Part of Switzerland's cultural landscape since 1824, City Casino Basel occupies two multipurpose spaces in addition to the Musiksaal, its principal concert hall. Musiksaal regularly hosts 1,500 people with performances from the world's leading orchestral ensembles, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony. Until recently, there was little call for sound reinforcement because the programming was dominated by unamplified music.
In the past few years, however, interest in jazz, blues, and stand-up comedy has grown, highlighting the inadequacies of the Musiksaal's long-serving loudspeakers. With many touring productions bringing in their own sound reinforcement equipment, the Musiksaal team decided that it needed a high-quality loudspeaker system. It would serve the dual purpose of satisfying customers and providing a new revenue stream for Casino-Association Basel, the non-profit organization that operates the City Casino Basel complex.
"Yes, we could have selected a cheaper system, but if we can't rent it out successfully then we don't really gain anything," says Casino-Gesellschaft Basel managing director Thomas Koeb. "With Meyer Sound, there is a remarkable level of international recognition. From our conversations at the start of this search, it became clear that engineers are very happy when they encounter a Meyer Sound PA."
Configured for optimum versatility, the Musiksaal's new system includes 20 MIna line array loudspeakers, two UPJ-1P VariO loudspeakers, two UPJunior VariO loudspeakers, two UPA-1P loudspeakers, six UPM-1P loudspeakers, two 700-HP subwoofers, 16 MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 616 processors.
Slovenian a cappella choir Perpetuum Jazzile and Turkish music star Ferhat Göçer are just two of the acts to have already benefited from the power and clarity of the new Meyer Sound system. "The response from our customers and clients has been very positive," Koeb says.
Installation was undertaken by Landau Electronic in collaboration with M&R Multimedia Productions GmbH, which will provide ongoing maintenance and support. A Yamaha LS9 series mixer and microphones from DPA, Shure, and Sennheiser were also part of the upgrade.
(Jim Evans)
