NEXO GEO M12 tames a tricky acoustic environment at the Java Jazz Festival

Since the first Java Jazz Festival more than 15 years ago, the event has become an annual fixture in the Indonesian entertainment calendar, attended either for work or pleasure by all the most influential music and sound industry professionals in the region. Like so many events around the world, the festival took a Covid‐ enforced hiatus over the past couple of years but returned in celebratory style to the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran over the weekend on May 27‐29, with bands and musicians performing on a total of nine stages.

One of the more challenging acoustic environments at the festival was the GRAB Hall, a former aircraft hangar in which local rental company DSS Sound Systems deployed a NEXO GEO M12 line array, with support from the technical team at local distributor Yamaha Music Indonesia Distributor (YMID).

“With no acoustic treatment on the concrete walls or domed ceiling, the room generates a lot of unwelcome resonance at certain frequencies, making it very difficult to achieve both clarity and impact from the sound system” reports Ryan Indra Kusumah from YMID. “But the NEXO system was able to overcome the challenges and performed brilliantly.”

With Yamaha Rivage PM7 and CL5 consoles mixing FOH and monitors, the full system comprised of two hangs of 9 x GEO M12s, with 12 x MSUB18 and 4 x RS18 subs, and 4 x PS15s as front fills. Amplification and processing came from 5 x NEXO NXAMP powered controllers.

“Using a NEXO system of this scale in a hall measuring 38x35 meters obviously gave us plenty of headroom, but our first consideration was to achieve even coverage and frequency directivity control to tame the acoustic problems evident in such a challenging environment” comments Norman Hajadi, the System Engineer appointed to oversee the system.

“We deployed the subs in cardioid configuration after modelling the system and venue in NEXO NS‐1 simulation software” reports Gabriel from YMID’s on‐site technical team. “The result was spot on and, with only minor adjustment, worked perfectly to minimise low end bleed onto the stage, while distributing low‐end energy evenly throughout the venue.”

“Kudos to the NEXO NS‐1 simulation that so accurately predicted the coverage of the system within the hall” adds fellow YMID tech team member Edmonds. “Following the system we designed in NS‐1, we flew the speakers and were ready to go. With slap back avoided, we could direct SPL precisely where we needed it.”

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