Drive-Thru AI Hardware Installation
for Multi-Site QSR.
SRS Networks installs the field hardware behind drive-thru AI voice ordering — outdoor mics, speakers, confirmation displays, the edge compute enclosure, PoE, and cameras — for multi-site restaurants across all 48 contiguous states.
We deploy and support the hardware and network. Your platform provider owns the AI model. Outdoor-rated gear, one install standard, and a tech onsite in 4 hours when a lane freezes.
Drive-thru AI hardware installation is the physical setup of the field equipment a drive-thru AI voice platform runs on — outdoor-rated lane microphones and speakers, order-confirmation displays, the edge compute enclosure, PoE, network drops, and order-confirmation cameras — mounted, cabled, and tested at the lane. SRS installs and supports the hardware and the network. The AI model itself belongs to the brand's platform provider, partners such as NCR Voyix, SoundHound AI, Presto, and Google Cloud.
SRS Networks is a nationwide IT infrastructure deployment partner headquartered in Salinas, California, installing drive-thru AI hardware, point-of-sale, and low-voltage systems for multi-site restaurants and QSR chains across all 48 contiguous states since 1996 — a separate business from any local Salinas IT services provider. We've completed 500+ deployments across 5,000+ sites with in-house W-2 leads, a vetted W-9 subcontractor bench, West and East Coast staging facilities, and every site tracked live in our Project Command Center.
The AI Is the Easy Part
Outdoor ratings, the PoE behind the lane, clean mic audio, and a tech who shows up fast are what separate a lane that takes orders from a callback list.
A Frozen AI Lane at Peak Is Lost Cars
When the order-confirmation board goes dark or the lane mic drops mid-rush, cars stack to the street and leave. A drive-thru that earns half its revenue at the window cannot wait three days for a tech with no SLA.
Outdoor Hardware Gets Spec'd Like Indoor Hardware
Lane mics, speakers, and confirmation displays live outside through summer heat and winter ice. The shop that quoted the screen often skips the temperature and weather ratings, and the gear fails its first season.
No Two Lanes End Up the Same
When a different local installer wires each store, mic placement, speaker gain, and camera angle drift site to site. The AI platform reads clean audio at one store and garbled audio at the next.
The Edge Enclosure Has Nowhere to Live
Drive-thru AI runs on an edge compute box that needs power, cooling, and a clean network path back to the lane. Crews who scoped a speaker rarely scoped the enclosure, the PoE budget, or the drop it depends on.
One Partner. Every Lane
Taking Orders.
SRS Networks is a single point of contact for the hardware behind your drive-thru AI program — site survey and pre-staging through go-live. We run in-house W-2 leads backed by a vetted W-9 subcontractor bench, not a 1099 labor marketplace, so the tech who shows up is insured, audited, and held to one install standard at every lane. We stay vendor-neutral on the platform — we cable for it, your provider licenses it.
The Field Hardware,
Not the AI Model
From the lane mic to the edge enclosure, SRS Networks installs and tests every piece of field hardware your drive-thru AI platform depends on.
Outdoor Lane Microphones
Weather- and temperature-rated lane microphones mounted, aimed, and gain-tuned so the AI platform reads clean customer audio — placed to one standard at every store, not by eye.
Speakers & Confirmation Displays
Outdoor speakers and order-confirmation displays set, weather-sealed, and cabled — the customer-facing surfaces the AI voice and order read-back depend on, rated for the lane environment.
Edge / AI Compute Enclosure
The edge compute box the AI platform runs on — mounted in a powered, cooled enclosure with a clean network path back to the lane hardware. We set the box and the network; your platform provider owns the model.
PoE, Network Drops & Power
The PoE budget, Cat6 drops, and dedicated power each lane device needs — pulled, terminated, and Fluke-certified — so a lane never goes dark for a power or network reason.
Order-Confirmation Cameras
Outdoor order-confirmation cameras mounted and aimed at the lane so the AI platform and the crew can match the car to the order — sealed and cabled for the weather they sit in.
Cutover & Go-Live Support
Scheduled store-by-store cutovers with onsite techs through the first orders, with P1 4-hour onsite backup so a frozen lane at lunch reaches a tech in hours, not days.
Drive-thru AI lanes ride on the same network as your registers — see our POS installation to deploy both on one engagement, or our structured cabling for the certified drops behind every lane device.
What you actually get when you hand us a multi-site drive-thru AI rollout
You have twenty, forty, sixty drive-thrus to bring online, and you do not want to manage a different installer in every metro. So you hand us a site list and a scope — lanes per store, the platform they run on, mic and camera positions, and your install windows — and from there you talk to one project manager. Your store in Ohio gets the same mic placement, the same edge enclosure, and the same go-live checklist as your flagship in California, because one SRS standard travels with the crew instead of resetting at each store.
Dispatch latency is the number that matters most on a drive-thru AI lane, and most operators do not learn that until a board freezes at noon. A lane that earns half its day at the window cannot sit dark while a 1099 tech finds time next week. We run a P1 4-hour onsite target and P2 next-day, dispatched against COI audited before the tech rolls — because a frozen lane at peak is lost cars, and every hour the board is down is revenue that does not come back. That is the line we hold at every site, in every state, tracked in the Project Command Center.
Here is when we are not your fit. If what you need is the AI voice platform or the model itself, that belongs to your provider — NCR Voyix, SoundHound AI, Presto, or Google Cloud — not to us; we install and support the field hardware it runs on. And if you are wiring one store in one metro, hire a local installer directly — our coordination overhead doesn't pay back until you are rolling roughly 25+ sites. Below that line, cluster density beats deployment scale, and a same-day local tech will beat us on drive time. We will tell you that on the scoping call rather than sell you a rollout you don't need.
Local Installer vs. SRS Networks
A drive-thru AI lane is only as good as the outdoor gear behind it, the tech who shows up, and who answers when it freezes. See what changes at multi-site scale.
Why restaurant groups choose SRS Networks for drive-thru AI hardware
Multi-Site Restaurants & QSR
One Crew for Drive-Thru AI, Kiosks & POS
Opening or remodeling locations? SRS deploys drive-thru AI hardware, self-order kiosks, and point-of-sale on one coordinated engagement — see the full restaurant & QSR deployment program.
Drive-Thru AI Hardware FAQs
What multi-site restaurant operators and facilities teams ask us most before signing a drive-thru AI hardware installation SOW.
Ready to Roll Out Drive-Thru AI
Hardware Across Every Lane?
Send us your location list, lanes per site, your platform, and install windows. We'll build a project plan to your specs — pre-staged, installed to one standard, and taking orders before you open.