Nature One Festival, Germany’s largest electronic dance music (EDM) event celebrated its 20th year this summer on the site of a former U.S. missile base near Kastellaun. To support DJs such as Danny Ávila, Markus Schulz, Paul van Dyk, ATB, Axwell, and Moguai, a four-point Meyer Sound LEO™ linear large-scale sound reinforcement system filled the dance floor with visceral impact combined with the definition of a music recording.
“The linearity of the LEO system is well suited to techno music,” says Sebastian Geissler, schokopro’s technical director for the festival’s main stage. “It has powerful and punchy bass, ample headroom, and tons of dynamic range with no system distortion. It’s so perfect you’d think you were hearing the original recording in a studio—complex, crisp, and fully present.”
Dubbed the Open Air Floor, the LEO-equipped stage was erected under trusswork arches laden with cutting-edge lighting effects. Located at the four anchor points were identical arrays of eight-each LEO-M line array loudspeakers, together creating an all-enveloping sound field. Thirty-eight precisely spaced and delayed 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements formed a horizontal line array that propelled energy evenly across the dance floor.
“LEO does not ‘scream’ at you, as can happen with other systems at higher volumes,” says FOH engineer Hendrik Fabri. “When combined with the 1100-LFC, the system is surprisingly linear, from the highest frequency range to the lowest bass, with no apparent over-emphasis or holes.”
Dirk Maron, systems tech, adds: “I’ve been working with LEO for about a year and a half, and basically what goes into the back of the array is what comes out the front, only much louder. You don’t get the coloration that happens when a high-frequency or low-frequency driver reaches its limits. This just does not happen with LEO.”
Completing the Meyer Sound system were six UPQ-1P loudspeakers for near fills, six UPA-1P loudspeakers for out fills, and a Galileo® Callisto™ loudspeaker management system with four Galileo Callisto 616 array processors and one Galileo 616 AES processor. DJs augmented their headphones with two JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers and two 600-HP subwoofers per side. All technology elements including sound, lighting, video, and kinetics were designed and coordinated by Wiesbaden-based schokopro, with additional audio equipment support from POOLgroup of Emsdetten, Germany and Bazelmans AVR of Veldhoven, the Netherlands.
Nature One was produced by i-Motion GmbH, an SFX Entertainment company. i-Motion also produces the Mayday EDM festival, which this year featured a Meyer Sound LYON™ linear sound reinforcement system on its main stage.
