The small but influential Rock'Oz Arènes festival got a bit of a shock this year, after adding a fifth night to the front of its programme to put on Radiohead. As tickets went on sale, more than 100,000 internet applications crashed the system, such was the demand to see this band in such an intimate setting.
PA company Jaccoud is one of the first in the world to invest in the GEO D tangent array system, purchased off-plan at the ProLight+Sound expo in Frankfurt this spring. Together with Frédéric Walder of Zap Audio, distributor of Nexo products in Switzerland, Christian Jaccoud designed the system for Rock'Oz Arènes without assistance from Nexo engineers.
One of the objectives was to devise a system that would not provoke complaints about sound leakage from the residential neighbourhoods surrounding the arena. This was achieved with two arrays, each using 14 GEO D10 cabinets. Eight GEO subs were used for the seats, and eight CD18s to cover the floor of the arena. In addition, two arrays of GEO S805 (eight cabinets per side) were used to provide coverage for the side wings of the arena. PS8s were used for front-fill, Alpha EMs for side-fill, and the stage monitoring system was made up from 16 PS15s.
Reactions from visiting sound engineers like Andy Dockerty from Texas were very positive, and festival organisers were highly satisfied with the system's performance. Most importantly, not a single complaint was received from local residents.
(Jim Evans)
