NEW YORK — Back for its second year at New York's Madison Square Garden WaMu Theater, Wintuk brings its inimitable touch to a child's world, injecting stunning visuals and powerful music into a holiday-themed presentation. The complex technical demands of the Cirque du Soleil production are once again entrusted to Montreal-based Solotech, providing multimedia support that includes a Meyer Sound-based surround system created by award-winning sound designer Jonathan Deans.
Deans, one of the creators behind Cirque du Soleil productions including The Beatles LOVE, Zumanity, "O", KÀ and KOOZA, worked with longtime collaborator Leon Rothenberg to create an aural experience that would embrace the young audience without overpowering it. "We wanted an enveloping sound," says Deans, "but being mindful that it's a children's production, we didn't want it to be overly loud or aggressive."
The biggest obstacle to achieving that goal was the venue itself. The WaMu Theater is an expansive, single-level auditorium not well suited for less-than-conventional sound designs. "It's a 4,000-seat theatre, all on one level with a very low ceiling," Deans explains. "The ceiling height imposes considerable limitations on where we can fly the speakers, and how we focus them for consistent coverage across the exceptionally wide seating area."
Deans and Rothenberg selected the tight pattern control of M'elodie line array loudspeakers to deliver the precise coverage needed, with four hangs of five boxes, flown tight to the ceiling. "The arrays are very tightly packed, and flown as close to the ceiling as possible to keep them out of the line of sight," says Rothenberg.
The line arrays are complemented by a surround field of 38 single M1D line array loudspeakers. More M1D boxes cover frontfill, and a delay ring of 12 UPA-1P loudspeakers completes the system. The hall is divided into multiple zones, with Meyer Sound's Matrix3 audio show control creating an intricate web of surround sound.
"There are six zones in all," says Rothenberg. "Each zone has its own left-right pair of side and rear surround channels. The surround zones then share the main left and right channels."
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