In its twelfth year as a festival partner, Meyer Sound was once again proud to sponsor the Montreux Jazz Festival's 33rd year at Montreux, Switzerland. The world-renowned event, held July 2-17, assembled the largest variety of musical styles in its music-making history, attracting more than 81,000 people to the Stravinski Auditorium and Miles Davis Hall. Other popular venues at the Festival included Off-Festival, Montreux Jazz Café and lakeside, which attracted an additional 140,000 individuals, summing up to a total of almost a quarter-of-a-million visitors over the course of two-weeks.

That's 221,000 concert-goers who heard performances from some of the world's most influential artists on Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker systems. Taking to the stage were such memorable artists as R.E.M., B.B. King and his 50 years in music, James Taylor, Herbie Hancock's sextet, Alanis Morisette, David Sanborn and Gary Moore. Yet these were just a handfull of the performances that made the 33rd Montreux Jazz Festival a success. The Off-Festival additionally staged 180 groups, including 40 big bands, and an awe-inspiring 350 concerts. So whether at the Stravinski Terrace or the Rouvenaz Bandstand, the entire area moved to the harmonious rhythms of the Festival.

And wherever the rhythmic sounds could be heard, Meyer Sound was there! With literally hundreds of Meyer Sound self-powered products arrayed throughout the Festival, concert-goers could rest-assured that the performances they were hearing were perfectly reproduced.

"When I started 14 years ago the Festival was using an awful system," said Steve Thorneycroft, FOH engineer at Stravinsky. "There were performers like Marvin Gaye using Yamaha Desks and engineers were doing their monitor mix at the front-of-house. When Meyer stepped in, it made an enormous change. Since then, the quality of the Festival's sound system drastically improved. John [Meyer] is coming at the Festival from the technical end, rather than the marketing side, he knows what it's like... The help we've gotten from Meyer has been great."

"I suppose the toughest test of a system is fidelity," said Andy May, FOH engineer at Stravinsky. "Can both ends be worked without having to re-EQ or redrive? The Meyer system can! It's very, very subtle. It can go from the intricate sounds of a mandolin to thrashing guitars with great precision."

On July 16th, to honor Meyer Sound's continuing support and involvement in the Montreux Jazz Festival, performances at Stravinsky Auditorium were dedicated to Meyer Sound. The line-up included: The George Duke Band with special guests Norman Brown and Gabriela Anders. The event attracted an enormous audience, all enthusiastic fans of George Duke, composer and musician. And true to form, he didn't disappoint. With boundless energy and creativity, he kept everyone hanging on until his very last note on the keyboard. Before introducing the next act--FourPlay, featuring Larry Carlton, Nathan East, Bob James and Harvey Mason-- the ever-gracious Claude Nobs invited Helen and John Meyer out on stage for a special treat. In celebration of Meyer's 20th anniversary as a company, Claude took a few minutes to tell the audience about how long he had known the Meyers and valued their working and personal relationship. Claude expressed his gratitude to Meyer Sound for donating loudspeaker systems and technical expertise for the past 12 years to outfit the entire Festival He ended by congratulating the Meyers on 20 years of excellence in professional audio and said that he looked forward to many more years together. In commemoration of the event, he presented John and Helen with a unique gift: limited-edition 3D artwork for the Rizzi poster from the 31st Montreux Jazz Festival.

Equipment featured at this year's Festival included a configuration of MSL-6's, MSL-4's, PSW-6's, USW-1P's, the new UPM-1P's and a host of CQ-2's at the Stravinsky Auditorium. Where as the Miles Davis Hall configuration was based on MSL-4's and PSW-6's with self-powered UPA's for downfill. Stage monitors used at the various venues were UM-1P's, UM-100P's and PSM-2's. Meyer Sound's RMS™ Remote Monitoring System (RMS™) was also used at the FOH and monitor positions in both Stravinski and Miles Davis as well as the Meyer production office. By using RMS it allowed individuals to monitor various performance aspects of the systems in these venues. Each laptop was configured to be able to ãseeä any of the other systems on-line and then a final location was setup in the Meyer Sound production office. This enabled the Meyer Sound staff to see how the systems were performing at any point during the evenings÷ for example, how the system was running when a Hip-Hop group was performing as opposed to a Jazz/Funk band. It also provided key performance information to be used when considering what equipment to utilize next year.

With the overwhelming success of the Festival, more and more faces continue to appear every year to listen to the unparalleled sound and performances given. This year, among the notable personalities were Bette Midler, Géraldine Chaplin, Phil Collins and Shania Twain.

Media coverage at the 33rd Montreux Jazz Festival was also at an all-time high as CNN's "World Beat" and MTV covered the Festival and shared its music and stories with the world. Over the 16-day event more than 450 journalists attended the Festival from 18 countries around the world.

In addition to the overwhelming success the 33rd Montreux Jazz Festival received from both the press and attendees, Meyer Sound also received a host of positive feedback on the quality of sound heard throughout the Festival from both the technical staff as well as from attendees. In addition to these comments, Meyer Sound's 50+ guests also expressed their genuine satisfaction and interest in the quality of sound and self-powered loudspeaker products used throughout the Festival.

So next year at the 34th Montreux Jazz Festival, whatever music reaches your soul and entices you to the dance floor, remember that Meyer Sound is committed to providing the best sounding performance possible.