A self-powered Meyer Sound MILO line array loudspeaker system recently accompanied the 15-city European arena tour of “Nitro Circus Live,” the extreme stunt show featuring daring stunt specialists on motorbikes, skateboards, and BMX bikes.
Over the roar of both frenzied fans and motorbikes, the Meyer Sound system from London-based Capital Sound delivered clear, powerful audio for the show’s announcements, interviews, and music playback.
According to Capital Sound, the MILO system offered ample power and crisp intelligibility, as well as the logistical advantages of self-powered technology.
“With the show being on the floor of the venue, the cable routings, power distribution, and any amplifiers that would normally be sited on the ground would get in the way,” says Paul Timmins, general manager of Capital Sound. “Also, with the tight schedule for rigging and de-rigging, speed was of the essence.
“To achieve all these aims, we deployed a customized MILO system with dedicated power distribution on top of each hang. This meant we could put any hang in any position in the building, all linked via an Optocore fiber optic digital network system.”
For most shows, the coverage requirement was for either 270 degrees or 360 degrees. The general setup featured six hangs of nine MILO loudspeakers over three MICA line array loudspeakers, with two arrays of nine MICA loudspeakers each for delay, eight UPA-1P loudspeakers for fill, and 16 700-HP subwoofers positioned under the lander ramps. A Galileo loudspeaker management system with three Galileo 616 processors supplied system drive and optimization.
“The MILOs did most of the work, with the MICAs hanging off the bottom and supported by a clever Meyer Sound transition frame,” says Timmins. “This worked exceptionally well, allowing us to configure the hangs depending on the room.”
As directed by George Gorga, head of sound for “Nitro Circus Live,” the main hangs were flown just off-center in each venue. With this positioning, and the arrays pre-cabled and on dollies, the Capital Sound team could rig the system clear of everything else that was going on, significantly decreasing setup time.
Inputs for the show principally came from ten Shure UHF-R handheld and headset microphones, plus a pair of Denon D-630 CD players, all mixed by Gorga on a Yamaha M7CL digital console. In addition to the main Meyer Sound system, console outputs also fed eight Sennheiser 2000 series IEM transmitters with 16 receivers, plus Sennheiser HD-25 headphones for local monitoring.
Hosted by and featuring daredevil entrepreneur Travis Pastrana, the “Nitro Circus Live” tour was spawned by the success of the “Nitro Circus” reality TV series which started in 2006.
