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Toronto's Four Seasons Centre Achieves Natural Sound with Discreet Meyer Sound System
In the few months since it opened with a lavish production of Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle, Canada’s new CDN$181 million Four Seasons Centre has vaulted to the front rank of the world’s fine arts performance venues. Inside the gleaming steel-and-glass complex, a stunning interweaving of space and structure by principal architect A.J. (Jack) Diamond, the focus of architectural acclaim is the 2,000-seat R. Fraser Elliott Hall. Home to the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada, this classically inspired auditorium features a horseshoe shape, tiered balconies, and acoustics finely tuned by Robert Essert of London’s Sound Space Design. The hall also offers clear sight lines from all seats, lustrous premium wood finishes, and advanced staging facilities designed by renowned theatre consultants Fischer Dachs Associates.
In addition to the beautiful architecture and construction, the Four Seasons Centre boasts the sonic virtues of more than 150 Meyer Sound loudspeakers, though their presence isn’t apparent: all are concealed from sight, either around the proscenium or embedded in the hall’s walls and ceilings. The system works hand-in-glove with the acoustical characteristics to provide flexible support for any type of production, though opera usually proves the most demanding.
“The hall has extraordinary natural acoustics, and that makes it more challenging to introduce reinforced sound into a performance,” comments Al Merson, head of sound at the Four Seasons Centre. “For opera, it is critical to carry all the subtleties, with sounds totally transparent and appearing to originate exactly where the director wishes. The Meyer Sound system accomplishes just that while keeping discreetly out of sight.”
The overall design brief for the system was a collaborative effort involving, among others, Centre technical director Julian Sleath and David Clark of Toronto-based consulting firm Engineering Harmonics. Also participating in foundational discussions was renowned sound designer Roger Gans, now working independently after spending many years resident at the San Francisco Opera.
“Richard Bradshaw, general director and conductor of the Canadian Opera Company, had worked with Roger in San Francisco,” notes Sleath, “and had asked for his advice early on. Roger has a great reputation in the opera world, and he was very helpful in setting the critical parameters for the project.”
The particulars of system design were then handed off to Clark, who also assumed project management responsibility for all of the center’s sound, video, and communications systems. In Elliott Hall, Clark’s task was to craft a flexible system that could create the illusion of sounds coming from anywhere on stage or in the auditorium, and then make them blend seamlessly with the live operatic sounds coming from the stage and orchestra pit. In addition, the system had to provide robust playback of orchestral music to accompany ballet performances.
The resultant design for the main system comprises a total of 10 self-powered Meyer Sound loudspeakers framing the top and sides of the proscenium. Overhead are a CQ-1 wide coverage main loudspeaker, a UPA-1P compact wide coverage loudspeaker, and two UPJ-1P compact VariO™ loudspeakers at the sides to cover the near loges. The “chimneys” to either side of the proscenium each contain a CQ-2 narrow coverage main loudspeaker, a UPA-1P cabinet, and a PSW-2 high-power flyable subwoofer.
The complementary fill systems, covering the front rows and those seats architecturally shadowed from the main system, employ a total of 58 MM-4 miniature wide-range loudspeakers along with four UPJ-1Ps and a pair of UPM-1P ultracompact wide coverage loudspeakers. A separate surround system uses 56 MM-4 units distributed around the hall, while a directional effects system, usually flown upstage, projects with force through matched pairs of PSW-2 subs and MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers.
Finally, for stage monitoring and flexible placement for special effects, the hall keeps a complement of five UPM-1P units, eight UPJ-1P cabinets, a UPA-1P, and four UM-1P narrow coverage stage monitors.
Despite the impressive count of 150-plus loudspeakers, the system is designed for flexibility and transparency, not for power, according to Sleath. “One of the main considerations was having the ability to introduce amplified sounds without the audience really knowing it,” Sleath contends. “That requires numerous speaker locations, and all of them are carefully disguised, so it is not evident that there is any sound equipment in the auditorium. To the listener, the sound seems to emerge naturally from the stage, not from big cabinets hanging from the proscenium arch.”
According to Merson, quality loudspeakers are a key component in making the effect transparent. “In opera, Roger Gans has mastered the art of getting everything to blend, especially offstage voices and choruses. It’s critical that this be done right, and it requires great equipment to do it. One thing that speaks well for Meyer Sound is that, when everything is on, this room still retains its N1 noise rating: dead quiet. You don’t hear anything. We have to satisfy the ears of people who listen to opera unamplified. They can pick a hiss out of nowhere, and just become incensed by it.”
To keep incoming sounds of a comparable quality, the designers specified a selection of premium microphones from Neumann, Sennheiser and Shure, while the mixing console is a Yamaha DM2000.
Other contributors to the success of the Four Seasons Centre audio system include Martin Van Dijk of Engineering Harmonics, who performed the initial room modeling, and Shawn Hines of Gerr Audio, who assisted Engineering Harmonics in the final Meyer Sound loudspeaker layout using the Meyer Sound MAPP Online Pro™ acoustical prediction program. All audio, video and communications systems were provided, installed and programmed by MacLean Media (Burlington, Ontario) under the direction of Darrell MacLean, Ron Hebbard and Chris Cross.
6th March 2007
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