In the picturesque countryside town of Healesville, Victoria, about an hour’s drive from Melbourne, Australia, resides the Four Pillars Distillery and tasting room. Four Pillars opened its sleek, modern distillery in 2022, becoming the country’s first carbon-neutral gin facility. Known for its infused-flavor gins including Bloody Pinot Noir gin, Green Apple & Rhubarb gin, and Fresh Yuzu gin, Four Pillars recently expanded its original site and tripled its capacity for hosting visitors. To help attract customers, Four Pillars’ management team believed music needed to be an essential part of the distillery experience and chose AtlasIED loudspeakers to provide audio throughout the facility.
Built within a more than 10,000-square-foot warehouse, half of the facility expansion contains large copper stills and other machinery used in the distilling process, plus stacks of wooden casks to age and infuse the gin. The other half features Beth’s crafted copper bar, a gin shop, event spaces, and a garden bar. The interior spaces are separated by large plate glass that allows visitors to watch the gin makers at their craft.
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With background music or audio from live performances and projection screens showing movies or sporting events broadcast throughout the facility, Stephen Sokolowski, project manager for local integrator, Zelo Group, needed to find the right loudspeakers for the space. “The space is modern and clean, and we needed excellent sound quality. But the large flat spaces, the metal, glass, concrete, and tall ceilings used throughout presented numerous acoustic challenges,” said Sokolowski.
After exploring options, Sokolowski chose the AtlasIED two-way, all-weather SM82T loudspeakers based on their sound quality and commercial-grade durability. The largest of the SM Series at 16½-inch tall, the 30-watt loudspeaker can output 92dB. The loudspeakers include a high efficiency woofer and 1-inch high-frequency compression drivers. Additionally, the SM Series’ weather-resistant capabilities suited the space given the possibility of humidity created by the manufacturing processes.
Sokolowski’s team needed to consider audiovisual design of the space carefully, and mounting the SM82T loudspeakers at the proper intervals and locations to make up for the challenges in the room became critical. The customer also wanted to ensure clean lines in the space and avoid mounting loudspeakers on flat surfaces. The SM loudspeaker’s box-style mounting bracket allowed Zelo to mount them to ceiling trays to ensure they met the customer’s needs.
“Any time we take on a project, we try to create a consistent acoustic wave through the venue, where loudspeakers work with each other to create fill. In this case, the AtlasIED loudspeakers were a great fit, and our customer has been delighted with the result.”
Now in full operation, the expansion allows Four Pillars to produce more than one million bottles of gin per year. It also hosts 150-200,000 visitors annually to enjoy Australia’s finest gin and onsite musical entertainment.
