LEGENDary Show Features LEGENDary Yamaha and NEXO System

BUENA PARK, Calif.—Over 13 million visitors vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina famous for its 60 miles of white sandy beaches, golf courses and entertainment venues. Earlier this month, Strategic Connections, Inc. was hired to completely overhaul a 600-seat theater in order to facilitate celebrity impersonator show LEGENDS IN CONCERT. Owned by Las Vegas-based entertainment production company On Stage Entertainment, LEGENDS first burst onto the Las Vegas stage nearly 30 years ago and has since moved on with touring productions around the globe.

The renovated from the ground up 600-seat LEGENDS Theater features a projected stage with surround seating on three sides, a new production lighting system; side stage monitors for close-up views from every seat, and a state-of-the-art NEXO and Yamaha audio system. The choice of installing a NEXO line array speaker system was based on discussions between Jim Bang, of Strategic Connections, Joe Rimstidt of Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems, and Bruce Bailey, LEGENDS Technical Director and Audio Engineer.

With seven LEGENDS shows per week along with a matinee, special events, choir and orchestral performances, the design team knew it needed a top-notch audio system.

The audio system features two main clusters of NEXO GEO S12s, two out fill clusters of three GEO S12s, six Yamaha IF2205 speakers used as front fills with and additional four used for delays, two of the new NEXO RS18 sub woofers, two NXAMP 4X4 amplifiers to power the NEXO cabinets, Yamaha XP7000 amps for the IF speakers, a Yamaha M7CL-ES digital audio console, DME ES satellite unit, and EtherSound network.

"The greatest challenge was the schedule," states Bang. "We had approximately a 15-day window to install the PA and new lighting and video system, not to mention the distributed A/V. Due to scheduling, Bob Cook, the acoustical consultant, wasn't brought aboard until late in the process. The theater opened on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, with no acoustical treatments and the grand opening followed the first week of April. The difference was night and day, as all treatments were in place in time for the official opening."

"The venue itself offered several challenges from the onset," says Bailey. "The auditorium is set in a 'football shape' and the entire stage is sitting within the audience area, creating an arc-style in-the-round setting. When I began the design layout, I immediately knew there would be four separate arrays surrounding the stage. We were also faced with the issue that the speaker hangs themselves would be as far above the audience as they would be from the rear walls, so I knew front fill would be vital and main arrays would have to be able to cover an unusual amount of vertical space with very few boxes. I wasn't looking for a typical long throw line array and with so many projection screens in the area; I couldn't do hangs of seven or eight enclosures, so I had to keep this rig 'high and tight'. I needed the controllability of a line array but not the distance. The NEXO GEO S12's being available in 10- and 30-degree boxes was an enormous help in this area. We were able to configure each array to include two 10's on top for the back of the room and two 30's on the bottom for down-fill, without having to exceed a comfortable array curve and end up losing the coupling of the drivers."

Bang initially demoed a NEXO GEO S8s system at St Brendan's Catholic for Bailey. "But, when he heard the GEO S12's at Christ Community Church, Bruce listened to them for about 30 seconds and said 'that's what I want!'" Prior to hearing the NEXO cabinets, Bailey demoed several major manufacturers' boxes in a number of settings. "My line of thought, when designing systems, tends to follow the principles that a) in this day and age, almost all major manufacturers build enclosures that sound pretty good on the top end (almost all of them), and b) almost any bottom end can be made to sound nice and tight with some gentle tuning. So I am generally focused on two things; consistency of tone across the full area of coverage and how 'natural and organic' the mid-range sounds – mainly in vocal reproduction."

Once Bailey read the description of the NEXO horn driver assembly with the side address reflector and the bow tie on the 12's and Bang explained the configuration of the boxes, it got him thinking. "Both of these design developments made a lot of sense to me; I went into the demo with an open mind, and the GEO 12's immediately shined in both of the areas I was most judgmental in. Everything sounds good when you're standing in the sweet spot," Bailey says, "but as I walked the left to right field of coverage (at near and far seating), I was very happy to hear a fluid and consistent tonality with every step. I am usually very particular about the way a component responds to EQ after the installation. Some enclosures tend to react to EQ in a way that is, to say the least, unexpected. The NEXO GEO S 12's tend to curve the audio exactly the way you expect them to when you make adjustments. I really dislike when you turn a knob expecting to hear something and instead, you hear something completely different due to the inherent reaction of a speaker enclosures design. Touchdown NEXO!"

"I was worried about any stage spill from the overhead subs, so Jim told me about the newer RS18 cardio subs", notes Bailey. "The cardio pattern of the NEXO RS18 Ray Subs works as well as advertised. I played with several ideas of hanging subs versus under stage placement. Jim and I both agreed that hanging the subs would be the way to go since we really didn't want any of our clientele to deal with 18's punching them in the chest. The results are awesome."

In terms of the audio console, Bailey said the M748-ES was his first and only choice. "Seeing how I still have three Yamaha ProMix01 consoles and they are still running, I knew I would be putting in a Yamaha console. The Yamaha M7CL just seems to be the best bang for the buck work surface. I love having all my inputs right there on the surface with no layers." He uses his iPad with the new Yamaha StageMix App. A Yamaha DME is being used for system EQ, custom control panels and routing, processing and distribution of zone audio as well as delay fills and front fills. "The custom GUI, with snap shots, allows for quick configuration changes for attendance variations, also very helpful when I want to do a different house EQ +/or array level for Orchestral events," adds Bailey.

"Overall, we are very satisfied with the performance of the NEXO rig, as well as the rest of the PA. The guys did an amazing job tuning this PA while it was inside what sounded like a giant metal warehouse, but once the acoustical treatment was completed, and we were able to make a few tweaks, the rig really started showing its glory."