Igniting new systems in Singapore
The 10th edition of the Republic Cultural Centre’s Ignite music festival saw both the Singaporean debut of Nexo’s Geo M10 mid-size line array and the first outdoor use of Yamaha’s RIVAGE PM10 digital console. The two-day festival is part of the polytechnic’s educational programme and is organised by students and staff in subject areas including marketing, project and process management, lighting and audio engineering.
Ignite Music Festival has built a reputation for the use of state-of-the-art A/V equipment during its first decade. For the recent edition, Yamaha Music (Asia) served as the event’s official A/V partner, supplying the Nexo and Yamaha.
Over a year ago, I had privilege to demo the Yamaha RIVAGE PM10,’ explained the festival’s production manager, Rafi Dean. ‘Impressed with the sonic quality and ease of use, I was keen to auditioning it in a full-scale show environment. I met up with Lawrence Tan to discuss our approach of infusing the robust technology of digital audio with an educational element that would also be beneficial to our student community.
Republic Polytechnic also provided Yamaha with a platform to share their knowledge in audio networking and digital mixing system in an open workshop as part of the fringe activities.
‘At the same time, Nexo’s new Geo M10 line array had just come onto the market,’ added Mr. Dean. ‘We were very happy to host the official product launch on the festival grounds.
‘It was the perfect timing and an opportunity for us to launch Nexo’s new Geo M10,’ continued Lawrence Tan, Yamaha Music (Asia) assistant general manager. ‘The outdoor live music event was the ideal showcase for the system.’
The Geo M10s were flown in L-R clusters of eight per side above a pair of Geo MSub15s. Further low-end reinforcement was provided by eight LS18 subs ground stacked in front of the stage. PS15s were employed for out-fill and four PS10s for front-fill. The entire setup was driven by four NXAMP4x4 controller/amplifiers, each equipped with NX.DT104 network cards to allow operation over Dante. The RIVAGE PM10 controlled the mix at FOH, while the monitor mix was handled by a Yamaha CL5.
A former technical staff member of TRCC, Mark Spencer of BigBoy Sounds, was engaged as festival sound engineer, alongside the TRCC’s own engineers, Anuar Yusof, Daniel Hgalel and Alfian Kamsanee. ‘The Geo M10s are easy to set up,’ he commented ‘Presets in the amps, all controlled via Dante, made setup a breeze.’
Concerns about the system delivering in front of a large audience due to the Geo M10’s compact size was proven unfounded once live performances started. ‘We still have a healthy amount of headroom left,’ confirmed Mr Spencer.
Yamaha technical support engineer Koay Kheng Ying was on hand to provide support with the RIVAGE PM10. ‘It’s my first time working with a PM10, however it’s pretty easy to get around,’ noted Mr. Spencer.
Yamaha also seized the opportunity to showcase its new products and upgrades, inviting interesting audio industry members on site two days before the event. Approximately 100 consultants, system integrators, rental partners and technical personnel from houses of worship; and other venues were treated to presentations covering Dante AoIP technology, the V1.5.1 software update that includes added features for the RIVAGE PM10 consoles as well as an introduction of the new CS-R10-S console and the Nexo Geo M10s. Francois Deffarges of Nexo’s Development Strategy Group flew in from France to answer questions at the event.
‘We were very happy with the turnout,’ said Mr. Tan. ‘It proves that Geo M10 fits a wide variety of venues and purposes and that our console technology is absolutely relevant.’
‘Needless to say, the entire PA system performed admirably for the two-day festival’, concluded the technical director. ‘Every sound engineer handled the PM10 console effortlessly, and everyone was blown away by the petite Nexo System’.
Article contributed by Pro AVL Asia.
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