ProSoundWeb | John Meyer Transcript pg. 1

Transcript
PSW LIVE CHAT with John Meyer
January 7th, 2002

Moderated by Dave Dermont

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Moderator: Greetings, and welcome to our chat with John Meyer

John Meyer: Hello everyone.

Chris Kathman: Good evening!

Moderator: I have a question that seems like a very good place to start.

John Meyer: Ask away.

JR: Who were the first touring acts to use your PA system?

John Meyer: Frank Zappa was an early one. The Grateful Dead, of course, followed closely. Rush also was an early client.

JR: What years did your business see its greatest growth, and why?

John Meyer: In the first ten years, we doubled every year. Recently, with the introduction of our self-powered products, we've seen a new explosion of growth.

JR: What's the most important lesson you've learned in building your company?

John Meyer: That I should have worked for someone else :)

Seriously, I think that we've demonstrated that a quality product and unstinting commitment to innovation builds loyalty among customers.

We were always glad when the Dead arrived at our door to pick up new gear.

Robintosh: What is your opinion about digital processing in a speaker system?

John Meyer: That's an interesting question. Digital audio remains in its infancy as far as reinforcement is concerned. Our market is very demanding, needs very robust equipment, and compatibility is also an issue. Analog is very well proven, easy to interconnect and capable of very high quality. Until the advent of 24 bit/ 96 k systems, the audio quality and dynamic range weren't sufficient. That said, we continue to explore the prospects for DSP applications.

Brian Belcher: First, thank you for your contributions to the live audio industry. What would you say is the single largest advancement in loudspeaker technology since you have been involved?

John Meyer: I would say high-speed FFT analysis. This allows very high-resolution measurements to be made in seconds, rather than hours.

Matt Salerno: John, is Meyer Sound currently working on an updated version of SIM, and if so, will it be a "lower end" product more readily accesible to the "Smaart" crowd?

John Meyer: Hi, Matt. Yes, we are working on sim(R) iii now and we are aiming to make it more affordable. BTW, what's SMAART? :)

David B: What do you see as the most promising technology currently growing in sound reinforcement.

John Meyer: Another good question. For us, the ability to model using high resolution data acquired in our anechoic chamber has been very productive.

John Meyer: The ability to model a system in a room, which our MAPP Online(tm) program enables us to do, is very powerful. We are working toward making MAPP Online available to the wider pro audio community.

Tucci: Would you discuss the origin and concept of the Art/ Science line that 606 spoke of in SIM.

John Meyer: Are you referring to our motto, "Sound science for the art and science of sound?" If not, I'll need you to refresh my memory.

Chris Kathman: What is your answer to people who say that amp racks need to be on stage and re-patchable if one goes down?

John Meyer: Less than 1/2 of a percent of our amplifiers fail. Even if an amplifier in a conventional system fails, people generally don't repatch them during a show.

Moderator: Wouldn't things like beam steering & the like be affected more with the loss of a cabinet in an array?

John Meyer: Losing a cabinet in an array will obviously have some adverse effects, but one advantage of self-powered systems is that they're inherently more robust. We can more effectively protect the components because the amplifier and the components are tightly coupled. Except for the very high frequencies, losing a cabinet in a line array has surprisingly little effect. This is also true with beam steering, because there is overlapping at all but the highest frequencies. That's how steering works.

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