Meyer Sound Laboratories

Meyer Sound Laboratories
Professional Audio Manufacturer
Industry Professional Audio
Founded 1979
Headquarters Berkeley, CA, United States
Key people
 John & Helen Meyer, Founders
Products Loudspeakers, Digital Audio Systems, Audio Analysis Tools
Number of employees
 200+
Website www.meyersound.com

Meyer Sound Laboratories is an American company based in Berkeley, California that manufactures self-powered loudspeakers, multichannel audio show control systems, electroacoustic architecture, and audio analysis tools for the professional sound reinforcement, fixed installation, and sound recording industries.

The company’s emphasis on research and measurement has resulted in the issuance of dozens of patents, including for the now-standard trapezoidal loudspeaker cabinet shape.[1][2] Meyer Sound has pioneered other technologies that have become standard in the audio industry, including: processor-controlled loudspeaker systems, self-powered loudspeakers,[3][4] curvilinear arraying, cardioid subwoofers, and source independent measurement.

Meyer Sound has consistently involved itself with advanced research beyond that connected to immediate product development, sometimes in conjunction with arms of the University of California, Berkeley. Some of this research has resulted in unusual products such as their parabolic sound beam and sound field synthesis loudspeakers. Other projects, such as the spherical loudspeaker research underway by Meyer Sound and CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies) at UC Berkeley[5] are still in the stage of pure research.

History

In 1979, John and Helen Meyer established Meyer Sound to produce reliable high-fidelity products for sound reinforcement professionals. Meyer Sound’s first product was the ACD/John Meyer studio monitor, based on a design Meyer developed while heading the acoustics laboratory at the Institute for Advanced Musical Studies in Switzerland.[6]

A demonstration of the ACD system led to Meyer Sound creating a subwoofer for film director Francis Ford Coppola’s use with the custom, quadraphonic sound system that toured with the original 70 mm release of “Apocalypse Now.”[7] This was the first loudspeaker to use a dedicated processing unit to provide crossover, amplitude and phase correction, along with driver protection.

Also in 1979, the company developed the UM-1 UltraMonitor, which led to a long association with the band Grateful Dead.[8] As the band was very experimental, this relationship resulted in opportunities for John Meyer to try out new ideas for the then-emerging field of high-powered sound reinforcement in real-world applications.

The UltraMonitor was the first product to employ a new, patented horn loudspeaker design that reduced distortion by a factor of ten compared to previous designs. This patent was the first of more than three dozen issued to the company since its founding.

In 1980, at the behest of Broadway sound designer Abe Jacob, Meyer Sound repackaged the technology of the UltraMonitor into the UPA-1.[9] This loudspeaker had an immediate impact on theatrical sound, but was also notable for its introduction of the trapezoidal cabinet shape, which enabled the construction of curved arrays (flat-front arrays, in common use at the time, result in substantial destructive interference). A patent was issued for this innovation. The UPA-1 was an inaugural inductee into the TECnology Hall of Fame.[10]

Meyer Sound pioneered high-level loudspeaker arrays with the release of the huge MSL-10 in 1981,[11] followed by the MSL-3, a single cabinet (essentially a “slice” of an MSL-10) configurable into arrays of nearly any size.

Expanding on the appearance of real-time, dual FFT analyzers, Meyer Sound introduced source independent measurement (SIM) in 1984. SIM allowed sound system operators to use music itself as a test source for the first time, enabling continuous sound system correction over the course of a performance.[12][13] SIM System II, the second generation of this technology (and the first version practical for widespread field use), won an R&D 100 Award (awarded for the 100 best engineering feats in any field worldwide) in 1992,[14] in addition to the TEC award the original system received in 1986.

Meyer Sound broke new ground when it introduced the HD-1 studio monitor, a fully integrated self-powered loudspeaker, in 1989. The HD-1 won at the TEC Awards in 1990 in the Transducer Technology category.[15]

The release of the MSL-4 in 1994 marked the beginning of Meyer Sound’s production of self-powered loudspeaker systems for high-level sound reinforcement, and, over the following years, the company converted their entire loudspeaker product line into self-powered systems.[16]

Meyer Sound Laboratories has participated and been featured in several episodes of the Discovery Channel series “MythBusters” involving sound. As a result, Meyer Sound acoustician Roger Schwenke has become an "honorary" member of the MythBusters team.

The first MythBusters episode involving the company was “busting” the myth that a duck's quack will not echo. The second time was the infamous “Brown Note” episode, which explored the myth that a person subjected to high levels of very low-frequency sound could experience “involuntary intestinal motility." In the course of busting this myth, John Meyer became interested in the physical aspect of transmission of very low frequencies.

This, combined with Meyer Sound’s involvement with several revivals of the Sensurround motion picture system, directly influenced the design of the Pearson Theatre (named for sound reinforcement pioneer and longtime Meyer Sound associate Don Pearson) at Meyer Sound’s headquarters. The theatre was designed by Berkeley-based architects Marcy Wong and Donn Logan[17] and has received an Architecture Merit award from the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) in 2008[18] and a citation award from the San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2009.[19] The Pearson Theatre is notable for its exceptional low-frequency performance, cutting-edge video and audio technologies, multipurpose design, and experimental capabilities.[20]

Three other MythBusters episodes involving sound tested the myths that a glass could be shattered by sound alone (confirmed), that a candle flame could be extinguished by sound alone (confirmed),[21] and that an SKS rifle could be made to fire by subjecting it to massive quantities of very low frequencies from a subwoofer (busted).

In 2005, Meyer Sound acquired LCS Audio and launched its LCS Series of digital audio products. The first new development by Meyer Sound of LCS technology was Constellation electroacoustic architecture, launched in 2006. Constellation is based on the VRAS (Variable Room Acoustic System) technology first developed and patented by Dr. Mark Poletti of Industrial Research Limited.[22][23] D-Mitri, a next-generation engine for the LCS Series, was introduced in 2009.

In 2008, the USITT presented Meyer Sound founders John and Helen Meyer with the Harold Burris-Meyer Distinguished Career in Sound Design Award.[24] Also in that year, the John and Helen Meyer Scholarship was established in conjunction with the Escuela Superior Andaluza de Medios Audiovisuales (Superior School for AudioVisual Media) in Andalusia, Spain, and awarded to five students.[25][26]

Meyer Sound also began making loudspeakers for cinema applications in 2009.

Milestones and Awards

TEC award for Outstanding Technical Achievement, Sound Reinforcement Loudspeaker Technology given to UPQ JM-1P and UP-4XP Win WFX New Product Awards

Products

Meyer Sound designs and manufactures high-quality sound solutions that include self-powered sound reinforcement loudspeakers, digital audio systems, passive and active acoustic systems, cinema sound systems, and sound measurement tools for the professional audio industry.

Loudspeakers
Acoustic Systems
Processor and Drive Systems

These include Galileo Callisto, Meyer Sound's loudspeaker management system, as well as line drivers and equalizers

Audio Analysis Tools

These include MAPP XT, SIM 3, and Compass RMS

References

  1. ↑ http://www.meyersound.com/about/patents/
  2. ↑ United States Patent and Trademark Office - Meyer Sound patents
  3. ↑ "Necessity Mothers Invention" Maureen Droney, Mix magazine, Nov 2004
  4. ↑ Pioneering Self-Powered Loudspeakers for Over 11 Years
  5. ↑ UC Berkeley, Research. Spherical Loudspeaker Array
  6. ↑ Mel Lambert interview with John Meyer, Mix magazine, January 1997
  7. ↑ “Grateful Dead Gear,” Blair Jackson, Backbeat Books 2006, pp 205
  8. ↑ “Grateful Dead Gear,” ibid, pp. 12, 204, 218
  9. ↑ "Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc. and Theatrical Sound Design" Live Design, September 2007
  10. ↑ Mix Foundation, TECnology Hall of Fame 2004 inductees
  11. ↑ Mel Lambert interview, ibid.
  12. ↑ "Equalization Using Voice and Music as the Source" (AES 76th Convention Preprint 2150 I-8, 1984)
  13. ↑ "Precision Transfer Function Measurements Using Program Material as the Excitation Signal" (Proceedings of the AES 11th International Conference, Audio Test and Measurement, 1992)
  14. ↑ R&D 100 Archives, 1992
  15. ↑ Mix Foundation. 1990 TEC Awards
  16. ↑ Pioneering Self-Powered Loudspeakers, ibid.
  17. ↑ http://www.wonglogan.com/pearson/pearson_00.html
  18. ↑ USITT to Recognize Six Significant Theatres, USITT _News and Notices
  19. ↑ American Institute of Architects website 2009 Design Awards
  20. ↑ "The Buzz: Install of the Month: Pearson Theatre Berkeley, Calif", Sound & Video Contractor, May 2006
  21. ↑ Meyer Sound Helps Mythbusters Master Flame in April 11 Episode
  22. ↑ The Philosophy of the Variable Room Acoustics System - Mark Poletti, Industrial Research Ltd.
  23. ↑ “The Performance of Multichannel Sound Systems” – doctoral thesis, M. A. Poletti, University of Auckland, 1999
  24. ↑ Meyer Sound Co-Founders Receive Award, ProAV Online 28May2008
  25. ↑ http://esama.org/Beca.html
  26. ↑ Meyer Sound announces Scholarship in Spain, L&Si Online
  27. ↑ Meyer Sound - A History of Innovation
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