UK - Nexo hosted the first public listening sessions for its new STM modular line array, choosing the LH2 Studios in London as a venue for the international production community. Despite terrible January weather causing London airports to close, prominent rental companies from all over Europe, and several from the Far East, made the trip to discover the reality behind Nexo's much-discussed Scale Through Modularity concept.
In LH2's huge production rehearsal studio, which regularly hosts the biggest artists in the world from the Rolling Stones to Robbie Williams, Nexo and its first UK rental customer Capital Sound Hire set up the STM modular line array in a nine-sets a-side configuration.
Over the course of four days, the STM Sessions, which were hosted by Nexo's concert sound manager Stuart Kerrison, also included workshops on Nexo's proprietary design software NS-1, and innovative amplification and system management solution, the NUAR. Visitors were able to see STM in close-up - R&D engineers Francois Deffarges, Matthias Larrieu and Eric Ecosse opened up the cabinets for inspection, so that visitors could get a detailed look at drivers and other components, notably the innovative rigging system that is a hallmark of the STM concept.
A full team of design and tech support engineers from Nexo - including Joseph Carcopino, Julien Dorel, David Hochstenbach, Nicholas Poitrenaud and Val Gilbert - were in attendance to educate visitors in the finer points of system design software, and digital networking on both the EtherSound and Dante platforms.
As with any Nexo event, hospitality was a high priority! A rolling catering service from Eat to the Beat kept visitors and Nexo crew well fed and watered, and the final night of Sessions week was rounded off with a classic Nexo party. Performances from beat poet Malcolm Bennett, and the talented indie-folk band Ahab showed the STM system in a different light. Ironically Ahab's engineer Gareth Williams, the only man to mix live music on the system all week, is a legendary monitor engineer but he loved STM anyway. "I don't want to give it back," and was delighted to sign the band up to endorse their favourite stage wedges, the Nexo 45°N-12 line monitors.
Nexo would like to say thank you to Neg Earth, and in particular to Rob the lampie for doing such a great job that even the sound engineers noticed the lights.
