Enhancing Customer Experience Through Strategic Audio Design in Multi-Zone Retail and Hospitality Spaces

Enhancing Customer Experience Through Strategic Audio Design in Multi-Zone Retail and Hospitality Spaces - Bluesound Professional Enhancing Customer Experience Through Strategic Audio Design in Multi-Zone Retail and Hospitality Spaces - Bluesound Professional

Enhancing Customer Experience Through Strategic Audio Design in Multi-Zone Retail and Hospitality Spaces

In a changed world of consumerism, the standards are high and the competition is ﬁerce when it comes to multisensory design in commercial spaces – and the element of audio plays no small part in this realm.

The Demand for Multi-Zone, Multi-Sensory Experiences

When it comes to designing audio systems for multi-zone spaces, the variety of scenarios is endless. From indoor spaces like cafés, nightclubs, hotels and spas to outdoor installations like pools, skating rinks and terraces – the push for multiple curated zones within a space that are not only attractive but also stimulating on a multisensory level is constantly rising.

Investing in a professional quality music steaming platform that supports centralized control of a variety of spaces is a crucial starting point – yet of the businesses who have adopted streaming in their shops, many still revert to residential streaming hardware which are poorly-suited for commercial audio-visual system designs. Installing hardware which is not built to support commercial streaming can result in unforeseen extraneous costs and added difﬁculties in integration with control systems.

Deciding on the Music

The second factor in audio design is the choice of music. Curating appropriate, brand-consistent, legal music to ﬁt the ambience of a zone within a space is vital to securing customer satisfaction and creating a strategic atmosphere. Another commonly overlooked area is the need to play different types of music at different volumes for a space with multiple zones for countless hours on end. For example, in a hotel lobby the ambience in the lounge area may differ from the ambience of the bar area.

Several retail and hospitality businesses still rely on old-fashion music remedies like Bluetooth connection to phones, 3.5mm headphone adaptors or even CD players with the same CDs played on rotation. A disadvantage to these old methods is a lack of control over playlist options coupled with volume levelling issues, dropouts, and poor audio quality. Often, employees are given full control of the sound system and end up playing their personal playlists which may not align with the brand, resulting in poor customer engagement.

Easily Integrate a Multi-Zone Streamer

Thankfully Bluesound Professional provides a multitude of solutions to common commercial audio pitfalls. A competitive feature of hardware like our B100S and B400S music streamers is that they can be bolted on to an existing audio system easily, avoiding the need to install and purchase new equipment.

Bluesound Professional partners with music streaming services for businesses that support legal playback and brand-tailored music curation for retail and hospitality spaces. Our partner services like SoundMachine, Custom Channels, SiriusXM for Business, QSIC, and Tunify provide dedicated support for businesses in the curation, playback, and centralized streaming of music across multiple zones.

Furthermore, Bluesound Professional hardware supports nearly unlimited zones of audio designed for every kind of commercial space or installation. The installation process is quick and simple, and the ecosystem’s modular designs allow it to work seamlessly as its own audio system or with audio components from other brands. The two most popular music players offered by Bluesound Professional are the B100S and B400S, both streaming audio devices that offer an easy way to add streaming audio to existing or new installations.

The B100S – 1/3 Rack Space BluOS Network Music Player

The B100S is a single-zone streamer designed for smaller spaces and is a compact, no-fuss solution to easily cover a business’s music streaming needs. Taking up only 1/3 of a 1U rack space, this BluOS plaform based music player can distribute content from local network storage and supports all our music streaming service partners. The B100S can be easily integrated into an existing ampliﬁer-speaker conﬁguration in a single-zone.

The B400S – 4-Zone BluOS Music Streamer

Eample Floor Plan of B400S Application in a Commercial Installation

For greater coverage of multiple zones, the B400S is a 4-zone music streamer and a great starting point when it comes to multizone music management. See here an example of how the B400S ﬁts in at the system head to connect with an existing distribution ampliﬁer and speaker conﬁguration. The streamer connects to the network and via a controller like the BluOS Controller app or the CP 100, the system can access a variety of streaming music options.