Live Winter 2026 - Web

easier time. It makes calibration a lot faster and a lot simpler.” Alongside the new loudspeakers, the festival saw a wider deployment of Milan network technology and expanded use of Nebra, Meyer Sound’s control, monitoring and connectivity software. Multiple venues could be monitored from a central location, bringing greater oversight to a complex site operating across a variety of spaces. SYSTEMS IN SYNC If TIGRA represented the festival’s most significant new loudspeaker deployment, the opening-night performance by British singer Raye demonstrated what happens when the demands of a major production push system design beyond conventional boundaries. Montreux has a long tradition of setting aside space for exceptional performances: tribute concerts, special guest appearances and evenings built around productions that could not simply be replicated elsewhere. This year, Raye’s performance in the Auditorium Stravinski became one of those defining occasions. The venue is a conventional theatre, with a stage, balcony and fixed seating, but the production transformed it into a space configured entirely around the audience. A custom rotating stage was positioned centrally, with the performance taking place in the round and spectators surrounding the musicians through 360°. The production featured a 22-piece ensemble, while surprise appearances from Mark Ronson and Alicia Keys only added to the occasion. A bespoke design built around PANTHER-M was required, with TIGRA also used as fills alongside LEOPARD, LINA and ULTRA-X80 loudspeakers, as well as 2100-LFC and 900- LFC low-frequency control elements. “Having TIGRA and PANTHER working together was incredibly useful because they’re so similar sonically,” Davies expands. The front-of-house engineer was primarily mixing on TIGRA, with the system handing over to PANTHER as listeners moved around the room and then to ULTRA-X80 loudspeakers towards the back. “Just being able to walk around and hear instantly how seamless it is gives you confidence that what the audience are hearing on the floor and what they are hearing up in the balcony is all hanging together sonically.” The logistical demands were equally intense – involving a 36-hour load-in, with multiple crews working in shifts, which preceded the show. By the following morning, the venue had been completely reconfigured for the festival’s regular programme. “It was a great night,” Davies enthuses. “Musically, they absolutely pulled it out of the bag. They had some great guests. The tributes that were made to Montreux through the years were really cleverly done – and were incredibly beautiful.” Some people know Meyer Sound is part of the sound of the festival and they’re really proud of it. That speaks to how there is this shared passion

line arrays to compact systems and point- source loudspeakers. “One of the fun things about Montreux is the sheer variety of stages. The smallest Meyer Sound systems that are deployed there are our smallest loudspeakers, and the biggest systems are our biggest loudspeakers. It’s a little bit of everything from almost the entire product range because there are so many different sizes.” Meyer Sound pays close attention to the relationship between products. The result, Davies describes, is a family of systems designed to work together without requiring extensive corrective tuning. “We’re not trying to give each of these distinct products their own sonic signature,” he explains. “We pay a lot of attention. It’s not just about frequency response; it’s about phase response and about the dynamic response of different systems.” At Montreux, TIGRA could be used alongside PANTHER and other loudspeakers, allowing engineers to move between different coverage zones without encountering an obvious change in character. “Because all of those are of a newer generation, we didn’t need to use those integration tools for this event. They already work together incredibly well straight out of the box and that gives people tuning it a much

Crucially, the improvement helped bring the Lab closer to the sonic experience of the much larger Auditorium Stravinski, where Meyer Sound’s PANTHER line arrays provided the main system. “It really did close the gap sonically between that venue and how the larger Stravinski sounds, which is on PANTHER,” Davies emphasises. The deployment also demonstrated the importance of ensuring different products work together as a coherent system. Montreux’s variety of performance spaces means that no single loudspeaker can serve every application. Instead, the festival draws on a broad cross-section of Meyer Sound’s portfolio, from large format

GREAT ESCAPE Raye (above) and Samson Philipps (below) were two of the highlights from the 2026 outing of the celebrated festival