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We had a multi-cultural music event recently featuring a violinist who wrote and arranged music for a jazz quintet with grand piano , an aboriginal drum circle , and a gospel choir . As I started to bring instruments up in the PA , I was very impressed and surprised with how much headroom there was . The sound in the hall was precise and as evenly distributed as it could be in this space . When I brought up the choir mics , I was even more surprised . With the previous system , I would have to ring out choir mics and even podium mics to get the needed gain , but because this Leopard system throws back so little to the stage , I can EQ for tone shaping instead of reacting to feedback rings . I am totally impressed by our new addition and am looking forward to upcoming shows with it .
-Ian Fraser , Head of Audio , Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
SPL they needed and just to have a really good amount of headroom , the Leopard is still very compact and came out as the optimal solution .”
Tour Tech had put a Leopard system into Sydney , NS ’ s Membertou Trade and Convention Centre a year prior , and Nelson says that company Founder and Director of Touring and Business Development , Peter Hendrickson , had spoken highly of his experiences with the Leo series .
The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium ’ s system is comprised of arrays of 10 Leopard cabinets per side with a single 900-LFC sub atop each so that , should the pair of 1100-LFCs on the deck need to be removed , the system can still provide good low-end reinforcement . The arrays are suspended from one-ton motors so they can be raised and lowered as necessary .
“ The main thing for us was we had to get the hangs as high as we physically could , because a lot of the shows and applications in there are affected by sightlines ,” Ryan reinforces about a key component of the design . “ Had we gone with a slightly larger box , we just wouldn ’ t have hit that trim height , but because the Leopard is so compact , we got everything up with 15 ft . of clearance between the stage and bottom cabinet , which is great because they were actually hoping for 12 .”
A complement of four Meyer UPM-1P ultra-compact , wide coverage cabinets provide front fill and a single UPJ -1P is tucked in by the two 1100-LFCs to push a bit more mid and high end out in front of the subs .
Ian Robertson , GerrAudio ’ s manager of technical services and industry training specialist , came up with the initial design of how many cabinets to propose and how they ’ d be configured , and then Ryan took over from there in terms of networking and connectivity .
Meyer ’ s Galileo Galaxy control and networking platform is integral to the overall design and performance , and based on Ryan ’ s insistence , there ’ s actually a second processor for full redundancy . The units are located stage right with the remote monitoring system ( RMS ) server and network switch .
“ One of the components that Ken insisted on for redundancy was that we offer both analog and AES , so they got a new AES out card for the [ Digico ] SD8 at FOH so they can go AES into the Galaxy and take advantage of
Meyer Sound Leopard main arrays with single LFC-900 sub cabinet on top
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Dalhousie Arts Centre Technical Director Colin Richardson & Head of Audio Ian Fraser
it , or if anyone else brings in a different console , they can go in analog if they want ,” says Nelson , referring to the digital console that Tour Tech had provided the venue as part of a previous sale .
Redundancy was central to Ryan ’ s design and striking the desired balance between an installed and tour-ready rig , as was the unique connectivity solution .
Ryan ’ s idea was to connect the entire system with five-pin connectors and cabling , with three pins dedicated to audio and the other two taking advantage of Meyer ’ s RMS capabilities . Typically , in a fixed installation , there ’ d be a signal cable and second RMS
28 • PROFESSIONAL SOUND