USA - Labour Day weekend saw the quiet mountain town of Telluride, Colorado transformed into the epicentre of global cinema for the 51st annual Telluride Film Festival. For the 24th year, Meyer Sound supported the festival as signature sponsor and cinema sound partner. Together, they brought state-of-the-art cinema sound technologies to the festival’s marquee cinemas, delivering the audio experience for filmmakers and audiences alike.
“It’s been a privilege to support the Telluride Film Festival for nearly a quarter century,” says Meyer Sound’s programme manager, cinema & residential, Jay Wyatt. “The festival’s bold, boundary-pushing spirit aligns perfectly with Meyer Sound’s commitment to innovation and superior sound, making it the ideal place to showcase our advanced cinema technologies.”
A key stop on the road to awards season, the festival builds Oscar buzz for big-budget releases and indie darlings alike. This year, more than 60 feature and short films were screened. Highlights included world premieres of the Edward Berger thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, and Stanley Tucci; Joshua Oppenheimer’s post-apocalyptic musical The End, with Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon; and Piece by Piece, which expresses the life story of artist/producer Pharrell Williams in LEGO bricks; all screened with Meyer Sound systems.
With the Nugget Theatre closed for renovations, Meyer Sound systems supported two of the festival’s premier temporary theatres, the 650-seat Werner Herzog Theatre and the 500-seat Galaxy Theatre.
“We are immensely proud of our decades-long partnership with Meyer Sound that elevates distinct festival theatres to exceptionally high levels of quality,” says Julie Huntsinger, director of the Telluride Film Festival. “These beloved venues are built essentially from scratch annually to world-class standards for a dynamic sound experience demanded by award-winning filmmakers, the studios and distributors who choose to premiere with us, and by our savvy audiences.”
The Herzog - constructed in a transformed hockey rink in Telluride’s Town Park Pavilion - has been supported by Meyer Sound since it debuted in 2013. The theatre features a 7.1 system anchored by LCR Acheron screen channel loudspeakers paired with Acheron LF low-frequency loudspeakers, plus 22 HMS‑12 cinema surround speakers and ten X-800C high-power cinema subwoofers, all driven by three Galileo 616 processors.
The Galaxy, a school gymnasium-turned world-class screening room, is supported by LCR Acheron screen channel loudspeakers over Acheron LF low-frequency loudspeakers, plus 16 HMS-12 cinema surround speakers, nine X-800C high-power cinema subwoofers, and two Galileo Galaxy 816 network platforms. The venue also features a small sound reinforcement system comprising two UPQ full-size loudspeakers and two 750-LFC low-frequency control elements.
It’s all about maintaining the high standards of the festival, and world-class sound is a critical part of that, Huntsinger explains. “The magic of the show could not exist without Meyer Sound’s advanced technologies, and whose cinema sound-design expertise is currently transforming the beloved year-round Nugget Theatre inside our future Telluride forever-home at the historic Nugget Building. The long-standing goal of the festival, held by the founders and myself to this day, is to provide impeccable presentation in the most unlikely of places. Meyer Sound is integral to this effort.”
