Meyer Sound News : Meyer Sound Rocks New Red Rocks Center

Meyer Sound Rocks New Red Rocks Center

"The Meyer speakers made perfect sense... there isn't much room in there for big amp racks, and with the amps built into the Meyer boxes it just made everything that much easier. Also, you associate Meyer with rock concerts and touring, so that matched up as well."

- Rusty Griffith,
LVW Electronics

For years, Meyer Sound systems have passed through Denver's famed Red Rocks Amphitheater with touring artists playing summertime concerts at this spectacular 9500-seat venue. But beginning this year, Meyer Sound loudspeakers can be heard year-round at a new $16 million visitor's facility overlooking the famed amphitheater and surrounding parklands.

Opened to the public in April of 2003, the 30,000-square-foot facility includes a bar and grill, interactive educational displays on Red Rocks history (musical and geological) and a performers hall of fame. The two largest rooms inside the facility are the Rock Room and the 6450 Theatre, the latter named for the site's lofty elevation, measured in feet. Both feature extensive systems based around Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.

Since the center was designed to blend in with the surrounding mountains, the structure is substantially underground and windowless. Therefore, neither of the main event/banquet rooms has any direct view of the amphitheater stage. Instead, the idea was to bring the concerts – both from live feeds and prerecorded media – into the center using high-resolution, big screen video and concert quality audio from Meyer Sound systems.

In the larger 6450 Theatre, which can be set up for either theater or banquet seating, the 96-inch by 160-inch acrylic video screen is flanked – on both sides – by an MTS-4A full-range loudspeaker installed atop 650-P high power subwoofer. The main system is supplemented by a trio of UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage loudspeakers, which are suspended from a circular metal lighting truss that gives the room a performance space feel. A touch screen controller connected to a DSP matrixing system allows the UPM-1P auxiliary loudspeakers to function independently, or serve as effects or surround loudspeakers supplementing the main system. During concerts, the entire system can take live video and audio feeds from cameras in the amphitheater and the front of house console. Other sources available in the theater include DVD and videotape playback, and live presentation microphones.

The smaller Rock Room, named for the massive mountain boulders that were incorporated into the architecture, utilizes a smaller 81-inch by 144-inch screen for video, with audio from three UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeakers in a left-center-right configuration.

The new Red Rocks system was supplied by LVW Electronics of Colorado Springs under a design-build contract, following a performance specification drawn up by the Boulder office of Kirkegaard and Associates.

"The Meyer speakers made perfect sense for a couple of reasons," says Rusty Griffith of LVW Electronics. "One reason is that there isn't much room in there for big amp racks, and with the amps built into the Meyer boxes it just made everything that much easier. Also, you associate Meyer with rock concerts and touring, so that matched up as well."

LVW supplied the complete audio-video package for the new visitor center, including Christie Digital Roadster video projector, the video screens, remote video camera, the Meyer speakers, source playback units, and all control and DSP hardware. Griffith notes that the audio DSP system was primarily used for pre-set routing and matrixing, and very little EQ-ing of the Meyer speakers was required. "We did use insert a limiter function, though," he admits, "since the theater system will go much louder than is really safe in that space."

The Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater is owned by the City and County of Denver, and is located 15 miles west of the city's downtown area. First completed in 1941, the venue has been updated over the years with new amenities and technologies, and now hosts a full calendar of concerts and community events, primarily from late spring through early autumn.

June, 2003