For the sound engineers of Rental Pro Austria, the Stadthalle in Graz presents a well-known acoustic challenge.
For the sell-out performance of the Grazer Philharmonic Orchester, bringing Mahler’s 8th to a sell-out crowd of more than 4,000, the solution was a NEXO GEO S12 system using RS15 subs and PS cabinets for fill: “absolutely wonderful for a complex classical production in a big hall of concrete.”
Mario Held, system engineer for Rental Pro Austria worked with front of house engineer Andreas Putz to design a GEO S12 line array that would provide balanced and transparent sound reinforcement appropriate for the classical performance, featuring the 200-piece orchestra, numerous solo singers and a choir of 300.
“The venue, like many big halls of this size, has some problem frequencies in the sub and bass area,” says Held.
“Rental Pro Austria has nearly all the varieties of NEXO subs in its inventory, but I decided to use 4x RS15 subs per side in back-to-back cardio mode. We didn’t need much sub power for a classical production, but with this 15” subwoofer, we sorted out nearly all the problems in the bass frequency range and got perfect bass coverage in the venue. Behind the RS15s, where we had about 60 condenser microphones on stage, there was no bass at all.”
To cover a seating area 45 metres deep, the system used left and right arrays, each with 9x GEO S1210 plus 1x GEO S1230. The RS15 subs were below each main array. For delays to cover the tribunes at the back of the hall, there were two smaller arrays each with 3x GEO S1210 and 1x GEO S1230. Front fill and side fill came from NEXO PS cabinets. Everything was powered by 6x NXAMP 4×4 TDcontrollers, controlled over an EtherSound network.
“This was a complex classical production in a big hall of concrete, but we created a very balanced system to make the front of house engineer’s work easier, and to give the audience 100% satisfaction.”
