Skopje, Macedonia’s annual jazz festival, attracts jazz luminaries from around the world to play for the loyal audience the festival has built during its 23-year history. The 2004 edition of the festival featured headliners from the U.S. (McCoy Tyner), Brazil (Rosalia de Sousa) and Nigeria (Femi Kuti & Positive Force), and also marked the event’s first use of a Meyer Sound MILO high-power curvilinear array system.
Supplied by the city’s own KLS Light and Sound, the new MILO system demonstrated a heightened commitment on the part of the company to offer the same sound quality as heard at Europe’s better-known jazz Meccas such as Montreux.
“We selected MILO because Meyer Sound systems are famous around the world for their sonic excellence,” comments Bosko Mangarovski, executive manager of KLS. “Meyer is accepted by all the artists who come here without reservation, and having the MILO system sets us apart as a prestigious provider in the region.”
Skopje’s new MILO system proved remarkably adept at covering the wide, horseshoe-shaped seating area inside the festival’s main venue, the 1,500-seat Universal Hall. With no suitable rigging points available, the arrays of four standard MILO cabinets and one MILO 120 extended coverage high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers were suspended inside scaffolds on either side of the stage. Two additional MILO 120 units were placed on the stage lip for frontfill, with sextet of 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofers adding extraordinary depth to bass notes. At the front end, an LD-3–compensating line driver tailored the signals for each zone.
“We were extremely pleased with the results in evaluating the MILO. The sound was well defined in every frequency range, as if MILO were an oversized hi-fi system,” says Mangarovski.
Following the jazz festival, the MILO/700-HP system was used for a large concert by Macedonia’s hottest band, ska-rockers Superhiks. Mangarovski reports the sound was louder but with no compromise in quality or definition, adding, “With three 700-HPs per side, we filled the hall with a lot of power. We also used those subs for a techno party, and those guys who were always complaining about not having enough punch in the stomach say they have it now.”
For more information, please go to www.meyersound.com.
