Casadonna is a coastal Italian-inspired waterfront restaurant developed in partnership between Groot Hospitality and Tao Group Hospitality. It is housed in the same building as Miami’s historic women’s club. This 20,000-square-foot restaurant marks Tao Group Hospitality’s first Miami venture with Groot Hospitality. AD100 designer, Ken Fulk, was behind the dramatic transformation of bringing the once crumbling space into the 21st century while maintaining its original charm. Anthem Productions, an AV integrator who has worked on a handful of Groot Hospitality and Tao Group projects, was contracted to lead in the audio design and installation for this new restaurant, understanding the emphasis on maintaining the integrity of the historic building and interior design elements.

This is not an average restaurant, it is meticulously curated with a double-height courtyard bar as the entrance and an outdoor living-room-style terrace with ample space for nearly 400 guests to enjoy cocktails and dinner on a regular night with space for special events and star-studded parties. As a Groot Hospitality and Tao Group Hospitality venture, there is a DJ booth, though it is not meant to be the main event. The goal for the audio design was to create an easy listening environment for dining where background music is meant to enhance the experience while also capable of creating a high-energy atmosphere for events or later evenings. “It’s going to be a really good hybrid of fine dining and social dining.” “The music will be played live, but it’s a background setup. It’s not huge speakers and moving lights,” said Noah Tepperberg, CEO of Tao Group, describing the energy of Casadonna. Anthem approached the audio design for Casadonna knowing 1 SOUND was the right fit in terms of their high-fidelity quality sounding loudspeakers and their custom capabilities. Anthem understood the significance of the design palette of pinks and blues of Casadonna, using the 1 SOUND Custom Shop as an asset in this project.

The entrance is a double-height atrium with a beautiful bar that stretches across the space, here, Anthem deployed Tower LCC44s that matched the stucco color of the walls. The LCC44s were deployed because of their controlled dispersion pattern of 5 degrees vertical and 120 horizontal and their cardioid behavior. SUB10 reflex subwoofers were distributed and hidden for the low frequencies. The entrance leads to different dining areas all with a unique aesthetic. Throughout all these rooms were distributed Cannon C6s and C4s that were mounted with C-Clamp accessories custom-made to match each room. The Cannons were the ideal choice because they are soft on the ear because of their high-fidelity quality. This means dinnergoers can easily have conversations and have less ear fatigue the longer they stay because of the clarity and lack of distortion that the Cannon Series achieves. The C6 has extended low-frequency down to 60 Hz. The dining rooms called for FSUB45s in the design for bass. For the outdoor lounge area on the Miami waterfront, where there is a DJ booth and doubles as a larger space for hosted events, Tower LCC44s and Cannon C6s were deployed and positioned onto the bar structures, matching the colors of where they were positioned at the outdoor bar. For the subwoofers, Anthem deployed SUB310s and CSUB610s in cardioid mode for low-frequency coverage.

Casadonna is a charming and elevated restaurant that has its historic location and outstanding design to thank. The audio integration could not be anything less than optimal while abiding by the design criteria. Anthem respected the integrity of the building through their process of installing products. Anthem and the 1 SOUND Custom Shop worked together to color-match each room resulting in seven different color combinations. Anthem was able to lean on 1 SOUND to help create these color combinations without changing production time and they were able to do so by taking advantage of 1 SOUND’s in-stock grille colors.

The unique grand entrance of Casadonna is impactful with the floor-to-ceiling arched windows and converted glass doors, however, combine a tall room with concrete walls and glass, that can historically be a difficult room for loudspeakers to perform. 1 SOUND’s Tower Series is a loudspeaker series that was specifically designed for situations like this, where the design calls for needing to eliminate sound where it is unwanted. The cardioid / rear-cancellation behavior of the Tower LCC44 and its controlled vertically narrow dispersion pattern made this the ideal loudspeaker for this room. Using this loudspeaker as a tool for the design, Anthem was able to solve for avoiding unwanted reflections and reverberance in the space.

From indoors to outdoors, the placement of the speakers for optimal audio was the top priority in the audio design. When it came to working with the outdoor bar that only had a ceiling to mount loudspeakers too, this made it difficult to utilize the speaker of choice, the Tower LCC44 because it is a vertically oriented line array speaker. Anthem was able to turn to 1 SOUND and design a custom mount together, that 1 SOUND not only fabricated for the job but also managed to color match to the loudspeaker and ceiling as well. By asking 1 SOUND to make a custom mount, they were able to achieve the ideal placement without sacrificing the audio. 

This project showcases an exemplary audio installation utilizing premium loudspeaker technology, that resulted in supporting Casadonna in exceeding expectations. 1 SOUND's custom capabilities were instrumental in seamlessly integrating high-fidelity loudspeakers into this specially designed space. Anthem was able to strategically deploy loudspeakers while preserving the integrity of the historic building. From the double-height courtyard entrance to the outdoor lounge area, each space was carefully considered for optimal audio coverage. Despite challenges such as the need for unique mounting hardware, 1 SOUND's commitment to supporting its integrators and designers enabled Anthem Productions to easily overcome obstacles and deliver exceptional results without compromising their timeline. The SPL output and performance of 1 SOUND speakers while being compact in design contributed to satisfying the need for this versatile audio environment, seamlessly transitioning between background music for dining and high-energy atmosphere for events. As the first collaboration between the two super hospitality groups and as Tao Group's entrance into the Miami market, Casadonna has consistently maintained its reputation as a standout restaurant in Miami’s elevated social dining scene, with its audio integration setting a new standard for excellence, empowered by Anthem Productions and 1 SOUND's dedication to audio quality and customization.

Products Used: C4i, C6, LCC44, FSUB45, SUB10, SUB310, CSUB610, Powersoft T304A, (7 custom color combos)

Installation by: Anthem SSL Productions, https://anthemssl.com/

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