Casino Theatre banks on Nexo Geo S

22 May 2007

Switzerland -With its compact profile and light weight, the Nexo Geo S cabinet is a winning proposition for historic interiors that demand a line-array solution. In Geneva, the Casino Theatre is just such a venue.

Zap Audio, the Geneva-based equipment importer and system designer, has already created an impact in the city with the installation of a Geo S tangent-array system in the celebrated Victoria Hall, a landmark classical music venue well-known in international touring circles.

Encouraged by the success of the Victoria Hall, the Zap team was next consulted by the Casino Theatre, a smaller venue also of historic importance to which they often supplied rental systems. The theatre's technical team chose to design and install the system itself, using Nexo's GEOSoft package.

The Casino Theatre, also known as Le Petit Casino, is mainly used to present small musical and drama productions, as well as music festivals and concerts of jazz and vocal performance. To achieve optimum coverage around the theatre, with its U-shaped balcony, the specification called for Nexo's compact Geo S Series cabinets, a small number of which could deliver highly targeted coverage.

The main part of the PA uses four Geo S805s plus a single S830 down-fill unit in each of two small hangs left and right of the proscenium arch stage. For the seats in the main part of the balcony, two further hangs of just three cabinets apiece were used (2x S805s +1x S830). To address the seats underneath the balcony, 4 units of PS8 were ceiling-mounted.

Frédéric Walder of Zap Audio explains that the installation is being accomplished in four short phases. "First the gallery or balcony with six Geo S cabinets, then the under-balcony using the PS8s, and then the front system. The final stage will be the implementation of an EtherSound network. We have specified Nexo's second-generation NX242 TDcontrollers, together with a Yamaha DM2000 console at front-of-house and Camco Vortex amplifiers, so the system is EtherSound-ready - they only have to add the right cards to the console and the controllers."

(Jim Evans)