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Inside the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland that’s now equipped with a Meyer Sound acoustic system. (Photo Credit: Jeremy Jeziorski)

Meyer Sound Plays Key Role In Transforming Vintage Movie Palace Into Premier Concert Hall

Constellation acoustic system at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland helps the audience experience a richer, more balanced natural reverberance from the resident Oregon Symphony.

The recent installation of a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland helps the audience experience a richer, more balanced natural reverberance from the resident Oregon Symphony, with audio that’s distributed more evenly throughout the hall and the musicians able to hear each other clearly despite the disappearance ungainly physical stage shell.

With a current seating capacity of 2,776, the venue is one of a quintet of venues operated by the stylized Portland’5 Centers for the Arts. It was built in 1928 as a vaudeville house, transitioning to movies only two years later and finally went dark in 1982. After a $10 million renovation project, the venue reopened in 1984 as a multipurpose concert hall and as the new home of the Oregon Symphony.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Jeziorski

“Ours is the first vintage movie theater restoration to install Constellation, and that made it a bit of a learning curve,” says Portland’5 executive director Robyn Williams. “It’s a sophisticated system but it’s getting rave reviews. The audience experience is much better. Those who don’t even know Constellation is in here are saying the hall sound is very good now, and those who do know about it say it’s a game changer.”

The 1984 renovation did include significant changes to the architectural acoustics, including installation of a large stage shell, to make the baseline reverberation suitable for symphonic performances. But problems remained. Seats under the deep balcony experienced noticeable sound imbalance and attenuation, for example, and the large stage shell still fell short of distributing sound evenly throughout the hall. Also, the aging shell was difficult and time-consuming to move and store, and it was starting to raise safety concerns.

Williams and other decision makers had initially set aside an active acoustic approach, based in part on experience with an earlier generation system from a different manufacturer at a hall elsewhere in Oregon. But Williams changed her mind after experiencing Constellation at the San Francisco Symphony’s SoundBox venue.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Jeziorski

“I immediately realized this could be the solution we had been looking for,” says Williams. “The shell was at the end of its life, and we were reluctant to spend far into six figures for a solution that served only one arts organization. Constellation would not only improve acoustics for the symphony on stage and in the audience, but it would afford flexibility for the wide variety of other musical genres we host here.”

Williams, Oregon Symphony president and CEO Scott Showalter, and symphony musicians made trips to Berkeley to hear Constellation at Meyer Sound’s headquarters and UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. Following a consensus decision, the wheels were set in motion. Historic preservation specialists Architectural Resources Group worked with The Shalleck Collaborative theatrical consultants on overall planning and providing the framework for technical specifics from Meyer Sound’s own Constellation team.

“It’s transcending, a night and day difference,” remarks Showalter. “The musicians can hear each other better, and the sound is more visceral in the audience. Regardless of where you are sitting, you hear a true balance of all the instruments.”

As installed, the Constellation system comprises 86 ambient sound sensing microphones and 294 carefully positioned small loudspeakers, with various combinations assigned to four distinct acoustical zones on stage and in the hall. Acoustical enhancements are created using the patented VRAS algorithm, hosted in a D-Mitri digital audio platform. Installed by Sound Image, it’s the largest Constellation system in the United States in terms of total loudspeaker and microphone deployment.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Jeziorski

Meyer Sound project director for Constellation John Pellowe, formerly a classical recording engineer for Decca Records in London, supervised the exhaustive tuning process, using a variety of ensembles on stage as the musical source. The system’s debut came in early October with the Oregon Symphony’s first subscription concert under new music director David Danzmayr.

Aware that the venue serves a variety of clients other than the symphony, Williams also cites the expanded acoustical flexibility: “When they lowered the baseline reverberation for Constellation, it made the hall better for louder amplified music with Constellation off, while at intermediate settings the hall is better for jazz and light pop concerts.”

With dozens of other movie palaces across the country now repurposed as multi-use concert venues, Williams expects the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall may become a mecca. “Constellation is something that breathes new life into these grand old buildings,” she concludes. “It creates a new and flexible acoustic without large reflective panels or floating clouds, so it doesn’t impair the visual aesthetic. It is discreet and respectful of historic architecture.”

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