For their recent North American tour playing theatres and open-air pavilions from Ontario, Canada to California, legendary rockers
Deep Purple with a symphony orchestra deployed a Meyer Sound MILO® line array loudspeaker system for the first time. Equipment support came from Livonia, Mich.-based
Thunder Audio.
"It's a very smooth system," says FOH Engineer Gert Sanner. "With Meyer, you get a very reliable result on a daily basis. I appreciate that; it's not something everybody has."
The touring system comprised 20 MILO and four MILO 120 line array loudspeakers, 14 700-HP subwoofers, four MICA® line array loudspeakers, and MJF-212A stage monitors. Meyer Sound's Galileo® loudspeaker management system and SIM® 3 audio analyzer were also used.
"The performance was spectacular," recalls Systems Engineer Erik Rogers. "It met my expectations every day." Rogers explains that the 700-HP subwoofers, configured in two stacks of three per side in a top-bottom cardioid pattern, with the top boxes facing forward and the bottom backward, provided outstanding coverage and pattern control. "The extra two subs were side fill when necessary, and occasionally center cluster. Flexibility was the name of the game."
For Sanner, setup efficiency on this tour was critical. "Especially when you have a large production and have to go into a small theatre, you want to spend as much time behind the desk working with the band as possible," says Sanner. "With SIM 3, you can rapidly collect PA system performance data, which makes setup a lot quicker. That is very much appreciated."
In addition to the Deep Purple tour, Thunder Audio has also supported a number of other artists using Meyer Sound systems, including The White Stripes, Robert Plant, Dolly Parton, Metallica, Slipknot, and Diana Ross.