Alice GustafsonFor several years, regular audio provider Auvisign has used Nexo PA systems for the New Year’s Eve street party event on the Fan Meile in Berlin.
To welcome in 2015, however, the STM M28 modular line array was put to the test.
The Sylvester party was attended by 1.2 million visitors, who were entertained by Tony Christie, Katherine Jenkins, Annett Louisan, Howard Carpendale, Tokio Hotel, David Garrett and David Hasselhoff.
As every year, it was enabled by key players Wohlthat Entertainment GmbH (production), auvisign GmbH (sound company) and Steel United Group (technical direction), reporting to organiser Silvester in Berlin Veranstaltungen GmbH.
Johannes Raack at auvisign has the responsibility of delivering high-quality audio over the 1.5km long party mile, running between the Brandenburg Gate and Siegessäule – featuring three stages.
This year, Johannes’ system design made use of the new STM M28 compact line array – across the three stages, whilst delays towers in the Fan Meile were cabinets from every category of Nexo’s product portfolio.
This was the first time such a design had been used: arrays of 18 STM M28 omni modules flown beneath three STM B112 bass cabinets formed the main PA on the principal stage in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
On the ground, 32 STM S118s provided the subbass for the modular system.
“Without any doubt, the M28 did a great job as main PA,” Johannes comments.
“The variation we used showed unexpectedly high headroom in the low end; that’s remarkable for such a thin column with a total weight of less than 950 kg! But what most impressed me personally was the handling of the M28 as well as the full STM system in every aspect. For instance we had some positions where it was not possible to rig the system directly below the hoist points. There were positions, such as the delay towers, where we had to place the cabinets some 1.3m out of line below the flying point – and there was no problem at all. On the Main Stage (18 M28 + three B112), we had to build up on quite a big slope – again no problem at all for the self-centring rigging system. I can’t tell you how fast and easy this system is to rig!”
Using Nexo GEO S8 cabinets for centre fill and near-fill, the main stage PA was set up on a Dante network, with a separate EtherSound network for all the delay lines. All power and processing came from Nexo’s NUARs (Universal Amp Racks) with additional NXAMP4x4s.
Under the control of network operator Peter Sobisiak, the inputs for the showmixer were implemented via Yamaha AD8HR converters and Auvitran’s EtherSound mini-YGDAI cards over another EtherSound network.
All the different networks were consolidated into one Gigabit network, which used fiberglass links to cover distances of up to 400 metres between devices. All Dante and EtherSound networks were controlled from FOH, where Axel Falk and Alexander Garn were mixing the show.
On the main stage, Andreas Müller the monitor engineer was using Nexo PS15s as the standard wedge with Alpha cabinets for side fill.
More Alphas and dozens of PS Series cabinets could be found across the two other stages, where a combination of Nexo STM, GEO D10 and GEO S12 line array modules were used to provide main PA and delays.
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