Audio Inc. (Roselle Park, NJ) recently added Yamaha NEXO STM line array loudspeakers to their audio rental arsenal.
The move was specifically to improve on previous years’ sound for Lincoln Center Out of Doors and Midsummer Night’s Swing Concert Series that begins in June at Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center in New York City.
“Last year, we decided to update our existing sound systems with the latest technology available in order keep pace with the industry, states Mike Sinclair, co-owner, Audio Inc. For the purpose of the summer season at Lincoln Center, we wanted to update our medium sized line array system because the venue has specific requirements including a very well controlled coverage pattern to produce the minimum of SPL outside the defined area of Damrosch Park and the 5,000 capacity audience.”
Sinclair said he and co-owner Stephen Tolve first saw the NEXO STM system at a 2012 InfoComm Show where Yamaha focused on rigging during the demo. They later heard a large format version of the rig at a Kenny Chesney show and were very impressed but still had not considered it for their needs.
“At last year’s InfoComm, and at the end of the NEXO presentation, Yamaha played an STM system comprised of one sub, one mid- and one high box.” Sinclair says.
“We listened and realized what the term Scale Through Modularity (STM) really meant. It was a total surprise to us that the system was viable in such a small configuration. There is no other large format line array system on the market where you can truly say that one cabinet can work as a small sound system, yet here we were listening to the functional equivalent of one line array element and one-half of a subwoofer cabinet. Not only did it sound good as a big system, but it sounded good as a small system as well.”
Sinclair and Tolve discussed the possibilities of the STM system, looked at the competition, and decided that nothing came close to the flexibility of the NEXO STM so they purchased a system. Although the line array was purchased mainly to upgrade the sound at Lincoln Center Summer Concert Series’, it has been used on other gigs as well. To date, Audio Inc. has used the STM as a small ground stacked system in an auditorium, a large flown system in an armory, and a flown singlewide array in a hotel ballroom for a corporate event. “In every instance, Sinclair said, it has performed exactly as we had hoped it would.”
The initial Audio Inc. STM system configuration for the Lincoln Center Concert Series’ consists of four per side STM-M46 main mid-hi frequency boxes, four per side STM-B112 bass boxes to hang alongside each M46, two per side STM-M28 Omni purpose full range boxes, four per side STM-B118 subwoofers, four NXNUAR-DTs and a NXNUAR1 (NEXO Universal Amp Rack), along with powering, metering, output patching, AC distribution racks, and two NXDT104 Dante networking cards.
A Yamaha CL5 Digital Audio Console is being used at front of house for the Concert Series with a Rio1608-D and two Rio3224-D input/output boxes on stage “The signal path is Dante out of the console down through fiber to the Dante inputs of the NEXO amps,” explains Tolve. A Yamaha PM5D-RH is used for monitors.
“In addition to the sonic quality of the STM system, giving us very good control over placement and interaction with the various spaces we have used it in, the system’s output is surprisingly loud and clear for its size,” Sinclair adds.
Audio Inc. has a very good reputation to uphold for “Midsummer Night’s Swing” and “Lincoln Center Out of Doors”. “Over the past few years, reaction to the sound at the concert site has been very positive, and we have total confidence that this year with the use of NEXO STM, we are going to raise the bar even higher.”
At press time, Audio Inc. had taken delivery of additional STM speakers for inventory to support larger venue requests.
