Meyer Sound News : Meyer fills the Tivoli bill at Sydney's Capitol Theatre

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Meyer fills the Tivoli bill at Sydney's Capitol Theatre

Tivoli at the Capitol.

Tivoli is a glitzy razzmatazz of cancan girls, ventriloquists, battlefield vignettes, Swan Lake and vaudeville. In the distant (and inconceivable) era before television, singers, dancers, contortionists and even balloon folders entertained people all around Australia at Tivoli theatres. A co-production of Sydney Dance Company (SDC) and The Australian Ballet, this colorful, zingy production features a 10-piece band, recorded music, and vocalists including Linda Nagle. One of the stops on its national tour was Sydney's Capitol Theatre, a century-old venue recently restored to its former ornate and gilded glory.

Adam Iuston, 29, is the company's sound designer and audio engineer. Meyer speakers were supplied by Coda Audio, where Iuston works as a sound system designer. Iuston has been doing SDC shows for three years, and has toured the United States, Italy, Mexico, Austria, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

"Whenever we tour I spec Meyer," he said. "The product is well known around the world. Audio suppliers know you won't take second best when they see Meyer on your rider. Much of Coda's inventory is Meyer, so I'm very familiar with it."

A century old, but still very live, venue

The 2000-seat Capitol is a long, wedge-shaped two-tiered space with textured plaster walls and a domed ceiling. Designed as a cinema when sound systems were fairly feeble, the room was built to be as live as possible. After restoration, the room was too live for theatre, so acoustic baffles were hung on the ceiling.

Recent fire regulations have banned hanging delay speakers in the space. It was once possible to rig boxes from the opening bridges in the ceiling, but the bridges now have to close quickly in case of fire. To cover the upper balcony without a delay ring, Iuston hung two MSL-4s per side from the ceiling above the proscenium arch. Arrayed horizontally, the MSL-4s were pointed slightly in and up.

"There are no rigging points in the room except the ones at the front of the auditorium," Iuston said. "That's where the points are so thaat's where the system goes. Medium- to long-throw boxes are the only thing you can use to get the sound right to the back of the room. MSL-4s are perfect for the job - they have a relatively tight pattern. Because the mid driver is horn loaded, you get the grunt you need right up to the last seats in the house.

"I think I was the first one to try MSL-4s for theatre in this room. It's a bit unconventional but it works well. You certainly don't get any complaints from punters sitting up the back!"

Iuston would have hung the MSL-4s right at the edge of the room, but that position went to lighting, so he moved them slightly in. "Ideally I hang the MSL-4s on the outermost points of the auditorium. The offstage edge of the array skims right up the side of the room - I get excellent coverage and nothing on the walls at all. But theatre is all about compromise, and lighting really needed those points, so I gave in and moved to the next best position, which is right above the edges of the proscenium. The image is a little narrower and you can't keep all the highs off the walls but I still got a good result. The Capitol is a difficult room - it's very live and the sound changes quite dramatically when the audience comes in. It's hard to estimate how different the room will sound with a full house."

Iuston hung an MSL-2, pointed slightly down, under the MSL-4 arrays to cover the sides of the lower balcony. "MSL-2s are close to perfect for the lower part of the balcony in the Capitol. Their dispersion allows coverage from the first row right up to the crossover where the upper balcony begins and the MSL-4s take over."

The center channel was two MSL-2s hung in a vertical array to cover the middle of the lower balcony, and to provide center downfill for the stalls. The top speaker was pointed right at the center of the lower balcony, and the bottom one was pointed quite severely downwards to miss the circle front and to get high frequencies into the center of the stalls. This setup covered the sixth row, back to where the stalls delay ring took over.

Getting the bass happening

On the floor beside the stage, Iuston put two PSW-4s per side, with an MSL-2 on top for the stalls, left and right. The PSW-4s were coupled together to get them to work as one unit. Iuston would have liked the PSW-4s right up against the proscenium wall, but he again had to give way to lighting.

"Like most subs, the PSW-4s work best when they have a solid wall behind them. The PSW-4s don't move air like a 650-P but they have a better frequency response. I find them perfect for theatre. The combination of the 15- and 18-inch drivers means that they have punch but they also produce some nice lows. Theatrical shows don't usually require huge amounts of bass, so four PSWs in a room that size is usually more than enough. They're probably the most ideal of all the Meyer subs for theatre.

"Since subs are low frequency, they are omnidirectional most of the time. You need to put them close to a hard wall to get them to radiate out into the room. There's a bit of an art form to arraying subs, and there's a lot of mistakes you can make.

"You get lobes in certain parts of the Capitol, particularly up the back around the mixing position, and down each side of the stalls. There are pockets all over the room that are bass traps - there's not a lot you can do about it. Older rooms have strange problems, it's hard to get a fully even low frequency coverage."

The MSL-2s were pointed towards center, keeping the sound off the walls and getting as much high frequencies as possible to the bulk of the seats. "The left and right MSL-2s didn't quite cover the center of the room, but the MSL-2 center downfill filled that hole very nicely."

Tivoli is touring, and Iuston has used other Meyer speakers in different venues. He used the MSL-3s at the Lyric Theatre in the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and UPAs in the Festival Theatre in Adelaide.

"We don't have the budget of the big shows so we can't tour everything. Unfortunately that means we usually have to use in-house speaker systems. Thankfully most venues have a good selection of equipment to choose from, and most of the big theatres in Australia have Meyer, so we're pretty fortunate."

August, 2001

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