Jazz at Lincoln Center Chooses Meyer Sound for Rose Hall

With the newly renovated Frederick P. Rose Hall opening in mid-December, Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) now features Meyer Sound systems in every performance space at the prestigious complex, including a LEOPARD linear sound reinforcement system in the Rose Theater, a Constellation acoustic system in the Appel Room, and an ULTRA Series loudspeaker system in Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. Visitors can also experience Meyer Sound technology throughout JALC's stunningly redesigned public spaces, including the Mica & Ahmet Ertegun Atrium and the Ertegun Hall of Fame. The mission of JALC is to entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy. Sound is at the heart of the company's commitment to providing the highest quality artistic and audience experience.

"In jazz and almost every form of music, extraordinary concerts can only happen when musicians hear each other clearly, and audiences hear and feel exactly what is happening on stage... If you have a space that is even slightly problematic, do yourself a favor—install Constellation and perfect the experience for both musician and listener." - Wynton Marsalis Managing and Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center

Sound Associates of New York led the coordination of all Meyer Sound systems throughout the venue, working collaboratively on design with the JALC staff and Bob McCarthy, director of system optimization at Meyer Sound. The overall renovations of the JALC public spaces were designed by Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects in conjunction with Mrs. Ertegun.

The iconic Appel Room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Central Park and Columbus Circle, has the only Constellation acoustic system in a venue dedicated to jazz. "Now, the optimal listening environment can be tailor-made for each venue and each aural situation through the groundbreaking technology of Constellation," says Wynton Marsalis, managing and artistic director of JALC.

LEOPARD, one of the most successful products in Meyer Sound's 35-year history, was selected for the 1,233-capacity Rose Theater to provide controlled, even coverage throughout the irregularly shaped room while meeting the needs of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. "This is a big band with trumpets, trombones and saxophones, and that creates a considerable amount of unamplified acoustic energy coming off the stage," explains Doug Hosney, chief officer at Frederick P. Rose Hall. "What we needed to be able to do—as transparently as possible—was to lift instruments like bass and piano into that acoustic energy for balance, but not have it sound like those instruments were artificially amplified.

"The line arrays we had before were considerably larger and not particularly linear in response," continues Hosney. "You had to drive them pretty hard before they would open up, so we wanted to replace them with arrays that operated cleanly at lower levels as well. That's where LEOPARD stepped up to the table and just blew away the competition. It's a sweet-sounding speaker and delivers a full-frequency, well-rounded sound even at lower levels. It's exactly what we had been looking for."

In the 500-capacity Appel Room, Constellation optimizes the room's acoustics for both the audience and onstage artists, who rely on a virtual "shell" above the stage to enfold them in their performance. "Acoustics set the playing field for all performances," says Marsalis. "In jazz and almost every form of music, extraordinary concerts can only happen when musicians hear each other clearly, and audiences hear and feel exactly what is happening on stage. Many a gig has been marred by poor acoustics. If you have a space that is even slightly problematic, do yourself a favor—install Constellation and perfect the experience for both musician and listener."

Decades of research into exceptional listening spaces informed Constellation's combination of patented algorithms, advanced digital processing, and miniature transducer technology, replacing cumbersome mechanical methods for variable acoustics with the ability to rapidly customize a venue with the flip of a switch. Constellation systems are in use at venues throughout the world including SoundBox at the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall, Finland's Logomo Hall, Norway's Fosnavåg Konserthus, Russia's Svetlanov Hall, Mexico City's Teatro Telcel, the Alpensia Concert Hall in South Korea, and Estonia's Nordea Concert Hall.

Founded in 1979 by husband-and-wife team John and Helen Meyer, Meyer Sound manufactures products that are universally acclaimed as the gold standard in the professional audio industry and renowned for their accuracy and precision. The company holds more than 40 patents for a range of innovative technologies and products, and is acclaimed not only for its audio engineering, design, and manufacturing process but also for its dedication to acoustic research. Meyer Sound designs and manufactures its systems at its Berkeley, Calif. headquarters.

"From my earliest days as a sound engineer, I've felt strongly that our mission should be in service of the artists," says John Meyer, company president and CEO. "We are there to create environments where an artist can be sure that what they create onstage will be what audiences actually hear. It's particularly gratifying when our work is praised by legendary musicians such as John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas, or Wynton Marsalis because it means we've met our goal in supporting their extraordinary performances. We think 'sound' so artists can focus on making art."

The Rose Theater

The refurbished audio system is designed around dual arrays of 12-each LEOPARD loudspeakers and five 900-LFC low-frequency control elements in a cardioid cluster over the stage. Other Meyer Sound components include UPQ-1P, UPM-1P, UPJunior VariO, and UP-4XP loudspeakers, M3D-Sub directional subwoofers, and a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with Galileo Callisto 616 array processors.

The Appel Room

At the heart of Constellation is a D-Mitri digital audio platform with seven processors, two dedicated to the patented VRAS acoustical algorithm. This works in conjunction with 22 ambient sensing microphones and 87 MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers, six UP-4XP loudspeakers, and 16 MM-10XP subwoofers.

Constellation also works together with the room's Meyer Sound reinforcement system of 16 M'elodie line array loudspeakers, four 500-HP subwoofers, four UPJ-1P VariO and six UP-4XP loudspeakers for center and fills, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with Galileo 616 processors.

The Appel Room's balanced physical acoustics were designed by Sound of Jazz, a joint venture of Artec Consultants (now part of Arup) and the Walters-Storyk Design Group.

Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

Sound reinforcement for the 140-capacity club is supplied by five UPA-1P loudspeakers augmented by UPJ-1P and UPM-1P loudspeakers, UMS-1P subwoofers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with Galileo 616 processors.

Newly Rennovated Public Spaces

Audio reinforcement for casual gatherings in the Mica & Ahmet Ertegun Atrium is provided by six UPJ-1P loudspeakers, while the LED wall offers localized sound from UPJ-1P loudspeakers and 500-HP subwoofers. The nearby Ertegun Hall of Fame features four MM-4XP loudspeakers and two MM-10XP subwoofers.