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ABC’s ‘The View’ Upgrades to Meyer Sound

ABC’s The View, winner of 20 Daytime Emmy awards and now in its tenth season, recently received an audio upgrade from Yonkers, N.Y.-based Sound Associates. Sound designer Timothy Mazur specified a system for the show’s 199-seat Manhattan studio that features multiple zones using 26 Meyer Sound M1D ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeakers and 17 MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeakers.

Mazur’s experience in designing theatrical sound led him to create a system based on a number of very small, localized zones, using several M1D arrays of two and three cabinets each. “We effectively created 19 separate delay zones in order to have the highest degree of individualized zone control,” Mazur explains. “By getting smaller groups of speakers closer to the audience, we cut down on reflectivity and create very focused, intimate coverage zones. That’s exactly the reason we went with the M1D: it’s got a tight, laser-direct coverage pattern. That’s the object of the whole design — to throw sound where you want it and only where you want it.

“Intelligibility is key,” Mazur continues. “It’s very important that the jokes get out there, because the show really feeds off of the audience reaction. To that end, we took pains to avoid any buildup in the low-midrange frequencies that would start to color both the studio audience mics and the host mics.” Mazur and Sound Associates executive vice president Domonic Sack, with the assistance of Bob “the Builder” Hanlon, used Meyer Sound’s SIM 3 audio analyzer to intentionally overcompensate in the attenuation of the low-mid frequency range.

In addition to the main system, Mazur also recommended adding a pair of CQ-1 wide coverage main loudspeakers. “We’ve essentially got two separate systems,” he observes. “The CQ-1’s are really the music system. When a musical guest comes on the show, I wanted to give the visiting engineers something they could work with.”

The CQ-1 system is also an asset for the show’s warm-up host, who comes out with a handheld mic and, with the aid of dance music compilations, gets the crowd on their feet. “With the CQ-1’s, the warm-up is rocking and the audience is pumped.”

Mazur created and presented his system design with the aid of Meyer Sound’s MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program. “We used MAPP extensively in the planning stages to show the customer what the system would be capable of: where we would throw the sound, and more importantly, where we would not throw it,” he recounts. “MAPP is an incredibly valuable tool. It really makes it easier for us to give the customer a clear understanding of the system we’re proposing to them.”

The View is hosted by ABC News icon Barbara Walters, entertainer Rosie O’Donnell, comedian Joy Behar and former Survivor contestant Elisabeth Hasselbeck, and offers a wide-ranging menu of news, celebrity interviews and live entertainment.

For more information, visit www.meyersound.com, www.soundassociates.com and http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/index.html.

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