Sound Reinforcement Principle – NEXO ETC1 2016

As part of Yamaha's dedication towards enhancing technical expertise in the industry, NEXO ETC1 seminar was organised to help address the understanding of key concepts in designing and implementations of professional audio systems. A variety of topics were covered, namely, sound system designs and considerations, loudspeaker principles and digital audio networking. Yamaha and NEXO aims to bring together budding enthusiasts, students and industry audio practitioner to create conducive environment for sharing and networking, a step to further improve student involvement in the industry.

The seminar was an eye-opening experience for the students from different institutions such as Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic and ITE College Central and West as they attended a variety of technical talks with the focus on real life applications. The event was especially beneficial for students as they learned from NEXO’s Engineering Support Manager, Nicholas Poitrenaud and he was able to better integrate knowledge acquired in the classroom into real life examples by the end of session. Traditionally, learning these theories through technical papers might not always reap the best results as some audio concept such as air absorption coefficient may be difficult to grasp through the means of reading. Therefore, this seminar has provided a platform for both students and industry practitioners to discuss and be exposed to practical case studies to help gel their understanding into reality. In addition, students also have the chance to observe how various industrial tools can be implemented to perform an analysis on professional equipment, hence reinforcing on their understanding in audio technology to aid them in making better informed choices in the future.

A noteworthy highlight of the event would be the training session in NEXO's NS-1, a simulation software for system configuration and design. For most attendees, it was the first time they were introduced to such software. The training session had empowered the participants with the ability and opportunity to explore their individual system designs with industry standard simulation tools to evaluate its performance and further on system optimisation. An interesting observation would be the use of NS-1 to graphically represent the fundamental differences between different types of speakers (e.g. point source and line source) where it can be challenging to stimulate and experience the differences in a classroom environment.

Being part of the education program with Ngee Ann Polytechnic, this is Yamaha’s 1st year in organising such events to cater to students, an initiative to help further boost the calibre of the existing technical expertise in Singapore. The collaboration with Ngee Ann Polytechnic has helped Yamaha in executing programmes that are catered for students and lecturers. As education continues to play an integral role in the development of the industry, such events is of importance so as to help nurture the future talents that will in time be the drive of the industry.