Bars, restaurants and hotels · Edinburgh · 2022

Duck & Waffle, Edinburgh: AV, CCTV and infrastructure for a St James Quarter restaurant

A 24-hour London restaurant brand opening its first Scottish site, on a fit-out programme that did not move. Lairds installed the audio, the AV cabinet, the CCTV and the cabling that ties them together, and had it tested before the doors opened.

Installed

November 2022

The brief

Duck & Waffle made its name at the top of a tower in the City of London, open around the clock. Its Edinburgh restaurant sits in St James Quarter, at the east end of the city centre, with a bar, a main dining room, booths, a lounge, a private dining room and a DJ position, finished in the brand’s deep colours and mirrored surfaces. Everything in it was new, and the opening date was fixed.

Lairds were engaged to install the technology infrastructure for the restaurant: the audio system across every area, the AV cabinet that drives it, the CCTV, and the cabling behind all of it. Our job was to get it into the building, in the right order, alongside every other trade on a live shopfitting programme, and to hand it over tested.

What we did

Restaurant fit-outs run on sequence. Containment and cabling have to be in before ceilings and wall linings close, speaker positions have to be set before the joinery arrives, and the cabinet has to be wired before there is power to test it with. We surveyed the site as the shell was being finished, agreed the routes and positions with the fit-out team, and installed the cabling for audio, CCTV and data while the ceilings were open, testing every run and labelling it before it disappeared.

The audio system covers the bar, the dining room and booths, the lounge and the private dining room, with Sonance pendant speakers hung in the dining areas so that the sound comes from above the tables rather than off the walls, and a DJ position for when the room changes gear at night. The AV cabinet was wired and installed, then commissioned once the room had power, with every source and area tested against the drawings.

CCTV was installed to the agreed schedule and commissioned with the client. We do not publish how any building is protected, so that is where the description stops.

Not everything on a fit-out arrives when the drawing says it will. Ceiling details changed, positions moved with the joinery, and the programme compressed towards the end as it always does before an opening. Those adjustments were made on site as they arose, without holding up the trades that followed, which is the part of the work a restaurant client actually values.

The result

The restaurant opened with the audio, AV and CCTV commissioned and the cabling tested and documented, delivered without holding up the trades around it. For a brand opening its first site in Scotland, that is what a local installation team is for: the site was surveyed, installed, tested and handed over by the same engineers, on the programme, with nobody flown in.

On site and after opening

What went in

• Audio across the bar, dining room, booths, lounge, private dining room and DJ position
• Sonance pendant speakers in the dining areas
• AV cabinet, wired, installed and commissioned
• CCTV to the agreed schedule, cabled and commissioned
• Audio, data and CCTV cabling installed, tested and labelled while ceilings were open
• Coordination with the fit-out programme through to opening

William Grant & Sons, Girvan

A head office network rebuilt over a weekend

Opening a restaurant or bar in Scotland?

Audio, screens, CCTV and the cabling behind them are decided by the fit-out programme, not after it. Whether the design is ours or comes from elsewhere, we will install it, test it and hand it over on the date.