[ATTACH=JSON]207851.vB5-nodeid=207851[/ATTACH]NEW YORK CITY – October 2017 — Universal Music Group (UMG) is regarded as the world’s leading record label. With annual revenue of over $1.5 billion, it is the largest of the “Big Three”—along with Sony Music and Warner Music Group—the consolidated core of the global music industry.
From the start of this millennium, that industry has been undergoing many changes, notably including the shift in revenue from records to live music. That’s graphically reflected in the new music performance space the label group opened in its Manhattan headquarters this year, where a sound system from L-Acoustics—the same brand that many of the label’s leading artists use on tour—is bringing the concert in house.
Designed and installed by RMT Production Services of Maywood, New Jersey, the system comprises a left-right line array system of four Kiva II loudspeakers per side, with one SB15m and two SB18i subs per side, while the stage holds four X12 wedge monitors. Four LA4X amplified controllers power the entire setup, one each for the Kiva II, the two subwoofer types and the monitors.
RMT Production Services Owner Randy Taber says the sea change in the music industry’s economics has placed a much greater emphasis on the quality of live sound. “The label needed a quality space and quality sound at its offices in order to have a showcase for new and existing talent to perform,” explains Taber, who had built a smaller performance space at UMG’s New York City offices two years ago. “They needed a place where they could listen to live music in the same kind of environment in which they listen to recorded music. They needed to bring the concert venue into their offices.”
The space also had to be able serve as a presentation venue and corporate meeting space when not in use for music performances. That meant it needed a sound system that could accommodate both high SPL for the music performances and also pristine clarity for speech intelligibility. “There are very, very few sound system brands that are universally accepted by top artists and engineers, and the number one of those is L-Acoustics,” says Taber, who also runs audio for the Hammerstein Ballroom, one of Manhattan’s most venerable music venues, where an L-Acoustics K2 line array is the house’s installed sound system. “I use L-Acoustics at the Hammerstein and I’ve flown their systems at Madison Square Garden. I know what they can do and I know that no one is ever disappointed by the sound.”
When it comes to touring riders, Taber says the K1 and K2 systems are always at the top of the lists for arenas and theaters. “For the UMG performance space, the Kiva II was the perfect solution because you can get lot of volume out of a small box, and the coverage patterns are very predictable, so we can tailor the sound to fit the space,” he says. “And despite the Kiva II’s compact footprint, its sonic signature is very consistent with the much larger K1 and K2 systems found in huge concert venues and on major festivals.
“L-Acoustics is a brand that everyone in the music industry is familiar with, including music business executives, so it made perfect sense that UMG’s own performance space should have the same sound that their biggest artists have.”
For more info on Universal Music Group, visit [url]www.universalmusic.com[/url]. RMT Production Services can likewise be found online at [url]www.rmtpro.com[/url].
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About L-Acoustics
Founded in 1984 near Paris, France, L-Acoustics is a leading manufacturer of turnkey solutions for the professional sound industry. Part of the L-Group, which counts 400 team members, L-Acoustics is present in over 80 countries either through subsidiaries or via a network of certified distributors or providers. Twenty percent of L-Acoustics’ team-members are dedicated to research and development.
Recognized throughout the industry for pioneering the modern line array, L-Acoustics offers a total system approach for both the touring and fixed installation markets, and a product line responding to the needs of venues from the most intimate club to the grandest arena. L-Acoustics sound systems can be heard in places like the Hollywood Bowl, the NFL Cardinals University of Phoenix Center, or the Philharmonie de Paris. L-Acoustics solutions have been used at five of the world’s ten top-grossing festivals*, the London, Sochi and Rio Olympics, and on the Adele 2016/2017 World Tour, among others.
