SAN FRANCISCO, October 14, 2026 — SpotOn, a leading restaurant and financial technology company, released "Drop the Beat," a video introducing the new SpotOn Handheld. Its soundtrack is an original score by composer and sound designer Dan Mufson, built from the sounds heard every day in working restaurants: the mechanical whirring of a ticket printer, a fryer basket hitting oil, plates on the pass, a card tap at the table, a handheld device splashing into a sink. And the drops, dunks and splashes are all real. During production, SpotOn’s handheld POS device was dropped onto hard floors, knocked into a mop bucket, and left underwater (no, it doesn’t float!).
At SpotOn, the company builds products around how restaurants actually run, and the team decided to produce the video the same way. Instead of licensing a track, the team tapped Mufson to compose one from the restaurant itself. Mufson has written music for Nike, Apple, Lexus and more, and he used the restaurant soundscape to create a score that moves with the action on screen.
"SpotOn came to me with a really fun brief: make music out of everyday restaurant sounds, especially the ones made by the people who work there. They wanted it to feel real, alive, and current," said Dan Mufson, composer and sound designer. “A busy kitchen already has its own rhythm, so the job was turning that rhythm into a beat. The ticket printer became a synth, the fryer became a cymbal, and card taps, clanking dishes and glasses, and devices hitting the counter became the drums. SpotOn gave me a lot of room to make something unique, and I love how it turned out."
SpotOn Creative Director Dan Thorne drops the new SpotOn Handheld on counters and in buckets to capture its durability on camera.
The video puts the handheld through exactly what it's built to handle. The SpotOn Handheld carries a five-foot drop rating, an IP67 rating for submersion in three feet of fresh water for up to 30 minutes, and MIL-STD-810H environmental testing. It also delivers 99.99% card-reading reliability and processes transactions 30% faster than the previous generation. Read more about the new SpotOn Handheld here.
WATCH: Not AI, just a lot of water | SpotOn Handheld behind the scenes
On set, the crew kept the SpotOn Handheld fully submerged for more than 40 minutes, and the behind-the-scenes footage shows it coming out of the water still working.
For SpotOn’s clients, that durability means fewer interruptions on the floor. A handheld that survives a drop or a spill stays in service instead of going out for repair in the middle of a rush, and near-zero failed taps keep payments moving and tables turning.
"Anyone who has worked a restaurant shift can tell when something's been faked, so we were committed to making every drop and splash real," said Kate Wolfe, Vice President, Marketing & Brand Strategy at SpotOn. "Our promise is restaurant technology, delivered with hospitality, and that means building for the Friday night rush, not a demo. We built this handheld to survive a real shift, so we filmed it surviving real drops, dunks and splashes, and scored it with the sounds of a real kitchen. It's how we approach everything we make."
"Drop the Beat" was concepted and edited by SpotOn's in-house Brand Marketing team, with Dan Thorne as Creative Director. Production was by Lemonlight, and original music and sound design were by Dan Mufson Music. The SpotOn Handheld video and behind-the-scenes footage are available on YouTube.
Credits
- Concept and edit: SpotOn
- Creative Director: Dan Thorne, SpotOn
- Production: Lemonlight
- Original music and sound design: Dan Mufson Music
About SpotOn
SpotOn is a leading restaurant technology company that builds practical AI into the tools operators rely on every day. Its restaurant management system brings together the point-of-sale, online ordering, reservations, and labor management, plus access to top integrations into one platform. AI is integrated throughout so operators get the benefits of artificial intelligence without having to think about it. SpotOn backs it all with 24/7 support and hospitality. For more information, visit www.spoton.com.
Media Contact
Megan Palmer
MPalmer@spoton.com
410-262-7349
