The Roskilde Festival 2018 marked the first year of a multi-faceted partnership with Meyer Sound.
Roskilde Festival and Meyer Sound led extensive training sessions over the months prior to the festival as part of a technical education initiative. The education program is one of the many initiatives of the partnership that appealed to Meyer Sound in collaborating with the festival that has stayed true to its non-profit roots. Any profits from the festival are distributed to charity every year.
Supervising the technical education side of the collaboration is Morten Büchert, consultant and project manager. Under the 5 year agreement forged late last year, all sound reinforcement systems at all Roskilde stages are Meyer Sound. The systems are supplied by the Bright Group, a leading European AVL rental and integration firm. The technical teams of Bright, Meyer Sound and the festival were fully integrated, collaborating on the sound design and deployment.
“This partnership with Meyer Sound is an opportunity to move into uncharted territory,” Büchert maintained. “I’m positive we will succeed with this, based on the quality of the staff and the quality of the products. The mindset that everybody brings to the table is one of openness and curiosity, and that will have a positive effect on the audience experience.”
“The sound systems for all the stages have been redesigned since last year,” added Lars Liliengren, Production Manager for the festival. “We looked at the entire site and calculated the coverages we needed to achieve our goal, which is to close the gap between the audience and the artists on the stage.”
Close to 1,000 Meyer Sound loudspeakers were deployed across the 8 festival stages as well as all other festival-related events and activities requiring sound. The largest system by far was at the Orange stage, anchored by Meyer Sound LEO and LYON main line arrays with added power from LEOPARD line arrays and deep bass from 1100-LFC and 900-LFC low-frequency control elements.
Systems for the Arena, Avalon and Apollo stages were built around Meyer Sound LYON main arrays, with LEOPARD arrays doing the heavy lifting at the Pavilion, Rising and Countdown stages. The low end of the new Meyer Sound VLFCs brought a visceral feel to the EDM experience at Apollo. LINA arrays, the newest and smallest of the LEO Family, held forth at the Gloria Stage.
For the Bright Group, Roskilde afforded a unique, collaborative opportunity to demonstrate how their Meyer Sound inventory and support teams could manage a massive, multi-stage festival. “I’m looking forward to many more years of this,” commented Bright Group CEO and President Patrick Svensk. “We have been partners with Meyer Sound for many years and we expect to strengthen that partnership through the festivals yet to come. Audio is key for a music-centered festival like this.”
Roskilde Festival Group CEO Signe Lopdrup says that the purpose of the collaboration is to: “enhance the experience for all participants here at Roskilde. I think this partnership goes beyond great sound. It is about creating community, and creating experiences at a new and higher level.”