An acoustic guitar, a loop pedal, and the unique voice of British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran – that’s everything you need to draw in the crowds. Or rather: almost everything. An audience of more than 10,000 fans is dying to hear every note, even if they aren’t in the front row, and the linear sound reinforcement systems LEO and LYON from Meyer Sound make it possible. They are accompanying Ed on his live concert tour – from Manchester to Paris, Berlin to Prague, and Sydney to Auckland.
Ed Sheeran live on Tour
With songs like “I See Fire”, “Sing”, and “Don’t”, Ed hasn’t just stormed the German charts, he’s fired up fans for his X world tour. Chris Marsh, Ed’s production manager and FOH engineer, says: “I’ve had a chance to hear Ed’s music on a lot of different systems, for various festivals, one-off shows, and opening for acts like Taylor Swift. But whenever I came across LEO – and more recently, LYON – I’ve noticed a marked difference in sound quality.”
Chris Marsh
Whether in Frankfurt, Lyon, or Warsaw: the equipment for Ed’s live shows includes main front hangs of 12 LEO-M over four LYON linear line array loudspeakers each, with 14 additional LYON loudspeakers in each of the twin side hangs. Completing the system are 18 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements for low end and eight M’elodie line array loudspeakers for front fill. The Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system includes one Galileo Callisto 616 AES and four Galileo Callisto 616 array processors.
The 1100-LFC is an astonishingly fast-moving device,” says Marsh. “The impact it transmits when Ed slaps his guitar – his interpretation of the kick drum – is far better than I’ve heard from any other sub. The others are just too slow to keep up.”
Impressions from Ed Sheeran’s Tour:
Picture sources: Jesse Goff
