Changing Plane Properties - Martin Audio MLA MINI Advanced User's Manual

MLA MINI
DISPLAY 2.2
cannot change the laws of physics so there is a limit to just how much we can get the system
to do. We are more likely to get good results if we are sensible with how much demand we put
on the DSP. In the example we have shown, we are obviously not going to get any direct sound
arriving under the balcony, it is essentially in "shadow" so there is little point in making this
area hard avoid, likewise it clearly shouldn't be defined as audience or the system will waste
DSP attempting coverage over an area it cannot reach so it should definitely be non audience.
With a little experience you will learn what works well and what not to attempt. In our example I
would keep the stage as hard avoid, perhaps also have a hard avoid on the balcony front which
could give problems with a slap-back echo on stage and make all other areas non audience.
The default setting usually has the stage hard avoid also including the stage front and the "pit"
between the stage and audience start as hard avoid. This is not only unnecessary but trying to
get the DSP to get the signal from hard avoid immediately to audience is expecting far too much,
it is much more realistic to keep the stage floor as hard avoid and the front of the stage and pit
non audience.
You will also notice a pink area at the back of the stalls in our example. This indicates any part of
the venue plane that is not in line of site of the array, essentially in "shadow". In many venues,
particularly theatre style rooms with one or more balcony, this is very common and additional
balcony fills may need to be deployed. You can of course close the Cover tab and return to the
Slice tab to try alternative array positions to try and minimise any such shaded areas if audience
areas are affected. In our example it is only under the balcony and on the rear wall at the back
of the stalls that are not in line of site and so there is no need for any remedial action.

CHANGING PLANE PROPERTIES

On the right hand side of the window is the section for adjusting the plane line properties:
Each plane between nodes needs to be adjusted individually, to do this, click on the required
plane property first, and then select the line you wish to change. For example, on our example,
we want to make the balcony from hard avoid and under the balcony non audience. As it's the
top button, let's do the non audience first. Click on the Non audience button and then hover over
the planes, as you hover over each line you will see the feint dashed lines turn a bright white,
thick dashed line. When you are over the plane you need to change, under the balcony in this
case, a single mouse click changes the plane colour to red. Now we can do the same for the
balcony front, click the Hard Avoid button and then select the small vertical balcony front which
will change to blue to show it is now hard avoid.
You can click on the Audience button to change any planes to audience but this is rarely
required as long as you initially defined the audience areas correctly in the Venue slice, you are
more likely to have too many audience planes rather than not enough although you may need to
change a plane back to audience if you have accidentally changed it to something else. If you
get several wrong you can click on the Reset which returns all planes to the default that you
started with.
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