How Meyer Sound and Solotech revived Life Is Beautiful Festival

The Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival returned to Las Vegas last month (September 17–19), with a sound system supplied by Solotech in partnership with Meyer Sound.

With a record-breaking attendance of 170,000, the three-day event featured show-stopping performances by Billie Eilish, Megan Thee Stallion, A$AP Rocky, Green Day, and more than 100 additional acts.

Sound solutions for the festival were supplied by Solotech in partnership with Meyer Sound, which provided PA systems for the festival’s three main stages. The main Downtown Stage and Bacardí Stage featured Meyer Sound LEO and LYON linear line array loudspeakers, complemented by 900-LFC and 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, and the Huntridge Stage featured a mix of medium and wide-pattern LYON loudspeakers and 900-LFC low-frequency control elements.

Among the key challenges for the production team was the task of designing systems with fixed placement in the confines of an urban environment. Compounding the challenge of keeping sound within festival grounds, the team could not control delay tower placement. To overcome these difficulties, they turned to system modeling, with assistance from Meyer Sound’s MAPP 3D system design and prediction software.

“Weather conditions — not just wind, but atmospheric issues like humidity — play a large part in how the system sound carries,” said Mike Smeaton, Solotech’s US director of operations. “In MAPP 3D, you can look at the predictions that you want to do, then you can put it into your production, which is a real help.”

To manage low-end patterns, Smeaton explained that Solotech and Meyer Sound worked together to design both gradient and end-fire subwoofer arrays.

“There was a combination of gradient flown subs on the main stage, plus we've done gradient stacks as well with 1100-LFCs. Outside of that, we have VLFC™ very low frequency control elements in two blocks on each side. We flew some subs in gradient, six VLFCs behind each array. I think that really helped with the coverage and helped control the pattern. The VLFC is very musical; they are really great subwoofers.”

Allen Scott, festival co-producer and president, concerts and festivals for Another Planet Entertainment, commented: “There's nothing that can replicate the experience of being at a festival or a concert,” he says. “It gets me a little misty-eyed just to think about putting an event of this size after what we've been through as a nation and as the world.

“It has been 18 months or longer since we put on an event like this and people are a little rusty; throw in all the preparation that needs to go in for COVID and it's been pretty monumental this year, but everyone's been doing it with a grin and excitement," Scott continues. “They are so genuinely thrilled to be back doing what they love.”

Life is Beautiful returns to Downtown Las Vegas September 16–18, 2022.