1950s styled Creams Cafe has unveiled a cutting edge AV system in its Whitechapel franchise, designed by Elite Engineering with LG commercial displays, interactive digital signage applications and integrated sound design.
Retail designers and installers Elite Engineering specified an AV system that can be changed throughout the day to reflect the demographic of customers in the cafe, switching from family entertainment, to promotional content, music videos or bespoke customer input for special occasions.
Creams is a new franchise business retailing sundaes, smoothies, juices and desserts with the Tower Hamlets branch leading the way with its £500,000 interior design investment. The centrepiece to the cafe is a 4×2 LG 47” 47LV35A-5BC videowall mounted on a Peerless retractable videowall bracket for ease of installation and maintenance. The whole system is controlled by a Kramer VS-44HDMI matrix managing Brightsign hardware and software, a Denon Pro bluray player, a media PC and local HDMI points for presentation. The display features Creams videos as well as the ability to switch seamlessly between inputs throughout the day with a remote control.
Six other LG SM5K-B displays are placed around the cafe in booths to relay content to customers. These are also controlled by the state of the art rack system alongside an Audac audio matrix for music reproduction throughout the cafe. This can be controlled by web OS with an iphone or PC application to change sources locally and import MP3s and microphone inputs when required for special occasions with local volume controls throughout the cafe.
Yusuf Rab, owner of Creams explains; “We wanted to create a unique environment for our clients with multimedia entertainment integrated into the interior design throughout, but also to be able to offer bespoke content packages as an added revenue stream for the cafe. When we have birthdays with special messages on the video wall and screens, the customer can provide us with photos or messages which can be displayed at an additional cost. It’s been a really popular feature and the design as a whole helps us to attract a variety of demographics throughout the week.”
The walls throughout feature innovative TV glass tailored to fit the cafe walls and screen sizes, which enables the screens to be seen when they are switched on or becomes an opaque mirrored effect when they choose to have no media playing in the cafe. Infinity mirrors installed in the ceiling change colour on timers for added interest for customers in by the counter area.
The downstairs area features a private dining room available for hire or additional booth seating for busy weekends. Another LG 65” 65SE3KB-BE display dominates the space which is clad in TV glass and specialist aluminium composite panels.
Pete Bayley, Technical Sales Manager of LG explains; “The installation is eye-catching and superb and shows the screens and content off to its best. The video wall is clearly visible from the street and draws people in with its superb content, the Large video wall and all other peripheral screens were exceptionally easy to balance even though this was only minor tweaking as they are exceptionally well colour balanced out of the factory. The video wall and the other screens were all on the lan and using LG’s propriety software, we were able to control fully all aspects of the whole installation from more than one single location.”