An Optimal Dining Experience

The Venue

Da’s Lupo is a Mediterranean restaurant in Cologne, Germany and one of five venues owned by restaurateur Gabriel Zanchetti. Spread across two floors, it features a main dining room divided into two areas with a separate bar on the ground floor, and a function room with dancefloor occupying the lower basement level.

The restaurant serves everything from quiet weekday lunches to large private events and late-night celebrations, with the atmosphere shifting significantly between the two floors and between different times of day.

The Challenge

Da’s Lupo needed a system that met three specific requirements simultaneously – none of which were straightforward in combination.

The first was independent control across three distinct areas. The bar has a different energy to the dining room at any given time of day, and the basement function room operates on a completely different schedule and volume level from the floors above.

A system that could only play the same audio everywhere at the same volume would have meant constant compromise across three spaces with fundamentally different characters. The second was operational simplicity. In a busy service environment, front-of-house staff cannot pause to navigate complex menus or contact a technician when the mood needs to change.

The system had to be as intuitive as adjusting the lighting – usable by any staff member without technical training. The third was a significant range of acoustic demands across the two floors.

The main restaurant upstairs is a daytime and evening dining environment where background music should be present without dominating conversation.

The basement is a social event space hosting interclub evenings, private parties and dancefloor events. It’s a place where substantially higher volume levels and a fuller frequency response, including sub-bass, are part of the expected experience.

The System

AV specialists Starpoint specified an Optimal Audio ecosystem built around a Zone 8 controller managing three independently controlled zones.

On the upper floor, four Cuboid 5 and four Cuboid 6 full-range loudspeakers deliver warm, even coverage across the dining room and bar. The Cuboid 6 handles the main dining area, where its fuller frequency response and broader dispersion serve the larger space well.

The more compact Cuboid 5 supplements audio in the bar section where a smaller form factor fits the tighter layout. Two Amp 100 amplifiers at 2x350W provide the drive for this floor. The basement event space is a different proposition entirely.

Four Cuboid 8 loudspeakers deliver the higher output and extended low-frequency response needed for a space that regularly operates at significantly louder levels.

The Cuboid 8’s wooden cabinet and full-range driver handle the low-end load cleanly, complemented by a single passive Sub 15 to provide the sub-bass foundation appropriate for a space with a dancefloor. Two Amp 300 amplifiers at 1,350W each drive the basement system.

The Zone 8 connects to a ZonePad 4 wall controller, giving venue staff direct access to all three zones from a single panel adjusting volume independently in the restaurant, bar and event space without needing to access WebApp on a device.

The ZonePad 4 is the primary operational interface. Volume adjustments by zone, source transitions and the shift from a quiet Tuesday lunch service to a Friday evening event in the basement all happen from a single wall-mounted panel.

The Zone 8 and ZonePad 4 combination has operated without issues since installation, delivering the operational fluidity that the brief demanded.

When the basement is hosting an event, staff raise that zone independently to the required level without affecting the dining room above – the practical separation that was central to the original requirement.

The Result

Da’s Lupo operates a system that adapts to the full range of its occasions from a quiet Mediterranean lunch on the upper floor to a basement event night, all from a single controller managed by front-of-house staff without technical support.

The three-zone architecture maps directly to how the venue operates, and the combination of Cuboid 8 with Sub 15 in the basement delivers the full-frequency impact that event guests expect without compromising the dining atmosphere upstairs.

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