BERLIN — The opening celebration for the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof, a train station more than 900 feet long, included performances by German bands and a multimedia event entitled "Symphony of Lights – Welcome to Berlin." More than half a million spectators filed in to see the new station. To ensure that the crowd heard all of the music and announcements, a distributed system of more than 300 self-powered Meyer Sound loudspeakers was supplied by German rental company Procon, with additional systems coming from London-based Capital Sound. On the left and right of the stage were arrays of 15 MILO curvilinear array loudspeakers, to which were added 10 650-P high-power subwoofers set up in front of the stage for bass support and configured to produce a kidney-shaped coverage pattern.
The system also included 19 towers fitted with Meyer Sound loudspeakers. The 30-acre area itself was actually split into two sections separated by the Spree River, each with its own FOH station, which functioned autonomously, though linked together via optical waveguide delay lines and conventional copper wire. The digital audio source signals were sent to the FOH stations via Yamaha DM2000 mixing boards and rack-mounted processors, then routed to the various towers with appropriate delay times.
The last line of delay towers, which covered most of the southern area, consisted of five positions, each with six M3D line array loudspeakers and two CQ-1 wide coverage main loudspeakers for near-field coverage. System designer and technician Thomas Mundorf designated that three stations be installed on the other side of the river to cover the promenade on the edge of the southern area. Each station was equipped with three MSL-6 horn-loaded high-Q main loudspeakers and four DS-2P horn-loaded mid-bass loudspeakers, while four M3D-Sub directional subwoofers were placed on the lower river promenade.
Eleven towers placed across from the stage provided sound for the area north of the Spree River surrounding the square in front of the train station. The various towers held different combinations of MILO cabinets, 650-P subwoofers, UPA-1P compact wide coverage units, MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers and DS-4P horn-loaded mid-bass loudspeakers. All of the MILO arrays were controlled using LD-3 compensating line drivers and CP-10 complementary phase parametric equalizers.
Mundorf also used MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction software to help with determining the delay times needed for the individual towers.
The music coming through the audio system was provided by live musicians, but for the "Symphony of Lights," a digital audio workstation provided multi-channel audio. Stereo effects were played as the trains rolled into the station from opposite directions; a third channel played musical favorites from classical to pop, and a fourth channel played a heartbeat to underscore a series of images projected on a video screen.
For more information visit www.meyersound.com.
