The perfect brew of AV and aesthetics

If you’ve visited Central London in recent months, you’ll probably have noticed this new chain of design-conscious cafés in 15 Houses across the capital. Tateside has integrated AV and IT solutions across several WatchHouse locations, including background music and digital signage. It will support the brand’s expansion moving forward, including the opening of new Houses in the USA.

WatchHouse offers exceptional hot drinks and food in beautiful surroundings served by a passionate team of coffee professionals. Around the corner from the chain’s inaugural Bermondsey House is its Roastery, which allows WatchHouse to create unique local blends and premium coffee across all its locations. WatchHouse is recognised for the stylish interiors of its branches. It works with a mixture of award-winning interior designers to define and elaborate on the distinctive aesthetic of each location.

“WatchHouse sought a partner to handle both AV and IT aspects during the scaling of their operations,” recalls Jack Cornish, Technical Director at Tateside. “We’re providing them with a complete AV managed services solution, from initial design to implementation and ongoing support.”

Bespoke solutions in multiple locations

Maintaining each House’s individuality may present a challenge regarding scalability. Still, this challenge has proved to be an opportunity for the Tateside team, which can showcase the versatility of their skills and the diversity of the AV brands they work with by providing bespoke solutions at each house.

Tateside specified loudspeakers in various formats for background audio, from discreet slim-line boxes to invisible speakers bonded behind wooden panels to lighting track-based speakers. Some of the latest House fit-outs have included the integration of digital projection for menu displays, requiring careful placement of projectors within joinery or walls.

“One example of the work we’re doing with WatchHouse is the Fenchurch Street branch, where we utilised Origin Acoustics discreet opening speakers and subwoofers to provide a great audio experience with minimal visual impact”, explains Cornish. Tateside also installed compact DSP amps from Powersoft to get the most out of each system, with simple user control provided by on-wall control panels.

“We used an Epson 4K super-ultra-short-throw laser projector to display the digital menu onto a beautiful solid marble wall,” continues Cornish. “The projector needed to be out of sight, so we designed this into the joinery detail above with a slot for the projected light, ensuring that the projector could not be seen from Underneath, we used a 4K BrightSign player as we love their reliability, and we used Embed Signage for our cloud-managed CMS for all remote content management and scheduling.”

Global AV managed service contract

Tateside designs and integrates the AV system for WatchHouse and provides a comprehensive solution covering passive and active IT infrastructure and ongoing support. “Whilst the backend stays the same, each House requires something different, so we’re drawing up the plans for each branch, organising and fitting the Wi-Fi, the switches, the routers, dealing with the ISP and the AV system,” continues Cornish. “After the installation is complete, we’re available to provide support in case of any issues and keep the system up to date through our Managed Services team.”

As part of WatchHouse’s expansion plan, Tateside is working on active projects in Canary Wharf, Hampstead Heath, Marble Arch, Fitzrovia and across the pond in New York, with additional Houses in the pipeline.

“As WatchHouse grows it’s reassuring to know that our technology needs are entirely taken care of by Tateside,” confirms Roland Horne, CEO and Founder at WatchHouse. “Each of our Houses possesses a unique identity, and working with the Tateside team we’re able to retain the exact language of our spaces while ensuring a consistent high-quality execution of the technology. Tateside has welcomed the challenge of fitting out our branches with the best yet most discreet technology, and we can’t wait to see the creative solutions they bring as we continue to expand.”

The future

“Following WatchHouse’s recent funding round, they aim to open 500 Houses by 2033,” says Cornish. “We’ll be working with them to execute multiple active projects at any time, allowing us to demonstrate our project management skills. It’s a pleasure to work with WatchHouse; they don’t cut corners when creating these impressive spaces.”

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