AES Milan 2018
Friday, May 25, 11:15 — 12:15 (Arena 3 & 4)
Special Event: SE04 - Back to the Future, a Technology Project Review: Outdoor Sound Reinforcement of Symphony and Opera for Extremely Large Audiences
Presenter:David Scheirman, Bose Professional - Carlsbad, CA USA
Serving audiences up to 200,000 persons for outdoor operatic and symphonic programs, a fully-distributed portable sound reinforcement system was deployed in public parks throughout New York City including Central Park. Supporting onstage sound from a tensile-membrane acoustical shell designed in a 36m (118 ft) wide and 21m (68 ft) high pyramid-like structure for the US $3.385M outdoor music pavilion, 24 battery-powered, digitally-delayed portable loudspeaker towers received wireless transmissions from a centrally-located mixing position to cover asymmetrical audience areas. A 24m (78 ft) wide stage area was served with only seven microphones. From 1991-95, the author led a team to deploy and operate this futuristic outdoor sound reinforcement system, pioneering innovative and advanced technologies now taken for granted. System design attributes and operating principles are detailed.