Music on the Menu

In recent years we have seen a shift away from the traditional style counter meal to a more refined dining experience at your local hotel. In line with this trend, Nightlife has developed a number of playlists suited to the restaurant environment, which provide an ambience suitable for dining.

This month we have invited a number of our clients to describe how the HDMS™ is working in their restaurants.

Cru Restaurant - Sydney, NSW
Located in the Overseas Passenger Terminal at West Circular Quay, Cru is an obvious choice for tourists, however the ‘new look’ restaurant is also a favourite with Sydney’s most sophisticated diners.
Offering breathtaking views across the bustling Harbour to the Sydney Opera House, the new Cru Restaurant is boutique-style dining at its best. Cru offers a warm, honest dining experience that is complimented by the relaxed mix of down tempo café music supplied via Nightlife’s HDMS™.

Ducks Nuts Bar and Grill - Darwin, NT
Located in the heart of Darwin’s restaurant precinct, Ducks Nuts is one of Darwin’s newest entertainment venues, delivering a variety of experiences to a broad spectrum of patrons. This destination meeting place offers a stylish setting, quality service and a relaxed and exciting atmosphere.

Diners seated in the alfresco restaurant, can chill out to the relaxed sounds of Nightlife’s café lists delivered via the HDMS™.

Metz Café Bar - Hobart, Tas
The Metz Café Bar is a funky little institution in Tasmania, that has set the trend for informal dining with an edge. Hosts Dean and Peter are very particular about their music. The flexibility of the HDMS™ has enabled them to achieve an eclectic, yet uniquely individual style for their café.

Watermark - Docklands, Vic
Watermark is one of Melbourne’s most recently developed waterfront establishments. Superbly situated on the Docklands North facing Promenade, Watermark offers a sunny outlook in comfortable surroundings including floor to ceiling glass doors accentuating the panoramic views.

Complimenting its surroundings, the HDMS™ provides the ability to play cosmopolitan chilled electronica drawn from the cafe lists during the day and then switch to a comfortable mix of favourites as the business day comes to a close.

Zinc - Port Douglas, Qld

Awarded the ‘Informal Dining’ category at the 2005 Restaurant and Catering Queensland Awards for Excellence, Zinc is a unique restaurant set amongst lush tropical surroundings. Café by day, restaurant and bar by night, Zinc utilises their HDMS™ to create an atmosphere to suit their varied trading periods. During the day the music ranges from cool acoustic chill to new music by popular surf influenced artists such as Jack Johnson and Xavier Rudd.

As the sun sets and the dive boats come in off the Great Barrier Reef the music shifts to a warm party mix suited to all types of vacationers.

Hog’s Breath Cafes - Australia wide
Nightlife is proud to be an integral part of Hog’s Breath Cafés throughout Australia. Projecting the company’s fun animated billboards onto TV and plasma screens, the HDMS™ is a major feature of these cafés. Patrons are regularly seen having a chuckle at these billboards, whilst toe tapping to tunes customised to this unique environment.

Do you have an area in your venue that could bene¿t from the style of music used in these restaurants? Talk to Nightlife about how our music can enhance the atmosphere in your venue.

News from NZ

Las Vegas Nightclub & Bar Show
In its twenty-first year, the Las Vegas Nightclub & Bar Show is the biggest food and beverage industry event.

The combination of events including pre-conference workshops, full program seminars, trade exhibition and the insane parties are key to the shows success. It’s all about education, networking and profit building, whilst experiencing first hand, what is arguably the craziest club scene on earth.

Keynote speakers from around the globe offered a smorgasbord of information about doing business in the hospitality industry. Many were venue owners running multiple sites, we’re talking 500 plus!

In conjunction with our American partners ScreenPlay Inc, Nightlife has been an exhibitor at the show now for 5 years. Catering to the huge demand for information about Nightlife, the stand includes representatives from Australia, New Zealand and the USA. Given our ongoing presence at the show, Nightlife has gained real credibility in the States. In terms of technology, no competitor comes close, which tends to puzzle the Americans!

Anyone who’s serious about the hospitality industry should take time to attend the show in 2007. However, a word of caution, given the popularity of some of the seminars you will need to book well ahead, some are booked over a year in advance!
phone: 09 430 3035
email: nzsales@nightlife.com.au

 

Introducing DJ Steven

Steven Beale - Human Resources by day, DJ Steven by night. For the last 16 years Steven has been DJing at the Xchange Hotel, Melbourne, an all guys bar since its opening in 1986.

DJing introduced itself to Steven at a friend’s party when he was just 16. A short time later aged 18, he jumped aboard the DJing wagon and headed off to clubland, we’re he’s been residing ever since! When Steven takes a break from clubland, he indulges in his other interests, which include sports and travelling.

Steven’s favourite song of all time is Into The Groove by Madonna. When asked if he could meet any person in the world, Steven said, “Madonna.” Apparantly he recently saw Madonna interviewed on Ellen and has decided that the pop goddess is someone he would like to sit down and have a chat with! Who’s Steven’s favourite artist? You guessed it - Madonna! Steven does take a break from Madonna though to listen to Mary J Blige’s track, Be Without You, which is his favourite tune at the moment. DJ Steven has been using Nightlife at the Xchange Hotel for the past 5 years and he loves it.

 

Programming Your Billboards

How to switch your TV screens from music videos to billboards
In past newsletters we’ve explained how to create your own billboards and how to program each individual billboard to appear when your TV screens are showing billboards.
We are now going to explain how to switch your TV screens from music videos to billboards.

Shift F6
[Shift] [F6] is quick way to switch your TV screens from music videos to billboards and vice versa (billboards to music videos).

[Shift] [F6] makes a temporary switch. If your TV screens are showing music videos and you press [Shift] [F6] billboards will appear, but only for the length of the song that is currently playing. At the end of the song, your TV screens will return to showing music videos.

F6
[F6] is a more permanent way of showing billboards on your TV screens. When you press [F6] the following menu will appear:

The first item listed in the menu is a reminder that you can switch between music videos and billboards by pressing [Shift] [F6]. Using your down arrow highlight and select Set Video 1 Output. The following menu will appear under the first:

Using your down arrow select Set Video To Billboards Only.
This will switch your TV screens to show billboards. Billboards will continue to appear on your TV screens until you press [F6] again and make another selection or when your system reboots.

Scheduler
Most of you will be familiar with the Scheduler function on your HDMS™, but did you know that you can use it to program when your billboards will show on your TV screens?
Check out the next issue of Nightlife News to find out how...