Radio City Music Hall upgrades with Meyer Sound LEO

New York City’s Radio City Music Hall has had a permanent Meyer Sound LEO Family reinforcement system installed to support performances by the Radio City Rockettes, including this summer’s New York Spectacular and the Christmas Spectacular during the upcoming holiday season.

The newly purchased Meyer Sound system, with main arrays of LYON loudspeakers concealed behind scrim in a false proscenium, is based on a nearly identical main system with LYON arrays that was crafted by SCK Sound Design and first deployed for the 2014 Christmas Spectacular.

“As the leading company in live entertainment, we are focused on delivering a theatrical experience at Radio City that is fresh, contemporary and unparalleled,” said Larry Sedwick, senior vice president of production for the Madison Square Garden Company, which operates the iconic venue. “It’s important to create a one-of-a-kind experience for our audiences no matter where they are seated in this 6,000-seat venue – the largest indoor theater in the world. Our latest sound system upgrades allow us to bring our productions to a whole new level and make our audiences feel even closer to the show.”

The main system used for the New York Spectacular, again with sound design by SCK, comprised left and right arrays of 16 each LYON line array loudspeakers, plus a centre downfill array of eight LEOPARD line array loudspeakers. Ample bass support was supplied by 30 900-LFC low frequency control elements, deployed as 18 in a cardioid pattern on the side proscenium, six in a centre cardioid and six on a rear truss. Eight additional 900-LFC elements were purchased for use with anticipated rock-style concerts.

The new system, supplied by PRG of New York with sale facilitated by Bob Rendon, also includes a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with three Galileo Callisto 616 processors and six Galileo 616 processors, along with a complete D-Mitri digital audio platform equipped with SpaceMap 3D panning and Wild Tracks multi-channel playback.

The Radio City Rockettes shows are mixed on a pair of DiGiCo SD7 digital consoles, with staff engineers Patrick Healey and Michael Jenkins handling the live orchestra, vocal, playback and supplementary sounds – including 80 channels of wireless dedicated to the special microphones built into the 80 Rockettes tap shoes.

A tradition in American entertainment, the Radio City Rockettes have been performing at Radio City Music Hall since 1933. Located in the Rockefeller Center with its art deco architecture, Radio City Music Hall was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

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