Alongside study lectures, the new sound system at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center’s 1,330-seat Jemison Concert Hall also hosts classical music and jazz, as well as pop, rock, gospel and reggae. Part of the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus, the system was designed and commissioned by Pro Sound & Video under the supervision of Brian Bolly, and is centred on a Meyer Sound Lyon linear loudspeaker system.

‘To meet artists’ riders and put on shows that consistently satisfy audiences, we couldn’t do better than the Lyon system,’ says ASC Technical Director, Adam Stermer. ‘And knowing that we wouldn’t be getting a new system for perhaps 15 years, we wanted one that was well-received and incorporated the very latest technology.’

Designed to maintain distortion-free levels of 110dB SPL at any seat, the set-up is anchored by two main arrays of seven Lyon-M main line array loudspeakers over two Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers. Two JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers provide centre fill, an arc of six UPJ-1XP VariO loudspeakers cover the rear choir loft, and five UP-4XP loudspeakers supply front fill. Two stacks of two 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements each flank the stage, and a Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with one Galileo Callisto 616 AES and two Galileo Callisto 616 array processors handles drive and optimisation.

‘We have every possible scenario here for amplified sound,’ Stermer says. ‘The need for intelligibility outweighs the horsepower with lecturers, but when we had The Wailers in here last week we had all the headroom we needed and then some. That said, the hall’s relatively live acoustics can be challenging, because if you don’t keep it clean, after a certain SPL level the sound just gets worse. We haven’t encountered that issue with Lyon.’

For Stermer, t Lyon is a huge improvement over the venue’s old system: ‘We’ve removed layers of troubleshooting by taking all the amplifiers and crossovers out of the equation with Lyon,’ he reports. ‘This also makes it much simpler to pull and re-fly the main arrays as needed.’

The ASC is the official home of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. In addition to The Wailers, the venue’s 2015 schedule features artists such as the Aaron Neville Duo, Steve Winwood, Diana Krall and Dr John, as well as lectures by renowned speakers such as the Dalai Lama and Anthony Bourdain.

More: www.meyersound.com