Meyer Demos Constellation System
At InfoComm 2010 in Las Vegas, Meyer Sound demonstrated the new Constellation, a full custom package of products and services to help optimize the acoustics of a venue for various types of sound and performances. Project director John Pellowe led the demonstration, accompanied by Sarah Underwood of Los Angeles on the saxophone and clarinet.
At InfoComm 2010 in Las Vegas, Meyer Sound demonstrated the new Constellation, a full custom package of products and services to help optimize the acoustics of a venue for various types of sound and performances. Project director John Pellowe led the demonstration, accompanied by Sarah Underwood of Los Angeles on the saxophone and clarinet.
Constellation comprises acoustic consulting services and control system with Meyer equipment to provide the most appropriate reverberation for a given performance within a venue. Meyer combines a patented algorithm, digital processing, and miniature transducer technology with acoustical research to provide the flexibility not normally attainable without movable walls or orchestra shells. By strategically placing several loudspeakers, subwoofers, and microphones throughout a venue–over the stage as well as throughout the audience–Constellation achieves small venue and large venue, voice and music environments, empty (for rehearsals) and occupied, providing multiple acoustic properties in one space as presets selectable for the most appropriate performance.
Pellowe, who previously came from the classical music industry, showed examples of how greater reverberation can benefit musicians, allowing them to hear each other better–but that it may hinder the intelligibility needs of applications, such as a PA system–by having Underwood perform while different systems settings were active. Sitting on the outer edge of the booth, with all sides open to the surrounding trade show floor, it was surprising to hear the notes of Underwood’s saxophone sound as if they were bouncing off nearby walls. When the system was turned off, the difference was clear, as the music sounded crisp and clear, and most definitely directly in front of us. Likewise, Pellowe had everyone clap at the end of the demonstration, while the system was turned on, and the sound filled the space as if it were a concert hall. But when he turned the system off in mid-applause, the clamor returned to its more modest source.
According to Pellowe, Constellation may provide cost savings to venue owners. As part of the system, Meyer works with architects and integrators from the ground up to design a system that controls resonance and reverberation in a space with less volume, which may lead to savings in construction and air-conditioning usage.
Meyer Sound was able to install a Constellation system in Zellerbach Hall at the nearby UC Berkeley campus for research. Other case studies around the world helped Meyer hone the system, including a Constellation system for the Star Wars touring orchestra, which inspired a portable version.
