STM CONCERT SOUND FOR CANADA’S ICON

May 2018 | News | Live Events | STM | Canada

Ginette Reno is a Canadian icon.  Her recent concert special in Quebec City made use of NEXO’s STM modular line array, supplied by Omnison.  Andrew King, editor-in-chief of Professional Sound magazine, was there to report on the show.

“It’s not unusual for Ginette Reno, the platinum-selling singer, author, composer, and actress, to perform in packed hockey arenas throughout her home province of Quebec. While those arenas are typically full of loyal fans who are intimately familiar with the artist’s heralded catalog of nearly 30 studio albums in English and French, in recent years, they’ve also seen her belting out the national anthem for the always sold-out Bell Centre during Montreal Canadiens playoff games as the team’s unofficial “lucky charm.”

When Reno took the stage at Quebec City’s Videotron Centre, it was for a very special one-off performance with a very special guest – or, rather, 57 very special guests: the Symphonic Orchestra of Quebec. What’s more, it was Pascalin Raynault – Reno’s son and an accomplished artist in his own right – conducting that evening.

While the Videotron Centre can host over 20,000 spectators when its bowl is configured for a concert, only 8,000 tickets were available for this intimate evening, dubbed Ginette Reno Symphonique.

The audio package deployed for Ginette Reno Symphonique was supplied by Montreal’s Omnison and the product of a collaboration between the artist’s longtime FOH engineer, Sylvain Gingras, and monitor engineer, Pierre du Berger. Despite both being veteran professionals with countless Reno performances under their belts, the two engineers found themselves working with some new equipment in some new territory, which is only fitting considering the unique nature of the performance.

Omnison has a sizeable complement of NEXO loudspeakers from various Series in its inventory, and Gingras has had a chance to put every one of those systems to work over the years as a freelance engineer and systems tech. He actually received his STM System Training Certifcation from the NEXO team just two weeks prior to Ginette Reno Symphonique.

NEXO’s STM (Scale Through Modularity) series is comprised of four core, proportionally-sized models – the M28 Omni, M46 Main, B112 Bass, and S118 Sub – that can be configured as desired.

“I was already completely convinced that the NEXO STM would be the best system for this magical night,” the engineer says, “and all of my expectations were met.”

The configuration at the Videotron Centre included main left-right arrays comprised of six STM S118 subwoofers in pairs, atop 15x combined STM M46/B112s modules per side. Arrays of nine M28 Omnis covered the sides, while the lip of the stage was lined with NEXO PS15-R2 as front fills and 12x S118s were groundstacked on the arena floor.

“The precision of the M46 and B112 [pairs] gave me the same capabilities to mix this large venue as if I was in a small concert hall,” Gingras attests. “The sound of the powerful voice of Mme. Reno was diffused perfectly, and I was able to literally envelope each of the eight thou- sand spectators present in the venue. This system will certainly be my first choice for all of my future projects.”

du Berger’s mix also came to life through a complement of NEXO products – in this case, six 45-N12 stage monitors and four PS15-R2 and eight PS8 loudspeakers.

The system was completely powered by NEXO’s NUAR and Nemo amplifers over a Dante network, and also employed a Yamaha DME-64 digital mix engine paired with the MY16-AUD cards and six SWP1-16 L2 network switches.”

NEXO thanks Professional Sound magazine for this article, and for the permission to use images.