A BBQ Restaurant Backed By Automation

When Dave Brosseau, a Canadian automation integrator, wanted to open his own restaurant specializing in the slow-smoked barbeque style found in the Southern United States, he gave a lot of thought to just how busy he would be managing the restaurant.

Yes, there’s all the work of meal prep and service. But there’s also a lot to running the operation itself: Most modern restaurants house a large assortment of mechanical and electrical systems for lighting, HVAC, security, fire alarm, outside signage, and audio and video. Commercial kitchens add refrigeration, fire suppression, and specialized ventilation systems—and each system has its own readouts, dials, switches, alerts, screens, and a variety of other controls.

His solution? Brosseau instrumented the existing systems in the restaurant, connected them to his Opto 22 SNAP PAC System, and ordered a groov Box to develop interface screens for the restaurant’s connected systems and devices.

The restaurant staff is now controlling the entire building—and then some—with their smartphones at work and remotely.