Festival By The Water Revives Nordhorn City Center With Alcons

Queen Forever

Alcons pro-ribbon systems provided two days full of music experiences at the Festival By The Water (“Festival am Wasser”) in the city of Nordhorn in the southwest of Lower Saxony, Germany. The medium-sized city, which is located directly on the border to the Netherlands, has a population of around 54,000, and like so many cities in Germany, faces a slow death of its city center. To address this development by creative means, the Nordhorn Music School, directed by Ivo Weijmans, initiated the two-day “Festival By The Water” on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

Diverse and extensive music program

In addition to a wide range of culinary delights and a variety of activities for children, the large stage at the market was at the heart of the festival, offering a diverse and extensive music program. The companies MDW Geluid & Licht and The Event Factory handled the entire event production of the festival with the support of TTM Event Facilities and Almaro. For the audience sound system, the team relied on LR18 pro-ribbon line array systems from Dutch manufacturer Alcons Audio.

Melvin de Winter of MDW Geluid & Licht recalls the client’s specifications regarding sound: “The briefing focused on noise protection for residents. After all, the stage was located directly in the city center. This, combined with the desire for seamless sound coverage across the entire audience area as well as crystal clear sound, really only left Alcons pro-ribbon sound systems as the go-to solution.”

18x double 8” LR18 systems provided the main sound reinforcement, while eight of the even more compact double 6.5” LR14 line array systems were used as infills. For outfill and delay, MDW added 6x Alcons RR12 (1x 12”) point source array systems. The bass end was powerfully occupied by 6x Alcons double 18” high performance BF362 subwoofers and eight units of the dedicated 18” bass extension for LR18 line arrays, LR18B, powered by 7 Sentinel10 amplifiers and driven by a Lake LM26 system processor.

The LR18 is a compact-sized three-way line array system that combines highest possible sound quality with very high sound pressure levels and long throw. Alcons’ pro ribbon technology for mid and high frequencies delivers a super-fast impulse response with up to 90% less distortion; resulting in a fully intuitive, linear frequency response with perfect intelligibility and uncompressed, identical tonal balance at truly any sound pressure level.

“Alcons was the right choice for the festival because the pro-ribbon systems deliver an unprecedented clear and honest sound. Melvin de Winter, MDW Geluid & Licht

The chosen sound system fully met the expectations, as de Winter says: “The Festival By The Water offered a high density of concerts of various musical genres as well as orchestral performances over the course of two days. The LR18 was the perfect system for this purpose. Besides its amazing sound characteristics, we are also very happy with the handling of the speakers. They are easy to set up and transport. The combination of high-quality manufacturing and performance in terms of sound, quality, volume and coverage is convincing in every aspect.”

Flexible system

Sound engineers Alco Roelofs, Melvin de Winter and Kevin Markvoort all agree: “With the right support, Alcons is a hugely flexible system. During the day, it was customized for orchestral performances in front of families and children; in the evening, the system could be effortlessly adjusted to allow enough punch in a very crowded venue when rock band ‘Queen Forever’ hit the stage.”

Music school director and festival initiator Ivo Weijmans also points out: “The festival spanned generations, musical styles and borders. The sound quality of the concerts was very good from start to finish, which was of course due to both the technology used and the operating sound engineers.”

The two days of Festival By The Water saw a total of 15 musical performances ranging from brass orchestra, accordion, string and percussion ensembles, to jazz and choir performances up to energetic rock music – all distributed perfectly to the audience by the Alcons sound system. Nordhorn Music School impressively demonstrated how to carry musical education into society and make music a connecting element – even across national borders and especially in challenging times like these.

For more information: www.mdwgeluidenlicht.nl, www.theeventfactory.nl, and www.musikschule-nordhorn.de

Alcons products involved:

• LR14
• LR18
• RR12
• LR18B
• BF362

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