"Intelligibility is the main thing," says Tony Leong, production manager for APE. "With the Lyon rig, we can do spoken word, heavy metal, or comedy, and the sound hits you right in your face no matter where you are. Whether you're by the back bar or in the last row of the balcony, it sounds as clear and present as it does in the front row of the orchestra. It also sounds as good at a low volume at it does at high volume.
"With this system, FOH engineers don't need to do too much," continues Leong. "It's tuned to the room. The engineers don't have to push up and pull down all these frequencies on a graphic equalizer that much anymore, because Lyon sounds good right out of the box."
"For the last few months, people have been saying, 'Wow, this room sounds so good,''' reports Gregg Perloff, CEO of APE, who worked for the legendary impresario Bill Graham for years, and whose current company produces major shows and festivals around the Bay Area and beyond. Among others, Perloff has heard raves about the LYON system from Bonnie Raitt and her crew, as well as Van Morrison, an artist not easily pleased.
Leong recalls the reaction when rocker Billy Idol played the Fox not long ago: "His engineer looked over at our engineer and said, 'This thing rocks; this thing cranks. It's really impressive.'"
The Fox system comprises 14 flown Lyon linear line array loudspeakers and six groundstacked 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements per side. Three 700-HP subwoofers are flown above centre stage, and front-fill comprises four MSL-4 and three M'elodie line array loudspeakers. A Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system with one Galileo Callisto 616 AES and three Galileo Callisto 616 array processors provides system drive and alignment.
(Jim Evans)
