Meyer Sound LD-3 Keeps Three Tenors Clean in Bath
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With the Georgian grandeur of the historic Royal Crescent framing the horizon, attendees at Bath's YTL Concert of Celebration were treated to the double pleasure of a balmy summer afternoon on the green and an evening serenade by Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. As daylight ebbed, temperatures waned and humidity rose, but the sound remained consistently on target. To achieve the transition without breaking a sweat, the crew from Sound Hire added the new LD-3 compensating line driver to their usual complement of Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers. Presented by Wessex Water and their Malaysian parent, YTL Corporation, the free concert featured not only the Three Tenors, appearing with the Royal Philharmonic orchestra conducted by János Ács, but also flautist Andrea Griminelli, The Bath Abbey Choir, and the Bath Camerata children's choir. A seated crowd of 15,000 — primarily winners of a ticket drawing — enjoyed the show at the main venue, while another 20,000 gathered in nearby Victoria Park to watch on two giant screens. Meyer Sound loudspeakers delivered the sound in both locations. "We always use Meyer," says Richard Liénard, owner and designer at Surrey's Sound Hire. "In our opinion there is nothing better for the job. We also used Meyer's MAPP Online multipurpose acoustical prediction program to design the main arrays, which were approved without alteration by John Pellowe, the Tenors' engineer. The prediction was spot on, giving even coverage front to back." The Bath concert marked the first time that Sound Hire employed the LD-3, which was used across the main left/right systems with CP-10 complementary phase parametric equalizers inserted on each output. Designed to correct the frequency response of M Series line and curvilinear arrays based on temperature, relative humidity, altitude, and throw, the eight-channel LD-3 allows a system to work consistently under virtually any weather conditions. In addition to entering the type of loudspeakers and distance of the throw for each section of an array, the operator sets the LD-3's unique temperature, altitude, and relative humidity knobs to reflect the prevailing weather. A RISC microcontroller calculates response correction coefficients and adjusts up to three separate array outputs per channel to compensate for the conditions. "The LD-3's ability to tailor a system with just three controls is fantastic," says Colin Partridge, Sound Hire's system and EQ engineer for the Bath concert. "During the show we were able to walk each section and make adjustments easily without destroying the overall balance. It was most useful for brightening the long-throw sections of the arrays as humidity and temperature changed during the evening." Liénard says the seating arrangement at the Royal Crescent site leant itself to a hang of M3D line array loudspeaker cabinets for the main left/right arrays plus a smaller set of M3Ds in the center. "Spill from the sound system can color the sound," he says, "so the choice of the cardioid M3D system was obvious, especially for the center-focus system. The elimination of rear lobes from these speakers certainly contributed to the clean sound." Each side-array consisted of seven M3Ds with two M3D-Sub directional subwoofers at the top. "The 90-meter throw to the back bleachers was an easy job for the M3Ds," Liénard says. "And the flown subs worked really well, sending the low information all the way to the back of the audience." For extended bass response, the M3Ds were augmented on each side with two 650-P high-power subwoofers on the ground. The center pair of M3Ds was flown under the roof canopy, filling in the front-center area missed by the outer arrays and creating an on-stage sound focus for the front audience. The near field, meanwhile, was covered by eight MSL-2 full-range loudspeakers evenly distributed along the front of the stage. "The front fill MSL-2s pulled the image down to the performers," Liénard says, "with the M3D systems covering from there on out. The whole system was time-aligned to a point two meters back from the front of the stage." The Victoria Park system, meanwhile, was actually two stereo systems, one for each video screen. Each system used four MSL-10 loudspeakers and four 650-R2 subwoofers, powered by Crest 7120 and 5850 amplifiers with Meyer M10 and B2A control processors. Having properly designed the system with the aid of MAPP Online, the LD-3 enabled Sound Hire to realize the system's potential in its actual operating context. In fact, the unit was so effective in Bath, says Sound Hire front-of-house mixer Jerry Eade, that little additional EQ was used. "Without the LD-3 we would have put far more EQ on the system to try and reproduce the LD-3's subtle curves. I am sure this contributed to the smooth response we achieved." "The LD-3 made life very easy," Liénard agrees. "The inserted CP-10s were actually only used to give a bit of 'fairy dust' to the sound with a little extra high-boost on the long-throw section. We just dialed up the parameters on the LD-3 and had a listen, and it sounded good the first time." September, 2003 |
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