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[Art Welter]

EAW’s adaptive array technology in the form of ANYA , ANNA and the AC6, and Martin’s MLA have allowed DSP controlled pattern variations in the vertical realm, while having a horizontal pattern determined by the cabinet design.

HOLOPLOT has taken beam-forming from one dimension to two, both horizontal and vertical, having gone from prototypes in early 2011 to production of the X1 Matrix Array, using M96 and/or M80-S modules.

https://holoplot.com/systems/

Each of the drivers (96 or 80) in the cabinets use individual amplification and DSP (8700+ filters computed in real time) to enable “3D Audio-Beamforming” and “Wave Field Synthesis”.
3D Audio-Beamforming allows for shaping and steering of beams in two dimensions to create sound fields to cover areas of any shape and size, with up to 12 independent beams per Audio Module, and 24 parametric EQ bands per beam.

Wave Field Synthesis enables sound localization with distance and directional cues for perception of audio objects in virtual soundscapes.

Any of you heard the X1 Matrix Array at InfoComm 2022, or at any of their other installations or demos?

Art

[Jim McKeveny]

A colleague did a multi-night stand at NY's Beacon Theater with the installation there. The steering did a fine job of keeping energy off the walls, but there was WAY too much LF kicked back onstage vs. the K2 rig he's been using (and in the same venue with).

Requiring a dedicated 20 [email protected] for each cabinet, and 9 2-ton hoists to lift rig, it ain't exactly green. (Custom Tait flying structure).

Processing is 48khz.

For traditional concert format the "3D" panning seems of limited usefulness...currently.

[Mike Caldwell]

Lots of DSP power going on for sure!!

The only steerable systems I have encountered has been a couple of the larger Tannoy and Intellavox column speakers. They did what they were said to do but the software interface was horrendous and needing to jump between two programs to build the steering files and then apply it to the speakers.
Granted that was a few years ago so maybe it's been updated at this point.
More so with the Intellavox system but any tweak to the steering noticeably changed the voicing.

Never been around any of the big boy EAW or Martin stuff.

[Art Welter]

A colleague did a multi-night stand at NY's Beacon Theater with the installation there. The steering did a fine job of keeping energy off the walls, but there was WAY too much LF kicked back onstage vs. the K2 rig he's been using (and in the same venue with).

Jim,
The Beacon installation appears to be two cabinets wide in relation to the stage.
The HOLOPLOT Matrix Array size vs beamwidth chart indicates a 2x2 at 150 degrees at 100 Hz, not much control down low.

Did the K2 rig use a cardioid sub configuration?

Art

[Jim McKeveny]

Jim,
The Beacon installation appears to be two cabinets wide in relation to the stage.
The HOLOPLOT Matrix Array size vs beamwidth chart indicates a 2x2 at 150 degrees at 100 Hz, not much control down low.

Did the K2 rig use a cardioid sub configuration?

Art

Yes indeed. Feedback from musicians and MON was that the Holoplot onstage was really old-school nasty, like S4/850 LF swamp.

[Matthias McCready]

I would echo Jim's statements about L'Acoustics being quite good with rear rejection. Their main boxes go quite low, and are fairly directional in that respect.

To the point on my L'Acoustics rig, if I didn't have subs I would be ok, bass and kick would come through the PA just fine.

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I did demo a larger Martin array against D&B and L'Acoustics in the same venue. While I gather the processing Martin has going on is incredible, it also had some interesting frequencies going on behind them on stage, stuff that would probably cause feedback. None of the other rigs had this problem. While Martin was in charge of their setup for the demo I can't say if they did a good job on deployment or not.

Cool stuff can be done with processing, but as with anything in audio what are the trade-offs??

[Helge A Bentsen]

Cool stuff can be done with processing, but as with anything in audio what are the trade-offs??

It depends. I used a small Martin WPC (6 boxes a side) rig a while back outdoors and was able to cancel out reflections from a building behind the audience area.
Audio quality was drastically improved for the audience and on stage, didn't notice any issues on-stage. There could be stuff going on that I didn't notice, but none of the bands complained.

Art has a good point. Physical size dictate your low frequency cut-off.
If I got the dimensions right from the respective manufacturers, a 2 box HOLOPLOT Matrix Array equals about 4.5 K2 in directivity if we look at array-length.

[Lee Buckalew]

I would echo Jim's statements about L'Acoustics being quite good with rear rejection. Their main boxes go quite low, and are fairly directional in that respect.

To the point on my L'Acoustics rig, if I didn't have subs I would be ok, bass and kick would come through the PA just fine.

----

I did demo a larger Martin array against D&B and L'Acoustics in the same venue. While I gather the processing Martin has going on is incredible, it also had some interesting frequencies going on behind them on stage, stuff that would probably cause feedback. None of the other rigs had this problem. While Martin was in charge of their setup for the demo I can't say if they did a good job on deployment or not.

Cool stuff can be done with processing, but as with anything in audio what are the trade-offs??

Just out of curiosity was this an MLA-x rig or was it a Wavefront Precision rig?

Lee

[Matthias McCready]

Just out of curiosity was this an MLA-x rig or was it a Wavefront Precision rig?

Lee

It was for WPC and WPL, both processed with 1:1 resolution. Both had this issue on stage behind the array, a super hot 2k spike.

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This being said I thought the Martin stuff sounded great for the price point; however the front coverage was much more inconsistent compared to the other brands at the demo.

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This demo was during Covid though, so I had the feeling that the product was pretty new to the guys Martin had deploying it, and they were not able to send someone who knew the product as well, so the "bad showing" might have been due to deployment problems.

I would enjoy hearing their arrays again, and for a price point that is in Nexo territory I would take Martin every time.

[Scott Helmke]

Heard these speakers at a demo a few years back, so take what I say with a grain of salt because "few years back".

The steering was really impressive, but there was something I didn't like about the HF and couldn't really describe.

[ProSoundWeb Community]