Dedicated to the Business of Contemporary Live Music
AVOIDING AUDIO reflections and keeping the system away from the acrobats’ flying infrastructure were the key challenges facing Britannia Row for Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia show at London’s Royal Albert Hall (RAH, cap. 5,300).
The show, set to live music, usually tours using Cirque’s big top and its system required extra fine-tuning for the RAH, according to Brit Row’s Lez Dwight.
“We were brought in mainly because the touring systems weren’t sufficient to cover the hall,” he says. “Cirque came to us as we were local and have decades of experience deploying speakers into the RAH.”
According to Brit Row technician Sergiy Zhytnikov, who helped design the system, “We minimised reflections while delivering enough power for the live band, and smooth coverage across the audience, while remaining as unobtrusive as possible. We also had to keep the sound system away from the performers’ stage, as the show has flying acrobats and metal wires to support their flown equipment.
“I combined three sub arrays into a single source and placed them in the centre above the [hall’s historic] cupola. This produced powerful and even sub coverage around the audience. L-Acoustics’ Soundvision simulation software facilitated an accurate sound prediction plot and system coverage.”
Zhytnikov tuned the system using L-Acoustics’ new M1 measurement software tool, integrated into the L-Acoustics P1 processor.
