February 2012 £4 €7 www.prosoundnewseurope.com
The business of professional audio EXCLUSIVE
Next from Nexo: ‘modular’ PA STM Series will offer “Swiss Army knife“ approach to large-format system design, says French manufacturer Dave Robinson Paris-based developer Nexo plans to reveal a radical yet simple progression in large-format PA design at Prolight + Sound, PSNE can exclusively report. The STM Series steers away from the conventional line array arrangement and presents users with a modular, “Swiss Army knife” approach, according to technical director François Deffarges. Significantly, Nexo has invested heavily in a rigging mechanism which will enable one engineer working alone to build a complete PA. STM is Nexo’s response to the emergence of so-called “second generation” line array systems. It also taps into the Nexo “DNA” of supplying users with versatile and powerful but compact cabinets. STM (“Scale Through Modularity”) comprises four types of enclosure of proportional dimensions: Main, Bass, Sub and Fill. The Main cab contains four 6.5” drivers for the mid-range and four Keptonpolymer membrane HF drivers which give a smoother response from 10 to 20kHz.
“We’ve gone for a horn-loaded 12” speaker in the Bass cab for 63-200Hz coverage,” notes Deffarges. “That allows a splaying angle of 0 to 10º. When you give users the ability to couple from 0-10º, it is much more versatile and useful to them than one that couples 0-5º.” The Fill speaker, which can be splayed to 15º, will handle side and downfill needs; the Sub is designed to “project LF and give even coverage”. “Using the system is going to be very simple,” continues Deffarges. “You build what you need, like putting together Lego bricks. The recommended set-up ratio is simple too: one Bass, one Main, one Sub – ready to play. “The 12” horn-loaded Bass cab will surprise people with the concentration of power it produces.” Versatile in the air, STM can be flown one wide, two wide or three wide on a single bumper. Critically, says Deffarges: “Our Main and Bass units, flown side-by-side, are smaller and more powerful than any competitive line array. A Main
François Deffarges (left) with David Hochstenbach, senior R&D engineer: but what’s in the box?
and Bass cabinet together will compete with any existing high-end system.” Several factors led to the STM design, the most important being the changing nature of the touring business. Research undertaken by Nexo revealed that customer requirements were being defined by the economics of the business, not the physics of the boxes. “Largescale touring houses are now very rare, with the exception of some North American companies,” states Deffarges.
“Three years ago, the movement for secondgeneration line arrays was triggered,” he continues. “Basically these did not offer, in our opinion, much more than the previous generation. “At Nexo we wanted to take a radically different approach. For today’s rental providers, we aimed to design a system that can work 365 days a year.” Hence, rather than presenting an updated small line array, a medium size one, a larger one and so on, Deffarges says Nexo looked to the “core values that create our company’s DNA” – namely a product that will allow a PA company to cover, within reasonable constraints, the widest range of applications. “Another core value is in the design of small and extremely powerful loudspeakers. Once you put these values together, you create profitable potential for the system and those that buy it.” While exploring rigging possibilities, Nexo discovered that the biggest request from engineers was a that could be flown more easily. The STM ‘one engineer only’ design – which was not revealed to PSNE – represents a “significant part of the cost and Nexo’s investment in technology”. Q www.nexo.sa
FRANCE EXCLUSIVE While all eyes were firmly focused on the goings on at ISE in Amsterdam, d&b audiotechnik quietly, and with an elegant sleight of hand, chose SIEL in Paris for a clandestine showing of the new V-Series line array loudspeaker system prior to its official launch at Prolight + Sound 2012. A functional response to a well articulated demand, the d&b V-Series is a smaller cousin of the popular J-Series with matching tonality and dispersion. It is a mid-sized line array system that sits neatly above the Q and T-Series and fulfils two roles; as a smaller, lighter off-axis or delay system to complement J-Series in concert format; or as a standalone system for larger theatres and concert halls. Matthias Christner (left) and Werner ‘Vier’ Bayer from the d&b development team were on hand to explain the technical details. Q
www.dbaudio.com
Merger creates Dushow SAS Guillaume Schouker Three French rental companies, Arpège, Caméléon and Dispatch, have merged to form Dushow SAS in a move that consolidates their offices and expands their opportunities. Eric Alvergnat, CEO of Dushow SAS, explains: “Two of the three companies were single activity, lighting for Caméléon and audio for Dispatch. The third, Arpège, was multi-site (Nice, Marseille and Paris) and multi-disciplinary. The merger into a sole company, Dushow SAS, creates an entity based in three sites, instead of five, that offers a global package. It mixes our databases, equipment, teams and processes. It is labour-generating.” Q www.dushow.com