With two venues completing very different installations, Norway is the first European country to adopt Meyer Sound’s Leopard linear sound reinforcement system.
The 1,200-seat Grand Hall at Studentersamfundet (Student Society) in Trondheim uses Leopard to support community events such as theatrical performances and conferences, while the Leopard system at Oslo’s 650-capacity Vulkan Arena primarily serves rock shows.
‘When we first saw Leopard we were amazed by its size,’ says Torgeir Aadland, who serves as project consultant for audio renovations at the Studentersamfundet Grand Hall. ‘It was easily one of the smallest in its class, and we had some concern about it performing to our standards. But Leopard has provided excellent sound quality even at the highest levels, and gives us even horizontal coverage – it’s everything we were looking for in a new system.’
The circular Grand Hall is a central meeting place for the Student Society, an independent organisation of around 1,700 students, and is used to stage concerts, cabaret theatre, student conferences, and other community events. It now has twin arrays of six Leopard loudspeakers each, six 900-LFC elements, two UPQ-1P loudspeakers for front fill, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with a Galileo 616 processor.
‘After installation, the hall hosted the UKA festival featuring concerts, revues, and stand-up comedy, giving the system an intensive test across different genres,’ says Aadland. ‘The sound quality was definitely improved from past years for every event, giving the audience a much more satisfying experience.’
At the Vulkan Arena there are twin flown arrays of four Leopard linear array loudspeakers and two 900-LFC low-frequency control elements each, two UPJ-1P loudspeakers for front fill, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with one Galileo 408 processor for optimisation and signal distribution.
The system has already supported a number of heavy rock shows such as The Weeknd, Y&T, Acid Mothers Temple and Wire. ‘Leopard may look small, but it packs one helluva punch,’ says the venue’s Technical Manager, Bjørn Hinkel. ‘The comments I’ve gotten from band techs are pretty much the same every time. They see the PA and think it’s too small. Then at the end of the night, I get hugs and praises from all of them. It’s a genuine pleasure to have Leopard in my venue.’
Both systems were provided and installed by Oslo-based Bright Norway AS, with project supervision by Trond Kristoffersen and on-site assistance at Vulkan Arena from Bright’s Stian Smith and Fredrik Frostad.
