Nampa, Idaho’s Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) is a nonprofit Christian university offering over 60 areas of study for undergraduate and graduate students. The theater department produces multiple audition-based musicals per year along with hosting Philharmonic performances, community forums, and other concerns.
NNU recently installed a NEXO GEO M6 speaker system in the Brandt Center’s 1500-seat Swayne Auditorium, thanks to the efforts of Production Services International (Boise, Salt Lake, Denver).
“The initial design was developed several years back by one of our former employees who happened to be an alumni of NNU,” states Noah Bard, operations manager, PSI International.
“During the long design/sales process, three different systems were demonstrated, and each one was considered, but due to budget constraints, none were installed. We have an outstanding partnership with NNU, and Yamaha worked with us over several years to ensure we could provide the university with the proper system.’
“Finally, in 2015, funding came into place, and we demonstrated the GEO M6 installed at a nearby church. NNU was quite impressed, so we knew it was the right fit. The NEXO M6 decision was a combination of size, superior performance, and price.”
Bard said the old audio system did not work well and needed to be replaced from an acoustical perspective. “Aesthetically, NNU wanted the sound system to disappear as much as possible. The old center hung system was very much a part of the room. The change had been a part of the initial master plan for upgrades.”
The GEO M6 system consists of a stereo pair of M6 Clusters, 12 per side. Each cluster consists of three M6Bs and nine M620’s. Adjacent to each cluster behind scrim are two NEXO LS18 subwoofers. The entire system is powered by two NEXO NXAMP 4X1s for the mains and one NEXO NXAmp 4X4 for the subs. All the amps are installed with EtherSound cards.
PSI also added a Lake Processing card to the previously installed Yamaha M7CL-ES Console and an outboard 5045 Neve Processor.
“We use the Lake Processor for additional system processing along with the base system processing provided by the NXAmps, Bard adds. The 5045 processor was primarily installed for use during chapels for headset and podium use.”
A group of PSI installers along with NNU students and staff installed the system Much of the cable-pulling, cleanup, dismantling of the old system was all performed by students and staff.
Several years ago, PSI installed a Yamaha M7CL-ES Digital Audio Console with three stage boxes.
“The theater was originally installed with a network of analog jacks, Bard notes, so rather than installing new stage boxes on the stage, we installed the stage boxes in the patch bay, and the students made TRS/XLR cables to patch existing house jacks to the stage boxes.” PSI extended the EtherSound network to the new NEXO amps so the whole system is running off EtherSound.