Sound with Heritage: Cricket Club of India, Mumbai
Ansata and d&b audiotechnik bring clarity and atmosphere to CCI’s new sports bar
Professional Speakers for Premium Bars and Social Spaces
Choosing the right speakers for premium bars is about more than volume.
Bar sound systems must deliver clear speech for live sports viewing, balanced music, and consistent coverage while supporting conversation and atmosphere.
In premium hospitality environments, sound should feel effortless and present, but never intrusive.
This installation at the Cricket Club of India demonstrates how a thoughtfully designed professional bar sound system can enhance social spaces while respecting architectural character and long-term usability.
Setting the Scene
Founded in 1933, the Cricket Club of India is one of India’s most respected and prestigious sporting institutions. Located in Mumbai, the club is home to the iconic Brabourne Stadium and an art-deco clubhouse protected under the heritage guidelines of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
While sport remains central to CCI’s identity, the club has continued to evolve with its members’ lifestyle. As part of this evolution, CCI introduced a new sports bar within the club premises, a contemporary social space designed for members to gather, watch live sport, and unwind together.
The brief was clear: the audio experience in the sports bar needed to match the energy of live sport and shared viewing, while remaining sensitive to the heritage character of the larger building.
The Challenge
The requirements included:
- Clear speech and commentary intelligibility for live sports viewing
- Balanced sound that enhances atmosphere without overpowering conversation
- Even coverage across the bar area for a consistent listening experience
- Reliable, simple operation which is suitable for daily use
The system needed to be modern and engaging, without visually or acoustically intruding into a historically significant space. In essence, this was about applying club sound system principles: clarity, control, and consistency at a scale appropriate for a members’ bar.
The Solution
Ansata designed a compact d&b audiotechnik system tailored specifically for premium hospitality environments such as bars and social lounges.
The system is built around d&b audiotechnik 8S loudspeakers, selected for their wide dispersion, natural voicing, and discreet form factor.
These loudspeakers are well suited as speakers for bars, delivering even coverage so that match commentary, background music, and ambient sound remain clear and consistent.
To add warmth and depth, d&b 12S subwoofers were chosen to provide controlled low-frequency reinforcement without overpowering the room. Power and processing are handled by d&b 5D amplifiers, ensuring efficient operation, reliability, and precise system tuning.
This configuration allows the sports bar to maintain an energetic, engaging atmosphere while remaining comfortable for conversation, shared viewing, and social interaction.
The Result
The new sports bar at the Cricket Club of India now benefits from a refined, well-balanced audio environment that enhances the communal experience of getting together and watching sport together. With highly intelligible commentary and balanced music playback, sound integrates seamlessly into the space.
Most importantly, the installation complements the heritage character of the CCI premises, demonstrating that modern, premium bar sound systems can coexist gracefully within historic institutions when technology is applied thoughtfully.
The project reflects how professional audio design can support evolving lifestyle spaces, not by drawing attention to itself, but by allowing people, conversation, and shared moments to take centre stage.
