Meyer Sound News : Cheltenham Stage Services Joins Meyer Sound's U.K. Network

Cheltenham Stage Services Joins Meyer Sound's U.K. Network

"The Meyer network is steadily growing in England, alongside the demand, but right now we're the only Meyer house in the west midlands, Wales and southwest. We're well placed for providing kit all over the place and I think the interplay and feeling of 'family' with the other Meyer houses is going to work out very well. So far, we couldn't be happier with the results."

- Stephen Roskilly
General Manager, Cheltenham Stage Services

Cheltenham Stage Services has joined the growing ranks of sound hire firms in the United Kingdom that are now providing Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeaker systems suitable for a wide range of concert, theatrical and corporate events. The company's initial investment in Meyer Sound loudspeakers includes purchase of eight MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers, four 650-P high power subwoofers and four UPA-1P compact wide-coverage loudspeakers.

"We were looking to move up a notch or two in what we offer," says Stephen Roskilly, general manager of Cheltenham Stage Services (CSS). "It's been a drawing card for getting work. We've only had use of the kit relatively recently and we've already won jobs – over some fairly substantial players – simply by being able to spec the Meyer system."

Roskilly expects the Meyer system will do yeoman's work at the many music and arts festivals that are proliferating throughout southwest England. "These festivals host concerts with audiences from a few hundred up to a couple thousand, with musical genres ranging from classical, folk and pop to world music and heavy rock," notes Roskilly, "and we are very confident the Meyer system will acquit our performance in style."

In terms of festival work, Roskilly also cites the advantages of self-powering, which allows "faster rigging and faster changes to system configurations."

In addition to sound hire, CSS also offers permanent installation services for sound and lighting, systems. Recently, the company provided rigging services for a large Meyer Sound M1D ultra-compact curvilinear array system installed at the 2,200-seat Centaur at Cheltenham Racecourse, the largest performance venue in the Cotswolds region of England. The installation recently won an award for Best Audio Installation. The Meyer Sound products in the Centaur were supplied by Marquee Audio of London, also the dealer of record for the CSS hire system.

In addition to the Meyer Sound products, the CSS rental inventory includes consoles by Allen & Heath and Soundcraft, equalizers from BSS and Klark-Teknik, Drawmer dynamics processing, Yamaha DSP processing, XTA distribution/delay systems, radio microphones from Sennheiser and Shure, and a wide selection of microphones from AKG, Shure, Sennheiser, E-V, Audio Technica and others.

Before purchasing their own Meyer Sound products, CSS tested the waters by sub-hiring systems from another member of the U.K. Meyer Sound network, B&H Sound in Peterborough. Stephen Roskilly expects his company will be returning the favor soon, as well as augmenting its own inventory through dry hires from the growing U.K. Meyer Sound user network as the need arises.

"The Meyer network is steadily growing in England, alongside the demand, but right now we're the only Meyer house in the west midlands, Wales and southwest," observes Roskilly. "We're well placed for providing kit all over the place and I think the interplay and feeling of 'family' with the other Meyer houses is going to work out very well. So far, we couldn't be happier with the results."

December, 2004