CAMDEN, NJ – Bauder Audio Systems provided NEXO gear to support the audio needs of the three-day XPoNential Music Festival, which drew thousands to Camden Waterfront's Wiggins Park to hear Emmylou Harris, Keb' Mo', Citizen Cope, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Smithereens, Ben Folds, Booker T and others with a strong connection to greater Philadelphia.
The festival took place on two stages: one nestled next to a local marina, the other overlooking the Delaware River and Philadelphia skyline.
For the 4,000-plus concertgoers and 15 bands performing at the main stage, Bauder provided a 22-box NEXO GEO S1210 system that also included two GEO S1230s, 10 RS18 Ray Subs, PS15 and PS10 R2s speakers used for front fills and out fills and eight NXAMP 4×4 amplifiers. A Yamaha PM5D was brought in for monitors, and a 02R96 was used for the broadcast mix.
For the side stage musical acts, Bauder brought in 14 NEXO GEO S805s along with two GEO S830s, 12 CD12s, eight Yamaha PC9501N amps and four NEXO NX242 processors. A Yamaha PM5D was used to mix front of house with an M7CL-48 at the monitor mix position and an M7CL-48ES for the broadcast mix.
"I really love the S12 rig for a festival like this," said Brian Andrews, Bauder FOH engineer/system tech. "It goes up easily and is very light, which the whole crew appreciates. Between the prediction tools in NS-1 and the Ethersound control of the NXAmps, I'm never surprised or confused by anything the PA is doing and I can even power the whole thing down safely from my laptop in case of weather emergencies."
Andrews noted that the XpoNential Festival is very eclectic, and the NEXO S12s were well-suited for the variety of artists that came through. "I had lots of compliments and no complaints from band engineers," he said. "Several of them were adamant about saving their console file, because they thought it was one of the best mixes they had on that tour, which is rare for a festival with no sound checks. The GEO S12 is one of the few systems where I feel like minor EQ and reverb tweaks really shine through and make mixing fun instead of feeling like you're just fixing things during the whole set."
As for the NEXO RS18 Ray Subs, Andrews noted that, "for all the previous years we did the festival without NEXO, we were required to bring three to four times as many subs, and I don't think we matched the coverage or bass response I got from 10 RS18s used this year."
For more information, please visit www.yamahaca.com and www.bauderaudio.com.
Photo by Andrew Adams
