Stadium Sound - Nexo

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 2Stadium SoundA profile of NEXO stadium sound installationswww.nexo.fr

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 3NEXO Stadium InstallationsStade de France, ParisThe Stade de France in St Denis, Paris, is France’s iconic national stadium, withseating capacity for 80,000 beneath its immense floating roof. The Stade has usedNEXO sound reinforcement systems since it was built for the 1998 World Cup footballtournament. An all-NEXO line-array sound reinforcement system using elegant whiteGEO S12 cabinets has recently replaced the original NEXO Alpha design.Purpose-built for events as well as its primarysporting engagements, football and rugby, theStade de France has a distinctive elliptical designby architects Aymeric Zublena, Claude Constantini,Michel Macary and Michel Regembal. With all itsdifferent uses, this huge structure is oftenconsidered to be a stadium for the 3rd millennium.To provide equally forward-looking SR facilities,French event production company and installationspecialist Melpomen (part of the SSE Audio Group)was commissioned, working alongside NEXO andthe SDF sound department to coordinate thedesign and installation of a 13-zone audio system.Put together with NEXO’s GEOSoft programme andEASE, Melpomen’s design featured nearly 300xNEXO GEO S12 loudspeaker cabinets, speciallyenhanced for this project, and nearly 30x RS18s,the first time NEXO has delivered these sub-bassunits into a sports stadium install.The NEXO system delivers...• control of the directivity of theloudspeaker output, which keeps thesound within regulation limits andwithin the stadium itself,• control of the operation of the system,which allows any signal to be sent toany zone from pitch to car-parks froma single control room.All images: ©Stade de France® - Macary, Zublena etRegembal, Costantini – Architectes, ADAGP – Paris 2011

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 4Experience and technology set NEXO apart from the crowdFor more than 30 years, NEXO soundreinforcement loudspeakers have representedthe pinnacle of innovative, convergenceinspireddesign and advanced manufacturingprocesses. NEXO’s comprehensive product lineincludes loudspeakers, analogue and digitalcontrol electronics and amplification, alldesigned to deliver consistent sound quality andlong-term reliability.NEXO’s integrated systems approach toloudspeaker research and development hasyielded notable dividends in the elite world ofstadium sound design, where consistency andversatility have won high-profile contracts.Integrated with RaySub technology sub-bass,the GEO S12 becomes a three-box toolkitoffering the highest audio quality standards,combined with controlled directivity, inoperationally-flexible networked solutions.As well as a small footprint and pleasingaesthetic profile, NEXO’s cabinets, teamed withNXAMP amplifier/processors, exceed regulatoryrequirements while offering singularprice:performance balance. All backed by theexpertise and experience of NEXO engineersbefore, during and after installation.Split to cover the upper and lower parts of thestadium, the system uses 40 clusters of NEXOcabinets for the stands; flown from the roof, 7xS12s are directed at the upper levels, while aseparate array of 6x S12s faces directly downtowards the lower levels. Another 32 cabinets ofS12 are used for fill at ground level. RS18s areflown, 27 in total. Any loudspeaker in any cabinetcan be changed in 30 minutes, supplementing theprotection afforded by the NEXO NXAMPs.32x NXAMPs provide a high level of diagnosticcontrol, tucked away in 9 amplifier rooms in thestadium roof. These provide full diagnosticinformation to the control room, warning of aproblem in a rack even if functionality is notactually affected.An additional 8x NXAMPs are used to control aseparate PA system for the stadium plaza, the openareas surrounding the stadium, which is equippedwith NEXO GEO S8 compact line array modules.The NXAMP is an EtherSound amplifier, and theStade de France system runs on a full EtherSoundnetwork. Such is the level of system control thatany input can be sent to any output at the Stade;publicity announcements for the car parks, or amessage to a specific area of the grandstand. Theconnectivity is via fibre optic cable, which runsfrom the 11x Yamaha SB168-ES stageboxes; tenkilometres have been installed in a ringarchitecture, which has itself saved a huge amountof cabling for the installation team.The main advantage is in flexibility, interoperabilityand monitoring with minimum latency. Less than20x AuviTran units in the stadium (1xAVM500, and1x AVNF49 unit in each of 9 racks for the fibreoptic safety ring control and management) makeup a network with matrix capability of 320x320.With AVNF49-ES units monitoring the amplifiers inthe racks, if one blows up, the system immediatelyswitches to another one. Every device iscontinually monitored: if anybody unplugs anythingin the stadium, it will immediately show on thescreen in the control room.One of the key components of NEXO's successfulformula for stadia is the new customised S12-STcabinet, a special-order variation on NEXO’spopular S12 line array design, modified it with a+3dB treble boost to provide the output necessaryfor a loudspeaker that is installed so far above itslisteners: 45 metres above, in the case of theStade de France.One remarkable aspect of the stadium’s design is thecushion of air that allows the lower stands to slide outin approximately 72 hours, depending on the differentconfigurations needed, allowing the stadium to bereconfigured to house a running track for track andfield events, or to be used for prestigious concertsand spectacles. One of the additional benefits of theMelpomen/NEXO design is that visiting productioncompanies, bringing in high-profile concert artists andtheatrical spectaculars, can opt to tie into thestadium’s system to cover the upper levels of seating.NEXO Stadium Installations

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 5NEXO Stadium InstallationsIbrox Stadium, GlasgowIbrox Stadium, home of Rangers Football Club, is one of the largest football stadia inthe UK. This historic venue in Glasgow, ‘listed’ as a heritage site, is of huge culturalimportance to its community of supporters; many fans have been attending matches,sitting in the same seat, for decades, and so the design and installation of a newsound system had to consider sensibilities far and above the provision of audibleevacuation instruction.AV consultant Richard Northwood of COMSpartnered with Glasgow-based installation companySound Acoustics and NEXO to specify a GEO S12line-array design to meet the club’s modern-dayneeds for a high-quality system, one of the mostsignificant AV/PA overhauls in British football.“I think we’ve ended up with the bestsoundingstadium system in the UK.”Richard NorthwoodNorthwood’s design, which offers wider bandwidthand lower frequencies than Ibrox’s previoussystem, is capable of delivering superior prematchand mid-match entertainment and audiosupport for the on-screen advertising.Unlike the famous elliptical shape of the Stade deFrance, Ibrox has a more conventional rectangulardesign. The two matching side stands house7,500 fans at each end. The long sides of thestadium’s rectangle, named as the Govan Standand the Bill Struth Main Stand, seat the majority ofspectators. In the roof of each of these two shorterstands are 2 clusters of NEXO GEO S12 line arraymodules, each cluster comprising 6 cabinets, andalternating with pairs of RS18 sub bass.In the long stands, there are 4 clusters of S12modules, and 3x RS18 sub bass points. SingleS12s and NEXO PS8s handle the balconyrequirements of the club deck in the main stand,and additional clusters of GEO S1210 support thelarge video screens in the corners of the stadium.In total, there are just over 100 NEXO loudspeakercabinets in the stadium, entirely powered by 12xNXAMP4x4 loudspeaker managementprocessor/amplifiers.NEXO’s GEO S12 cabinets array into very compactclusters which don’t obscure any sightlines. Theinstallation is zoned per stand, with the pitch beingan extra zone, and we have wired each clusterindividually back up to the roof, which enables

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 6control over which boxes are coupled in eachcluster. By doing that, more power can be put intothe lower boxes, which are throwing over a longerdistance. With its IPCOV, the GEO S12 has an IP54rating, critical for stadium use as it promises alevel of protection against the weather.Ibrox is using NEXO’s customised S12-ST cabinet,a special-order variation on the popular S12 linearray design, modified with a +3dB treble boost toprovide the output necessary for a loudspeakerthat is installed so far above its listeners. Ibrox hasalso become the first stadium in the UK to installNEXO RS18 subs.“As near as one can get to hi-fi in aperformance space as large as this.”Richard NorthwoodSound Acoustics has overseen every step of theinstallation project, from running 3.5 kilometres ofcables to extend the existing fibre network, tosetting up the diagnostic and maintenanceprotocols based on the functionality of theNXAMPs, which are also being used to drive thestadium’s existing 100V line system. The smallfootprint of the NXAMP offers more power for lessrack footprint, with attendant cost savings. “Andthe use of the NXAMPs ensured that we wereBS5839 Part 8 and BS7827 compliant,” saysRichard Northwood.Northwood used NEXO's NS-1 software to satisfyhimself that dispersion would be exactly the samein each of the stadium's 51,000+ seats. Thisprediction tool, combined with the uniformity ofGEO cabinets, allows consultants to be confidentabout the performance of NEXO arrays.NEXO Stadium Installations

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 7NEXO Stadium InstallationsNEXO in the stadia of FranceStade de ValenciennesStade de ReimsStade de LensStade de BordeauxStade de la Mediterranee MontpellierStade de NantesArenes de MetzIn France, regional football stadia showcase theperformance of NEXO loudspeakers in extensiveEtherSound-networked systems – many of theseinstallations have deployed NEXO’s GEO S12loudspeaker design, in particular the S1230 twowayenclosures.Paired with NEXO's proprietary GEOSoft2 designsoftware, the scalable GEO S Series offers absolutepredictability. The GEO S1230 cabinet has been usedas the central building block in all these installations,integrated into EtherSound-controlled networks usingNEXO’s NX242 TDControllers, Auvitran links andsoftware, Yamaha matrix and mixing consoles, andpowered by CAMCO amplifiers.One of the largest projects in France is the Stadede la Beaujoire in Nantes, which was handled byrental and fixed installation company Melpomen,(part of the SSE Audio Group) headquartered inNantes. Nearly 100x S1230 arrayable two-wayenclosures have been used in this 38,000-seaterground, home of Nantes F.C..Stade de la Beaujoire was required to upgrade itssound systems, both PA and VA, to comply withEuropean regulations. Contract tender documents,drawn up by the City of Nantes and technicaldesign consultants Labeyrie, asked for a singlesystem which could handle all securityannouncements as well as act as the main PA.The solution was to use the EtherSound protocolwith impedance loudspeakers, and the Stade de laBeaujoire became the first venue in the world tochoose NEXO’s S1230 loudspeaker, a veryconvincing package of high SPL in a low-weightcluster, a maximum of 200kg each, which wasimportant in a venue like this, where it is difficult tofly heavy speakers from the roof.The system uses 96x NEXO GEO S1230loudspeakers in clusters of 4 or 5, in 22 positionsabout 20 metres apart. The installation uses speciallymade16 sq.mm speaker cable to reduce signal loss.Each S1230 is a two-way enclosure, capable ofexceptional MF-LF output (103dB SPL nominalsensitivity-1W@1m) from the single 12" loudspeaker,which is coupled to a proprietary Directivity PhaseDevice (DPD). Vertical MF/HF pattern control, in thecoupled plane, is array-dependent. Horizontal MF/HFcoverage is is fixed, via NEXO’s patented ConfigurableDirectivity Device (CDD) flanges, at 80° or 120°.Four amplifier racks are located around the stadium,linked to each other and to the control room by twofire-resistant fibre optic links. Each contains up to 6xCamco Vortex 6 power amplifiers, plus a back-up ineach group, delivering total network redundancy. Inthe event of total power failure in the stadium, thesystem will continue to function for 30 minutes.The installers have developed bespoke (custom)software which allows the master control room operatorto check all loudspeaker clusters and amplifiers in thefour rack rooms. These amplifier ‘monitors’ keep a realtimeeye on amplifier temperature, current and voltageat each speaker cluster. This additional level of securityis necessary by regulation because the system isperforming combined PA/VA tasks.The security system itself is divided into seven zones.In the Master Control Room, a Yamaha DME handlesall automatic mixing functions for security messagingand fire announcements, allowing mandatory totalsystem override for the latter. PA system control is viaa PC, from where an operator can adjust any elementof the system, closing off an amplifier or changing apatch on a NEXO NX242 system controller.

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 8Stade de Marrakech, MoroccoThe Stade de Marrakech was designed by by Sâd Benkirane and GregottiAssociati International, primarily to host football matches. With capacity for morethan 45,000, the venue is home to Kawkab Marrakech, and is one of the finestnew stadia in north Africa.The audio architecture draws on the successful integration in France of theEtherSound-based mix of NEXO, Auvitran and Yamaha audio products, andtheir proven advantages of superior audio quality and speech intelligibility,flexibility and control, and real-time system supervision.38 clusters of NEXO’s GEO S line-array clusters have been deployed tocreate this 16-zone system, a total of 196x S1230 cabinets in total. Theseare powered by 16x NXAMP4x4 amplifiers, connected to the EtherSoundnetwork via NXES104 cards.System integrator and AV contractor ENCOM of Morocco chose NEXO onthe basis of the product range’s full compliance with the tender bookspecifications and also its success in high-profile sports venues in Europe.Design and supportAt NEXO, we believe in supporting the consultant, not in trying to be one!NEXO is able to provide full sound system designsupport, offering our extensive experience andpowerful modelling tools to augment the resourcesof consultancies and integrators, or even to providecomplete venue designs on their behalf.At the heart of our design process is NS-1, NEXO’spowerful system configuration and simulation toolwhich ensures uniform SPL coverage of any NEXOsystem in any venue.NS-1 is a powerful simulation tool that enablesNEXO users to configure and optimise theperformance of any NEXO system by predicting itsbehaviour in any venue. An intuitive drag and dropinterface includes all NEXO GEO, Alpha, Alpha Eand PS Systems, plus all sub bass cabinets, withmeasured speaker data processed along withcomplex mathematical data to predict SPL anddelay coverage in 3 dimensions.Combining full acoustical and mechanicalcomputations, NS-1 builds on the features of theexisting GEOSoft application, all of which arepresent in the new software. Along with tools foroptimising curved vertical array design, a Helpsection defines mechanical constraints to establishflown system safety, and generates reports forsystem dimensions, weight, gravity centre position,forces, moments, working load and safety factors.NS-1 is the essential software tool to ensurefocussed, uniform SPL coverage across any givenaudience geometry. Its architecture has been keptas simple as possible to help the sound engineer tofocus on producing balanced sound reinforcementacross any given audience geometry.NS-1 is program-compatible with EASE, allowingthe user to import EASE projects into NS-1 andexport NS-1 designs back into EASE. Users areincreasingly drawing on the vast resources ofGoogle SketchUp in conjunction with NS-1.In addition, it provides mechanical information forall clusters in agreement with Structural AnalysisReports (available via the Help-menu): dimensions,weight, gravity center position, forces, moments,working load and safety factor. GEO S8, GEO S12,GEO D and GEO T Structural Analysis Reports havebeen validated by German CertificationOrganization RWTUV Systems GmbH.NEXO Stadium Installations

#32715 - Stadium Bro reprint_Layout 29/04/2013 15:35 Page 1Equipment ProfileGEO S12Fixed or mobile. Horizontal or vertical. The scalable, mid-sized GEO S12 systemdelivers unrivalled flexibility and performance. GEO S1210 and S1230 cabinetsextend GEO’s global reputation for advanced vertical array design intohorizontal configurations, with a comprehensive range of rigging accessoriesavailable for a wide variety of applications.GEO S12-ST. Special-order variant for long-throw stadia applications.PS-R2Compact, high-output, linear response loudspeakers. Scalable systems, from PS8 toPS10 to PS15, offering extended bandwidth and sound pressure levels.RS 18Omni or cardioid, RAY SUB defines a new level ofversatility in subwoofers with high SPL output andunparalleled control over directivity.NXAMPThe complete integration of power and control.NXAMP 4X1 and 4X4 powered TDcontrollers combinesophisticated DSP speaker and amplifier control withhigh output capacities to provide a dependable andcost-effective amplification solution.NEXO S. A.Parc D’Activitédu Pré de la Dame JeanneB.P.560128 PLAILLYFranceTel: +33 (0)3 44 99 00 70Fax: +33 (0)3 44 99 00 30E-mail: info@nexo.frNEXO LatAMC.C. No 33. Suc 49Caballito (1449)Buenos AiresArgentinaTel: +54 114 432 1911Fax: +54 114 431 1007E-mail: info@nexo.frNEXO AsiaGPO Box 806Hong KongSAR ChinaTel: +852 9096 3472Fax: +852 2104 3214E-mail: info@nexo.frwww.nexo.fr