Upstairs at Corbett's An American Place, Rousseau went with all-white Tannoy Arena Satellite speakers.LOUISVILLE, KY--Louisville chef and restaurateur, Dean Corbett, recently opened his new 120-seat restaurant, Corbett's An American Place, in a 150-year-old plantation house in Old Brownsboro Crossing. In keeping with its relatively unchanged exterior, An American Place incorporates subtle interior design updates that have reconfigured this historic site, the former Von Allmen Dairy Farm House, into an upscale fine dining establishment. The subtlety of modern design elements carried over to the audio system as well, designed and integrated, with all Tannoy speakers, by Ken Rousseau of Louisville's Integrated Systems Support Group, (ISSG).
Having designed and integrated AV systems for Corbett's other acclaimed restaurants--Equus & Jack's Lounge-Rousseau applied his experience with the restaurateur's tastes to his objective for An American Place: "find some very nice looking speakers that will provide a good full sound throughout the restaurant." Rousseau explains, "Dean likes to make audio-video part of the dining experience. For An American Place, he really wanted system components that would blend into the background-less conspicuous speakers with a very ubiquitous sound."
While renovations opened up the space somewhat, the interior of An American Place retains the look and feel of an old house, still split up somewhat into separate dining areas. A main dining room, with its original fireplace, and three other spacious rooms and a porch provide ample seating. A bar/lounge and the chef's tasting room also occupy the main floor. "Color was definitely an issue," says Rousseau of the speaker selection for the main floor. "We went all white-I installed 18 of the white Tannoy Arena Satellites in the upstairs dining areas. I've used the Tannoys for years, and really like the sound from them, but aesthetics and size, in this case, were key. The Tannoy Arenas looked and sounded great."
For the outdoor porch areas, Rousseau chose from the Tannoy Di series of compact weather-resistant speakers, installing five white Di5s on the front porch and four Di6s for the side porch. "We went with a larger speaker for the side porch because they plan on adding an outdoor fireplace there, and possibly having outdoor music," Rousseau expands. If someone brings a guitar out there, they can plug right into those speakers and control the volume as well as switch between the house music and live music, from outside." Additionally, Rousseau put four Di5s in the bar/lounge area.
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