SWEDEN: Gothenburg’s Way Out West festival offered an immersive showcase for the recently expanded Leo Family systems from Meyer Sound. With the newest Leopard linear sound reinforcement system leading a family of Leo and Lyon systems, Meyer Sound covered all four festival stages, supporting headliners such as Beck, Patti Smith, Florence and the Machine, Belle & Sebastian, and Pet Shop Boys. Stockholm-based Starlight provided all sound, lighting, and staging systems.
“Leopard is a sound revolution at its extreme limit,” said Fredrik ”Matazz” Holmstedt, Production Manager for Way Out West. “So much power and headroom from such a small, lightweight box is simply astonishing. There was no doubt that Leopard was perfect for a small stage that had limited clearance, troublesome marquee reflections, and half the crowd outside the tent canopy.”
Håkan Axlid, Starlight’s Project Manager onsite, agreed: “We tried three different systems in past years, but I can’t see using anything other than Leopard for the Linné stage from now on. It sounded the same through the whole tent, and the crowd outside could hear properly for the first time. And at the main Flamingo stage, Leo gave us clarity and headroom, and also allowed us to remove the delay towers to make more space for the audience.”
The system for Linné comprised 24 Leopard line array loudspeakers, six flown 900-LFC low-frequency control elements, and 12 ground-stacked 700-HP subwoofers. The Flamingo stage system consisted of 15 Leo-M and two Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers per side, 32 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, and 20 MILO line array loudspeakers for out fills. The Azalea stage deployed 18 M3D line array loudspeakers, with M3D-Sub directional subwoofers and MICA line array loudspeakers as side fills. The Dungen stage featured 22 M’elodie line array loudspeakers with M3D-Sub subwoofers. For artist foldback, Starlight provided MJF-212A stage monitors and stage-fill systems of MICA and JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers and 700-HP and 600-HP subwoofers. All four stages relied on Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management systems for system drive and optimisation.
Way Out West has been held in Gothenburg’s Slottskogen park every August since 2007. This is the festival’s first year relying entirely on Meyer Sound loudspeaker systems.
Meyer Sound
Way Out West
Header photo credit: Ralph Larmann
