— Franchisees of the fast-growing pizza chain now have the power of the Aphex® Exciter available to them via approved AV systems integration vendor FirstComm, for which the Exciter has become a crucial component for achieving great sound cost-effectively —
— Aphex®’s Exciter offers a cost-effective solution to maximize Mellow Mushroom’s audio —
Aphex®, a leader in audio enhancement technology for over 35 years, is proud to see its Exciter becoming the key processing component in the sound package put together by FirstComm, the approved-vendor AV systems integrator for Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, the fast-growing Atlanta-based pizza restaurant brand that now has over 120 locations nationwide. Two Mellow Mushroom locations in the Charlotte, North Carolina area have recently had sound systems featuring the Aphex Exciter installed; three more, in Pooler, Georgia; Spring, Texas; and Decatur, Alabama, are scheduled to be the next stores that will feature the Exciter’s unique DSP capabilities. Each Mellow Mushroom franchise is individually owned, and each franchisee develops its own theme for the store, such as the “Magic Carpet Ride” and “Woodstock” motifs found at the Charlotte area stores. What the Aphex Exciter will assure is that its stores will have consistently great sound, all the time.
“Music is a big part of the Mellow Mushroom brand,” says Jacob Fuerstman, Director of Operations for FirstComm, which started in 2003 as a sub-contractor for the Muzak Corporation and has grown into a full-service commercial low-voltage systems designer and integrator with a specialty in designing and installing high-performance but cost-effective audio systems for restaurants. “Our mission has been to develop great sound systems for restaurants that don’t break the bank, and the systems we’ve been using for Mellow Mushroom locations do exactly that, thanks in large part to the Aphex Exciter. We’ve found that with the Exciter products we can add a lot of performance to systems through its DSP, giving the systems a rich, full sound without having to employ other kinds of DSP that would be overkill and too costly for most restaurants. The Exciter is virtually invisible as a line item because it’s so reasonably priced, but it makes a significant difference in the audio quality of the sound system. In the world of commercial installs, there’s no other product that gives you this kind of performance boost for such a low cost.”
As an approved vendor, FirstComm has found that Mellow Mushroom clients have responded very positively to both the upgrade in audio and the financial savings. “They especially like the ‘perceived loudness’ feature of the Aphex Exciter, which lets the music fill the restaurant with more impact, without getting too loud to talk over,” Fuerstman explains. “We’ve made the Aphex Exciter a standard part of the package we provide for their restaurants, as well as for other food service clients, such as the Cinebarre movie theaters in Charlotte, which also use the Exciter to enhance its system. Future projects will include Aphex Exciter retrofits to existing restaurants. “The Exciter is a great retrofit product because of its price point,” he says. “It increases the performance of the sound system so much, for such a small amount of money, it’s foolish not to use it. There’s nothing out there that can give you this kind of bang for the buck.”
For more information, please visit www.aphex.com.