Meyer Sound News : Schürzenjäger Open Air Event

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Schürzenjäger Open Air Event

"I must say I was amazed to see a system with that much power in such a small compact size; such precise audio. We're very happy to be a member of the Meyer Sound family."

- Patrick Cox
Vocals, guitar and drums for the Schürzenjäger Band

In the town of Mayrhofen, set in Tirol on the western side of Austria, an estimated 30,000 fans migrated to the Zillertal valley, home of the Schürzenjäger members, to be with the band and listen to their music. The Schürzenjäger annual open-air event remains the largest outdoor festival in all of Austria and is commonly reffered to as "the Woodstock of the Alps." Providing the Meyer Sound system for the band's annual open-air event on August 31st and '99 tour through Europe was Rock Sound of Germany.

The main components for the arena tour consisted of a complete Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker system composed of MSL-4's, DS-2P's and 650P's. The versatility of the system allowed Rock Sound to easily re-configure the arrays to meet the varying requirements of the venues. The MSL-4's and DS-2P's were retrofitted with external L-Track frames (now available from Meyer Sound) which allowed the loudspeakers to be flown easily from a modular rigging grid system. The new L-Track grid also enabled the crew to configure the arrays anywhere from one to six or even wider, as well as vary the depth of the array. The horizontal and vertical splay of the cabinets could also be easily modified, depending on the venue's coverage requirements which are often dictated by changes in trim heights, seating plans and sight lines.

To modify the system for the Mayrhofen open-air event, the system integrated MSL-6's and SB-1's for the very farfield areas. The furthest points were 250 meters from front of the stage before the trees began on the lowest point of the steep Alp hills.
"When I arrived in Mayrhofen, I met some of the band members at a restaurant in town," said John Monitto, Technical Support Manager for Meyer Sound. "They were all thrilled with the acoustic success of their shows they had finished throughout Europe, but were a bit nervous about the Mayrhofen show, due to its size. The open-air event, which is held every year, hadn't had great success with sound in past years. In fact, in past years they had complaints of unintelligibility in many of the seats, especially those furthest from the stage."

Yet, according to Patrick Cox, vocals, guitar and drums for the Schürzenjäger Band, this year's open-air event was different.

"We've been on the road with quite a few systems this year," said Cox. "However with the Meyer Sound system, I must say I was amazed to see a system with that much power in such a small compact size; such precise audio. We're very happy to be a member of the Meyer Sound family."

SETTING UP THE PA FOR THE ANNUAL OPEN AIR EVENT

Wednesday afternoon began the load-in for the sound crew and the first speakers to go in were the eight sound beams, which transport and fly from within a square, tubular, aluminum frame. The SB-1's pivoted vertically in the frame to allow for either plus or minus angle adjustment as required. To keep the SB-1's at a precise horizontal splay when hoisted into position an eight degree steel wedge was placed between two units and pinned into the SB-1 frames. The steel wedges were also the point that the sound beams were rigged from. The next step involved hanging the MSL-6's and MSL-4 downfill arrays and then the DS-2P's. UPA centerfills were also mounted to the center lighting truss and the 650P's were then placed in front of the stage in a horizontal line array configuration.

Monitto added that Jim Cousins, Meyer Sound's European SIM instructor, worked closely with Sven Waldhein of Rock Sound to align the system using an eight channel SIM multi system that Rock Sound had purchased in '98. Waldhein, who worked on recent rock tours throughout Europe, including Peter Maffay, Toten Hosen and Westernhagan, also served as a great interface between Cousins, the opening act's band mixer and Heino de Witt, Schürzenjäger's FOH mixer, who is known for his great attention to detail.

"The measured results confirmed our aural observations," said Cousins. "With a SIM II measurement mic, half-a-second away from the stage, we were surprised to see incredibly flat amplitude and phase responses. Apart from setting up a suitable MSL-6 to SB-1 crossover and time alignment using a BSS Omnidrive Compact, no in-band equalization was required. The system also proved to be very reliable in windy conditions with none of the excessive unit-to-unit combing or phasiness experienced with less precise longthrow designs.

"John Meyer should be congratulated in coming up with yet another plug'n'play winner."

Hanno Lamberte, owner of Trucking Services of Cologne, Germany, said, "I thought the sound was very good. We went up the hill and it was brilliant. At 250 meters from the stage the system was really clear. I've heard other systems, but I think this is the best one we have seen clients using for their shows."

Wayne "Heights" Gitten, monitor engineer, added these comments about the Mayrhofen open-air system, "What I heard when I first came to the venue was a very well balanced sounding system. It was very interesting to be so far away from the stage (90-100 meters) and still able to close my eyes and listen to the lead singer as though he was almost standing in front of me."

Monitto attributed the positive feedback and success of the '99 Schürzenjäger tour and open-air event to the directional control of the SB-1's and MSL-6's that also proved to be extremely effective on the Celine Dion European tour. The SB-1's kept the energy within the outdoor venue and away from neighboring areas. The other notable phenomena of an array of Sound Beams being used outdoors is that even though the beam may be moved around by the wind as a typical horn loaded speaker will, the high-Q of the beam minimizes the typical phasing effects you hear compared with lower-Q arrays. As the listener is in one place, the wind brings the next beam over to you and the time shift is kept to a minimum. Also contributing to the overall success of the '99 Schürzenjäger tour and open-air event were Thomas Züllich of Meyer Sound Germany and Lothar Strunk of Rock Sound who aided in the overall planning and design of the system.

Mayrhofen Open Air Equipment List
Main System
10 MSL-6
16 DS-2P
8 SB-1
26 650P
3 UPA-2P for centerfill
8 MSL-4 for downfill

Delay System
12 MSL-4
6 650P

September, 1999

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