This was the first arena-sized music concert for the £27m venue. PA for the event was provided by local Derby company Sound of Music, which drew on its extensive Nexo inventory to supply a STM Series modular line array for main PA, and 45°N-12 line monitors on stage.
Sound of Music's Sash Pochibko notes that "it's great for us to be the first touring PA company to service a big show at the new venue, especially as we are based so locally. The Derby Velodrome is by far the best-sounding arena I've ever heard, as an engineer or as a concert-goer. They've installed black-box draping and it makes a massive difference to the acoustics of the building - the absorbent properties of a good audience completed the equation."
The Sound of Music team supplied L/R hangs of STM, using 8x M28 omni modules under three B112 bass modules. Two additional M28 cabinets provided front-fills, sitting on top of STM S118 subs, 12 in total, arranged in a double-stacked sub array along the front of the stage. Alpha-E cabinets were used for stage-fill.
On stage foldback for the bands was delivered by Nexo 45°N-12 line monitors, arrayed in varying combinations of two and three units using their ingenious magnetic locking system.
"Three well-known bands on the bill meant three visiting engineers, and they were all extremely complimentary about the venue and the system. It really was like listening to a BIG hi-fi rather than a large PA battling in an arena full of reverb."
(Jim Evans)
