Having established retail stores in Newcastle, London, Glasgow and Milan, ‘leading fashion, sneaker and design destination’ END recently opened a flagship store in Manchester, with an audio system designed, installed and commissioned by Tyne and Wear-based Blaydon Communications.

Blaydon specified a loudspeaker system from Scandinavian wireless audio specialist Audio Pro Business (APB) that, in company MD Paul Dougherty’s words, ‘sounded superb, looked even better and would help create an in-store ambience to encourage customers to stay longer’.

END was conceived in 2005 to bring world-renowned fashion brands and emerging designers to discerning customers in the North East of England and, for the new outlet, needed a small audio streaming unit that would provide a music feed to the store.

‘Although the same music programme is required throughout the store, zoning is necessay to ensure a good balance of audio levels are maintained,’ Doughtery says. ‘The zones for this project were ground floor retail space, first floor retail space, and changing areas.’

‘APB provides a way to achieve simple zoning without installing any cabling,’ he explains, ‘The store had a lighting track installation that was compatible with the APB brand, making installation of the entire system extremely quick and painless. In addition, retail spaces are often dynamic and regularly change in layout – with the APB products the sound system can be just as dynamic as the retail space, allowing loudspeakers to be easily moved or added to as required.’

The installation includes 12 SP-1 wireless loudspeakers, nine SP-3 two-way bass reflex loudspeakers, four subs (both 8-inch and 6.5-inch versions) an two SPW-5 ceiling/wall-mount speakers, all mounted on existing lighting track, enabling fast, efficient, cable-free installation. The system was specified in white – including transmitters and control panels – to match the clean in-store styling.

‘The APB solution is a superb hybrid system that sits nicely between the domestic and commercial worlds,’ Dougherty says. ‘It offers the audio quality and control of domestic systems but has a robustness and ease of installation that is ideal for commercial environments. While it may be a little more expensive than wired solutions, the ease of installation more than offsets those additional costs.

‘Wired systems obviously need cable installed, then a bracket fitted to the wall, speaker installed and connected, then you need a separate amplifier too. With APB you simply set which channel you want to pair the system too, clip it into the lighting track, hit the pair button, then sit back with a coffee and listen to some high-quality music. It’s a great solution for high-end and time-pressured installations.’