Meyer Sound News : Live at Leeds: Pavarotti and MILO Rock the Castle

Live at Leeds: Pavarotti and MILO Rock the Castle

"Ease of use is definitely one of the main advantages of MILO, along with the sheer quality of the high end."

- Richard Liénard, Sound Hire Managing Director

Nestling in the green, green County of Kent, the very Southeast corner of England, Leeds Castle is a fitting setting for the finest in musical performance. Typical of so many historic sites now used for outdoor concerts around the country, the castle has traded its place as a medieval stronghold and royal residence for a new lease on life attracting tourists and mounting breathtaking events throughout the summer. Step aside Henry VIII and the six English queens who lived here; make way for the world's greatest tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, returning to the UK last month with his long-time European audio supplier Sound Hire and a sound system of Meyer Sound MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.

Sound Hire Managing Director Richard Liénard was on hand as usual, lending support to John Pellowe, Pavarotti's sound engineer of some 20 years' standing. As one of Meyer Sound's very first customers in the UK, and a user of Meyer Sound loudspeakers exclusively, Sound Hire has extensive experience applying the manufacturer's technology to a wide range of challenges — carving out at least one new market in the process.

"When we started doing sound reinforcement for Pavarotti around 18 years ago, we were the only people providing this type of service for big classical productions," Liénard pointed out. "Promoters and punters alike were skeptical, so we've always striven to make the sound as unobtrusive as possible."

Over the past few years Sound Hire has supplied M3D line array systems for Pavarotti concerts, so this was the first opportunity that the company had had to add the MILO solution into the tenor's eclectic mix of opera and oratorio favorites. For the left and right main arrays, Sound Hire flew two M3D-Sub directional subwoofers above eight MILO cabinets, which easily covered the secluded grounds of the castle, with the auditorium formed by a gently sloping field stretching 110m up to the rear seats. Two UPA-2P compact narrow coverage loudspeakers were flown centerstage for immediate front fill, plus, along the front stage edge, another UPA in the center and a pair of UPA-2P cabinets aimed further outwards – all delayed back to a central point at Pavarotti's microphone. Typical of Sound Hire's subtle techniques for creating discreet, natural audio, the tightly focused coverage supplied by the UPA-2P units dovetailed neatly into the areas between the coverage of the arrays, creating an overall image with Pavarotti's voice placed firmly the center.

"Ease of use is definitely one of the main advantages of MILO," Liénard says, "along with the sheer quality of the high end. The box has the three compression drivers mounted on a ribbon emulaton manifold, which is then coupled to a horn, so you get a better HF line array effect at distance. We've used M3D successfully, and the larger size of the box wasn't a problem for us on our own shows, but there was definitely a demand for smaller, lighter elements. It only takes two people to lift a MILO, and the power-to-size ratio is good too. It's not that much less powerful than M3D, so it's perfectly suited to classical and operatic shows in very large spaces."

"It's compact, lightweight and sounds great," adds Pellowe. "What I particularly appreciate is that, for a small line array, it seems to deliver well (at distances) over 100 meters. And this efficiency is especially apparent in the high end. Since this generation of line array (became available), I don't think I've had to use delay towers anywhere. We did a show in Costa Rica using MILO recently, and it was 120 meters from the stage to the back of the tribunes. We did put delays up, but we didn't need them. With that kind of throw, you can cut rigging time and you can avoid the inevitable alignment difficulties of using delays."

LD-3 compensating line drivers and CP-10 complementary phase parametric equalisers were used to set and monitor EQ throughout the performance, supported by measurements taken around the site with a SIM audio analyzer system. But, according to Liénard, the combination of a stable atmosphere and highly accurate system pre-configuration using Meyer Sound MAPP Online acoustical prediction software ensured that the EQ curves rested as solidly as the rolling Kent landscape itself. The subtlety of the loudspeaker system was complemented by the consistency, versatility and off-axis pick-up of Sound Hire's brace of Schoeps microphones, the uncompromising choice for all Pavarotti concerts. Both "Luciano officially retires in October 2005," Pellowe revealed, "and we've got at least 25 more concerts between now and then. But my feeling is that, now that he has a new personal fitness trainer, there may be a few private concerts beyond that – but that's pure speculation! People come to the concerts not only to hear the great tenor's voice, but also to witness him, much as they did with Frank Sinatra and other great artists. They certainly went away happy from the Leeds Castle concert, and it seems clear to me that good sound reinforcement like this has gained acceptance with opera and classical music audiences."

October, 2004