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Hungary Tunes In to M1D
Halfway between Budapest and Vienna the Rába, Rábca and Danube rivers flow together. At this confluence is found the “town of rivers”, Győr, Hungary. The strategic importance of Győr as a gateway to Western Europe has been recognized since Roman times and is reflected in the fact that a fortress was built there as early as the 13th century.
Today, Győr’s palaces, cathedral and wrought iron decorations commemorate its history, while its place as a cultural center is demonstrated by the Győr International Cultural Summer Festival (which just completed its 38th season), the National Theatre of Győr, and the renowned Győr Ballet Company.
In this beautiful and historic location, the National Theatre and its new music festival provided the setting for Meyer Sound to demonstrate the M1D ultra-compact curvilinear array loudspeaker system to the burgeoning market in that country.
Chromatica Ltd., Meyer Sound’s Hungarian dealer, organized the highly successful event with the assistance of the loudspeaker maker’s European team. “This is the first time that any dealer or distributor has set up a complete loudspeaker system in a theatre in Hungary purely for demonstration purposes,” explains Chromatica’s Imre Makkay, “so it’s created a real buzz in the market here. We used a flown left/right line array system comprising eight M1D cabinets and three M1D-Sub (ultra-compact subwoofers) per side, plus one M1D-Sub and a UPJ-1P (compact VariO loudspeaker) on the ground per side as left/right frontfill. This gave us very even coverage across the venue.”
An LD-3 compensating line driver was used for signal processing and system drive, with a CP-10 complementary phase parametric equalizer on the main arrays. “We used (Meyer Sound) MAPP Online Pro (acoustical prediction software) for initial system design, and the SIM 3 audio analyzer was used to tune the system onsite with help from Meyer Sound’s Károly Molnár,” Makkay continues. “Attendance figures were very good. Around 35 guests from various Hungarian theatre and rental companies were present.
“Luke Jenks, Meyer Sound’s European technical support director, introduced the company and provided background information. Then Molnár, also from Meyer Sound’s technical support department and based in Budapest, gave a short explanation of line array theory, introduced the system that was being demonstrated and explained how it had been designed. An overview of the RMS™ remote monitoring system, as well as SIM 3, followed to show how the system’s frequency and phase responses looked at various positions in the room.”
Next on the agenda was an opportunity for the guests to audition a variety of music, from a capella and classical through pop and progressive metal, to demonstrate the system’s ability to reproduce the full range of styles and instrumentation. “The reaction from our guests was interesting,” Makkay notes. “They were surprised that such brilliant sound and power could be provided by such a small system. As this was the first time Hungary has had a serious demonstration, the audience was very interested and listened carefully. They also had a lot of questions about the speakers and the system design and tuning, as well as the technologies behind everything.
“There are already Meyer Sound systems in theatres in Hungary, and the people who use them love them, so the guests were very open to listening to another Meyer Sound system.”
Jenks was pleased with the demonstration’s success and Chromatica’s work. “As with the seminar we held in Budapest this past spring, I am very happy with the effort and organization shown by Chromatica,” he enthuses. “The event itself was first class, and I enjoyed listening to the music as much as the invitees. The combination of education and system demonstration showed impressive synergy and I look forward to future collaborations. The Hungarian market is growing quickly for Meyer Sound because of efforts such as this and our shared love of music and quality sound.”
Before the public demo, the National Theatre of Gyor used the system for a week for the Musical Festival of Gyor. Vilmos Opra, head of sound for the theatre, sums up his reaction by saying: "We couldn’t have imagined before this that sound can be so dramatically improved by using a properly designed and carefully set up Meyer Sound system, but this event has shown just what can be achieved."
The Musical Festival of Gyor is a new project of the National Theatre of Gyor. This year was the festival’s first and turned out far more successfully than the organizers expected. The National Theatre plans to hold the festival every two years and expand it to an international event. As Opra concludes, “(The festival) was a great success, and part of that had to do with the Meyer system we used, because everyone in the audience got the same outstanding experience, which was never the case with our old system.”
15th August 2005
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