Meyer Sound News : Meyer Sound Brings World-Class Musical Sound to Singapore

Meyer Sound Brings World-Class Musical Sound to Singapore

"With its very first world-class performing arts venue now in place, Singapore is ideally positioned to stage the best of local and international productions alike. With this system, we can stage anything from a one-man show to full-scale productions."

- Robin Shuttleworth,
Head of sound, Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay

Singapore's newest international arts venue, Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, features a world-class Meyer Sound reinforcement system.

The state-of-the-art complex brings a new level of performing arts to Singapore. At the heart of the development are a 2,000-seat lyric theatre and a 1,800-seat concert hall, with several smaller performance spaces planned for the second phase of construction. The two larger theatres, together with a recital studio and a theatre studio that can accommodate 250 people each, opened October 12.

The Esplanade's head of sound is Robin Shuttleworth, whose association with Meyer Sound goes back to 1980 when he worked in his native South Africa with legendary sound designer Abe Jacob. "I worked with Abe on Evita and several other productions," he recalls. "I've always had great admiration for Abe; he's a guru in the field of sound design."

When Shuttleworth arrived at the theatre eighteen months ago, he was presented with a sound system design for the lyric theatre that had been conceived at the planning stage using architectural drawings. "I could see that the as-built structures didn't really add up in relation to the drawings," he relates. "Some of the speaker positions were obscured by features of the building."

Bob McCarthy, independent consultant and measurement expert, visited the Esplanade during the summer and spent three days repositioning loudspeakers, incorporating extra loudspeakers and using Meyer Sound's SIM System II FFT Analyzer to fine-tune the room. The Esplanade's sound department, along with subcontractors Electronics and Engineering, worked with McCarthy to relocate the loudspeakers. "We were all happy with the results," says Shuttleworth. "Bob did a masterful job. He has worked on several other projects with Artec, our acousticians, and it seemed a very sensible move to have him come out."

The revised design features three separate flown systems, each comprising an MSL-4 Horn-Loaded Long-Throw loudspeaker and a DF-4 Dedicated Downfill loudspeaker. The MSL-4s cover the second and third balconies, while the DF-4s take care of the first balcony and upper stalls. "Bob repositioned and re-angled the MSL-4s because the ceiling structure obscures line of sight," explains Shuttleworth. "We had to bring them down a little lower and toe them up a bit."

Permanent right- and left-side towers comprise one CQ-1 Wide Coverage Main loudspeaker for the lower stalls, with a CQ-2 Narrow Coverage Main loudspeaker covering the extreme sides. Each CQ-2 is inverted to allow the high frequencies to better cover the side stalls. UPA-2P Compact Narrow Coverage loudspeakers, positioned forward of each side loudspeaker tower, cover the extreme sides of the first level where the corporate boxes are located.

The CQ-1s and CQ-2s supplant some UPAs that were specified in the original design. "The CQs have a little bit more punch and can reach the required distances," says Shuttleworth, "so we purchased them from Meyer Sound's distributor, Quebec Leisure, and Bob integrated them into the system." Three UPA-1P Compact Wide Coverage loudspeakers and four USW-1P Compact subwoofers from the original the lyric theatre specification were shifted over to the Esplanade's recital studio.

Three UPM-1P Ultra-Compact Wide Coverage loudspeakers per side cover the three balcony side boxes. Five UPM-1Ps, fixed to the front of the stage, serve as front fills, while six MM-4 Ultra-Compact Wide-Range loudspeakers, provide fill for each of the three balconies. Two PSW-2 High-Power Flyable subwoofers supply sub bass reinforcement.

The lyric theatre's first production is a Singaporean ballet, Reminiscing the Moon — which features original score — followed by a locally-written musical entitled Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress and staged by the Singapore Repertory Theatre Company. The first touring show planned for the theatre is IMG's Singing in the Rain — part of an Australian tour that comes in around November.

With its very first world-class performing arts venue now in place, Singapore is ideally positioned to stage the best of local and international productions alike. "With this system, we can stage anything from a one-man show to full-scale productions," Shuttleworth concludes.

October, 2002