Las Vegas, NV (May 23, 2018)—There’s more to entertainment in Las Vegas than just the offerings of the Strip. The Smith Center for the Performing Arts—part of a new cultural district that also includes Symphony Park, Discovery Children’s Museum and the Keep Memory Alive Event Center—often presents productions by the Las Vegas Symphony, the Nevada Ballet Theatre and other regional fine arts ensembles in its Reynolds Hall. In order to ensure that the hall’s audio system could keep up with the demands of the various performances, the 2,050-seat hall recently updated its existing Meyer Sound Mica system with a new Leo-based installation.
Head of Audio, Smith Center: John Trace.
The new main system comprises left and right arrays of 19-each Leopard compact linear line array loudspeakers with deep bass augmented by three per side ground-stacked 900-LFC low frequency control elements, plus three 900-LFC elements in a flown cardioid center array.
Most fill and delay systems were carried over from the original Meyer Sound installation, with some modifications to conform to the new array coverage. Front infills are UPQ-1P loudspeakers, with nine UPM-1P loudspeakers for the full power front-fill configuration or 17 MM-4 for the pit rail in the Broadway configuration. UPJunior and UPJ-1P loudspeakers are mounted as house fills and delays, with four Galileo Galaxy network processors assigned to system drive and optimization. Two 700-HP subwoofers can be added for heavier rock acts, and an assortment of six different UltraSeries loudspeakers are available for deployment as needed.
The Smith Center was among the first venues to implement Meyer Sound’s new Low-Mid Beam Control (LMBC), a new software-based tool intended for spreading low-mid acoustic output to create uniform front-to-back response across the entire system bandwidth.
”LMBC is exactly what we needed for these very long arrays,” said Head of Audio John Trace, ”because all line arrays will have a characteristic midrange boost in the center. The difference is subtle if you are sitting in one place, but if you move from the front row to the back you notice that the midrange is more consistent throughout, from front to back and top to bottom. LMBC does exactly what I needed it to do.”
Since the installation of the new Leopard system, numerous acts including Jethro Tull, Yes, Postmodern Jukebox, Jackson Browne and the Celtic Woman Homecoming Tour have played the venue, and upcoming touring Broadway productions expecting to use it include The Color Purple and School of Rock.
Meyer Sound • www.meyersound.com