FRIEZE ART FAIR NEW YORK 2012
MILAN 2012: SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL MOBILE
MILAN 2012: SATELLITE EXHIBITIONS
MILAN 2012: BRERA DESIGN DISTRICT
You'd think a fast-food joint would be interested in living up to its name and rotating customers out as quickly as possible, but a Japanese Burger King has installed a feature likely to make diners linger: A "Sound Spot."
Sort of a musical shower, the Sound Spot is a hanging speaker covered in a transparent umbrella that funnels the sound to the table beneath it; a dock mounted in the wall will take an iPod or iPhone. The umbrella apparently does a decent job of focusing the sound to only the table beneath it.
Question is, why install it in the first place? Probably to distinguish themselves from the competition; visitors to Japan can readily find McDonalds all over the place, but there's reportedly only 32 BK chains in the entire country.
via walker plus
Comments
With the technology we have today there are more efficient ways to focus sound that will hide the hardware. I guess the dome is what attracts the customers. The appeal is to eat at a high-tech BK; not so much that customers need (or want) to listen to their iPod while they eat.
I like this. Seems like we should have stuff like this in the States.
The "sound spot" is actually a Focus Point directional speaker from SoundTube entertainment(www.soundtube.com). BK is using these throughout Asia and in some European locations.
They should have installed the cone of silence instead.
@Captain90s We do. They're pretty rare, but I have a Fry's Electronics store twenty minutes away from me. They have dome systems almost exactly like this, so you can watch DVD clips or listen music clips without everyone else hearing.
@MegaChan Absolutely.