Open air and open sound: Nexo line arrays for Europe's greenest concert hall

In Nuremberg, Germany, a large PA system comprising elements of 4 different NEXO line arrays entertained audiences of 60-75,000 per night at the Klassik Open-Air Music Festival .
In Phase Event, one of the primary rental suppliers of NEXO systems in Germany, designed and supplied the system for this biggest classical music open air event in Europe.

This unrivalled success story started in 2000, on the occasion of the City of Nuremberg’s 950th anniversary. Three free open air concerts performed by the city’s two major orchestras were intended to be a great party in the Luitpoldhain park. The event was modelled on similar concerts in New York’s Central Park and particularly on the “Proms in the Park” in London’s Hyde Park.

The idea was that even people who normally do not listen to classical music could get together in a relaxed atmosphere, free of charge, to get to know “their” orchestras. Due to the musical quality of the Nuremberg State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the ambience of Luitpoldhain and the relaxed atmosphere, these concerts have evolved a culture of an evening picnic culture by candlelight, culminating in a firework display.

The 2019 Klassik Open-Air programme is now in its third consecutive year with NEXO systems, and also included the Big Band Jazz concerts, which take place every other season in the Luitpoldhain park. This open-air auditorium, often called Europe’s greenest concert hall, is 400 metres wide, asking the main PA to throw 300m to the back of the audience area.

In Phase Event CEO Ernst Sieber and his team rely on their NEXO STM Series modular line array to provide the main PA for this large-format outdoor show, making only minor alterations to the system design that has seen them successfully through three annual festivals. For example, the 2019 edition increased the number of delay towers for the growing audience area, as well as the addition of a small number of STM B112 bass modules and STM S118 subs into the main PA to enhance the bass response for the Big Band jazz performances.

Main PA hangs each side use 16x STM M28 compact ‘omni’ modules, flown underneath 3x STM M46 main modules. The 4x B112 bass modules are flown in a separate array behind the main hang. In front of the stage, a combination of 16x STM S118 and 8x RS18 subs are groundstacked, running in cardioid mode.
Additional M28 cabinets, plus some PS15s, were used for outfill, and PS15-R2s provided four small sidefills.

Around the huge natural auditorium, there are fourteen delay towers deploying a range of NEXO line array systems: some with GEO S8, some with GEO M10, and some with GEO M6. As Ernst Sieber points out, “the absolute phase linearity of all the NEXO systems makes it possible to achieve this set up, and do so in a relatively short time. They all achieve a high range with superb audio performance at the highest level.”

All PA was running on optical fibre over a Dante network, controlled by NEXO/Yamaha amps and consoles. At front-of-house, mix engineer Florian Denzler was using a Lawo MC236 console with Yamaha CL1 as a Matrix and 4x Lake LM44 drives.