Rising star in the Australian pop scene and ARIA 2013 Best Female Artist, Jessica Mauboy has been touring all over Australia this Summer. With an extremely tight band dishing up a groovy mix of R&B, Dance, Soul and Electro, Jessica’s string of hits are proving extremely popular with her fan base. The lads at Monitor City have been placed in charge of production and their Nexo STM rig has been the “symphonic weapon” of choice for the show. Long time Nexo user, Mark Bollenberg was recruited by the Monitor City crew as System Tech for the tour; currently making him the most experienced Nexo STM system designer/engineer in the ANZPAC region.
“The System sounded and behaved amazing and precise at every show” Mark shared. “I have been using Nexo’s NS-1 to plot every Show/Venue well in advance and managed to get a great comparison/result from theory that translated itself perfectly into the live environment of each venue. The ‘Scale Through Modularity’ philosophy behind STM’s design is one of so many advantages that are particularly great for this kind of touring; as we have the flexibility to build up or down as we need.”
Above: Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre Nexo NS-1 Plot
With several big Entertainment Centres in Melbourne, Townsville, Brisbane, Newcastle, Mackay and the like being chosen for the tour, various modifications were made to each design in order to maximise the PA’s performance with the space available.
“As I mentioned, we simulated a few different designs for each place, but once I had something that I liked using NS-1, I knew it would translate very well into the room. NS-1 is very precise as long as you have accurate data. Having said that, even “rough” data will show you a near perfect result and the old days of fighting the physics of a room are nearly null and void now.”
Above: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre Nexo NS-1 Plot
The truly scalable nature of STM isn’t only limited only to moving from ground stacks all the way through to three wide line arrays either, Mark decided to fly S118 subs above the array in certain dual configurations such as the setup for the MCEC. An additional run of S118 subs were spaced out along the foot of the stage, all time aligned to perfection.
“I wanted to ensure the sub could throw further back into the upper ranks of the bigger venues, without smearing the lower frequencies, so it made more sense to fly a few of them above the STM B112/M46. It worked really well and with the correct alignment to the rest of the system, it sounded excellent, clean and punchy.”
Additionally, Mark used six Nexo PS8 for Front-Fill, and, depending on ‘Moshe Pit’ size, two Nexo Geo S1230 turned 90 degrees as L/R In-Fills. “A lot of local Sound Technicians actually raised one of their Eyebrows in pure disbelief when I started laying out my six Nexo PS8’s” said Mark. His response was always the same, “yes this is all I need to cover the 3m of front space between Stage and VIP Seats on an 18m wide stage. The beauty of the STM is that I have such a controlled front pattern with my main hang which enabled me to precisely predict the System’s coverage from start to finish.”
Above: Townsville Entertainment & Convention Centre Nexo NS-1 Plot
The power requirements for running a Nexo STM system of this size also impressed Mark considerably. “We did the tour with a 125A Power Distribution system, but the overall power consumption of the system never exceeded more than 12A per phase even when we accumulated 106 – 108dbA for the encore songs. In a nutshell, we could have delivered the whole show on one 32A if we needed to.”
Monitor City also ensured FOH and Monitors didn’t suffer by using two DiGiCo SD8 for the entire tour. With DiGiCo now being regarded as the industry standard for professional touring, it made sense that a quality act such as Jessica Mauboy deserved a quality console.
To read the full article on the Jessica Mauboy tour, including FOH Engineer Chris Braun’s use of SoundGrid plug-ins on the SD8, click on the link below.
