LONDON — Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart’s Phantom of the Opera, one of the West End’s most successful productions, celebrated 21 years at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London. The occasion was marked with the installation of a Meyer Sound system featuring the new UPQ-1P wide coverage loudspeaker.
Leading sound designer Mick Potter handled the audio system, provided by Blitz Audio who purchased the equipment through Meyer Sound dealer Autograph Sales. Using Meyer Sound’s Matrix3 audio show control, Potter created a sound design to immerse the audience in a range of unique and haunting ambiences. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with eight Galileo 616 processors provides multiple zones and system DSP.
“The Matrix3 affords a level of control that simply wouldn’t be achievable with more conventional components,” Potter observes. “For me as a sound designer, it gives me an entirely new palette to work with. And the Galileos are intrinsic to the system design as well. With this many outputs, it’s really the only way to organize it all.”
In addition to the UPQ-1P, the system includes a pair of CQ-2 loudspeakers, four UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers and 32 MM-4 miniature loudspeakers strategically placed throughout the theatre. Ample low end is provided by a combination of 700-HP and 600-HP subwoofers, along with eight UMS-1P subwoofers.
“Phantom covers a rather wide range of dynamics, from very soft speech to powerful orchestral passages,” says Potter. “The trick is to make it sound present and natural, without sounding loud. Meyer loudspeakers have the tight focus necessary to create the highly accurate coverage patterns we need. The subwoofers sound fantastic, even at low levels; where most subs just give you a bit of low rumbling, Meyer subs deliver an exceptional amount of detail from the orchestra.”
Potter points to MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program as instrumental in helping to design the system under tight deadlines. “MAPP gives a very accurate prediction of how the loudspeaker systems will interact with each other,” Potter says. “With our short window to work in, there’s no room for trial-and-error, and MAPP cuts out the guesswork.”
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