Testimony: One Man’s Decision
A loudspeaker field report
Chuck Westfall, owner of NY-based Tapestry Sound was looking for what he calls his “next-generation speaker box”. What follows is his brief essay on this process.
Why stand in line if you don’t have to? That’s the question I asked myself
last summer over and over again. For me, the purchase of my next-generation
speaker box would take me well into the new decade. The choice had to
be right.
LINE ARRAYS?
First up was the line array from L’Acoustic. They looked great, tasted
great, sounded great what’s to hate? You set up the line array (never
less than four boxes) point them towards the audience and away you go!
Works well…damn well!
But, I’m from New York. Buildings here are tall and the rooms are small.
What if your audience is not set out in front of your line array like
little soldiers, but scattered about in lumps and bits with a thrust here
and a balcony there. What happens when you don’t have an audience of 1,000
people or more?
Here in New York (and elsewhere, I’m sure), we have big shows, little
shows, medium shows, outdoor shows... well, you get the idea. Most line
arrays sound great (and don’t get me started on its directionality and
control) but, if we need to change the array’s basic configuration, we
can’t.
We needed a new generation, relatively small, loudspeaker with split tops
and bottoms. We need to set up one box or one hundred and one boxes, point
them at an audience, and have it sound great.
We required a versatile box that would succeed in many and various situations,
fitting in with the various rooms and sets. After previewing several new
generation loudspeakers, the NEXO Alphas were clearly a perfect choice
for our diverse loudspeaker needs.
QUICK!
Our first Alpha application was in New Orleans with the Neville Brothers,
French loudspeakers for a French vibe and a great band. Unfortunately,
when we got onsite and the rig points wouldn’t work (don’t ask).
Quick, get some scaffold! Quick! Set it up. Quick! Take it down, its in
the video sight lines. Quick! Move the speakers off stage, way off stage.
Darn, there’s a big hole in the middle. Quick! Rig up a center fill. Quick!
Get into rehearsal. Bottom line, with all the last minute onsite changes
thrown at us, we were able to adapt. The show went well and sounded great.
If I had been on “line”…well, I don’t care to think about it.
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Next up were two industrial shows for Lucent Technologies, one
in San Diego and one in Palm Springs. Both were straight-ahead ballroom
industrial shows, heavy on radio lavs. In this scenario, the loudspeaker coverage was so good that it made one line of delays redundant and the response was so smooth they nearly made the 1/3rd octave EQs unnecessary. |
Our third Alpha deployment was a ship naming in Ft. Lauderdale for Royal
Caribbean Cruise Lines. (see Photo #1) Audience seating was 40ft(12.2m)
deep by 120ft(36.6m) wide, No problem there! We just added boxes until
we got the wide dispersion we needed, no fuss, and no muss.
This floating show was orchestra with click, singers downstage, and speeches
at the podium. All worked, even in the south Florida rain. The event got
very loud without sounding harsh or scratchy.
We’ve used these boxes in many configurations. Each time they exceeded
all expectations. The NEXO boxes proved to be versatile, quick and user
friendly.
Given the fast pace at which projects come and go and the inevitable onsite
changes, the Alphas have performed perfectly in every situation. Did I
mention they sound great?
Chuck Westfall is the principal Tapestry Sound is based in Lindenhurst, NY, with satellite locations in Orlando, FL, Phoenix, AZ, and San Diego, CA. Westfall can be reached via phone at Tapestry Sound +1(631)842-1670.
July/August 2001 Live Sound International