatomy, David explains that the strong projection and intelligibility of the HPI8i Speakers coupled with low-profile and high fidelity MX601 Monitors brings Suzie Q pristine acoustic reach:
“With Suzie Q’s vast ceilings, we needed a speaker that could deliver quality sound to the entire main space. The HPI speakers pack a huge punch and provide perfection throughout the dining area, with plenty of space in the system to turn the volume up for late night special events when required. Meanwhile, the MX Series speakers provide fantastic background ambience across the lowered ceiling areas and transit spaces. All the speakers fit in perfectly with the design, and the HPI8i’s have actually been enclosed in some dummy retro speaker boxes to enhance the feel of the modern take on a retro Chinese restaurant.”
Designed specifically for high quality audio installation, the VMX88L delivers rock-solid performance alongside exceptional ease of configuration and use. NST wall panels provide immediate and simple control for operators, while ensuring the processor does not present a bottleneck in headroom or audio quality.
A dining experience that hits all the right notes, Suzie Q’s tantalising menu and inviting ambience have come together harmoniously under the glow of soft red lighting that conjures memories of crimson paper lanterns. Taking the best features of nostalgic Chinese restaurant-fare and bringing them together with a modern verve, the restaurant’s cutting-edge design and AV framework has produced a vibrant environment for patrons to enjoy. As Lucas recounts, the staff are also impressed with the final result:
“The Quest loudspeakers coupled with the Quest amplifiers give a really consistent and crisp sound throughout the venue. We enjoy the NST system that Directitude have installed, it’s very easy for the staff to use. It’s been a pleasure to work with.”
