For the Sonisphere Festivalin Amnéville, France this year, more than 70,000 hard-rock fans converged to see 20 bands, including top-billed Metallica andSlipknot, as well as Slayer,Megadeth, Anthrax, Dream Theater, Airbourne, and Mastodon. To support these thrash metal masters, a massive Meyer Sound system built around 48 MILO and 40 M3D line array loudspeakers was selected, along with a total of 60 700-HP and M3D-Sub subwoofers for chest-slamming bottom end.
The mightily potent system was provided by Waveform Audio of Toul, France, and was deployed adjacent to France's only indoor ski slope in Amnéville. According to Julien Poirot of Waveform, the Meyer Sound system was chosen in response to band preferences. "The Metallica and Slipknot riders had Meyer as their first choice," he notes. "As a PA technical support company, our top priority is to make sure the bands and the FOH engineers have the equipment they want, and to optimize the sound with design and tuning."
The MILO arrays were deployed as the main front systems, with 16 M3D line arrays on the front sides and the remaining 24 placed in three delay towers that easily punched through to the back of the crowd—more than 140 meters (or 459 feet) from the stage. The complement of 186 Meyer Sound loudspeakers also included 18 MICA and 12 M'elodie line array loudspeakers as fill speakers, as well as 20 MJF-212A stage monitors.
Waveform Audio engineer Laurent Delenclos designed the system using the MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program, and Paris-based rental company Dispatch supplied all Meyer Sound inventory as dry hire.
"The design was quite simple but still very efficient," Delenclos says. "In particular, with the M3D directional line arrays, we could throw very loud sound to the extreme back of the audience without bleed back to FOH mix."
Sonisphere will return to Amnéville on July 6, 2012.
Waveform Audio specializes in the design, specification, and optimization of sound systems for large-scale events. Waveform works directly with event promoters and producers to meet their specific requirements, hiring equipment as needed from a network of associated suppliers.
