Meyer Sound MILO Family And B.B. King Inaugurate BluesFest London

One standout performance paired two global icons—B.B. King and the Royal Albert Hall.

To deliver sound reinforcement befitting these monarchs, the London-based SSE Audio Group provided a MeyerSound system comprised of 32 MILO, 32 MICA, four MILO 120 and six M’elodie line array loudspeakers; four UPA-1P loudspeakers; six 700-HP subwoofers; and a Galileo® loudspeaker management system.

Subsequent Royal Albert Hall performances by Liza Minnelli and Janet Jackson, the latter as part of her “Number Ones” tour, benefited from the same Meyer Sound system.

Ange Jones, who mixed King’s Royal Albert Hall performance on an Avid VENUE Profile console, illustrates the considerable challenge of mixing in this storied venue.

“It’s a huge, huge structure,” Jones explains, “and it’s very circular. You have to cover the whole lot, in the round. It’s always been very difficult, not only to get the coverage but to get any kind of clarity in the sound. You’ve got numerous reflections, and onstage monitor levels can be a killer.”

According to Jones, the Meyer Sound system ably handled King’s large, electrified band—which featured guests including Ronnie Wood, Slash, and Mick Hucknall—in the sonically difficult setting. “Every time you put a Meyer box into a venue, you’ve got a guaranteed result,” he enthuses. “I’m a big fan.”

SSE Audio Group Director, Yan Stile, has a long history with Meyer Sound: Canegreen Ltd, which he co-founded almost 30 years ago and which merged with SSE Audio Group in 2008, purchased its first Meyer Sound equipment in 1985. “The system was comprised of four Meyer MSL-3 reinforcement loudspeakers, two 650-R2 concert series subwoofers, and M3 and B2 processors,” he recalls. The company has since expanded its Meyer Sound inventory to include MILO Family line array loudspeakers, as well as numerous UltraSeries™ and Concert Series models.

Jones, better known as the longtime front-of-house engineer for Paul Weller, recalls working with Canegreen’s Meyer Sound MSL-4 system at the Royal Albert Hall in year’s past: “The quality at that point was fantastic, compared to what else I’d used there. Ten or 12 years later with the first Meyer line array I used, it was the best thing I’d ever heard in there.”

For its part, SSE Audio Group is keeping its Meyer Sound equipment busy with events such as the Cambridge Folk Festival and Laughs in the Park, and tours by Brian May and Cyndi Lauper.