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Meyer Sound M1D and Matrix3 Installed in Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

Opened in 1998, Bellagio is located squarely on Las Vegas's famous Strip, and epitomizes the incredible scale and lavishness that has become the city's hallmark: more than 3,900 guest rooms; 18 restaurants; seven lounges; a shopping promenade with high-fashion stores from Chanel, Gucci, and others; more than 200,000 square feet of meeting space; two wedding chapels; the casino; a fine art gallery; the water ballet of the Fountains at Bellagio; and the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

With more than 10,000 blooming flowers and a wide variety of other plant life, plus fountains and themed displays, the conservatory is located in a large atrium with a glass ceiling. The conservatory installs new displays five times a year: spring, summer, fall, Christmas, and Chinese New Year. The displays feature plantings appropriate to the theme (including sculptures of people and animals made entirely out of flowers), along with scenic elements, active props, and other related items.

Music and sound design are key to creating the conservatory's atmosphere. For each display, sound designer Jason Rauhoff of Goes To Eleven assembles and masters a music program, as well as sound effects. Original sound designer Jonathan Deans specified that primary audio chores be handled by a ring of 12 Meyer Sound M1D ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeakers, driven by an LCS Series Matrix3 audio show control system. The self-powered nature of the M1D made for a clean installation by eliminating the need to run 12 loudspeaker cables to the rack room a couple of hundred feet away.

The M1D cabinets are mounted in the walls approximately 10 feet above head level and angled downwards to provide even coverage throughout the area. While the angle of the loudspeakers promotes smooth coverage, their orientation towards the center of the room and tight pattern control help contain the sound to the conservatory and minimize spill into adjacent areas.

The system is multichannel: each cabinet is driven from a separate Matrix3 output, enabling Rauhoff to create a full surround experience for guests. For example, in 2007's Chinese New Year display, Rauhoff sonically created the environment of an Asian garden. The ambience consists of numerous elements, but Rauhoff added life and variety with "spice elements" like programming a bird sound to fly around the room once or twice a minute. To keep the effect from feeling repetitive, Rauhoff used Matrix3's Space Map multichannel panning to create a complex trajectory for the bird, so that it seems to be flitting about, rather than flying a simple path over and over.

Rauhoff uses Matrix3's programmable routing capabilities to create different surround playback schemes. His "standard" configuration alternates channels going around the room in an L/R/L/R/L/R arrangement. With the push of a button, he can reassign the channels to split the room into left and right sides, or in a front/back pattern.

Matrix3 is a client-server system that uses TCP/IP, enabling Rauhoff to make adjustments from a laptop computer with a wireless connection as he walks around the space. As well as helping him tune the sound design within the conservatory, wireless control also enables him to visit adjoining areas, and, while listening, adjust the system to minimize the amount of sound bleeding into those areas. Since the program information is stored in the Matrix3 and not the laptop, the system can be as readily controlled from any other computer equipped with the system's CueStation control software, and is immune to laptop crashes. The Matrix3 system itself has run for two years without crashing.

The Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens represents an excellent example of an architectural approach to multichannel sound in themed entertainment, both in its installation aspects and in the dynamic use of program material.

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Meyer Sound M1D and Matrix3 Installed in Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Gardens

26th February 2007

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