Sydney Opera House Taps Meyer Sound for Key Festival Events
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From its modest beginnings in 1976, the Sydney Festival has grown into one of the world's premier international arts events, presenting three weeks of dance, opera, theater, visual arts and music ranging from hip-hip to Haydn. The 2003 Festival drew paid audiences of over 93,000 and roughly 1.5 million to the free outdoor events, and once again the Sydney Opera House was the setting for several festival highlights – with Meyer Sound systems on hand to provide appropriately stellar audio. The Concert Hall (seating 2,679) is the largest performance space at the Sydney Opera House (SOH), with a ceiling rising 22 meters above the stage platform and the 26,400 cubic meters of volume giving a reverberation time of approximately two seconds. To help ensure optimum results in the difficult space, consultant Dave Dennison traveled to Sydney to design, install and tune the M Series system in conjunction with SOH audio operations manager David Claringbold. "Some of the challenges we faced were excessive low-frequency reverb time, 360 degree coverage, back wall slap, variable stage lip coverage, and room compression once things get too loud," says Dennison. To cover the room without overly exciting it, Dennison configured a system with main left/right clusters each comprising ten M2D Compact Curvilinear Array loudspeakers and an M3D-Sub Directional subwoofer. Each array was vertically zone-driven to provide separate level and EQ control for the different coverage distances inside the hall. The result was very smooth high-frequency vertical coverage from the lower floor to the top of the upper circle. "One of the best things about this system design is the use of the M3D-Sub," says Dennison. "Its distinctive directional pattern assures that uncontrolled low-frequency energy doesn't fill the hall causing excessive reverberation. This was especially important in the concert hall because of the challenges faced in dealing with a relatively long, low-frequency reverb time." To provide the full 360-degree coverage, a stereo cluster of M1D Ultra-Compact Curvilinear Array loudspeakers covered the choir seating behind the stage. The cluster consisted of two arrays of five M1Ds hung next to each other with a 70-degree horizontal splay. Rounding out the side seating coverage, a pair of truss-hung UPA-1P Compact Wide Coverage loudspeakers were flown on both sides of the stage, with front fill provided by seven UPM-1P Ultra-Compact Wide Coverage loudspeakers. "To accommodate the wide variety of performances on the Concert Hall stage, the flexibility of the loudspeaker system and its rigging was a prime consideration," explains Dennison. "Sometimes the stage extension was up, providing more workable performance area, while at other times it was down to make more seating available. With this in mind, the left and right house clusters needed to be brought down and adjusted quickly for optimal coverage. The M2D QuickFly rigging system was ideal for these fast changeovers." Among performances in the Concert Hall during the Sydney Festival was Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra with Brisbane-based george – accompanied by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra — putting their special spin on the music of Deep Purple. Lord's sellout performance received outstanding press reviews, particularly for the audio which required a total of 96 mix channels for the orchestra and band. The Sydney Morning Herald called it "..a sheer audio thrill." Preceding Jon Lord was La Passion Segun San Marcos, an Afro-Cuban celebration of the life of Bach, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra playing the sound track to a live screening of the original black and white movie print of Joan of Arc. Artists who later used the system included Norah Jones, Laurie Anderson and Jackson Browne. Elsewhere in the SOH, Meyer Sound systems were used at the Forecourt for the Improbable Theatre's free presentation of Sticky, which employed six MSL-4 Horn-Loaded Long-Throw loudspeakers, two CQ-1 Full-Range Wide Coverage loudspeakers and two M3D-Subs per side, with a center fill of two M3Ds. "This system worked great, with just enough excellent vertical coverage to reach up the stairs leading from the front entrances of the Opera House to the Forecourt below," says Dennison. Another Forecourt performance, Incognita, was staged on the Botanical garden lawn overlooking the Opera House and featured a system of six MSL-4s and six PSW-2 High-Power Flyable subwoofers Rounding out the Meyer Sound- reinforced events at the Opera House were performances of Love In The Age of Therapy, a collaboration between Opera Australian and Australian jazz great Paul Grabowsky. Staged in the Drama Theater, the shows utilized a Meyer Sound system consisting of two CQ-1s, two UPA-1Ps, six UPM-1Ps and two 650-P High-Power subwoofers. March, 2003 |
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