BANGALORE, INDIA – It’s been more than three decades since Aerosmith released their self-titled debut in 1973, and the “Bad Boys from Boston” continue to deliver exciting new material, most recently on a new blues album due out in this month. On their world tour, the band delivered a high-energy show in India for the first time ever, performing at the open-air grounds of the historic Bangalore Palace. To ensure every dB of power reached fans with ample clarity and presence, Bangalore-based Reynolds Sound and Lighting Services supplied a massive system based on Meyer Sound MILO-family high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.
Reynolds has supported countless large-scale shows at Bangalore Palace through the years. With more than 20,000 eager fans set to attend Aerosmith’s inaugural concert, Technical Director Mike Furtado knew he had a busy night ahead. “We needed a system that could deliver around 110 decibels across the grounds,” he says. “The band also required a whole lot of low end.”
To meet both requirements, Furtado and crew supplied a Meyer Sound system comprised of two front line arrays, each consisting of two MILO 60 narrow coverage high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers, 14 MILO high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers, and one MILO 120 expanded coverage high-power curvilinear array loudspeaker. Six CQ-2 full-range narrow coverage loudspeakers in between the front arrays handled frontfill and downfill, while nine 700-HP ultrahigh-power subwoofers per side, groundstacked in front of the stage, and flown center clusters of three M3D-Sub directional subwoofers per side helped boost low end SPL. Two delay towers near the rear of the grounds, each comprised of six MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers and two M3D-Sub cabinets, helped to maintain a uniform level throughout the tightly packed crowd.
Meyer Sound’s MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program gave Furtado an added advantage when designing the system and speaker placement, as no readjustment was needed after initial rigging. The SIM System II FFT analyzer aided in system alignment and tuning. Processing was provided by a Galileo loudspeaker management system using two Galileo 616 processors, which also helped Furtado solve tricky issues relating to speaker arrangements.
“We were forced to put the CQ-2s on a ramp running across the front of the arrays, which effectively meant that we had to place the subs well in front of the fills,” Furtado says. “This could have completely drowned out the fills; however, we were able to easily correct this with the Galileo’s alignment functions.”
From the beginning chords of the appropriate opener, “Taste of India,” to the post-show crowd who screamed for more than half an hour for a second encore, the concert was an undisputed success. Reynolds’s managing director Felix Remedios readily gives Meyer Sound a generous portion of credit. “We originally bought Meyer speakers because they had a great reputation, great sound, and, of course, because of the simplicity of self-powered setup,” he says. “The features Meyer offered were far more advanced than anything else on the market.”
For information, please visit www.meyersound.com.
