Starlight's M Series System Gets To Work Right Away
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Starlight, one of Scandinavia's largest PA, staging and lighting companies, has purchased a substantial quantity of Meyer Sound M Series Line Array products from Meyer Sound Germany (MSG), whose territory also includes Denmark, Sweden and Finland. When Starlight's owner Per Eriksson decided he needed a line array system to add to his rental inventory, he teamed up with one of his main freelance sound engineers, Thomas Malbeck, to assess what was available. The pair were invited by MSG's Thomas Züllich to the MTV Winter Jam in Austria earlier this year to hear Meyer Sound's M3D Line Array loudspeaker in action. Following this, Züllich demonstrated a system comprising M3Ds and M2D Compact Curvilinear Array loudspeakers together with M3D-Sub Directional subwoofers at Starlight's premises to show how the M Series integrates seamlessly. "We liked the Meyer Sound line array system a lot, and decided this was the one we should buy," says Malbeck. "We chose this one because we found it to be one of the best sounding and most useful, being self-powered and easy to rig. That's very important to us because time is always a big consideration here in Sweden." Starlight took delivery of twenty-four M3Ds, twelve M3D-Subs, sixteen M2Ds and eight M2D-Sub Compact subwoofers, plus a SIM System II FFT Analyzer. Everything arrived just a week before its debut at the Stockholm 750th Anniversary Festival. Held throughout the first week of June, the Stockholm Festival celebrated the city's history through a variety of musical events, dramatic performances and exhibitions. The new M Series system was deployed at one of the festival venues, the Stockholm Stadion, for a special Swedish National Day concert on June 6. With a capacity of 20,000, the Stockholm Stadion is the city's largest music venue, and a variety of Swedish artists played at the concert, with Starlight spending a week in rehearsals prior to the one-day event. For the Stadion concert, Starlight employed twelve M3Ds and six M3D-Subs on each side of the stage, with two M2Ds for front fill. The M2Ds were ground stacked, turned in toward the center of the stage and run in mono to provide coverage for the front rows. As the SIM analyzer had only just arrived in the country, Starlight, assisted by Züllich and Luke Jenks, Meyer Sound's Director of European Technical Support, used Meyer Sound's MAPP Online (Multipurpose Acoustical Prediction Program) to predict the performance of the system. "Luke and Thomas helped us get the best results," says Malbeck. "and we certainly got the response we were all looking for. The show was being broadcast live across Sweden, and the broadcasters commented on how good the sound was all over the venue. As a sound engineer, I can hear when something is good, but it's also important to get feedback from others." A smaller system was used right after the Stockholm festival at the Slottsgalan, an outdoor Royal Gala Performance held in parkland around a castle just outside the city. The four-day classical event, with a seated audience of around 5,000 at each performance, featured artists from both Sweden and overseas. In this instance, six M3Ds were used per side, with two M2Ds per side for front infill. "This was a very exciting event to work on," says Malbeck. "The mix position was 70 meters away from the stage, and the system sounded like two huge studio monitors. The Norwegian sound engineer for one of the acts liked the system so much that he's considering buying one of his own." The next outing for Starlight's new M Series system is a tour of Sweden by local artist Thomas Ledin, commencing on July 4. Depending on the venue, a typical rig will consist of eight M3Ds per side with M2Ds used for infill or outfill. July, 2002 |
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