Since its opening in 2007, the main Theatre had not seen an upgrade in its audio hardware. With more international acts gracing its stage as well as the needs and criteria of shows evolving, Mark Spencer, former student and Head of TRCC’s Audio Division, felt it was time the audio caught up to speed. “Audiences nowadays are now more in tune with what’s going on. They want quality for cost and with the new upgrade we not only plan to improve their experience, we also plan to enhance it.”
Keeping with the already installed system, System Integrators, PAVE System Pte Ltd, replaced TRCC’s old PA with Nexo GEO S12 line arrays. 2 clusters are now hung from the ceiling with 10 cabinets per side. All systems are driven by Nexo NXAMP digital TD Controller Amplifier, NXamp4x4C.
As the official distributor of NEXO systems in Singapore, Yamaha Music (Asia) Pte Ltd wasted no time in having the system shipped in from France. “We shipped the cabinets before PAVE won the tender. We had anticipated the need and we wanted to ensure that if we were awarded the project, things would be able to proceed without a glitch,” commented Lawrence Tan, PA Sales & Marketing for Yamaha Asia.
While there were other interested competitors, PAVE and Yamaha won the project by meeting the theatre’s criteria, namely having a system that could integrate with its existing system and still work with the 4 x NEXO Alpha S2 subwoofers.
Due to a slim time slot for the upgrade, all planning had to be done outside of the theatre. “The theatre had to remain functional throughout the entire upgrade as it had already been pre-booked 4 weeks in advance to the upgrade,” explained Lawrence. “A study was done to see how we could integrate the new system with the old. With that, PAVE did a physical mock up at our warehouse where they measured the angles and flew the speakers exactly as they would be in the theatre.” The NEXO Geo S12s were chosen because the team wanted to “integrate not degrade”.
Speaking about the new upgrade, Mark noted, “We started 3 weeks behind schedule due to all the shows that were taking place, and when they finally managed to remove the old cluster to replace it with the new system, the fine tuning alone took 2 days. Overall, though, the installation was pretty smooth and I think everyone did a really great job. We have worked with Yamaha for many years and there is a familiar support there. We trust what they do and the working relationship is really good as well. Now the theatre is as current as the acts that come through.”
sg.yamaha.com
nexo-sa.com
With thanks to E-Tech magazine for their help with this article.