Situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, Baltic lies at the heart of the regeneration area of Gateshead Quays. Formerly the Baltic Flour Mills, a disused 1950's grain warehouse, its transformation into BALTIC, a leading international contemporary visual arts space, indeed one of the largest spaces for contemporary art in Europe, was a £46m project funded largely by the National Arts Lottery fund. Tom Cullen, Multi Media manager at Baltic, was clear on his choice of Nexo right from the start. "I've been a fan of Nexo since 1986 when they came out with their first wedge monitor," he explained. "The quality of the sound knocked me out then, and I've remained impressed by everything they've developed since. We needed a system for the performance space here, so the first thing I did was get on the phone to Fuzion to talk about Nexo. Mick Butler came to see me and between us we worked out a system that worked in the space."
Among the most important criteria was that the system should be totally flexible to reflect the constantly changing nature of the space which could be anything from an art gallery to a performance space. To that end, nothing has been installed. Instead, everything has been supplied in flightcases and mobile racks so that the whole thing remains both modular and portable. The system comprises four stacks of Alpha E, an S2 sub and six PS-15s for use as monitors, all driven by Crown MA Series amplifiers and controlled with a Nexo NX241 digital controller. Tom also specified six PS-8 loudspeakers for use as delays when required, or to sit in the lighting rig for discreet conference audio. There is a further portable PS-10 system driven by Crown Pulse amplifiers which is also supplied in a flightcase complete with radio mics, a cassette deck and a mixer.
Apart from flexibility, it was also important that the system be powerful and versatile enough to cope with the often extreme demands placed on it by artists who use sound in a highly unconventional manner, often using PCs and banks of processors to achieve the effects they want. "I've seen other rigs blow up within five minutes of a sonic artist getting his hands on it," explains Tom. "Their dynamic range is huge, so it's a far more challenging environment than a conventional production, but the Nexo handles it beautifully. I particularly like being able to switch from 80Hz to 63Hz on the sub. I've always enjoyed using Nexo, but it's great to see that it handles a testing environment like this as competently as a rock and roll gig."
(Ruth Rossington)
