Created by famed director Franco Dragone, The Han Show in Wuhan, China is
thrilling capacity audiences of 2,000 with water-based spectacles supported by a
massive and complex Meyer Sound system. Designed by Vikram Kirby of
California’s Thinkwell Group, the system comprises 359 self-powered loudspeakers
that are processed, distributed, and matrixed by the largest D-Mitri® digital audio
platform assembled to date, comprising 53 frames.
The system is inordinately complex because, in addition to requirements dictated by
a world-class entertainment spectacular, the loudspeaker configurations must adapt
to a dual-mode auditorium. During the performance, the upper seating area drops
down and the lower seating area splits and rotates to the sides to reveal a vast pool
for the water-based elements of the show. Because the entire seating layout
changes, the show requires two completely separate sound systems under one roof.
Used for surrounds and localized upstage sources, The Han Show’s nine CAL
loudspeakers are the largest deployment of CAL to date in an entertainment
application.
Comprising 16 different Meyer Sound loudspeaker models including MICA®, MINA™,
and M’elodie® line array loudspeakers, the massive system is configured as 29
separate subsystems to meet the show’s extraordinary requirements, with each
requiring its own dedicated signal matrixing and processing. Managing this
complexity is the D-Mitri digital audio platform controlled by CueConsole™ user
interfaces at two FOH positions and monitors, with the entire system networked
across a fiber optic ring. Layout of the network infrastructure was handled by
Colbert Davis, associate sound designer, working in collaboration with Extreme
Networks.
Loudspeaker drive and array optimization were supplied by a Galileo® Callisto™
loudspeaker management system with eight Galileo Callisto 616 array processors
and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with two Galileo 408 processors.
The Meyer Sound systems were provided by Shanghai Broad Future Electro
Technology Co., Ltd. and installed by Beijing-based AoTeWei.
Franco Dragone is also the producer of House of Dancing Water in Macau, Celine
Dion’s A New Day… in Las Vegas, and Paris Merveilles at the iconic Lido de Paris, all
three featuring Meyer Sound systems.
Boasting an exterior shaped like a red Chinese paper lantern, The Han Show
Theatre was designed by celebrated architect Mark Fisher of London-based Stufish
Entertainment Architects.
