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Who This Standard Is For and What It Settles
A franchise TV equipment standard keeps each new location from designing its screens from scratch. It is for anyone who franchises a restaurant concept or runs a company-owned group that keeps opening new doors. It answers a few questions once, at the brand level. How many screens does a unit of a given size get? Where do they go? How is the equipment numbered and labeled? Which screen carries sound? Franchisees, their general contractors and the installer then work from the same sheet.
The main readers are franchisors, development and construction leads, and the operations people who get the call when a new unit's dining room looks nothing like the prototype. This page covers what belongs in the spec, what to leave to each site, and what to ask a provider who will install to it.
Keep it to one page. A contractor on a ladder will skim a twenty-page standard. A single sheet of clear rules gets taped inside the equipment closet and followed. Drawings and photos can go in an appendix, but the rules themselves should fit on the front.
The Six Blocks Every One-Page Spec Needs
Franchise TV spec sheets that work tend to share the same structure. Each block settles one argument that would otherwise come up at every opening. Some blocks are fixed for the whole brand. Others are applied by each site within brand rules.
| Block | What it settles | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Screen tiers | How many screens a unit gets, by footprint and zone | Brand sets the tiers; each site is assigned one |
| Placement rules | Sightlines, mounting height, glare, what screens must never block | Brand writes the rules; the site survey applies them |
| Infrastructure | Power, low-voltage cabling and conduit at each screen, plus the equipment closet | Brand-wide |
| Numbering and labeling | One ID per screen, carried onto the receiver, remote and cables | Brand-wide |
| Audio and captions | Which screen has sound in each zone, with captions as the default | Brand default; the site confirms its zones |
| Account and support | Commercial account type, who owns it, who staff call | Brand policy |
What stays off the page matters just as much. Leave out TV model numbers, channel lineups and pricing. Models get discontinued, lineups change, and costs vary by site. Describe the requirement instead, such as a commercial-grade display sized to the wall it hangs on, and let your approved provider handle the specifics. Programming decisions belong in a separate document, and the multi-location TV programming playbook covers that side.
Screen Counts and Placement: Write Rules, Not Floor Plans
Use tiers instead of one number
A single screen count stops working the first time you open an in-line unit half the size of your prototype. Tiers built around zones last longer. For example:
- Compact: dining room only. Screens are ambient, and a few well-placed displays cover the room.
- Standard: dining room plus a bar. The bar gets denser coverage and the dining room stays ambient.
- Flagship: bar, dining, patio and a private or event room. Each zone gets its own minimum and its own role.
Set a minimum and a maximum for each zone and state what the zone is for: background, sports-forward or event. A franchisee who wants to exceed the maximum can request an exception. If the same exception keeps coming in, you probably need a new tier.
The spec should also explain receivers, because this is where budgets surprise people. Any screen that needs to show something different from its neighbors needs its own receiver. Screens that always show the same thing can share one. If franchisees ask why their quote lists so many boxes, point them to this explanation of why businesses need multiple receivers.
Placement rules that work in any room
Write placement as rules a surveyor can apply anywhere:
- Start from the seats and work out to the walls. Don't start from the walls that are easiest to mount on. The bar TV placement layout walks through that approach.
- In sports-forward zones, every seat should see at least one screen without turning around.
- Check windows and glass doors for afternoon glare before choosing a location.
- Never cover menu boards, brand signage, exit signs or the host stand.
- In the bar, the bottom edge of the screen should clear the heads of standing guests. In dining, mount lower and angle down so seated guests are not craning their necks.
- Patio screens must be rated for outdoor use and need a plan for cold or storm months.
- Run power and cable to likely future screen locations as well as today's.
Infrastructure, Numbering and Labeling
The easiest time to get TV infrastructure right is before the walls close. Your spec should require recessed power and low-voltage cabling at every confirmed and possible screen location, with conduit back to a single equipment closet. Put that requirement in the general contractor's scope as well as the AV scope so it doesn't get missed. The guide to restaurant TV wiring before drywall gives contractors the detail.
Say where the equipment goes, too. Receivers need airflow, a dedicated circuit and a spot staff can reach without moving cases of stock. The TV equipment closet setup guide covers ventilation and access. Your standard only needs to say where the closet goes in each tier and that it must meet those conditions.
One numbering scheme for the whole brand
Labeling is where a franchise standard pays off fastest. Choose one convention and require it in every unit. A zone letter plus a number works well: B1 for the first bar screen, D3 for the third dining screen, P2 for the patio. That ID goes on:
- The screen itself, somewhere discreet but visible to staff.
- Its receiver in the closet.
- Its remote.
- Both ends of every cable between them.
- The as-built sheet the installer hands over.
When a district manager calls support about "D3 in unit 14," everyone knows which box to check. When a server moves between units, the remotes make sense on the first day. The case for this habit is laid out in labeling TV receivers and remotes.
Audio, Captions and the Guest Experience
Audio is the part of the standard most often left unwritten, and it causes the most guest complaints. Set a brand default:
- One sound source per zone. Either one screen carries audio or the music system does. The two should never compete.
- Captions on everywhere else. Silent screens are still useful when captions are on. Our closed captions guidance explains why this works in dining rooms.
- Music by default in dining. Game audio is an exception, either in the bar or on event nights the manager schedules.
- One place to control volume. Say where it is, usually behind the bar or in the closet, so staff aren't hunting for remotes during a rush.
If your concept is sports-forward, write the event-night exception into the standard so managers don't have to make it up each time. For a Friday-night rush with two games on, the rule might be: bar audio follows the game on B1, dining stays on music, and captions stay on everywhere. For more on balancing playlists and game sound, see restaurant background music and TV audio. Larger units with several rooms should plan with the multi-zone TV venue setup approach.
Trade-Offs and Common Mistakes
The honest trade-offs
- Strict versus flexible. A tight standard gives guests a consistent experience and makes support easier. It also frustrates franchisees with unusual buildings. Tiers plus an exception process is the usual middle ground.
- Central sourcing versus franchisee sourcing. Buying equipment and installation through one approved provider keeps units consistent. Letting franchisees source locally can feel faster, but it tends to produce a different setup in every unit.
- Uniform screen size versus room fit. One size everywhere makes ordering simpler, but a long, narrow bar and a deep dining room need different sizes to be readable. Specify size based on viewing distance rather than a single number.
- Who owns the TV account. Some brands hold accounts centrally. Others require each franchisee to hold their own. The right answer depends on your franchise agreements, so confirm it with your team and a programming specialist.
Mistakes that show up again and again
- Naming a TV model that is discontinued before the third unit opens.
- Putting channel lineups in the equipment standard, where they go out of date.
- Writing the standard after units are open and never planning a retrofit for those units.
- Leaving labeling to whoever happens to install, so each unit has its own scheme.
- Having no audio rule, so each general manager invents one.
- Opening a new unit on a residential account because it was quicker. Consumer service isn't set up for business use. The account type should match how the location uses its screens, and a specialist can confirm which one fits.
- Accepting an install without an as-built sheet, so nobody knows which receiver feeds which screen.
What to Ask a Provider Before You Publish It
Your standard only works if the people installing it in the field follow it. Before you name an approved provider, ask:
- Can you install to our spec in every state we open in? You want the same practices in every market, not a patchwork of subcontractors.
- Will you survey each site and flag where the spec doesn't fit? A good surveyor catches the low soffit or the glare wall before anything is mounted.
- Will your technicians label to our numbering scheme and return an as-built sheet? Make this a requirement for signing off the install.
- Where do you fit in our opening timeline? Wiring, dish approval, mounting and activation each have their own window. See when to schedule restaurant TV installation.
- What does support look like after opening? Ask who managers contact for each location and how they report a problem. For a sense of what ongoing support can cover, see commercial TV support service.
- How do you handle a mix of corporate and franchisee-owned units? Billing, account ownership and change requests can differ between the two.
- How do programming changes reach every unit? A brand-wide change should not take dozens of separate calls.
Sports Direct | DLM Media is an authorized commercial dealer, one of the original six commercial DIRECTV dealers, with 30+ years of expertise. For background on how multi-site accounts are structured, see multi-location and national accounts. For install planning considerations, see commercial TV installation for restaurants. If you want a second set of eyes on a draft standard, you can talk with a programming specialist.