Genelec’s 4030 installation loudspeakers, in their distinctive RAW aluminium guise, have found an ideal home at Lily Lee, a stylish new restaurant in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.

The brainchild of Tomi Björck,  one of Finland’s best-known chefs and restaurateurs, the Lily Lee serves dishes inspired by Taiwanese cuisine, Hong Kong’s street kitchens and classical Cantonese cooking. The restaurant boasts a modern industrial  aesthetic, with dark, moody interior design, perfectly suited to the speaker’s distinctive aluminium finish.

The Genelec 4030 sound installation was handled by Finnish AV integrator, 4Business Oy.  

4Business’s Janne Lankinen said: “Music and atmosphere are crucial elements for Tomi at all of his venues, so an easy-to-use, high quality audio system was a must-have feature for Lily Lee. Whilst he aims for a relaxed atmosphere, the emphasis is always on quality and natural materials and ingredients, whether it be the quality of the food, the furnishings, or the sound system. It therefore comes as no surprise that he went straight to Genelec for his audio requirements.”

“The full, rounded sound of Genelec is key for us and it is totally unique. No other brand sounds quite like it. We like to play music quite loud in our venues, so sound quality is super important. Finally, we love the sleek look of the 4030 loudspeakers, they work really well with our décor.”

The installation features twelve Genelec 4030 loudspeakers across the three areas of the restaurant; a zoned, distributed system throughout the restaurant, lounge and bar, pictured. To handle processing and routing, 4Business utilised a Symetrix Prism 4×4 Dante processor and a T5 touchscreen control panel loaded with a bespoke graphical user interface. 

“We have found that this combination is perfect for restaurant staff as a low-threshold, easy-to-use control solution in hospitality environments,” says Lankinen. “It gives them everything they need.”

“We had all but finalised our designs when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and of course, that changed everything. The hospitality industry has been particularly hard hit, even if here in Finland I think we were spared the worst of it. Opening a new business in the hospitality sector during these times represents a considerable risk, and so we were pretty much forced to go back to the drawing board in order to keep costs to a minimum. The challenge, of course, was that the initial requirements hadn’t changed. We still needed to provide high class music reproduction with excellent coverage and enough SPL capacity to handle DJ performances during weekends. As a result, we had to be pretty creative with our design – especially in terms of loudspeaker alignment – in order to deliver the same stunning results with fewer loudspeakers than initially planned.”