The new system was designed and installed by Z Professionnel, a Bordeaux-based rental company with offices in Poitiers. According to Z Professionnel's Bruno Gondrecourt, the brief was to optimise the existing Nexo system. "There was nothing wrong with the existing stage monitors (Nexo PS15s), but the rest of the installation was no longer up to modern standards and needed to be replaced," he explained.
"At the heart of the system is a fully loaded Innovason Sy48 with EtherSound capability. To that we added an AES/EBU to EtherSound bridge, a PC running Auvitran's ES-Monitor software for network management, and finally we swapped out the old Nexo TD analogue processors for NX242 digital controllers with NXtension-ES4 Expander Boards which improve processing capacities and add digital I/Os plus remote control functions via an EtherSound network."
Z Professionnel's David Rocher who actually designed the system is very pleased with the results. "The signal-to-noise ratio has been greatly improved thanks to the fact that we're now in the digital domain from the mic preamps in the desk all the way out to the amplifiers for the stage monitors," he noted. "The improved processing in the NX242s has also given us much better control of the loudspeakers. "However, the biggest improvements are definitely thanks to the Sy48."
(Jim Evans)
