Manchester’s Trafford Centre, the second largest shopping venue in the UK, has completed a major audio upgrade in its giant ‘The Orient’ food hall to enhance the experience for the 30 million plus visitors it welcomes every year.
The upgrade saw The Trafford Centre, team up with systems integrator T.G.Baker, who selected ALL-NEXO’s Sound Reinforcement speakers for the two level atrium. The space contains more than 30 restaurants, cafes and bars and is also used for live events, fashion shows and seasonal celebrations, centred around a giant video screen
T.G. Baker worked closely with NEXO’s UK office to design a complete audio solution for this large and reverberant space. The primary system is a NEXO GEO M6 compact line array, with 6-box hangs of white M620 loudspeaker cabinets bracketing the huge video screen. These small speakers throw sound over 50 metres across the main seating area of the food court, supplemented by a pair of NEXO LS18 subbass units discreetly fitted into the structural surrounds.
GEO M6
- Powerful and flexible, NEXO GEO M6 delivers uncompromised full-range sound in a wide variety of fixed installations and mobile applications. The visual impact of GEO M6 is subtle, thanks to compact design, an elegant internal rigging system and custom colour options. Comprising two identically-sized cabinets – the GEO M620 main and GEO M6B bass extension – and complemented by a comprehensive range of mounting accessories, GEO M6 offers installation contractors and sound rental companies a dependable, TÜV-certified system with an important difference: legendary NEXO performance.
Around the large atrium, the space on the ground and first floor is served by 8 pairs of NEXO’s compact point-source loudspeakers, the ID Series. The design has used white models with a 120• x 40• dispersion pattern, and all 16 units are time-aligned, using BSS Soundweb.
“As it is the 20th anniversary of the intu Trafford this year, our client wanted a state-of-the-art system,” explains T.G.Baker Project Director Jason Longworth. “They wanted the option of adjusting the SPL of each pair independently, to suit different events. To make this simple and user-friendly, we customised a BSS control page for the output levels.”
Four NXAMP 4×1 controller/amplifiers are powering the whole system. Each pair of ID Series is on a separate channel, with another 4 channels handling the GEO M6 line array. The fourth amplifer is used for the LS18 subs.
The NEXO cabinets sit on an existing fibre network, installed by T.G.Baker when intu Trafford Centre was opened in 1998. It will also play a role in the safety and evacuation provision for The Orient, and has been set up to supplement the existing voice alarm system.
Longworth added: “Both the ID series and the GEO M6 are notably small cabinets relative to their output, so the results are aesthetically pleasing as well as sonically efficient.”
