Providing intelligibility in the arena environment was a key requirement for Bill Daly of PRG Audio's design and engineering team. Working in consultation with Meyer Sound Tech Support, Daly plotted a mono system with front-hangs of 11 M2D line array loudspeakers each and 10 M2D loudspeakers at center. Filling the vast rear portion of the oval arena were three delay hangs of eight MICA line array loudspeakers each, augmented by two CQ-2 loudspeakers for spot coverage.
Seven MINAline array loudspeakers were spaced across the stage lip as front-fills, 16UPM-1P loudspeakers provided stage monitoring, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with dual Galileo 616 processors supplied drive and optimization.
"It was critical that everybody could hear everything His Holiness was saying," says Mark Bodine, production manager. "There were a lot of obstacles in this situation, but with the Meyer system it worked out very well."
For Bill Daly, audio manager, success depended on the performance of the Meyer Sound system; his hand-picked tech crew including Jacob Kile, Brian Murray, and Joe Fogarty; and the abilities of the FOH mixer for the event, John Coleman, who is also the audio supervisor for UCLA Live.
"I heard comments that this was the best spoken word event in the history of that arena," says Bill Daly. "All I can take credit for is selecting the right crew and the right equipment. Meyer Sound delivered as they always do."
The mixing console for the event was a Yamaha M7CL, and the headworn microphone for the principal speaker was a DPA d:fine cardioid headset.
The Dalai Lama's visit to Long Beach was sponsored and organized by the Gaden Shartse Thubten Dhargye Ling Centre for Buddhist Culture. His Holiness was introduced to the audience by actor Richard Gere.
(Jim Evans)
