Meyer Sound News : Seoul's Sejong Cultural Center Installs New Sound System from Meyer and Avix Trading

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Seoul's Sejong Cultural Center Installs New Sound System from Meyer and Avix Trading

One of the largest multi-purpose halls in Asia, the Sejong Cultural Center (Seoul), has just completed installation of a new sound reinforcement system based around self-powered loudspeakers from Meyer Sound, Inc. The sound system was designed and installed by Meyer's distributor in Korea, Avix Trading of Seoul, in collaboration with Meyer's technical support staff.

Built in the early 70's by the Korean government, the Sejong Cultural Center comprises two performance halls, the larger of which seats nearly 4000 with a 1,700 square-meter stage. The center hosts plays, concerts, official government functions, and is the home of the Seoul City Orchestra. The sound system, installed from Feb. to April of this year, was designed primarily by Avix Trading's Mr.Yonghoon Kim.

The Meyer self-powered loudspeakers that comprise the Sejong system include: 15 Meyer MSL-4's, and seven CQ-2 loudspeakers. Other components are: five UPM stage lip monitors, five CP-10 parametric equalizers, and two LD-1A line drivers. The center cluster and side fill loudspeakers were tuned using the Meyer SIM System, a dedicated computer measurement instrument that implements Meyer Sound's Source Independent Measurement (SIM) technique. TC Electronics delays were used for center cluster alignment and alignment of the stage lip monitors.

The Meyer MSL-4 self-powered loudspeaker has a very precise coverage pattern--40-degrees horizontal by 35-degrees vertical--with a frequency range of 65Hz to 18kHz . The amplifier and control electronics are fully contained within the speaker enclosure: 21 1/4" wide x 36" tall x 30" deep.

The CQ-2 self-powered loudspeaker comes in either a high-Q or low-Q configuration, with a frequency range of 40Hz to 18kHz. "CQ" stands for "Constant Q," meaning that the distribution of acoustic energy is very even over the coverage pattern in both the horizontal and vertical axes, while the energy outside the coverage area is low. This provides extremely tight control and predictable results for venues where acoustic spill-over is undesirable. The high-Q CQ-2, used in the Sejong installation, has a 50-degree H x 40-degree V coverage pattern, while the CQ-1 covers 80-degree H x 40-degree V. Both products have a lower Q than the more directional MSL-4. The CQ-2 contains its own amplifier and control electronics in a cabinet that is 6" shorter and 7 1/2" shallower than the MSL-4's.

Self-powered advantages

"Self-powered speaker systems help simplify the sound reinforcement chain," said Meyer Sound's Director of Asian Sales & Marketing. "It reduces some of the need for sophisticated engineering experience, while still allowing the client to get the same high-quality results."

According to Cooper, self-powered systems help eliminate wiring mistakes, level-setting mistakes, and other common errors of less experienced users that degrade system performance as a whole. "All that is required," he said, "is to hookup AC power and run a good quality signal source into the system. Nothing could be easier."

Meyer's self-powered loudspeakers also make it easier for system designer/installers to adjust a sound system to peak performance within a specific acoustic space, by using the Meyer SIM II system.

Meyer SIM II system

The Meyer SIM II system, used to tune the loudspeakers in the Sejong Cultural Center, is a dedicated computer measurement instrument that uses program material as a reference to accurately compute the transfer function (amplitude and phase response) of a hall or speaker system. Up to 64 calibrated measurement microphones can be deployed throughout a performance space in suitable positions and connected to the SIM 2201 Sound Analyzer through multiple interfaces.

Using either the analyzer's noise source or pre-recorded music as the test signal, a SIM operator can perform pre-concert equalization. Room resonances, loudspeaker response operations, echoes and other sonic perturbations can be identified and corrected by adjusting the system equalizers. Subsystem levels can be balanced and fill system delays set quickly and accurately.

In concert, the SIM System operator makes multiple measurements throughout the performance, switching among the microphones by computer control from the SIM 2201 Analyzer and adjusting the system equalization as necessary.

Meyer Sound provided its Korean distributor, Avix Trading, with technical support in designing the Sejong Cultural Center sound reinforcement system.. Mr. Yee-Su Yun, a qualified SIM engineer with Avix, performed the SIM II equalization. Avix is supplying temporary assistance to the Cultural Center in the day-to-day operation of the installed sound system.

June, 1998

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