UltraSound Completes First PANTHER Club Install at Iconic San Francisco Venue
A San Francisco landmark, and arguably the most celebrated venue in rock history, The Fillmore promises to carry its iconic status into the future thanks to a complete audio upgrade anchored by a new Meyer Sound reinforcement system. Built around the flagship PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeaker, the new system was supplied and installed by UltraSound, LLC another company with deep roots in the rich history of San Francisco’s post-1960s music scene.
Operated by Live Nation since 2007, The Fillmore treasures its legendary past while remaining focused on presenting today’s established and emerging artists in an optimum environment supported by world-class technical facilities.
“Our prior Meyer Sound system maintained our reputation for more than fifteen years,” notes Matt Lawsky, on The Fillmore staff since 1999 and principal production manager since 2011. “But it was clearly time to move forward. We had first looked at a LEOPARD solution, but the timing worked out perfectly because, just when Live Nation gave us the green light, PANTHER had come out. UltraSound recommended it, and the cost was a wash because with PANTHER we need only seven boxes per side whereas LEOPARD would require 10 or more. So, we went with the very latest Meyer Sound technology.”
When The Fillmore reopened in 1994, after a five-year closure due to earthquake damage, UltraSound installed a Meyer Sound MSL-3 system in the room. UltraSound returned in subsequent years to install MICA line arrays with M3D Subs, culminating in this year’s PANTHER system.
“It has been an honor to have provided all The Fillmore audio systems for nearly three decades,” says UltraSound CEO Derek Featherstone. “And all have been from Meyer Sound.”
For Lawsky, maintaining the strong ties with Meyer Sound was a no-brainer. “Very few venues have the luxury of being in the neighborhood of a world-class audio manufacturer,” he notes. “In fact, I could stop by the Meyer Sound factory on my way home. It would be madness not to take advantage of that.”
With a capacity just shy of 1,200, The Fillmore is categorized as a club by default as shows are general admission for an open floor with limited seating. As such, The Fillmore now becomes the first club in the world to offer a PANTHER system.
Matt Lawsky, Production Manager, The Fillmore; Michael Bailey, Senior Vice President Booking, Live Nation; Amie Bailey-Knobler, General Manager, The Fillmore; Helen Meyer, Executive Vice President, Meyer Sound; John Meyer, President & CEO, Meyer Sound; Derek Featherstone, CEO, UltraSound, LLC
“PANTHER is amazingly versatile in any environment because of its lightweight and compact size,” says Derek Featherstone. “I hope young engineers will experience PANTHER in the club environment here and then, when their bands grow to major touring acts, choose to carry it with their production.”
In addition to the seven-each PANTHER arrays, the new system also includes two ULTRA‑X40 compact loudspeakers as front corner infills plus a third ULTRA-X40 for overhead center fill. Interim bass power is supplied by six 1100‑LFC low-frequency control elements, pending replacement by the newly introduced 2100‑LFC elements later this year. Artist foldback is courtesy of ten MJF‑210 high-power stage monitors.
Contributing to the system renewal alongside Featherstone was UltraSound Operations Manager Josh Osmond, with Jason Mills serving as the on-site manager.
Michael Bailey, Live Nation Senior Vice President, has been a fixture at The Fillmore since 1987, working first for the owners at the time, soon afterward for Bill Graham Productions, and eventually for Live Nation. “When the 2100s are in, we will have the ultimate club showcase for Meyer Sound PA technology,” says Bailey. “Bands, and engineers from other clubs, can come here, listen to the system, and be inspired to upgrade the sound at similar venues around the country — or the world.”
After nearly a quarter century at The Fillmore, Matt Lawsky is well aware of the unique nature of the venue, and how its legacy affects production. “This is a relatively small room with a very high-intensity usage,” he notes. “Off-the-shelf solutions don’t work here. We have bespoke demands, and I’m grateful for the way that Meyer Sound, UltraSound, and our crew from IATSE Local 16 have worked hard to tailor this solution to our needs.”
The Fillmore’s status as a rock mecca is inescapable, but Matt Lawsky is focused on delivering an amazing experience at every show. “This is not the ‘Fillmore Museum.’ This is here, this is now. We are a working rock’n’roll dive that just happens to be exceptionally famous.”
For Meyer Sound founders John and Helen Meyer, the latest upgrade to the venue continues a long tradition of supporting the arts in the Bay Area. “We came to shows here in the sixties, so this is special,” Helen Meyer recalled at the system’s inauguration ceremonies. “We want to thank everybody from The Fillmore, Live Nation, and UltraSound for making this happen. We are Bay Area natives, and this is the kind of thing we love to do. It’s in our DNA. We hope everybody will enjoy the result.”
Over its six-decade history as a rock venue, The Fillmore has hosted not only nearly every legendary act in that genre but also luminaries of blues, jazz, soul, and rap. Today, the venue continues this tradition with a calendar of bookings spanning not only rock music and all its sub-genres but also Latin, reggae, hip-hop, R&B, and pop.
ApexPro is the premier distributor of Meyer Sound solutions in Southern Africa, contact us for more information about Meyer Sound solutions in the region.
Music Matters Again Selected as Audio Provider for Cadence Bank Amphitheatre
A new reinforcement system, based around Meyer Sound PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeakers, has landed for a summer residence at the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre in North Atlanta’s Chastain Park. The summer concert series is promoted by Live Nation, and Music Matters Productions was again selected to be the audio supplier for the season.
“We supply the ‘stacks and racks’ of the system, while most touring acts bring their own front end and monitor packages,” notes Music Matters Senior Account Manager David Lowell. “All acts are required to use our house system, so our new PANTHER rig will be up for every show until the summer series ends in October.”
The 2023 summer shows kicked off on May 6 with the multi-talented Jill Scott, but no other Live Nation shows were scheduled until singer-songwriter Charlie Puth on May 28. In the interim, Music Matters’ new PANTHER system travelled to the University of Georgia at Athens for commencement ceremonies at Sanford Stadium on May 12. On May 20 and 21, the rig was deployed at the Ameris Bank Amphitheatre in Alpharetta for back-to-back concerts, first with Hank Williams, Jr. and the following evening with the Atlanta Symphony performing the works of John Williams.
One reason for selecting PANTHER line arrays for Atlanta’s Chastain Park venue, according to Lowell, is the touchy issue of noise control in a largely residential area. “It’s a delicate balance, getting enough level for rock and R&B acts while containing most of the sound inside the venue,” he says. “The precise pattern control was a big selling point for PANTHER. We’ve only done a few shows so far, but at this point, everybody is pleased with the results.”
Music Matters committed to an investment in PANTHER even though, at the decision point, the company principals had yet to hear a system. “We had a tight deadline to meet, having ordered the boxes in February and with a show the first week of May. But they arrived on May 1, we flew them on May 3, and everything went up and tuned perfectly. We were ready to go.”
As configured for the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre, the system comprises left and right main arrays of 8-each PANTHER loudspeakers with 2 LEOPARD compact linear line array loudspeakers per side. For centre coverage, they are using two short arrays of three each LEOPARD loudspeakers flown with 4 LEOPARD loudspeakers being used as front fill. Deep bass is augmented by four flown 1100‑LFC low-frequency control elements per side. The speaker system is driven and processed by two Meyer Sound Galileo GALAXY 816 processors via the AVB Milan protocol.
For the events at the larger Ameris Bank Amphitheatre and at Sanford Stadium, the system was expanded to 12 per side PANTHER arrays and, for the music shows, 12 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements.
Prior to the opening shows at Cadence Bank Amphitheatre, Meyer Sound tech support came on-site to assist in initial system tuning. “That’s one thing I love about Meyer,” says Lowell. “You don’t have to beg them. You know they will come in and be there for the first gig to make sure everything is right from the start.”
The new PANTHER system represents the fifth generation of Meyer Sound loudspeakers used to power concerts at the Chastain Park venue since the early 1980s, according to Lowell. Provided by Music Matters since 2018 and other regional Meyer Sound partners before then, the prior systems were based on MSL-3 and MSL-4 loudspeakers followed by MILO and LYON line array loudspeakers.
A cross-section of other concerts scheduled for the Cadence Bank Amphitheatre in 2023 includes The Indigo Girls, Barenaked Ladies, John Fogerty, Jason Mraz, The National, Sting, and Chicago.
First opened in 1944 as the North Fulton Park Amphitheater, the 6,900-capacity venue is owned by the City of Atlanta and has been known as Cadence Bank Amphitheatre since 2019.
Music Matters Productions, with offices in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, is a diversified supplier of event production services and technologies, including audio, video, lighting, and staging as well as creative conceptualization and permanent installations.
Raisbeck Auditorium Transformed into Multi-Purpose Venue
Cornish College of the Arts, situated only a few blocks from Amazon’s global headquarters near downtown Seattle, is surrounded by some of the nation’s highest-priced real estate. As one consequence, when the school first proposed expanding into a new performance and learning facility, maximizing the utilization of the space was a top priority. Fortunately, by implementing a Constellation acoustic system by Meyer Sound, the recently opened Raisbeck Auditorium can provide the optimum aural ambience for lectures, drama, film screenings, and dance recitals as well as concerts spanning all musical genres.
The new venue, seating about 160 for most uses, is housed in a new high-rise, mixed-use development known as The Ivy on Boren, sharing the ground floor with an art gallery.
“When we examined our curriculum about five years ago, one principle that emerged was shifting to a multi-disciplinary arts education,” says Pinky Estell, director of creative services and event spaces for the college. “It followed that this new space had to be multi-functional, and we knew from the outset that a primary challenge was the difference in acoustical requirements. We needed a movie theater, a black box theater, a lecture hall, and a concert hall. And with music, the acoustics ideal for jazz are very different than, for example, taiko drums.”
The brief for both audio-video system design and acoustical design for the auditorium was handed over to the consulting firm of Jaffe Holden, with Associate Principal Steven Schlaseman assigned to acoustical design and project management.
“Cornish has a very forward-looking music department, so they didn’t flinch when we proposed a system of active acoustics,” says Schlaseman. “And that was really our only option for changing the acoustics as the room dimensions were absolutely fixed. Although we could dampen sound reflections by adding physical absorption, there was no way we could expand the room volume to extend reverberation as would be optimum for many uses.”
In the early planning stages, a new Constellation system recently had been completed for Octave 9 at the Seattle Symphony. However, the room configuration and uses there were significantly different. Consequently, Estell and other key decision-makers flew down to Meyer Sound in Berkeley to hear demonstrations in the similar Pearson Theater.
“We were more than impressed,” recalls Estell. “What I heard with Constellation was remarkably cleaner than what I was expecting. It did not sound at all digitized, which was almost a shock in itself!”
The as-installed systems at the Raisbeck Auditorium comprise a total of 110 Meyer Sound loudspeakers, deployed in four sub-systems. The Constellation and Atmos-capable cinema surround system includes 70 small full-range loudspeakers (Ashby‑8C, HMS‑5, MM‑4XP) and 16 MM‑10XP subwoofers. 64 miniature condenser microphones are arrayed around the space for ambient acoustical sensing. The primary reinforcement system utilizes six UP‑4slim and three ULTRA‑X40 loudspeakers augmented by a center-flown cardioid array of three USW‑210P subwoofers. Three Acheron 80 cinema loudspeakers carry the screen channels with LFE assigned to a trio of X‑800C cinema subwoofers. Six MJF‑208 stage monitors are available for artist foldback.
All Meyer Sound systems, along with video projection and extensive audio recording facilities, were supplied and installed by Morgan Sound of Lynnwood, Washington. In addition to a DiGiCo SD-10 console, QLab show control, and Aviom personal monitoring, Morgan Sound also provided an ample selection of premium microphones from Neumann, Royer, Shure, and Sennheiser.
“This is easily the smallest theater with this much technology that I’ve ever been involved with,” remarks Morgan Sound Project Manager Steven Weeks. “And when we did the initial demo session for faculty and donors, everybody was impressed with what they heard. And not just Constellation. The stellar sound reinforcement system is flat and musical. And when we ran the cinema system with Atmos content, everybody was blown away by how good it sounds.”
Cornish College has been known as a cutting-edge arts institution for decades, notably during the years when iconoclastic composer John Cage was in residence. “We have a tradition of innovation, and we always urge our students to push forward,” says Pinky Estell. “It may take some time for students and faculty to become familiar with the technology in this room, but we expect they will use it to stretch the boundaries of creativity in acoustical environments.”
Classes hosted in the Raisbeck Auditorium include jazz performances and new trends in composition, with concerts to date ranging from punk rock to taiko drumming. In addition to student film showings, talks are underway to form partnerships with local film festivals.
“It’s been a delightful experience working with Meyer Sound and Morgan Sound,” summarizes Estell. “We look forward to pushing the limits of what Constellation can do over the coming years.”
Other key contributors to the Raisbeck Auditorium project include theater consultant Robert Smulling of PLA Designs and overall construction consultant Jen Creighton of Brightpath Consulting. The venue is named in recognition of philanthropists James and Sherry Raisbeck.
Founded in 1914 as a music school, Cornish College of the Arts now also offers programs in fine arts, dance, and drama. Notable alumni include choreographers Merce Cunningham and Robert Joffrey as well as Ann Wilson of the rock band Heart.
European Leg Concerts Debut Massive PANTHER Line Array System
Metallica, a creative powerhouse lauded as one of rock’s preeminent bands, continues to break new ground with the dynamic, in-the-round production for the global, two-year “M72 World Tour” that recently kicked off in Europe. Throughout the tour, the band’s sound is immersing the entire audience — at full bandwidth across a broad stereo landscape — through a Meyer Sound system comprising a record 288 PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeakers.
For decades Metallica concerts have been known for technical and artistic innovation, and once again the band and long-time creative director Dan Braun have moved beyond the old paradigms. Two concerts will be presented at every tour stop, with completely separate music sets for each show. The celebrated “snake pit” has been relocated inside a ring-shaped stage, requiring four drum kits for Lars Ulrich to rise up as needed. Also, the sonic field has been expanded to ensure a wide stereo spread of guitars and drums at every seat and standing point in the stadium.
“I’m always concerned about making all these new ideas work at scale, but we have great partners to rely on, not the least of which is Meyer Sound. So, I never let things like practicality and logistics inhibit the creative process.”
Dan Braun
Braun took his idea for the tour sound directly to company founders John and Helen Meyer, who captured his vision and assigned Director of System Optimization Bob McCarthy to design audio for the tour.
“I told Bob that my goal was to have full stereo sound at every point with no overlap, from the center pit to the nosebleed seats,” Braun continues. “We wanted everybody to hear the band as if with nearfield monitors, and I think we’ve come closer to that than ever before in a concert setting.”
Braun also credits the new PANTHER line array loudspeakers as a key component in realizing the ambitious concept. “The clarity of the system is breathtaking, and that combined with Bob McCarthy’s brilliant design is giving us a show that sounds spectacular.”
Crafting the Metallica sound from FOH is Greg Price, a veteran known for his long stints not only with hard rock legends Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne but also for pop acts including “The Glee Show on Tour,” Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, and Chicago.
“We’re only a few shows into the tour and so far I’m very impressed,” says Price. “And I would have to say that I don’t think there is any other PA manufacturer in the world that could take on what we are trying to do on this tour.”
As for the massive PANTHER arrays, Price describes them as “a PA system that acts like a reference monitor, like an Amie or a Bluehorn in the studio. I’m hearing things in my mixing that I always knew were there but lacked definition. Now they are right in my face, and I can work with them.”
The gargantuan “M72 World Tour” system is deployed in three concentric rings. The outer ring arrays are suspended from eight towers, with two PANTHER arrays on each tower: 16 cabinets per array on the four long-side towers and 13 cabinets on the four short-side towers. Each tower also carries dual hangs of six-each 1100‑LFC low-frequency control elements and one set of six VLFC very low-frequency control elements.
The inner system, suspended from a web over the stage, has eight hangs of seven-each PANTHER line array loudspeakers, providing stereo coverage out to 42 meters from center. The “doughnut hole” in the stage center is covered by eight inward-firing UPQ‑D2 narrow coverage loudspeakers, while the outer side of the ring employs 20 ULTRA‑X40 compact loudspeakers as front fill. Ground sub-bass is powered by eight sets of 2x 1100-LFC elements around the stage.
The entire system is connected, controlled, and monitored over three MILAN AVB networks. One network connects Milan directly to all 288 PANTHER loudspeakers via 10 Galileo GALAXY 408 and two Galileo GALAXY 816 Network Platforms using a fiber network incorporating 26 Luminex Gigacore switches. The other two networks are primary and secondary networks for signal distribution and monitoring of the remaining analog Meyer Sound loudspeakers as well as providing redundant analog inputs to the PANTHER loudspeakers. The three networks comprise 52 Luminex switches and 35 GALAXY Network Platforms. Meyer Sound’s new Nebra software platform manages all network configuration, connection, and real-time system monitoring.
As yet another innovation, the “M72 World Tour” employs Meyer Sound’s Spacemap Go spatial sound design and mixing tool to a limited extent, but with stunning effect. As an intro to “One,” the rumble and roar of a four-engine vintage bomber circles the stadium with convincing reality.
“We had some people outside wondering if there was a real plane flying around in the stadium,” says Greg Price. “But Metallica is a straight-ahead band and not into trickery. The focus with spatial audio for Metallica is to enhance show content, remaining true to the band’s performance.”
The “M72 World Tour” is supported by Clair Global, and Price gives a tip of the hat to the company’s extraordinary logistical resources and depth of expertise. “We salute Clair Global for their tremendous effort in building the M72 audio systems,” he says.
Metallica’s “M72 World Tour” launched on April 27 and is scheduled for two European legs and two North American legs, wrapping up on September 29 of 2024.
Goose Headlines an Eclectic Mix on the Main Outdoor Stage
For two days in early May, Daze Between New Orleans offered up a piquant musical jambalaya with headliners Goose joined on the main stage by Melt, Lawrence, David Shaw and George Porter Jr. and Runnin’ Pardners. The festivities were hosted on the expansive grounds of the historic Faubourg Brewery, with Upscale Productions providing a Meyer Sound PANTHER large-format linear line array loudspeaker system for spreading potent music throughout the gathering.
Goose closed the show on both evenings of the event, with the Connecticut-based improvisational rock masters deftly mixed by their Front of House Engineer and Production Manager Eric Loomis. “It was a great experience,” he reports. “I was able to mix at my preferred average loudness with more than enough headroom left over. Also, Goose is a very dynamic band, and with some other systems, the color of the mix can change. PANTHER was very consistent no matter what the band threw at it.”
Loomis first noticed the unique qualities of PANTHER in January when mixing sets at Mexico’s Playing In The Sand festival. “There is a transparency and clarity that enables me to focus more on the balance of the mix, rather than having to adjust the frequency response of the PA in the system processing.”
Upscale Productions had fortuitously engaged the services of notable systems engineer — also FOH engineer, senior instructor for Rational Acoustics and podcast host — Michael Lawrence to optimize the system.
“One of the design constraints for festivals in this format is that you have a lot of throw distance to cover but at a relatively low trim height,” says Lawrence. “That is a challenge for front-to-back consistency because you want to hang as long an array as possible. With PANTHER, we were able to hang 12 a side within our allotted weight, which gave us higher uniformity and better directivity than we would have been able to achieve with earlier generations of product.”
Lawrence also was pleased with the horizontal coverage. “One of the interesting things about this design was how the PANTHER horn behaves horizontally. You can get much further off-axis before it starts to roll off, giving coverage to the edge of the audience area without the need for outfills.”
Lawrence used the MAPP 3D System Design and Prediction Tool and the Product Integration feature in the GALAXY processors to create both the PANTHER main hang and the deep bass array, which consisted of a line of eight two-element cardioid stacks of 700-HP subwoofers, delaying the outer two stacks to match coverage with the PANTHER arrays.
“This configuration kept tonal consistency throughout and lessened the power alley effect,” he says. “Finally, I did the tuning and alignment with Smaart v9. I think I ended up with only two filters and a bit of shading to get where I wanted to go. Other than that, the only changes were in response to changes in environmental conditions throughout the festival.”
The results of his work were appreciated by all the FOH engineers working the stage, including Leo Pisaq, who mixed for the (coincidentally booked) band Lawrence.
“The sound was exceptional in terms of stereo imaging,” he says. “Also, the vocals and the transients — specifically on drums — came through like no other PA I’ve mixed on.”
Daze Between was the first major festival assignment for their PANTHER rig since acquired by Upscale Productions in late 2022, with prior booking for regional tours and a busy showroom concert schedule at the Coushatta Casino Resort in Kinder, LA, not far from Upscale Productions’ home base in Lake Charles.
Upscale placed its order for PANTHER having never heard the system, according to co-owner Chris Lambert. “Meyer Sound said it would be a game-changer and I took them at their word.”
Upscale already had both the LEOPARD and LINA line array systems in their inventory, and decided it was time to upgrade their aging MILO line array system. “When PANTHER was announced, I knew it was time to make the move,” continues Lambert. “With PANTHER, we would shave off 80 pounds a box, and since much of our work is on mobile stages with weight limits, we knew that would make a huge difference. And working outdoors, PANTHER feels right on top of you at a distance. You still get a focused response at 200 feet and beyond.”
Artists enjoying the new Upscale system have included Lee Brice, Third Eye Blind, Jefferson Starship, and the Commodores. It was the Lee Brice tour that first connected Michael Lawrence with the Upscale owners and crew.
“The Upscale team takes the job seriously, but we have a lot of fun together,” says Lawrence. “I was glad to be asked to come down for Daze Between. It’s a great collaboration. Chris and David [co-owner David Lapointe] set the tone for the entire operation. They want to do it right and make sure all the pieces are in place, but they also have trust in their crew and allow everybody the space to do a great job.”
Daze Between is an interim musical celebration held mid-week between the two consecutive weekends of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. In 2023 it was presented by Dayglo Presents, Live For Live Music, GMP Live, Purple Hat Productions, and Rose Tours. A portion of the proceeds benefited the Rex Foundation and will be distributed to charities in the New Orleans area.
Sound Designer Kai Harada Credited on Two Nominees for Best Musical
New York, New York – The Company | Paul Kolnik
The 76th annual Tony Awards celebration, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theater Wing, will be held on June 11 at the historic United Palace in the Washington Heights district of New York. Two productions nominated for Best Musical — New York, New York and Kimberly Akimbo — employ main reinforcement systems of Meyer Sound loudspeakers. Both systems are the work of noted sound designer Kai Harada, and his personal contribution to New York, New York is recognized by a nomination for Best Sound Design of a Musical, an award he garnered in 2018 for A Band’s Visit.
New York, New York – The Company | Paul Kolnik
Two productions receiving Best Sound Design of a Play nominations, Life of Pi and Prima Facie, also benefit from an audio system predominantly from Meyer Sound. The respective Sound Designer nominees are Carolyn Downing and Ben & Max Ringham.
The two Tony-nominated musicals with systems designed by Harada share similarities despite significant differences in both the venue sizes and the content of the productions. To craft the ideal balance of coverage, power, and bandwidth for each show, Harada was able to draw on a broad palette of 15 different Meyer Sound loudspeakers, both current and legacy models, with nine of those models specified for both productions.
Kimberly Akimbo: Victoria Clark, Justin Cooley, Michael Iskander, Olivia Hardy, Nina White, and Fernell Hogan | Joan Marcus
“Kimberly Akimbo is playing at the Booth Theater, a relatively small Broadway house seating around 800, while New York, New York is at the larger St. James, with a capacity of over 1700,” says Harada. “Kimberly is more of a chamber musical, with a smaller cast and smaller orchestra, but still the show’s score still requires a big dynamic range so there are a lot of loudspeakers in the space. I scaled up the same approach for New York, New York, which is a bigger and brassier dance-oriented show. Although the orchestra is in an uncovered pit — a rarity these days! — it was important to me to have a system that gave me a lot of dynamic range and complete coverage for all seating sections.”
When selecting loudspeakers for his designs, Harada places a high value on consistency. “When I spec Meyer Sound cabinets for my main PA, I know what to expect with the sound quality and coverage,” he says. “We had done Kimberly Akimbo off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theatre — also with a Meyer Sound system — so we knew what the show was, musically speaking, and had a sonic goal in mind. For New York, New York, we had done only one workshop of the show, so there were a lot more unknowns. In that case, I needed to know that the system I specified was going to sound good so that I could concentrate on all the other variables.”
Current Meyer Sound products used in both productions include the LINA® very compact linear line array, ULTRA-X40™ compact loudspeaker, and UPM-1P™ ultra-compact loudspeaker. Legacy loudspeakers used for both include M1D™ line arrays, UPQ-1P™, UPA-2P™, UPJ-1P™, UPJunior™, and MM-4™ loudspeakers as well as the 500-HP™ subwoofer.
Meyer Sound’s discreet LINA line arrays are major contributors to the sound for both productions. “The LINAs just sound good, and they are small,” summarizes Harada. “That makes it easy to collaborate with the visual designers to get good speaker locations because they don’t take up much space — but I still get a lot of granular control.”
His most recent favourite is the ULTRA-X40 compact loudspeaker. “It’s such a smooth-sounding box that requires so little EQ. I can’t imagine doing a show without ULTRA-X40s anymore!”
The system for Kimberly Akimbo encompasses a total of 77 full-range loudspeakers plus nine subwoofers. A total of 108 full-range loudspeakers and seven subwoofers are deployed for New York, New York. The complete audio systems for these two productions were supplied by Masque Sound of East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Other productions currently running in New York deploying Meyer Sound loudspeakers as their main systems include Tina, Monsoon Wedding, A Transparent Musical, Dancin,’ Once Upon a One More Time, and Gatsby. Major tours with Meyer Sound Systems include 1776 and Les Miserables. All of these systems were supplied by Sound Associates of Yonkers, New York.
