Meyer Sound Overcomes Monumental Challenge for Mexican Singer
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On Saturday May 18th, 2002, popular Mexican singer/songwriter Marco Antonio Solís was scheduled to perform live at the Monumental Plaza de Toros Mexico of Mexico City. Since Solís is a longtime Meyer Sound user, it wasn't surprising when his management approached Meyer Sound Mexico a few days before the concert to ask for design and technical assistance. According to Marco Antonio Solís' personal manager Miguel Angel Solís, they faced a particularly challenging venue – one not only famous for being the world's largest bullfight plaza (45,000-seat capacity), but also one where good sound is a vexing problem. Many who had worked there previously would claim that no sound system had ever been able to successfully achieve even coverage of all audience areas. The primary problem is the steeply sloping seating areas in the massive venue. The stands rise up to 120 ft. at an almost 45 degree slope, making it very difficult to cover the venue vertically from loudspeaker arrays flown from staging or ground supports in the center of the round field. Usually only the lower seats could be easily covered, while the upper ones would suffer from poor coverage—or sometimes no coverage at all. Meyer Sound Mexico's Department of Technical Design, headed by Antonio Zacarías and Federico Peña, came up with a solution for the difficult coverage requirements of the show. "Usually the maximum height of available ground supports used for staging can only extend up about 30 feet high for loudspeaker flying" says Federico Peña "We initially tried a design option making use of M3D Line Array loudspeakers. But given the upward vertical tilt of 23 degrees needed for each single top loudspeaker in the main arrays it was impossible to use them." Zacarías and Peña next devised a solution based on Meyer Sound's QuickFly rigging system and MSL-4 Horn-Loaded Long-Throw loudspeakers. "QuickFly's flexibility and capacity for flying large arrays allow for loudspeaker rigging in difficult and unusual situations, so going this route was obviously our next choice." notes Zacarías. The final design for the system used for Marco Antonio Solís' concert at the Plaza de Toros consisted of twenty MSL-4 loudspeakers per side, flown in left and right main arrays, with six ground stacked DS-2P Horn-Loaded Mid-Bass loudspeakers and eleven 650-P High-Power subwoofers per side. The system used was Marco Antonio Solís own Meyer Sound rig supplemented by additional equipment and a full QuickFly rigging system provided by Música Moderna of Mexico City. Meyer Sound Mexico's design was skillfully implemented thanks to the technical expertise of the Musica Moderna technical staff in collaboration with FOH engineer Heraclio Bernal and the staff of Meyer Sound Mexico. Main arrays were flown with MTG-4 Top Grids rigged at zero vertical degrees, and MCC-015 Multi-link connecting chains used on the rear of the loudspeakers allowed for adjustment of the required 23 degree vertical angle between each MTG-4 Top Grid and the upper loudspeaker of each column. This made it possible to set the vertical coverage axis of the upper loudspeakers right at the venue's farthest seats. Once rigged in place, the system was aligned by Meyer Sound Mexico's Federico Peña using Meyer Sound's SIM System II FFT Analyzer, CP-10 Complementary Phase Parametric Equalizers, an LD-1A Line Driver and digital delays. After the show, manager Miguel Angel Solís commented, "I walked throughout the venue and it sounded great! Excellent sound, excellent coverage!" But he was not the only one happy with the results, as he recalls: "During the show Marco Antonio asked the audience sitting at the farthest seats if they were having a good time. When they answered affirmatively without hesitation, then he knew there was clear sound everywhere in the venue!" The coverage achieved by the Meyer Sound system surpassed all expectations, as Musica Moderna owner Enrique Pérez testifies: "It was sensational! Before, we had never been able to reach everybody in the audience in this venue. Today was the first time we could hear everything loud and clear all the way to the top of the Plaza de Toros." Solís' FOH Engineer Heraclio Bernal was equally impressed. "Even though the top of the venue was 120 feet higher than the stage, the system's frequency response was very good and evenly distributed in all audience areas. We had plenty of SPL and, though powerful, the system never hurt people's ears. I had never before been able to get such good results in this venue." July, 2002 |
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