MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA —A new production of the musical Miss Saigon has opened in Australia, scaled back from its original large-scale format to accommodate a wider range of theatres. To deliver audio coverage with a smaller footprint than previous Miss Saigon productions, sound designer Peter Grubb, a director of System Sound Pty Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia, modified his previous design for the Korean production to a configuration incorporating eight self-powered M'elodie ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers.
“We started out in Australia at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne, which is a difficult room with very low balconies,” Grubb says. “I found that the M’elodies were perfect for spreading the sound evenly underneath, and also the extended range meant that I could use them for both orchestra and vocals. Moreover, I was impressed by how smooth the upper frequencies of the vocal spectrum sounded, and how little EQ was required.”
John Scandrett, system sound managing director, finds that M'elodie complements his company’s inventory of M1D ultracompact curvilinear array loudspeakers, 16 of which are deployed on Miss Saigon. “I love the M1Ds, but the M’elodies certainly have serious musical clout,” Scandrett says. “Their tight coverage pattern control gives us an excellent direct-to-reverberant ratio on the longer throw, so they can shoot the 25-plus meters to the rear of the house and carry the vocal sound all the way there. And M'elodie is a good size for us, as it eliminates sight line problems.”
The Australian Miss Saigon system is built around two M'elodie arrays consisting of four cabinets per side, which cover the orchestra stalls, and four arrays of four M1D cabinets that deliver vocal coverage to the theatre's center and balcony areas. The system also uses five UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeakers for vocal imaging, four 650-P high power subwoofers, and three MSL-4 horn-loaded long-throw loudspeakers for effects. Four UPA-1P compact wide coverage and 10 UPM-1P ultra-compact wide coverage loudspeakers supply fill, effects, and stage foldback.
To keep the system aligned and fine-tuned, Grubb relies on a Galileo loudspeaker management system and the SIM 3 audio analyzer. “I love the sound of Galileo’s TruShaping equalization and use it extensively,” he notes. “Also, the way Galileo interfaces with my SIM 3 is a dream. I used SIM analyzers on the systems in Korea, Melbourne, and Brisbane, and I’ll do the same when we move on to Sydney.”
Other key elements of the Miss Saigon audio system supplied by System Sound include a Cadac J-Type console and 27 Sennheiser wireless microphones.
After its Melbourne run, Miss Saigon moved on to the Lyric Theatre in Brisbane's Queensland Performing Arts Centre. It will continue to Sydney's Lyric Theatre in the Star City complex in September and will play until the end of January 2008.
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For information, please visit www.meyersound.com.
