Described by its owners as a home to sprawling city streets, alien biomes, sentient mechs and more, Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver, Colorado is unlike any other venue on this – or any other - planet. A fully immersive arts installation during the day, the 90,000 square foot building represents the combined efforts of more than 100 collaborating artists from across Colorado. The venue recently morphed its beguiling spaces to host Danceportation, a takeover for the Deep Dark & Dangerous record label and its roster of artists from all over the US.

With 14 visiting acts and multiple stages to manage, full-service production company Lost Horizon Productions was called upon to deliver high-quality audio in the venue's most challenging spaces. With only two hours to transform the immersive art space into a live event venue, Lost Horizon designed and deployed a Funktion-One sound system that not only high-quality, engaging audio, but did so with a minimal footprint.

“The Deep Dark & Dangerous team wanted full-bodied sound at each stage while still working within the constraints of the venue,” says Lost Horizon co-owner Dylan Woods. “Feeds from every stage were networked throughout the building to create listening opportunities within some of Convergence Station’s art installations; we particularly enjoyed the space car where patrons could scroll through radio stations to preview the music on each stage!”

[Photos by John Verway]

Putting on a sell-out dance event in such an uncompromising space is not without its challenges. Prepping the main stage in the venue’s Perplexiplex, a 2,500 square foot space with 360° projection mapping on the walls and floor, was relatively straightforward, but Convergence Station’s second stage was considerably trickier. Encompassing a large part of the building and spanning three exhibit floors, Numina has a plethora of permanent exhibits and comes with its own mythology Meow Wolf describes it as a sixth-dimensional sentient plant composed of cells that represent timelines and universes.

Careful and considered planning was essential.

“This venue was fairly sonically challenging, but the team at Convergence Station allowed us to analyse each space in advance,” says Woods. “This enabled us to create system designs that would get the most of each environment acoustically. Working within the constraints of Meow Wolf’s imaginative worlds was well worth the effort as the patrons became immersed in the art as they danced and explored different stages.”

Lost Horizon turned to Funktion-One to faithfully deliver the soundscapes and, although the approach to each stage was very different, the end-result was consistent.

“Despite the Perplexiplex room having some strong reflections, Funktion-One’s precise coverage made it easy to avoid unnecessary room noise,” says Woods, who utilised Funktion-One's Projection simulation software to model the venue in advance and identify the optimal loudspeaker deployment within the space.

The Perplexiplex featured four Evo 7, six F124 and two F101.2 for front fills, along with PSM12 and BR121 for monitors. “Projection was a valuable tool to provide a starting point for the system design and we used Global Truss Ground Support systems to securely position them within the room,” explains Woods.

Numina, a much less conventional space, presented a different challenge. “Its name literally means 'the spirit of a place' and the space feels like a multi-level living organism encompassing three floors of the building.” Says Woods. “Simulating the speaker deployment in advance was simply not viable due to its complexity. It meant we had to play with the exact placement and orientation of the speakers to maximise dancefloor coverage and to avoid all the other worldly art hanging from the ceiling, while still remaining code compliant at all times.”

Tucked within Numina’s tentacles and flowers, Lost Horizon deployed two Funktion-One Evolution X as mains, with a vertical block of three F124 for bass reinforcement. Delay speakers throughout the multi-dimensional space relayed sound to the floors above via the house’s Q-Sys system to enable complete venue integration. Signal flow was similar to the Perplexiplex: Lake processing and control with Lab.gruppen and Full Fat Audio amplification.

“Overall we were thrilled with the results,” says Woods. “Because of all the contouring and reflective surfaces, Funktion-One’s point source boxes are the best possible solution in these spaces. We were able to tuck speakers into crevasses within the space and point them in the exact orientation that optimised coverage. We love how Funktion-One boxes operate in this environment and wouldn’t choose any other speaker to achieve this clarity.

“The combination of the Evo 7’s bold and uncompromising sound, the versatility and immense clarity of the Evolution X, and the addition of the F124s allowed for crisp and precise coverage in both spaces, minimising unwanted noise. Moreover, Evolution X’s 90° horizontal throw was ideal in Numina to seamlessly cover an unconventional dancefloor.”

Lost Horizon has been working with Funktion-One since meeting company founders Tony and Ann Andrews in Costa Rica at the Envision Festival in 2017.

“The Evo 7 is a staple in our large format offerings and we have toured with those boxes for seven years now,” says Woods. “We most commonly double stack Evo 7s in a cluster of six to provide a 110° horizontal splay in long throw applications. These speakers have changed the way that we mix our shows because of the incredible detail we can hear from them. We’ve become much more precise in our mixing style from more subtle EQ curves to optimising our entire signal flow to create amazing sonic results."

Woods continues: “The Evolution X was a much-needed product here in the mountain region in the US. It allows us to achieve that same incredible sound profile in a smaller form factor and is perfect as the main PA for smaller events or as a fill for our larger deployments. Their 90° horizontal throw is a great fit for those scenarios and they simply sound incredible!

“For this particular install, the sound profile they provided out the gate, as well as their very predictable coverage pattern, allowed us to efficiently set up high-quality systems that were optimised to the space. They gave us an incredible starting point to deliver an immaculate sonic experience.”

It’s a sentiment that the venue is in full agreement with: “This was our second Deep Dark & Dangerous takeover and the feedback has been incredible,” says Convergence Station Production Manager Duke Ducheneaux. “It’s obvious how much Lost Horizon’s team love what they do but I was most impressed by their attention to detail. For some engineers, DJ shows are 'set and forget' but that’s not my style at all. A sonically good show needs caressing and care and that’s what I see in Lost Horizon. Both Perplexiplex and Numina were a dance party all night!”