La Esfera Enjoys Rounded Sound with New Yamaha System
The domed roof of La Esfera (The Sphere) is a distinctive feature of the city of Alcobendas, north of Madrid, Spain. Hosting a variety of live entertainment, a recent major upgrade of the venue has seen a Yamaha / Nexo digital audio system installed.
Half-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the €650,000 project included new dressing rooms and public cloakrooms, upgraded entrance facilities, an improved electrical system, a higher stage and all-new stage lighting and sound.
The venue is almost constantly in use by performances which showcase a wide range of local, national and international culture, from rock concerts to folk music. This variety of use was a key factor in specifying a new system, as was the requirement that the front of house multicore be routed around the edge of the auditorium. With these in mind, equipment supplier and installer Milan Acústica specified a high quality Yamaha system, distributed via EtherSound to a Nexo loudspeaker system.
“Milan Acústica already knew the PM5D, which they really like the sound of, although this installation didn’t need a console of that size,” says Jacinto López of Yamaha Music Europe Ibérica. “It was also very important to have a console which any sound engineer could walk up to and use in the shortest time possible.”
Given the long distance that the multicore had to cover, a digital solution was the best option. Milan Acústica chose an EtherSound-based system comprising a Yamaha M7CL-48ES mixing console with six AD8HR remote mic preamps, an NAI48-ES network interface and two DA824 digital-analogue converters.
“Audio quality was very important, but the PA system must not intrude on sightlines. The appearance of the stage had to be clean and open,” Jacinto continues. “To achieve this, the loudspeaker system comprises six Nexo GEO-S per side, with PS8 and PS10 front fills installed on the lighting truss and four PS15 sidefills.
“A Nexo NX242 speaker processor controls the system, meaning that the M7CL-48ES EtherSound output is fed straight to the system, without going through any unnecessary AD / DA conversion. This ensures that the audio quality is as high as it possibly can be.”
One technical challenge to overcome was that the lighting truss can be raised or lowered, as required for different events, meaning that the phase characteristics of the front fills can change.
“It was solved by individual EQ and delay characteristics for those speakers being saved as part of the scenes on the M7CL for different events,” says Jacinto. “It is a simple but effective solution, meaning no extra equipment was required.
“The system has achieved the best possible audio quality for the available budget and all users of it have been very impressed at how the sound at La Esfera has improved.”
