Nexo strikes right balance at Ringwood School
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“We came to the project early so were able to advise on acoustic treatments at the building design stage” reports Pulse MD and founder Ralph Walsh. “Our sister-company installed the infrastructure for sound, lighting, data and video projection, and flexibility of use was the guiding principle of our design. There’s more than five miles of cable in the building and the tech can be reconfigured quickly and easily to handle any type of a production from a music concert or drama to a cinema event.”
Flexibility was also a key consideration in the choice of sound system which comprises hangs of four Nexo Geo M10 line array elements left and right on a truss above the stage, with a centre cluster of three Geo M6 focused primarily on vocal sounds covering the tiered seating. Nexo ID24s cover the very back of the room as delays, and Nexo ePS point source boxes are installed L+R to the centre and rear of the space, to suit surround sound productions and cinema. Low frequency extension comes from NexoL18 subs on the floor.
“Other tenders had proved too expensive and were unable to provide the flexibility needed, but the Nexo system we proposed hit the balance of performance and cost. And the power to size ratio of the Nexo boxes is unbeatable. Nexo seems to get as much output from one driver as other manufacturers get from a pair. The left and right clusters add less than 100Kg to each corner of the truss, yet the system provides excellent coverage of what is a particularly wide space.”
Just two Nexo NXAMPMk2 4-channel powered controllers provide amplification and processing for the main system and ID24 rear wall delays, with an additional DTDAMP powering the ePS surround speakers. Perhaps unusually, the Geo M elements are the touring versions of the speakers rather than the install variants. Ralph explains why.
“The school teaches BTEC Production Arts in addition to performance. Students can easily lower the truss at the push of a button and change the rigging angles of the clusters along with the NXAMP DSP pre-sets for standing events.”
In addition to equipping the school with a purpose-designed venue for education in the performing arts, the new building at Ringwood also provides the wider community with a world-class theatre facility for their own theatre productions, and events promoted by the school.
