MONTREAL, QUEBEC — Canadian entertainment company Cirque du Soleil and Meyer Sound have enjoyed a fruitful relationship since the early 1990s for numerous productions including Corteo in 2005. Now, Cirque du Soleil has chosen the company as sound equipment supplier for the new show KOOZA, which debuted in April in Montreal.
The Meyer Sound loudspeaker system, provided by Montreal-based Solotech, is designed to include 12 M’elodie ultra-compact high-power curvilinear array loudspeakers and 14 M1D curvilinear array loudspeakers, with additional Meyer Sound components strategically located to add specific ambience and dimension to the mix.
The sound system also employs Meyer Sound’s LCS Series Matrix3 audio show control system, paired with both the CueMixer compact and CueConsole modular control surfaces, to create an innovative spatial aspect for every seat in the house. “Using the LCS Series products, we’re able to blend perspectives to create an experience that sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before in a tent,” says sound co-designer Leon Rothenberg, who collaborated equally with Jonathan Deans on the sound design for KOOZA. “No other system gives you the flexibility to make those kinds of choices. The LCS Series technology allows us to access every speaker directly, all of the time.”
The Grand Chapiteau, a purpose-built venue made of thick, highly reflective plastic-treated canvas, posed a particular challenge when mixing the audio, as did changes in humidity, temperature, and venue location. “What acoustics you do get from the tent are mainly extreme amounts of high end, while the low end goes right out,” Deans says.
“One of the great things about Meyer Sound speakers is that their specifications on paper are exactly the same as what we get in the theatre,” Rothenberg continues. “It allows us to get very exacting when aiming the sound.”
Written and directed by former Cirque du Soleil clown David Shiner, KOOZA is a return to Cirque du Soleil’s origins, combining two circus traditions: acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold, slapstick humor.
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For information, please visit info@meyersound.com or www.meyersound.com.
