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Meyer Sound M3Ds Ignite the Spirit of Innovation at Benicassim
On the East Coast of Spain between Valencia and Barcelona, the night was anything but still at this year's Festival Internacional Benicassim, where every flavor of contemporary music, from pop to rock to electronica, was heard through Meyer Sound loudspeakers. An annual extravaganza that also includes fashion shows, alternative theater and film, the Festival Internacional Benicassim (FIB) presents just about as much live music as is humanly possible to stage in three days. From August 3-5, a continuous stream of fresh new sounds emanated from the main festival platform, the Escenario Verde (Green Stage), which was equipped with a Meyer Sound M3D Line Array Loudspeaker system. At this year's Festival, which averaged 30,000 people a day, the spirit of innovation ruled and the technical standards were high. The Sound Coordinator for the Festival, José Maria Rosillo, echoed that sentiment. "Year after year, we're challenged to improve the presentation in both its artistic and organizational aspects," Rosillo reflected. "This year, there was great anticipation on everyone's part to hear the M3Ds. When we did, it confirmed what we already knew: the M3D was going to provide a level of sound quality that would raise the bar very high for subsequent festivals." The Meyer Sound system for the Green Stage was provided by Fluge production company of Madrid, and consisted of twelve M3Ds and eight M3D-Subs per side, with eight MSL-4s per side for downfill, and six UPA-1Ps for frontfill. A delay tower with four additional MSL-4s was retired when the sound designers determined that the M3Ds had no problem providing full coverage to the back of the theater. The technical staff from Spain included engineers Luis Miguel Cortés and Germán Rodriguez. They were joined by Meyer Sound's Pablo Espinosa, who assisted with the design and tuning of the system. Two other venues at the festival, the Escenario de la Moda (Fashion Show Stage) and the FIB Club Stage, were also equipped with Meyer Sound loudspeakers. "It's fair to say that Meyer Sound predominated at FIB 2001," Rosillo remarked. In addition to delivering sonic excellence, the staff had to be incredibly efficient, with a tight performance schedule that sometimes allowed just 10 minutes to change bands. "The technical staff for the Green Stage is subjected to a lot of pressure," Rosillo continued. "The bands and engineers that parade through here are of a very high level and demand the best. All the engineers we spoke to were very satisfied with the results." Alberto Bravo, Coordinator of Technical Production, was responsible for all the technical aspects of the festival, including sound, lighting, video and broadcast. He had an instant appreciation for the ease of transport and rigging of the M3D system. "There was a reduction in both the truck space needed and the time it took to assemble the system. The fact that we could pre-adjust the angles between the speakers saved us even more time in rigging the system." What's more, Rosillo's crew appreciated the advantages of the M3D when it came to loading in the system. "It was very easy to rig the clusters of twelve M3Ds, and they are much less obtrusive than the large systems we've used in the past. The Festival staff was amazed that such an apparently small system could sound so full," he said. Both Rosillo and Bravo were very pleased with the performance of the M3D system. "My first impression was of the clarity and uniform distribution of the sound, both in terms of SPL and of bandwidth," Rosillo said. "The directionality of the M3Ds was very convenient as well, as we could avoid exposing the people in the front of the stage to very high levels, a problem I've encountered with other systems in long throw applications." Bravo also commented on the uniform coverage and the fact that the delay towers could be eliminated. He heard lots of good things from all the front-of-house engineers who worked the Green Stage. "Virtually everyone noticed the reduction in sound radiating from the back of the system onstage, which significantly improved the quality and clarity of the sound in the stage monitors," Bravo said. "Many engineers said they hardly used their graphic equalizers with the M3Ds." "I'd like to congratulate the development team at Meyer Sound, who have raised the bar for audio quality very high with the M3D," Rosillo concluded. October, 2001 |
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