By working in tandem with Meyer Sound experts, along with our skilled festival production and technical teams who took engineering to a new level, Telluride Town Park’s Hanley Ice Rink was transformed into a stunning 21st-century movie palace with ASTRYA-140 screen channel loudspeakers and Dolby Atmos immersive sound.”
Julie HuntsingerDirector, Telluride Film Festival
Each year, crews transform the hockey rink inside Telluride’s Town Park Pavilion into the 650-seat Werner Herzog Theater for the Telluride Film Festival. At the 53rd festival, which took place September 4 – 7, 2026, the temporary cinema introduced a Dolby Atmos system comprising 59 Meyer Sound loudspeakers. Five ASTRYA‑140 screen channel loudspeakers anchored the system, marking ASTRYA’s Telluride debut. Meyer Sound, now in its 26th year with the festival, also provided cinema sound for the Galaxy Theater and Palm Theater.
The Herzog had featured a 7.1 system since opening in 2013. Meyer Sound’s Program Manager, Cinema & Residential, Jay Wyatt, who led the design and onsite deployment, says filmmakers had been asking about Dolby Atmos in recent years. “We felt like this was a good year to do it because there was more and more demand,” he explains. “We also had a new screen channel that was really well suited to the task.”
“ASTRYA was designed to bridge the dub stage and the cinema with exceptional linearity and dynamic range,” says Meyer Sound’s Director of Cinema Marketing, Mark Mayfield. “At Herzog, those qualities supported the festival’s transformation of an acoustically unforgiving arena into an extraordinary playback environment where each soundtrack could be presented as its creators intended.”
Networked Audio Streamlines Deployment
Wyatt’s team completed the audio system installation in three days, working alongside lighting and other crews. Where the previous 7.1 system passed eight channels to 37 loudspeakers, the Dolby Atmos design called for 50 discrete processor outputs feeding 59 loudspeakers.
“The high channel counts made us re-evaluate our cabling strategy at the Herzog and pursue the path of networked audio distribution,” says Wyatt. “What would’ve taken numerous long analog snakes and breakouts was achieved on single runs of Cat cable. With ASTRYA being network audio capable, it made sense.”
The Herzog’s 46-foot screen is wide enough to call for five screen channels, so ASTRYA-140s filled the left, left center, center, right center, and right positions. Integrated rigging points at the top of each cabinet allowed crews to fly the loudspeakers from a truss on motors, a departure from the Acheron screen channels used at the Herzog in past years. “The Acherons we deployed in years past used custom metalwork to fly and it wasn’t the most elegant solution,” says Wyatt, who asked Meyer Sound’s engineering team during development to make ASTRYA flyable “for that rare occasion you might do a film festival.”
ASTRYA’s onboard GEN‑1 technology also reported health and telemetry data over the network to a booth dashboard, so operators could troubleshoot the flown screen channels remotely. Surrounds included 22 HMS‑12 cinema surround loudspeakers and two ULTRA‑X40 point source loudspeakers in the wide surround positions. Overhead surround positions were comprised of four ULTRA‑X40 and 12 ULTRA‑X23 point source loudspeakers. GEN-1 technology and networked audio also extended to the numerous ULTRA‑X40 and ULTRA-X23 loudspeakers used at the wide and top surround positions.
Subwoofers Steer Bass Toward the Audience
A double layer of heavy drapes enclosed the auditorium’s seating area, a room within the rink, to control high-frequency reflections. The rest of the arena held storage and power distribution. “We didn’t want low-frequency energy going to the large, open area behind the screen, bouncing around, doing its thing, and then coming back to the party late,” says Wyatt.
Ten X-800C cinema subwoofers were set in two rows of five, configured as a cardioid end-fire array. The array steered low-frequency energy toward the audience and significantly attenuated output toward the rear, keeping bass tight within the auditorium. Four flown 900‑LFC low-frequency control elements provided four zones of bass management, so low-frequency timbre stayed consistent as sound objects moved around the room.
“Most film festivals don’t do Dolby Atmos, or if they do, it’s usually in a venue that already has it permanently installed,” says Wyatt. “To be able to pull off an Atmos system of this complexity in a temporary live venue was a rewarding challenge.”
“I could not be more proud of our 26-year partnership with Meyer Sound,” says Telluride Film Festival’s Director, Julie Huntsinger. “By working in tandem with Meyer Sound experts, along with our skilled festival production and technical teams who took engineering to a new level, Telluride Town Park’s Hanley Ice Rink—the festival’s Werner Herzog Theater—was transformed into a stunning 21st-century movie palace with ASTRYA-140 screen channel loudspeakers and Dolby Atmos immersive sound. Once again the show demonstrates the technological magic that can be achieved at high altitude in a temporary installation with the wizardry of excellence, mastery, and determination…what a thrilling show we had!”