Ronson's 12-piece band, including string and brass sections, plays with a variety of guest vocalists - rarely the same bill twice. In the UK alone, the guest list has included Amy Winehouse, Adele, Tim Burgess of the Charlatans, rapper Rhymefest, and Australian vocalist Daniel Merriweather. One of the few faces always to be found in the same place is front-of-house engineer Matthew Kettle, sitting behind a DigiDesign D-Show mixing a Nexo GEO T line array system, supplied by SSE Audio Group.
Kettle, who is a regular user of Nexo's GEO technology, has specified a digital network for the show, with CAT5 connections from his D-Show to the Nexo NX242 controllers and Camco Vortex 6 amplifiers. "It sounds fantastic, very clean, because we're losing all the copper in the signal path," says Kettle, who also spends a lot of time in the studio and is currently recording an album for Corinne Bailey Rae. "For me, the GEO T sounds most like studio monitors - it doesn't add to or colour the sound - it's left up to me to effect any difference. I've mixed on most of the big line arrays and Nexo is my first choice because it is transparent, it doesn't feel like you're listening to a PA."
Nexo's latest NXStream version software is implemented on Ronson's GEO T touring system, arrayed left/right with 11x GEO T4805 plus 3x T2815 with 4x CD18s per side. "With the NXStream load, I can see at front-of-house what all the processors are doing, if one is limiting This is a nice benefit, it makes a big difference."
Kettle is teamed up with the highly experienced system engineer Jason Hattams, who sets up the system for Ronson. "It never fails to impress me how GEO T provides such immediate results. Jay uses the Nexo proprietary GEOSoft design package, and the system will always sound exactly as the software predicted it would."
(Claire Beeson)
