New Restaurant "Captivates" Its Clientele With Exquisite Food, Ambience and Entertainment Control Technology From ELAN!

When designing the new Delicious Heights restaurant in Bedminster, New Jersey, the owners set out to create a 21st Century hospitality environment that redefines the concept of a ‘captive audience.’ They knew that in addition to offering fairly-priced exquisite food backed up by outstanding service, they needed to immerse their customers in state-of-the-art entertainment that would keep them in their seats longer and ensure their quick return! As a result, every part of the new restaurant, which held its grand opening last month, is designed with that end in mind — and the centerpiece of it all is the ELAN® g! Entertainment and Control System.

Maplewood, New Jersey-based 360 Media Innovations integrated the entire lighting system, five digital signage displays, more than 30 flat screen TVs showing eight video sources and 50 speakers broken into eight audio zones into the ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System, allowing the staff to make changes on the fly in order to cater to their customers every whim.

"We knew that the system would be touched by a lot of hands,” said Chima Gale, owner of 360 Media Innovations, “so we had to install a system that would allow us extreme flexibility from a control standpoint with the additional caveats of being reliable and easy to use. The ELAN g! system fulfilled those needs for us without question."

According to Delicious Heights General Manager Marc Hudacsko, “I’ve been working in restaurants for more than 17 years, and I’ve never had such a powerful media management tool at my disposal. Guests have asked me to lower the volume or change the channel on a TV in the dining area, and when I pull out my iPhone and make the adjustment right there in front of them, they are absolutely amazed—and so am I. The ELAN g! System not only helps impress our guests at Delicious Heights, but it’s also so fast and easy that I have more time to oversee the restaurant and my staff.”

Delicious Heights has a large main bar with 24 beers on tap and more than 50 varieties of bottled beer, a main dining area, and a private bar with two private seating rooms, which can each be rented out for parties or business functions. In its dedication to cater to every guest, Delicious Heights included power outlets and USB ports at every table in the main seating area for charging mobile devices, and it also provides free Wi-Fi. Additionally, one of the private dining rooms can become a presentation room, with three 37” TVs that can be used for business presentations or commercial videos through an in-wall VGA and audio connection.

“We wanted to solve all the typical problems a guest may have,” said Hudacsko. “Need to charge your cell phone? Done. Need the volume lowered in your area? Done. Want to watch the Yankees, not the Mets? Done. We even created a new type of menu with LED backlighting, so no guest ever has to ask for more light to read the menu. We wanted to be proactive, not reactive, and make it so our guests don’t have to worry about a single thing while they are here, and the ELAN g! System helps me deliver that level of care.”

The restaurant’s ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System includes an ELAN TS10 touch screen at the main bar and one at the private bar, iPhone and iPad control and four point-of-sale terminal (POS) control interfaces with a video preview function that lets the user see what is on each station, in real time, before sending the signal to a TV. This ensures that the user changes the channel correctly the first time, even before the customer sees a change.

The system uses the ELAN HC6 Controller, two ELAN M86A Audio Controllers, an ELAN DT11 Tuner, six Crown amplifiers and eight ZeeVee boxes to distribute the audio and video. The media sources include six DirecTV feeds, a Comcast Cable feed, a DVD player, am/fm radio, SIRIUS|XM® satellite radio, and an iPort iPod dock at the main bar and private bar that link to those respective areas. The fire alarm system is also integrated into the system so all audio instantly shuts off if the alarm is triggered.

360 Media Innovations programmed custom buttons in the ELAN g! software labeled “Good Morning” and “Good Night” that turn on and off every TV and the entire audio system for the restaurant. It also includes three lighting modes: “In Service”, which dims all lights for normal business hours; “All On” for last call and pre-business hours; and “All Off” for when the restaurant is closed.

The ELAN g! Entertainment and Control System provides users with the most uniform and intuitive icon-based control from their favorite devices, including TVs, touch screens, touch pads, PCs, iPhones, and iPads. The standardized interface works across platforms, so that the trendy g!Mobile app users love on the iPhone appears and works similarly on ELAN touch screens, valets and handheld remotes as well as users' televisions and mobile devices. And the system's IP backbone makes it just as easy to control the system from across the room as across the globe.

360 Media Innovations is a New Jersey based full service audio video systems
integration firm offering sale, design, and integration of custom electronic
systems in both commercial and residential spaces. With service offerings
such as system automation, custom home theaters, phone systems, network
solutions, commercial/residential audio systems, security surveillance
cameras, lighting and shade control and so much more, 360 Media Innovations
can completely service your Audio Video needs. To learn more, visit
www.360mediainnovations.com.