Mi Cocina underwent a remodel of its flagship Highland Park Village location, in a high-end section of the Dallas area. Delighted with AlleyCat AV’s Dante networked sound systems at two smaller locations, which were based on Symetrix DSPs, the owners brought in Danny Salina to design and install their new system in the much larger and socially visible Highland Park Village restaurant and bar.
Danny Salinas of AlleyCat AV, has designed and installed networked sound systems in 23 Mi Cocina restaurants/bars.
To meet the client’s goals of high quality sound, flexibility, and ease of use, Danny designed a Dante networked audio system managed by a Symetrix Prism 8×8 DSP. A Symetrix xOut 12 Dante-to-analog output expander brought the Prism’s total I/O complement to 8 analog inputs and 20 analog outputs.
“The programming wasn’t complicated but there was a lot of it,” said Danny. “With smaller speakers in some places and larger speakers in others, some 16 ohm and some 70 volt, I had to carefully adjust every level. With a Symetrix DSP, I have the flexibility to adjust every zone and craft it the way I want it. I used crossovers, duckers, limiters and compressors, and loudness management modules, and every zone has its own EQ. I also had to carefully look at each input and decide where I wanted it to go and how I wanted it to sound.”
Danny provided easy-to-use system control with five Symetrix ARC-3 wall panels: one on the third-floor balcony, one in the third floor lounge, one on the second floor mezzanine, one indoors on the first floor, and one on the outdoor patio. He also set up a Symetrix ARC-WEB virtual user interface for browser-based control of the Symetrix system. “The owners want to be able to walk in with their phones and log into the system, and with ARC-WEB they can do that,” said Danny. “If they want the sound a little louder or something like that, they can easily adjust it.”
“I have to service a lot of locations with a small company, and I don’t want to have to run out to deal with a service problem,” Danny said. “With Symetrix, I haven’t had to do it yet. I’ve installed a lot of Symetrix DSPs and about 80 ARC-3s, and they always work. They have been rock solid, and they’re easy for the customer to use because Symetrix has provided the programming capability to make them that way. Mi Cocina Highland Park rotates managers because it is a training location, and all of the managers walk up to the ARC-3 control panels and use them with no problems. Best of all, the system sounds great. So far, everyone’s happy.”
