JBL Professional Loudspeakers Serve Up Delicious Sound and Rock-Solid Reliability at Bill’s Restaurant in Bondi

January 20, 2016

October 1, 2015 – For Immediate Release

HARMAN’s JBL Professional Loudspeakers Serve Up Delicious Sound and Rock-Solid Reliability at Bill’s Restaurant in Bondi

BONDI, Australia – Australian celebrity chef and international success story Bill Granger started out in 1992 with Bill’s, a simple hole-in-the-wall café in Sydney’s Darlinghurst district, from which Granger has built a global empire of restaurants. Recently, Granger opened a Bill’s location in that most Australian-yet-international of locations, Bondi, one of Australia’s most popular tourist and surfing destinations thanks to its scenic beaches. Providing a sound system fitting for a top-end dining experience, systems integrator Lifetime Audio installed HARMAN’s JBL loudspeakers and JBL Commercial Series mixers and amplifiers at the high-end restaurant.

Dave Carnovale, Managing Director of Lifetime Audio, oversaw the installation on the new restaurant. Far from Bill’s humble beginnings, the Bondi business is formidable. “It’s a complete restaurant, not a little café,” Carnovale pointed out. “It’s a triple-width property that goes straight back, with a big dining room, comprehensive kitchen and large restroom area.”

Carnovale decided the system needed quality-built, simple-to-operate audio equipment with a long operational life, and decided on an all-JBL system for the fit-out. “On my list of criteria, reliability is the first thing,” Carnovale continued. “Secondly, the industrial design is important in terms of both the ease of use and longevity. There’s also the excellent backup service from Jands [HARMAN’s Australia distributor]. Jands’ Technical Resource Group is absolutely fantastic in terms of supplying information and helping out with the capabilities of the equipment. I love dealing with Jands and rate the company and its ethos highly.”

Carnovale assembled a system with a JBL CSM-32 rackmount mixer at its core. A digital processor with an analog-style interface, the CSM-32 offers three stereo and one mic in, one priority line in, two stereo outs and a dedicated subwoofer out. Control is made simple by a JBL CSR-3SV wall control panel, connected over Cat5 cabling. The CSR-3SV provides a simple, 3-position source control and a volume knob for straightforward operation by any staff member.

“Straightforward operation is a key point,” Carnovale noted. “Anything with too many options tends to be too complicated.”

A JBL CSA-2120 compact power amplifier feeding into a JBL CST-2120 70/100v transformer then sends signal out to eight JBL Control 25AV surface mount loudspeakers in the dining room and two JBL Control 24C plus two Control 24CT Micro ceiling speakers for the bathrooms. “The ceiling mount loudspeakers are operated as a separate zone,” Carnovale explained. “All of the dining room loudspeakers are hidden behind a perforated timber ceiling. You can’t see them but they punch through a small air gap between the ceiling and the wall. It’s a beautiful-looking place and I just love putting loudspeakers into a room where it sounds great but is visually discreet. I wanted it to be heard, and heard well, but I don’t want big bulky items standing out. It’s what I’ve done in my own home and it’s an effect I strive for in all my work whether commercial or domestic.”

“This system has to deliver music continuously into a couple of zones, day in, day out for 10 or 15 years to come, “ Carnovale concluded. “I’m sure that JBL’s rock-solid reliability and workhorse construction will ensure that that’s the case.”

HARMAN (harman.com) designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems; audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions; and connected services. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, Mark Levinson® and Revel®, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. The Company's software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 27,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $6.2 billion during the 12 months ended June 30, 2015.