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Vox presents an article about restaurant noise levels and why they've risen over the years.
When the Line Hotel opened in Washington, DC, last December, the cocktail bars, gourmet coffee shops, and restaurants that fill its cavernous lobby drew a lot of buzz. Housed in a century-old church, the space was also reputedly beautiful.
My first visit in February confirmed that the Line was indeed as sleek as my friends and restaurant critics had suggested. There was just one problem: I wanted to leave almost as soon as I walked in. My ears were invaded by a deafening din.
[...] In reckoning with this underappreciated health threat, I’ve been wondering how we got here and why any well-meaning restaurateur would inflict this pain on his or her patrons and staff. I learned that there are a number of reasons — and they mostly have to do with restaurant design trends. In exposing them, I hope restaurateurs will take note: You may be deafening your staff and patrons.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Friday April 20 2018, @06:38AM (9 children)
I suppose it depends on what you want. TFA claims that this trend started in NYC, and that it's all about feeling "energy" when you walk into a restaurant. Maybe if your customers are the young'n'trendy types that's important. For myself, I find packed, loud restaurants unpleasant - and I won't go back. Who is the target audience?
Of course, walking into a completely empty and completely silent restaurant is weird. But someone is always first, someone walks into the empty restaurant. So what do you do? A simple solution is quiet music. That provides some background sound for the first customers. Once there are enough customers to provide a certain level of sound, the music can't be heard anymore - but it's still there, in case there is some lapse in the overall conversational level, which does happen sometimes.
Fancy acoustic analyses shouldn't be necessary. Provide soft surfaces to soak up the sound. That can be acoustic tiles on the ceiling, or wall hangings, or simply upholstered furniture. Don't have single, huge rooms - who wants to eat in a warehouse? Break a large area up into smaller sections with some sort of movable partitions - which can themselves be soft-surfaced.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by kazzie on Friday April 20 2018, @08:20AM (6 children)
This trend in restaurants may have started in NYC, but the trend of music in places where people spend money is anything but new. Many UK supermarkets and stores have done this for decades on end.
Ten years or so ago, licensing bodies started to get pickier about workplaces that have a radio turned on where members of the public can hear it. This, as far as they're concerned, is a public performance, be it in a hairdressers, garage, etc. and needs to be licensed [radiocentre.org]. The fact that the radio station has also paid royalties to such bodies to broadcast such music isn't enough. (example case [telegraph.co.uk])
As a result, most national chains of stores/supermarkets/banks that piped background music on their premises decided to update with the times and switch to producing their own (private) internet radio station to pipe into their stores. As well as (presumably) having more control over what royalties have to be paid, they can stick in adverts for their own products and merchandise between songs. My eyes roll when I'm in a bank and hear "You're listening to HSBC live!"
(Score: 4, Funny) by krishnoid on Friday April 20 2018, @08:40AM
Particularly when you look around and think, "Isn't this Bank of America?"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Friday April 20 2018, @09:29AM (2 children)
Yes, well, copyright is sick. We have the same thing where I live: every household is required to pay an annual license to cover radio/television. Given that, you might assume that every person in the country would be covered - but no: every business also has to pay, because they might play the radio/television to their employees or customers. Even though said employees/customers have already paid privately.
Frankly, f*ck 'em. They've license their music to the radio. They don't get to pick who the radio broadcasts to, or who picks up the broadcast. Same for CDs: If I buy a CD (or an MP3 or whatever), it's mine. I can play it for myself, for my family, or for half the world. After accepting payment, it's none of their business, after receiving payment for the CD. The only thing that copyright should restrict is duplication for resale - as a purchaser, I cannot make and resell copies of their music.
The whole area of copyright needs massively whacked back. Limited, short terms of protection, and no more impingement on other people's rights to use a product that they have purchased.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Friday April 20 2018, @07:03PM (1 child)
I don't think that you understand the TV license scheme very well. Hint: it's a TV license (although covers streaming BBC programs these days)! Also, if there is a resident over 75 years old in the house, that person can get a free license, which covers anyone also living in the house.
I am making an assumption that you are a UK resident, so my apologies in advance if you are not.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 20 2018, @11:17PM
"But No Billag’s proponents argued that freeing taxpayers of the 451-Swiss franc annual fee would unlock new economic potential, create a more competitive media sector and ultimately foster more choice. The cost is due to drop to 365 Swiss francs next year, but everyone will have to pay, even if they do not own a television or radio, after the government decided both platforms were watched and listened to via the internet." https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/05/switzerland-votes-overwhelmingly-to-keep-its-public-broadcaster [theguardian.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 20 2018, @09:34AM
DelTaco has some nice music... or, at least, I like it better than most streams I have listened to.
I'd like to find out if they are streaming it and how to tie into the stream. However, from what I can tell, some "expert" gets the store internet running, the sales registers tie in, as does the music, and a hot spot for the diners, then the expert leaves. The restaurant manager just has a number to call if the thing messes up... which very rarely happens. I was hoping it was simple as something like a Jango stream.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Friday April 20 2018, @08:08PM
Some of this is deliberate; some places have music annoying to people they don't want to stay long. Awkward covers with scratchy music at gas station pumps (to make everyone want to leave); lame oldies at small restaurants (to discourage the trendy kids from hanging out); searing hip-hop at clothing stores (to discourage the older visitors from shopping); etc etc
(Score: 4, Funny) by Thexalon on Friday April 20 2018, @11:25AM (1 child)
Can't help but be reminded of a classic Yogi Berra-ism: "Nobody goes there anymore - it's too crowded."
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Friday April 20 2018, @06:58PM
I check the good food guides and good pub guides, and I avoid the highly recommended ones because they are always crowded. Very often these places seem to get high votes (in the case of those guides that rely on the users' feedback) only because they are crowded which seems to appeal to the kind of people who fill in survey forms, and because many people assume that if something is popular it must be good, and also simply because the more people using a place then naturally the more survey returns they tend to get for it. I cannot say the food at these high rated places is generally any better (some exceptions), and I find it hard to taste food anyway when there is 80db going on in your ears.
Unlike some posters here and the critics in TFA, I don't mind being the only customer in a place, I prefer it and tend to go early: it is quiet, you get better attention, and you can read a book or whatever undisturbed by a drunk party crowd at the next table.