McCauley MONARC MLA5 Line Array
No More Dead Spots or Distortion
By Claudia Kienzle

The popular adage, "If you want something done right, do it yourself," is a good way to describe how McCauley Sound has been able to build a better loudspeaker system.

What makes McCauley so competitive is its ability to design and engineer its own loudspeaker components from the ground up, rather than just relying on the same off-the-shelf components available to every manufacturer.

Scott Holden, Tom McCauley, Bruce Pierce

Because of its in-house design shop's innovative acoustical, structural, and control technologies, the new McCauley MONARC MLA5 line array saves time in its transport and set-up, while making the show sound measurably better. Designed with the rigors of modern touring in mind, the MONARC exceeds standards set by both predecessors and competitors-while enabling every seat in the house to get the same quality sound.

In-House Design Shop for R&D:

To produce advanced component design and sound quality, McCauley's design engineers say that they reduced diaphragm and suspension resonance; leveled impedances while consistently increasing overall output; developed cone geometries that are key to directivity control; and engineered new interspatial transducer relationships that optimize large format wave front summation.

As a result of three years of R&D at McCauley's in-house design shop, the MLA5 virtually eliminates mid-band harmonic distortion; expands the useable bandwidth and uniformity of sound over distance; and enables wide, even, and predictable horizontal coverage patterns.

Monarch MLA5 ground stacked

"It has always been a dream for FOH engineers to be able to play with a system's coverage patterns prior to sound check," says Tom McCauley, founder, president, and head of engineering for Seattle-based McCauley Sound, Inc. "The MONARC line array is the only system that can be splayed in eight vertical steps from 0 to 10 degrees between each cell by merely lowering it to the ground, changing a series of ball lock pins, and simply lifting it up again, all in a matter of minutes," he added. "This rigging design allows FOH engineers to physically fine tune the way the system covers the audience… something that is highly impractical with any other system." A Worldwide Market: Since the MONARC MLA5 was introduced in July 2001, McCauley has been deluged with orders and requests for product demonstrations from every corner of the globe, despite the strained capital spending environment.

"At demos that we've staged daily in various cities nationwide, we have not had one FOH engineer come to any other conclusion than 'this new line array is utterly amazing in all respects.' So far, I would say we are batting 1000," says McCauley. The only disappointment he reports comes from those who didn't wait to see what McCauley Sound offered, before buying a competing product.

"A MONARC demo will catch most engineers and production people off-guard. Most do not expect McCauley Sound to show up with a system so unique that it would literally redefine, that day, what they felt the capability of large-scale systems should be," says McCauley.

While efforts to market the MLA5 have been paying off-with Jo Dee Messina, Queensryche, and King Crimson among the artists now committed to using it on their tours-much of McCauley's resources are directed toward raising industry awareness of the MONARC array's unique capabilities through seminars and information on a special Website, www.linearray.com.

Always Thinking:

Tom McCauley's 20-plus years of driver design experience, coupled with senior engineer Scott Holden's live engineering experience, made them an excellent team to spearhead the design of a loudspeaker system that is highly useable, flexible, and practical in the field. Only 14-inches wide, it's a manageable size - easily portable, maneuverable, and adjustable without special tools, at the venues.

McCauley's Chuck Nottle

Holden describes the design of the MLA5 as a "form follows function" approach: "We wanted a rigging system that requires as little work as possible to implement-- with no loose clips, straps, or other external hardware needed-so that all components would stay and travel with the MLA5." "Our POWERLINK rigging meets all of these goals with a simple, effective design. The most striking feature is the 'wedge' in the front of each MLA5-part of the InterCell Summation Aperture-which allows for the high frequencies from multiple enclosures to couple much more effectively than if a large flat highly reflective surface extended out to the front of the enclosure," Holden adds.

"The POWERLINK rigging pivots the MLA5 from its front, not the rear. This is important in that the wave front emanating from the array integrates seamlessly into a solid, continuous form with no physical interference," he said. "Everyone who sees it comments on the ease of rigging and the ability to create a solid curved array that can be adjusted with ease."

Monarc MLA5 at the Puyallup State Fair

Through its implementation of the InterCell Summation Aperture, McCauley gained an additional octave of smooth coverage in the horizontal plane over previous designs, and created an exceptionally narrow vertical pattern while maintaining an almost textbook, "pie-shaped," 90-degree horizontal pattern. "As a live engineer, I knew whatever we came up with would have to be enjoyable to mix on as well as perform technically," says Holden. "The lack of comb filtering from multiple enclosures pointed about the room, and a high frequency response that sounds like the world's largest dome tweeter no matter where you are sitting, makes me really want to start touring again."

"The easy, reliable rigging is a godsend after having to haul around cases of span-sets, shackles, clips, and other parts that get lost. And trucks can now be loaded faster," says Holden. "That means I could have slept in later on show days, and spent more time eating breakfast in catering..."

http://www.mccauley.com/mainframe.htm

http://www.linearray.com/

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