But here's some snaps to give you an idea what I was up to out there... we have two more of these restaurants to do in the Chicago area, and if they stay as happy as they are right now, we will get about 50(!!) more (It's a company that buys up chain restaurants; forget the name).
This one is the Sal and Carvao (soon to be changed to "Zed 451") in Schaumburg, Illinois: Brazilian churrasco, with a slightly modern cosmopolitan twist. The old sound system was, in a word, garbage. It was a pleasure to do this upgrade, and it went really well (although a lot of hard work and sweating the deadline). Here's the main dining area with the salad bar- visible is one of four nice little Tannoy wall speakers I put in. Forgot to get a pic of the rack: the heart of the system is a BSS soundweb DSP, with a Crown multichannel amp and a couple of wireless mic receivers.
the only source is a 1GB iPod, provided by the client. Dirt simple.
Our scope was part of a full renovation of the restaurant- it's beautiful now.
Two more of those in the bar...
this pic shows one of the trickier bits: using an existing hole for a slightly larger ceiling "can"... what a PITA that was, with the hardwood ceiling!! worked out OK, though.
This thing is pretty cool: a 3M "smart board", which is a dry-erase board with a built-in projector and sensors that allow you to save or print whatever you write on it. The intended purpose here is to use it to display PowerPoint presentations, although they might get into the fancier functions later. A/V has become critical in these places nowadays: private rooms with the latest bells & whistles are hired out for corporate meetings and presentations, to lure them away from the grubbier rooms (with worse food) at the hotels.
Got two free meals out of this: here's what I had for lunch the day we left; about 1/10th of what I ate on the opening night. For those who don't know: you load up at the salad bar, then as long as you have your little stone out of that tray in the center, "gauchos" with skewers of delectable meats keep piling the stuff on your plate. It's insane!! I've had some very good churrasco in Newark, but this was better. top-notch.
Left to right: a very pleased project mgr from the restaurant chain (Rogerio, a very affable and helpful Brazilian guy); yours truly, extremely over-exposed; and half of the face of my project mgr Pete, who flew out saturday to help finish and get the sign-off.
Very successful project, and I finally got a chance to show them what I do best: take jobs like this by the horns and wrestle them into submission. Despite the hassle of travelling and the pressure, it's like I told Pete: "beats hanging around the office answering the phone".
Caught this Lufthansa 747 making its way up through the clouds after we checked out of the hotel that morning... very majestic.
