Constellation: Perfect Sound. All the Time. At Every Table.

Verse is the first restaurant in Southern California to benefit from Meyer Sound Constellation^®. As an active acoustics system, Constellation creates an ideally optimized total listening environment. For restauranteurs, this system delivers an unprecedented ability to dynamically control the sonic ambience of the space with the touch of an iPad screen. 

In line with Verse’s Michelin star chef and world class design, guests and performers will now be treated to one of the best acoustic environments in the world.

For Those Who Like the High-Level Info:

• Verse is the only restaurant in Southern California that has Meyer Sound’s Constellation system installed.
• Constellation is a flexible and highly refined system that allows for different acoustic environments to be created.
• Constellation picks up sounds via microphones, processes that sound, then delivers that sound back to the restaurant environment through loudspeakers.
• With Constellation, the same physical space can emulate the acoustics of an ideal classroom, chamber music hall, symphony hall or vast cathedral.
• At Verse, it will create the absolute best dining experience as well as support live performances —even at the same time.
• Verse has — get ready for it — 24 microphones, 52 speakers, and the largest installation of Libra™ Acoustic Panels in the world all seamlessly integrated into the environment.
• And it’s all because we love our guests, love our artists, and love making the holistic experience at Verse the best ever, every single time.

For Those Who Like a Little More Detail:

What is Constellation?

Constellation is a state-of-the-art system of active acoustics. It doesn’t simply play back music into the room. Instead, it creates the total acoustical environment of the room. It can make sounds “stay alive” by reverberating around the space, or let them “die quickly” by being absorbed into the ceiling and walls.

What Constellation is NOT.

Although a “PA system” or a “background music system” is also installed at Verse, Constellation is not designed to simply inject specific sounds into the room, but rather determine how all sounds — including those made by patrons, staff and kitchen activity — seamlessly interact with the room environment. (Note that some components of Constellation normally do double duty by also carrying the music program.)

What difference does Constellation really make?

Consider two extreme examples. You’ve been in restaurants with heavy drapes, thick upholstery, carpeted floors, no bare windows, and acoustical tile ceilings. Great if you want a hushed, low-key, almost sleepy experience.

The other extreme is a room with hard plaster walls and ceiling, lots of exposed window glass, stone flooring, and an open kitchen with steel counters. It’s great for creating a lively buzz, but when out of control it can get on your nerves and make conversation impossible.

In acoustics, one size does not fit all. Constellation offers an elegantly simple way for Verse to transform architectural acoustics, affording a level of sonic flexibility never before possible.

What does that mean? It means with a touch of a finger, you are able to create and control whichever environment you want — be it hushed, low key; lively buzz; or anything in between or beyond. Therefore, you are able to match your own sonic environment to the event, the patronage mix, and/or time of day.

What else can Constellation do?

Constellation, in conjunction with a careful room acoustic design can create “acoustical islands” where intimate conversation is clearly had around the tables, yet at the same time it can maintain a lively background “buzz” with energized, but non-specific sounds, regardless of occupancy levels.

In brief, how does Constellation work?

Constellation starts with a “dead” or “dry” baseline acoustical signature. This is done by placing sound absorbing materials throughout the room. In Verse, much of the sound is absorbed by Libra Acoustic Image panels on the walls, also made by Meyer Sound. (Verse has more Libra panels than any other single room anywhere in the world.)

Sounds within the room are sensed by 24 miniature microphones, then acoustically modified by sophisticated digital processors, and finally reintroduced into the room by 52 small self-powered loudspeakers. The processing is programmed with custom presets designed to introduce controlled reverberation — the “liveliness” of the room — exactly as desired.

This seems complicated. Is Constellation difficult to operate?

Although the calibration and programming procedures are technically intricate, day-to-day operation usually requires no more than pressing a button on an iPad to select the desired acoustical ambience. Once that’s done, background music can be introduced at the desired levels as in any restaurant system.

Finally, who is Meyer Sound? Never heard of them.

You may never have heard of Meyer Sound, but it is likely you’ve had experiences created by the company’s products. Headquartered in Berkeley, California, and a global leader in professional audio systems, Meyer Sound designs and manufactures a full range of self-powered loudspeakers and networked digital processors. Meyer Sound systems are trusted and heard in the world’s most prestigious concert venues, including the fabled Musikverein in Vienna, the Walt Disney Concert Hall here in Los Angeles, and the iconic Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas; on hit Broadway shows like Wicked and Moulin Rouge! The Musical; and on tour with top-grossing artists ranging from Michael Bublé and Ed Sheeran to Metallica.