Johnston Audio Services, which equips 20 live music venues across Australia with “permanent rental” audio installations, is in the process of upgrading the stage monitoring systems with NEXO P15 loudspeakers following a demo by the company’s Australian distributor, Group Technologies.
“When we put the P15 on the floor and it fires away — that horn — we just went ‘wow, listen to that – that’s great!’ And the fact that it had a little more bottom end than the other wedges we tried,” says Brian Johnston, the founder of Johnston Audio Services. “I thought it’s much better to start from a powerful box and maybe if someone would want to remove a little bit of something they can, as opposed to trying to add something that’s not there.
“It serves the purpose of giving people volume” he adds. “And that’s what they want.”
Johnston is a noted mix engineer most known for his work with Oasis, Divinyls, Crowded House, Midnight Oil and many others. He first encountered NEXO in his early days with the Gallagher brothers.
“Oasis needed serious volume. At the time, line arrays had just started but they weren’t giving me what I needed,” he says. “We mixed on a NEXO Alpha system, and it was just – wow – right in your face. And it never said no.”
Alpha became his “PA of choice” for Oasis, follwed by the GEO T line array that debuted in 2002. “We took GEO T on plenty of big stadium tours – big hangs of 24 at 100,000-people events. That PA was very good,” Johnston states.
