Berlin-based audio company auvisign GmbH & Co., a regular partner of event organiser Wohlthat Entertainment GmbH, chose Nexo's STM modular line array technology for the mainstage PA and extensive delay systems, supplementing them with plentiful numbers of cabinets from other ranges of NEXO such as GEO, Alpha and PS Series. Controlled by Yamaha CL5 mixers, the systems were set up over Dante and Ethersound networks.
Although auvisign has used STM in several different configurations at Brandenburg Gate/Fan Meile events, this was the first time that the M46 large-format cabinets have been deployed as the main modules.
For the main stage, left and right PA each deployed 10x STM M46 main modules with 1x M28 down-fill below. Additional M28s were used for near-fill, and 32x STM S118 subbass cabinets across the front of the stage provided the required bass response. Yamaha CL5 mixers were used for both FOH and monitor control, under supervision by Philip Grygier and Lars Krumpelt respectively.
Delay towers running the 1.5 km length of the Fan Meile were comprised of a variety of NEXO systems; primarily STM M46 cabinets for the positions at the top of the avenue, with GEO D10, S12, S8 and Alpha used further down.
auvisign's sound designer Johannes Raack and specialist STM operator Norbert Bund took maximum advantage of STM's scale through modularity when last-minute changes to a PA tower made it necessary to redesign the system specification.
"A new PA tower was planned, but this one could only accommodate half the load of the previous one! By leaving aside the separate B112 bass cabinets that would customarily fly with the M46 main cabs, and increasing the number of groundstacked S118 subs, we were able to achieve the PA weight without impairing the sonic results."
Sitting at front-of-house, network operator Peter Sobisiak had the job of coordinating four different networks - Dante for the mainstage PA, EtherSound for all delay lines, EtherSound for the inputs to FOH and Dante for the inputs to monitors - consolidating them in a common Gigabit network, which used fibreglass connections (to meet the requirement for redundant ducting) to cover distances of up to 400 metres from device to device. Total cable runs stretched over 2.2 kilometres.
(Jim Evans)
