In this Article, we explore the critical aspects when it comes to creating experiences for customers in hospitality which goes beyond food and service. We derive some key insights in context to what cafes, bars or restaurant owners should consider in order to make their spaces sound great.
Picture Source: Canva
what's the Relevance of Sound in hospitality?
Going out for dinner is no more just another one of those weekend things we do as social beings. It's an experience where we connect with our better half, our friends or business mates over good food, ambience, some live music and all that follows. When we go out to a restaurant or café, it's not only the quality of food that determines our appreciation for the venue, but many other factors such as the service, the furniture and the vibe.
As a restaurant or café-owner, one of the most prominent variables in this equation of building a valuable memory for the customers is the auditory experience. How and what we hear affects our psychological state of mind drastically.
Would you prefer to go back to a restaurant where it was really noisy, and you had to almost shout in order to have a conversation? And that time when you ordered a Margherita drink and got the pizza instead? All because it was just TOO NOISY!!
Quality of Audio = Ratings of the venue
You may wonder how sound really affects the quality of hospitality? Well it starts from a space being filled with people and the sound of their conversations echoing through space, this coupled by the sound of cutlery clinking, and background speakers adding to the overall sound level. As all these sounds add up, they start masking almost everything that we hear, causing the speaker (person) to strain over listening when in conversation, and further having to increase their voice level in order to cater to better audibility of their voice over the ambient noise. This is also known as the Lombard effect.
The result? Well, for the most part having to strain in order to hear clearly, in a space that's polluted by all the noise, only leads to frustration and irritability. A lack of privacy and intimacy becomes a huge turn off for people while preferring a certain restaurant or café. Also affecting our ability to appreciate the food and the ambience.
It gets worse when the café is a live music venue without proper acoustical design that compliments foreground speaker systems and live instruments. Fatigue is the word that comes to mind, for our ear drums and mental health.
Acoustical Design to the rescue
When it comes to solving the issue of poor auditory experiences, it boils down to ensuring that the unwanted sounds, aka the noise is reduced, and the essential sounds, i.e. conversation, and the background/foreground audio is clear and non-bothering without straining to perceive the same.
In a broad overview, there are two primary factors to the acoustical design.
It starts with treating the space with proper and suitable acoustical materials for absorption, this reduces resonance in the space and helps bring down the noise levels of the cutlery, the conversations and the audio systems. Of course it has to be done with extreme care in order to conform to the spatial geometry, Interior design scheme and ambience of the space.
You don't want your high-end Italian cuisine restaurant or a fancy Micro-brewery to start looking like an office space with those boring ceiling tiles on top. Choice of proper material along with suitable aesthetic and product design becomes highly critical since what you see, affects how you think & perceive the other senses.
Secondly an appropriate Speaker systems design ; for Background Music speaker systems in a café/restaurant, it becomes very important that the system actually stays in the background with a uniform coverage and appropriate levels throughout the venue such that no table feels too loud or under nourished in terms of audio quality and clarity. Factors such as speaker frequency range, output levels, coverage and zoning, configured in context to the quality of audio content, play a critical role in how the system performs, while ensuring an enriching auditory experience for the customers.
critical design considerations in acoustics
Designing the systems for Live music venues becomes further sophisticated as the foreground music is projected from the stage, which is where we see the musicians or the DJ. This requires careful mapping of Intelligibility, i.e. clarity of audio throughout the space, low frequency management on stage and the overall venue to prevent the subwoofers from shaking the building structurally and/or becoming a nuisance for the neighbourhood.
This also means that the spatial design should be considered with proper Noise Isolation to prevent the build-up of the bass within the space and leaking into the surrounding environment. Having this configured into the architecture of the space early on, helps reduce the high costs of retrofitted acoustical solutions and of course potential legal disputes with the neighbours.
As a part of the design process, Acoustical design consultants should help Venue owners decipher the intended auditory experience for any space and ensure at least the minimum standard quality when it boils down to the customers having a pleasant time without stressing to hear or be heard. Other essential factors to include in the design scheme are of course providing the best value within the client's budget constraints and their intended look and feel for their space/venue.
Let me know if you found the above article insightful. I've tried my best to avoid throwing in too much technical jargon! ;D
About the Author: Mehul Kumar is an Architect, Acoustician and a musician with several years of experience in the design of Acoustics for Recording Studios, Auditoriums, Hospitality and more. Being a foodie and a regular performer as a drummer, he's always felt strongly for the need of good acoustics in Live music venues and hospitality in general.
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