TORONTO, CANADA — In the few months since it opened with Wagner's complete Ring Cycle, Toronto, Canada's new CDN$181 million Four Seasons Centre has added 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 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 overall design brief for the system was a collaborative effort involving, among others, Four Seasons technical director Julian Sleath and David Clark of Toronto-based consulting firm Engineering Harmonics. Also participating in foundational discussions was sound designer Roger Gans, now working independently after spending many years 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 sound, video and communications systems. In Elliott Hall, a theatre within the complex, Clark's task was to craft a flexible system that could create the illusion of sounds coming from anywhere onstage 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 playback of orchestral music to accompany ballet performances.
The resultant design for the main system uses 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 wide coverage loudspeaker and two UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers at the sides. The "chimneys" to either side of the proscenium each contain a CQ-2 loudspeaker, a UPA-1P cabinet and a PSW-2 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 loudspeakers along with four UPJ-1Ps and a pair of UPM-1P 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 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 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."
The designers specified microphones from Neumann, Sennheiser and Shure, while the mixing console is a Yamaha DM2000.
Other contributors to the 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.
For more information, visit www.meyersound.com.
