Meyer Sound News : Jesus Christ Superstar Shines Again in Prague

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Jesus Christ Superstar Shines Again in Prague

"It's simple. Meyer Sound gives me great reliability and fantastic sound."

- Petr Ackermann,
Sound Designer & Engineer

A concert production of one of the world's most enduring musicals, Jesus Christ Superstar: Five Years After was recently staged in the Czech Republic at Prague's largest indoor venue, the 14,000-seat T-mobile Arena. A tribute to the local production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical – which had enjoyed a long run in Prague until 1997 – the one-night-only performance featured many of the original cast members, and a Meyer Sound M3D Line Array loudspeaker system.

In charge of sound for the show was Czech theatrical sound designer and engineer Petr Ackermann, who has a history of involvement with both the show and Meyer Sound. In fact, Ackermann was one of the first people in the Czech Republic to work on a Meyer Sound loudspeaker system: initially as a sound operator for a production of Les Misérables, and then for the original Czech production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Opening in 1994, the production played for more than 1,200 performances in Prague's Spirala Theater. "The venue is circular in shape, and it was hard to achieve even sound coverage," he remembers. " I used twelve UPA-1Cs for the main central cluster, and later added some PSW-4 subs positioned around the audience."

Of his loyalty to Meyer Sound, Ackermann had this to say. "It's simple. Meyer Sound gives me great reliability and fantastic sound." And eight years later, he had an even greater range of Meyer Sound products — including the latest M Series line array range — at his disposal to recreate the show's songs in another acoustically difficult venue.

"The T-Mobile Arena is designed as an ice hockey hall, and the acoustics are far from ideal for concerts," says Ackermann. "However, I was able to address this problem by using MAPP Online, Meyer Sound's multipurpose acoustical prediction program, to determine speaker placement and performance predictions. By the time we were ready to rig the system, more than half of the alignment process was already done using MAPP, and the predictions were extremely close to the measurements I made later using a SIM System II FFT Analyzer. It wasn't necessary to make any changes to speaker positions or angles during alignment.

"I also found it especially useful when working with different temperature settings, as during set up the hall was really cold, with a difference of more than 15 degrees Celsius when the audience came in. During the show I used Meyer's RMS remote monitoring system to check operating parameters, and I found it very good and simple to operate."

Ackermann used six M3Ds with three M3D-Sub Directional subwoofers at each side of the stage, with two CQ-1 Wide Coverage Main loudspeakers for downfill and two CQ-2 Narrow Coverage Main loudspeakers for sidefill. The center cluster comprised an additional three CQ-2s, with two UPA-1P Compact Wide Coverage loudspeakers for frontfills. On stage, two CQ-2s provided far main stage sidefill, while the monitor system consisted of 14 PSM-2 High-Power Low-Profile Stage monitors with two 650-P High-Power subwoofers and two UPA-1Ps as drummers' monitors. The entire sound system for the event was provided by PA rental company Pragosound.

The 30-meter deep stage was divided into three areas, with a main section for the Jesus Christ Superstar band, 30 musicians and 12 choir singers and two more areas for six guest bands, who performed their own cover versions of songs from the show.
This was Ackermann's first experience working with Meyer Sound's M3D system. "I was really amazed at the unbelievable clarity and strength of sound it provided," he says. "EQing the system was really simple and fast; using SIM during setup I couldn't find one place in the hall where the sound coverage was poor. Several of the arena's staff told me that they'd never heard such clear and loud sound there before, while a journalist for the local magazine Muzikus wrote that 'The sound was better than my home stereo system'."

According to Ackermann, the audience was amazed by the show, with even die-hard fans pleasantly surprised by special arrangements of well-known songs, including the finale — an a cappella version of "What's The Buzz" that alternated between English and Czech lyrics. "I think with the M3Ds, I was able to raise the standard regarding sound quality in this venue," he concluded.

December, 2002

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