N&M Upgrades Audio System To Get Ahead Of The Game

As part of Neumann&Müller Event Technology’s commitment to deliver the kind of standard promised to the clients, it has purchased a number of d&b audiotechnik Y7P loudspeaker system series and trained all their staff about its latest technology to keep up with the demands of this fast growing industry.

The Y7P loudspeaker is a compact, high performance point source loudspeaker with high directivity and rotatable HF horns perfect for N&M’s small to medium scale events using a decentralised audio concept like conference and music for playback. However, they can also be easily integrated into a large venue system to offer onstage confidence monitoring or to fill any dead areas in a venue.

With this new addition, its audio consoles and stage boxes are now Dante-enabled making its audio system is fully networked. With Dante, (Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet) the audio mixer is connected to the processor amps over a network. This allows for more exact control and monitoring of all parameters of the amplifiers from the mixing position, so the digital amp system can be adjusted in real-time during an event when the acoustic environment changes. All systems are now viewable and controllable via a single network so it’s easier to use and to troubleshoot if there will be any hiccups. One doesn’t have to be concerned about the sound interference from other electrical equipment or worry about signal degradation over long cable runs since audio is transmitted digitally.

Clients can now avail of an extremely compact system that provides very high sound pressure levels. For instance, just four of these speakers would provide excellent coverage and sound levels with high intelligibility for 200 pax. Added to this is the four-channel d&b D20 controllers that can run up to eight d&b speakers of any type, greatly reducing the costs of such systems to the customer. The system can deliver up to 137dB SPL which is an enormous sound pressure level if required, but the speaker only weighs 18kg allowing it to be rigged in roofs and ceilings with low weight loading. It covers 75° horizontally (more than most speakers of this type) again reducing the number of speakers needed to cover an audience.

In other words, using this new d&b loudspeaker system is more cost effective due to the fact that it’s a very powerful system, hence less units are required to achieve a good quality sound. The design is economical in size and weight, saving the client some venue space as each speaker is so compact that it only has a small visual footprint of 58cm high and 25cm wide.

Since most of the senior management of N&M is from an audio background and audio was the core business until 12 years ago, updating their knowledge and systems in this area is on top of N&M’s priority list. “Upgrading is an ongoing process in our company,“ stated Senior Partner, Bill Pugh. “Our technical sourcing department is in close contact with our main equipment suppliers to make the technical investment decisions based on the latest advances in technology and event requirements.” He added that audio is the most challenging area due to the esoteric nature of the audience’s perception to sound. “It is a hugely complex subject that requires many years of training and experience to understand and implement, but this makes the successful sound design very rewarding.”