Meyer Sound MICA Converts the Skeptics at Hard Rock Tulsa

When The Joint, a 2,700-seat showroom at Tulsa, Oklahoma's Hard Rock Hotel and Casino opened in 2010, it was equipped with a house audio system based around Meyer Sound's MICA line array loudspeakers. These arrays were judiciously hoisted on chain motors, as management wanted to offer the top-of-the-line touring acts that carry their own production the option of flying their own systems. In The Joint's first six months of operation, however, the Micas have never budged.

"Everybody has used the Micas," states Jason Jackson, entertainment and production manager at Hard Rock Tulsa. "The Doobie Brothers, Bad Company with Paul Rodgers, Vince Gill, Hall and Oates, Michael Bolton -- if they had their own production, they left it on the truck."

The all-Meyer Sound installation finds the lion's share of its power in dual arrays of eight Mica line array loudspeakers per side, bolstered in the lows by eight 700-HP subwoofers. Six M'elodie line array loudspeakers serve as front fills and nine M1D line array loudspeakers are set up as VIP booth delays. Wedges are comprised of 16 UM-1P stage monitors, with two UPQ-2P narrow coverage loudspeakers and two JM-1P arrayable loudspeakers, plus 600-HP subwoofers available as drum and side fills. Drive and EQ is provided by Galileo loudspeaker management systems, with two Galileo 616 processors for the house and one Galileo 408 for the stage.

Design and integration for audio systems at The Joint and most other AV systems at the Hard Rock was performed by Las Vegas-based R2W, Inc. The company's David Starck, principal designer for The Joint's audio, notes that the Meyer Sound solution was a good fit for the budget as well as touring artists. "We looked at alternatives from other manufacturers," he recalls. "And like a lot of people, the management at first thought it might be too expensive. It wasn't. We looked at the bottom line costs; they were all within a few thousand dollars of each other."

Starck also notes that Meyer Sound's MAPP Online Pro acoustical prediction program also helped tilt the final decision. "It was a powerful tool that we could use to show the client exactly what sound they could expect in the room, rather than just, 'Here's an equipment list.'"

Jackson recently discovered that a complete Meyer Sound package even makes converts out of some former skeptics. "Vince Gill wanted to pull our M'elodie front fills and use his own," he recounts. "His tour management was adamant on that when advancing the show. But after they rolled in and took a listen, they left those boxes on the truck, too. It was the first time in years they'd done that." The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tulsa is owned by the Cherokee Nation and operated under license from Hard Rock International. In addition to The Joint, the resort complex includes five restaurants, four nightclubs, more than 125,000 square feet of gaming, 350 luxury hotel rooms and suites, a golf course, and 35,000 square feet of convention space.