Dalai Lama uses Meyer Sound at Long Beach Arena
Published: WORSHIP
US: On the last day of his recent visit to California, the Dalai Lama spoke about ‘Peace of Mind in Troubled Times’ to an audience of more than 10,000 at the Long Beach Arena. To maintain precise intelligibility in the challenging arena acoustics, PRG Audio deployed a Meyer Sound system comprised largely of Mica and M2D line array loudspeakers.
Providing intelligibility in the arena environment was a key requirement for Bill Daly of PRG Audio’s design and engineering team. Working in consultation with Meyer Sound tech support, Mr Daly plotted a mono system with front hangs of 11 M2D line array loudspeakers each and 10 M2D loudspeakers at centre. Filling the rear portion of the oval arena were three delay hangs of eight Mica line array loudspeakers each, augmented by two CQ-2 loudspeakers for spot coverage. Seven Mina line array loudspeakers were spaced across the stage lip as front fills, 16 UPM-1P loudspeakers provided stage monitoring, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with dual Galileo 616 processors supplied drive and optimisation.
The mixing console for the event was a Yamaha M7CL, and the headworn microphone for the principal speaker was a DPA d:fine cardioid headset.
‘It was critical that everybody could hear everything His Holiness was saying,’ said Mark Bodine, production manager. ‘There were a lot of obstacles in this situation, but with the Meyer system it worked out very well.’
For Bill Daly, audio manager in absentia, success depended on the performance of the Meyer Sound system; his hand-picked tech crew including Jacob Kile, Brian Murray, and Joe Fogarty; and the abilities of the FOH mixer for the event, John Coleman, who is also the audio supervisor for UCLA Live.
‘I heard comments that this was the best spoken word event in the history of that arena,’ said Mr Daly. ‘All I can take credit for is selecting the right crew and the right equipment. Meyer Sound delivered as they always do.’
The Dalai Lama's visit to Long Beach was sponsored and organized by the Gaden Shartse Thubten Dhargye Ling Center for Buddhist Culture.