Staged in a vast open park in front of Bobriusk Arena, rock band B-2 returned to its home turf of Belarus for a 1-day free concert powered by a massive Meyer Sound reinforcement system anchored by Meyer Sound LEO Family loudspeakers and bolstered by additional Meyer Sound MILO and Meyer Sound MICA line arrays.
The selection of an all-Meyer Sound system was a collaborative decision on the part of the band members and the tech crew, most notably Sergey Bolshakov who for the past 19 years has been B-2s recording and concert sound producer, as well as their monitor engineer.
“It was a collective decision,” said Bolshakov. “Meyer Sound was chosen after we had used almost every sound system available on the Russian market. On recordings B-2 music is rich in details and nuances, and we’ve found that not all concert sound systems can reproduce the subtle details when at full power. But the Meyer Sound LEO Family does just that like no other. It can deliver all the information even in the largest venues.”
The venue for B-2 Fest turned out to be larger than expected. The original plan called for coverage of an area about 200 by 260 meters, but the crowd swelled to cover an expanded swath measuring 250 by 435 meters. The main system, augmented by 4 delay towers set back 60 meters, kept the crowd ecstatic no matter the distance.
The core Meyer Sound LEO Family system comprised LEO and LYON line array loudspeakers along with Meyer Sound 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements. Due to the massive scale of the concert, the Meyer Sound LEO Family components were supplemented by legacy loudspeakers, including Meyer Sound MILO and Meyer Sound MICA line arrays and Meyer Sound M3D-Sub subwoofers. For drive and optimization, the system utilized 1 Meyer Sound Galileo GALAXY 816 AES master processor and 8 Meyer Sound GALAXY 816 array processors.
“It’s great when a band like B-2 can gather such a large audience,” continued Bolshakov, “but at the same time, we must give all the people what they came for —
good music quality no matter how far they are from the stage. The LEO arrays are detailed and dynamic at very long distances, the LYONs have clarity and versatility, and the 1100-LFC has incredible phase accuracy in the low end. The result was sound without degradation at a great distance — what we needed to make everybody happy.”
Also appearing at B-2 Fest were 4 bands whose members had developed strong musical ties to the B-2 founding duo over the years: Sety from Russia, Solnechnaya Storona from Belorussia, Brainstorm from Lithuania and Midnight Faces from the USA.
Sound production for the event was a team effort, and Bolshakov gives full credit to Vladimir Zverev of Meyer Sound Russia for design and configuration, Yuri Novikov who mixed at FOH, and all the other techs who assisted in rigging and tuning.
Supplying a Meyer Sound system of this magnitude required the close cooperation of 3 leading Russian rental companies: Imlight, Sound Café and Blackout Studio.
