Recent visitors to Central London have probably noticed WatchHouse, a new chain of design-conscious cafés. Tateside, a London-based integrator, has added digital signage, background music, and other AV/IT solutions across several of the chain's 15 locations, and will support the brand's expansion moving forward, including the opening of new locations in the United States.
"WatchHouse sought a partner to handle both IT and AV aspects during the scaling of their operations,” recalls Jack Cornish, technical director at Tateside. “We’re providing them with a complete solution, from initial design through to implementation and ongoing support."
The cafés offer 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 recognized for the stylish interiors of its branches and works with interior designers to define and elaborate on the distinctive aesthetic of each location.
Maintaining each House’s individuality may present a challenge when it comes to scalability—but has instead proven 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.
For background audio, for example, Tateside specified loudspeakers in various formats. "One example of the work we’re doing with WatchHouse is the Fenchurch Street branch, where we utilized Origin Acoustics discreet opening speakers and subwoofers to provide a great audio experience with minimal visual impact,” Cornish explained. Tateside also installed compact Powersoft DSP amps with simple user control provided by on-wall control panels.
Some of the latest locations have included digital projection for menu displays, which required careful placement of projectors within joinery or walls. “An Epson 4K super-ultra-short-throw laser projector is used to display the digital menu onto a beautiful solid marble wall,” said Cornish. “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.”
[Enabling Pain-Free AV/IT Convergence]
Tateside not only designs and integrates the AV system for WatchHouse, but also 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, organizing and fitting the Wi-Fi, the switches, the routers, dealing with the ISP and the AV system,” Cornish noted. “After the installation is complete, we’re then available to provide support in case of any issues and keep the system up to date through our Managed Services team.”
WatchHouse plans to open 500 Houses by 2033. Tateside is currently working on active projects in several other London locations as well as New York City, 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,” said Roland Horne, CEO and founder of WatchHouse. “Each of our Houses possesses a unique identity—and working with the Tateside team we’re able to retain the same language of our spaces whilst ensuring a consistent high-quality execution of the technology."
