July 2008 - The Halle Münsterland is the largest events centre in the region of Westphalia in Germany. 80 years after the
first events were staged there, the Congress Hall has made a significant investment in a new sound reinforcement system for its
main auditorium, a cutting-edge design driven by an EtherSound audio network via a digital matrix, allowing the settings of
different sound reinforcement situations to be retrieved at the push of a button.
Jens Schmidt from installation specialists TRENDCO GmbH and Norbert Sangermann, the acoustics expert from CAMCO GmbH responsible
for fixed installations, joined forces to design a system tailored precisely to the Congress hall, offering significant benefits
of very compact size and an excellent price/performance ratio.
For Jens Schmidt and Norbert Sangermann, the concept design had to accommodate possible future requirements while offering the
clearest possible signal transmission. Decision-makers at the Halle Münsterland focussed very strongly on the reliability of
the system. The selection process for the new system involved listening to and comparing several systems, and it was the
outstanding sound quality of the NEXO/CAMCO system offered by TRENDCO that turned out be the deciding factor.
There were, however, a number of acoustic characteristics that had to be considered. For instance, the owners of the Congress
Hall didn't want any additional delay speakers in the great gallery or the auditorium area below it, but still required excellent
sound coverage in these areas. This was achieved by using NEXO GEO S8 line array modules as the main sound reinforcement
speakers, supported by CD12 sub-bass cabinets, all powered by CAMCO Tecton and Vortex amplifier models.
Further technical challenges were provided by the large, retractable front section of the stage and the fact that the main
loudspeaker suspension points were very far apart. The use of separate centre and out fill speaker systems addressed these
issues, NEXO PS15s in the centre, PS10s serving as outfills. On top of that, four more PS15s were used as monitors.
All systems are driven by an EtherSound audio network via a digital matrix, allowing the settings of the different sound
reinforcement situations to be retrieved at the push of a button. This enables the monitor-EQing, the delay times or the array
EQ, for instance, to be altered in the control room or on stage by W-Lan, while maintaining full control over the headroom of the
entire system or the wedges during normal operation.
The wide-ranging experience of engineer Sascha Klein in the live operation of digital audio greatly assisted the configuration
and administration of the whole digital system, and the close working relationship between CAMCO GmbH, the team at the Halle
Münsterland and TRENDCO GmbH as the company responsible for implementation, contributed to a very satisfactory result.
Equipment list:
Main-PA:
16 x NEXO GEO S805s
4 x NEXO GEO S830s
6 x NEXO CD12s
2 x NEXO NX242-ESs
3 x CAMCO Tecton-38.4s
2 x CAMCO Vortex-6s
Centre and Outfill
2 x NEXO PS15s
2 x NEXO PS10s
1 x NEXO NX242-ES
1 x CAMCO Tecton-38.4
1 x CAMCO Tecton-24.4
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