London, UK (January 13, 2017)—London-based Autograph Sound has been providing Meyer Sound Leo Family reinforcement systems for numerous West End musicals, including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock: The Musical. Based on the 2003 film of the same name, it features Lloyd Webber’s music with lyrics by Glenn Slater and a book by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey.
The sound design for School Of Rock was by Mick Potter, who tweaked the system template he created in 2015 for the still-running Broadway production, with both systems anchored by main left and right hangs, each comprising 10 Lyon-W wide coverage line array loudspeakers.
The production also leans heavily on 1100-LFC and 900-LFC low frequency control elements. “Both the 1100-LFC and the 900-LFC sound fantastic, with unbelievable detail,” Potter notes. “Also, the new 900-LFC provides a lot of flexibility in theatre applications due to its modularity.”
An unusual feature of both the Broadway and West End designs is a center horizontal array of small Mina line array loudspeakers, with an arc of 11 speakers suspended over the stage in London. “It was a necessity because of the scenic design but it works out very well, covering the whole auditorium horizontally and vertically,” says Potter.
The system incorporates an additional 44 loudspeakers and seven subwoofers, mostly drawn from the UltraSeries. Drive and optimization is provided by a Galileo loudspeaker management system with nine Galileo and two Galileo Callisto processors.
“I’ve been designing sound for major musicals for nearly twenty years and every design has been built around a Meyer Sound system,” said Potter. “For School of Rock, it was simply a matter of finding the right Meyer loudspeakers for the style of the show—in this case, a combination that could deliver rock concert levels yet with the detail and transparency of a theatre system.”
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