NEW YORK – A few blocks away, shivering New Years revelers were waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. Lou Mannarino from L&M Sound and Light, meanwhile, relied upon a K-array system to make sure he didn't drop the ball for another celebration; The New Year's Eve Concert at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall featuring the New York Philharmonic.
Mannarino's challenge was to provide transparent sound in a visually-discreet way. And there was just one chance to get it right.
Mannarino-a veteran in the live sound business with over 30 years experience-relied on Italian loudspeaker manufacturer K-array's speaker technology's combination of big sound and small footprint. To describe the resulting sound, some in attendance used adjectives like "breathtaking" and "incredible."
The New Year's Eve Concert featured the New York Philharmonic's new music director, Alan Gilbert, and special guest Thomas Hampson – one of the preeminent American baritones. From an audio perspective, there were two very distinct requirements: first, the sound had to be "no compromise" and sonically spectacular for the 2,700-capacity venue. Second, the footprint of the speakers had to be discreet and non-intrusive to the visual production.
Though Mannarino had never used K-array speakers in a live broadcast situation before, he had been testing the Redline KR200S in his studio and was convinced that it would be able to deliver the goods. He decided to go with K-array's Redline KR200s-an ultra-light 4,000-watt system, well-suited for concert halls, that puts out a continuous 127 dB of power.
The KR200S is a powered two way system designed for use with small to medium wavefront systems, in both mobile and install applications. Its ultra-slim satellite features a line array of two-inch high efficiency drive units with a neodymium magnet structure and suspensions-this ensures maximum linear excursion of sound with minimal noise. Since the K-array unit features a revolutionary design and is not housed in a traditional speaker cabinet, it delivers a truly natural sound.
"I tested the K-array KR200S in my studio and other environments for a few days and immediately realized how sonically forgiving and transparent it was," Mannarino said, who has been a live sound engineer for the New York Philharmonic for three years.
"When we finally had the system up and running in Avery Fisher Hall, it sounded extremely natural and balanced across the entire frequency range," Mannarino added. "We played passages of music on our normal PA, then switched to the K-array and heard flute passages and other instrumentation that simply wasn't audible before."
Mannarino ended up using KR200S on either side of the stage, each side featuring 32 two-inch speakers in array. A conventional PA set up, he says, would have needed at least eight boxes of line array to cover the same area. The overall result was an overall resounding success, as K-array delivered a gorgeous, natural sound throughout the entire hall.
He concluded that for the New Year's Eve application at Avery Fisher Hall, the sound quality was the ultimate deciding factor: "It is sonically better than anything else-after you realize how good these speakers sound, the small footprint is a bonus."
K-array loudspeakers are manufactured in Italy and distributed in the U.S. and Canada by Sennheiser.
For more information, please visit www.k-array.com and www.sennheiserusa.com .
