M Series at "Proms At The Bowl"
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UK sound reinforcement company Capital Sound recently provided a Meyer Sound M Series system for "The Proms at the Bowl", a classical summer extravaganza featuring the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by Michael Reed. Last year's inaugural event at the Milton Keynes Bowl marked the first time that Capital deployed its M3D Line Array loudspeaker system outdoors, and in the latest outing the system was supplemented with the company's recently-purchased M2D Compact Curvilinear Array loudspeakers. The Milton Keynes Bowl stretches a total of 200 meters from the front of the stage, with the final 50 meters rising as a grassy bank. Normally a 70,000-seat capacity venue, the Keynes Bowl is transformed for the "Proms" into a 'picnic format' — complete with tables, gazebos and candelabras — that can accommodate an audience of 12,000. Classical music aficionados gather with champagne and picnic baskets to enjoy the outdoor music, fireworks and laser spectacular. Though this setup means the audience capacity is reduced, Capital still had to cover the entire site, as people were seated all the way to the back of the raised section. Capital's system consisted of ten M3D loudspeakers each for left and right main hangs, with three M2D loudspeakers underneath for near fill and two M3D loudspeakers per side for out fill. "With a site like this, we normally don't need to provide anywhere near the vertical coverage that we do for indoor venues like arenas," says Capital's account manager Paul Timmins. "However, for this event we used almost as many cabinets as on the recent Kylie Minogue arena tour, this time treating the M2D loudspeakers as a dedicated down fill system for the first fifteen meters in front of the stage — whereas in an arena, they would cover thirty meters. The M3D loudspeakers then covered from fifteen meters out to the back of the site." Three M3D-Sub Directional subwoofers on each side supplied sub-bass, with four UPA-1P Compact Wide Coverage loudspeakers as barrier fills. Delay systems of three M2D loudspeakers and an M2D-Sub Compact subwoofer per side, flown from two towers 100 meters from the stage, provided fill coverage for the farthest seats. "This isn't usually necessary when using the M3D because it really does throw," says Timmins, "but some sections of the classical arrangements were very quiet, and having the delay focused the sound in the back. If it had been windy, this would have been especially crucial, but as it was a still evening, we could run the system at a low level." Capital had the luxury of two full production days for load-in and setup. "The extra time meant that we were able to spend effort taking measurements for future work, improving on our accuracy all the time," says Timmins. Capital used Meyer Sound's M3D Line Array Placement Calculator to work out the angles of splay between the loudspeakers using the dimensions of the field and the height of the stage trim. Colin Boland, front-of-house engineer for stars such as Sarah Brightman and Russell Watson, mixed the concert. Capital's systems engineer was Ross Anderson, who had worked with Boland in the past and is an experienced Meyer Sound engineer. "The Proms at the Bowl" is the flagship summer event for local production company TFE Concerts, which managed to increase attendance by about 3,000 over last year's total of 9,000 people. Capital is confident that it also managed to improve on last year with the addition of its new M2Ds. "We were definitely able to do a better job this time, especially by using the M2Ds as delays," says Timmins. "The system looked neater, was easier to rig, and the transition between the main system and the delay system was totally seamless," he concludes. "Our new M2Ds made all the difference." July, 2002 |
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