TAMPA—More than 30 acts performed over five musical stages during Funshine Fest, held May 3-5 on the fairgrounds of Florida State in Tampa with an attendance of 20,000. Main stage artists included Train, the Smashing Pumpkins, REO Speedwagon, Styx, the Wallflowers, Cheap Trick, New Found Glory, Gary Allen, and Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional.
ESI Audio of Tampa provided audio production, and this year, the new NEXO STM was used as the Live Nation Amphitheatre main stage line array. Company President, Erick Celeiro, functioned as FOH tech and Ozzy Giron acted as monitor tech on the rig. The system consisted of 15 M46 per side flown, 15 B112 per side flown, 32 S118 subs ground stacked, 10 NUAR racks that included 2x 4x4 NXAmps, and four M46s stacked on S118 subs for front fills. The entire system was running from front of house via the Dante network to the amp racks. A Yamaha PM5D was at the front of house mix position.
About the new STM system, Live Nation Amphitheatre production manager Andy Martinez said, " I have seen many systems come in and out of here, and never had a system that rigs and flies so easy and sounds amazing.” And, REO front of house engineer, Neil Schaefer, added, “I had the pleasure of using the NEXO STM, and having had plenty of time in front of NEXO rigs over the years, my expectations were high. The STM PA is very tidy with clever rigging. Most important, it sounded very good. Smooth, powerful, and responsive; a very nice rig indeed!”
The NEXO STM Series (Scale Through Modularity) loudspeaker cabinets are the first of its kind on the market and combine the best of Alpha functionality with the technical innovation of GEO waveguide designs, delivering a powerful, flexible, and easy to use system. STM enables line array systems to scale up or down depending on event audience size, from 1,000 to 100,000 people. STM is unique in that it is the first vertical array system to offer scalable LF, making it easy to add extra bass cabinets for increased power and headroom, without introducing unwanted phase anomalies.
The outdoor Pavilion Stage used a NEXO GEO T line array along with a Yamaha CL5 at front of house used by mix engineer Jan Javier, with a CL1 at monitors for engineer Rob “DH” Durkee. “I felt very comfortable taking the CL out for the three-day festival with multiple bands, some with their own engineers, some without,” states Javier. The CL screen is like the difference between a regular VHS tape and a Blue-Ray DVD. I was using AES outs all the way to the amps. The system sounded great, the desk was very easy to use from the first day. The next day, I put the Premium Rack’s Portico Compressor in stereo in the left and right, and what a difference, just passing through the unit; smooth and warm become the words to best describe the sound. I used the DCAs, as I am used to mixing that way. Assignments are very easy, and finding my way around the desk is simple and very intuitive.”
“The guest engineers were amazed at the sound of the desk and how friendly it is, notes Javier. All who used it said they would tour with it.” Javier said they ran the stage rack onstage, and ran a cat6 snake out. He also said he noticed the pre-amps are much more responsive and a lot warmer out of the box. The Pavilion Stage hosted Lone Bellow, Tonic, Big Sam's Funky Nation, and Dead Confederates. “They all loved the sound.”
The Concourse Stage housed a Yamaha CL1 at front of house with mixing by Bryan Rogers and Justin Lenards. An LS9 was used for monitors. Rogers said the CL1 was “like butter... smooth and creamy.” Lenards who mixed FOH and Monitors said “Love it, great little console.”
For more information on ESI Audio, visit www.esiaudio.com.
For more information on the NEXO STM and Yamaha CL Series, visit www.yamahaca.com.
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Photo ID: NEXO STM and Yamaha PM5D during FOH mix for Styx
Photo ID: L to R:Pat Clark, VP ESI, Yamaha’s Brian Coviello, Andy Martinez, Live Nation Amphitheater Technical Director