Heeren van Slydregt chooses Massive Pro
If you’re from Sliedrecht or nearby, you know Heeren van Slydrecht. It’s in the former station building in Sliedrecht, beautifully restored with a real feel for style and atmosphere. Inside you’ll find a welcoming grand café, the restaurant and the brasserie. The meeting rooms are upstairs, where plenty of meeting packages were served before the coronavirus era. Like the rest of the hospitality sector, this busy venue was closed by the government overnight.
The owners of Heeren didn’t let that knock them down. They used the time to replace, among other things, the sound system throughout the building. The old system had been a source of irritation for a while: it lacked the flexibility they needed to get the atmosphere right for their guests. That had to change. Better, and more flexible.
The building has several rooms, each with its own purpose. The restaurant, the brasserie and the grand café used to be packed. That’ll be different over the coming months. We know that from 1 June only a maximum number of guests can be seated in the restaurant. That takes some getting used to for Heeren van Slydrecht, and all kinds of precautions have been put in place too. A nice challenge for the sound experts at Massive Pro, then. The sound system has to be set up perfectly for large groups, and at the same time sound good in the coming period with screens and the 1.5 metre distancing rules.
To the right of the atmospheric entrance is the grand café/brasserie, the place for drinks, a business lunch or a modern dinner for two. Above the grand café/brasserie is the mezzanine. These spaces are set up so staff can play their own music while the sound always stays below the limit. Even when an overenthusiastic member of staff turns it up too far by accident, because the built-in limiter controls the output. The high-quality Audac XMP44 modular audio system even supports the licensed streaming for business package, the newest way of streaming audio for hospitality.
The restaurant, to the left of the entrance, serves a range of beautiful dishes in a special, elegant setting. It combines a luxurious look with atmosphere and a warm, sociable feel. If you find it hard to choose from the mouth-watering à la carte dishes, the 3-course surprise menu is a tasty alternative. Refined food like this deserves a refined sound, where classical music has to sound just as good as dance or classics. With dedicated speakers linked to a wall controller, you simply set the music to the size of the group, with or without screens. The cabling is of course completely hidden, so all eyes go to the striking design speakers on the wall.
Each meeting room has its own system, and here the focus shifted from sound to the audio experience. The luxury meeting rooms are fitted with, among other things, their own wall controllers, so staff can set the sound for meeting guests exactly the way they want. From speeches to presentations, here too we went for the best. Sennheiser microphones, for example, a leading name for decades, are easy to use and flexible.
We’d rather not think about the exact impact of the coronavirus on hospitality. What we do know for sure: now that Heeren van Slydrecht has reopened, we’ll happily go there for a bite and a drink, because besides the sound, the rest of this place is completely our style too!
Frequently asked questions
Can a sound system stop staff from playing music too loud?
Yes. A built-in limiter controls the output, so the sound stays below the set level even when someone turns the volume up too far by accident.
Can each room in a restaurant have its own music and volume?
Yes. At Heeren van Slydrecht each area has its own speakers and a wall controller, so staff can set the music to the size of the group in that room.
Can you hide the cabling in a restored historic building?
Yes. In the former station building in Sliedrecht we built all the cabling in out of sight, so only the design speakers on the wall are visible.
What do you install in hospitality meeting rooms?
Each meeting room gets its own system with a wall controller, so staff can set the sound for every meeting. For speeches and presentations we used Sennheiser microphones.