This year was the 20th anniversary of
the famous DREAM show, which was staged in the World Cup stadium in Seoul for a
sell-out audience of 40,000 people. The principal sound rental company
providing the main PA was Way Audio, who brought a substantial NEXO STM modular
line array to handle this very high-profile event.
With tickets sold out in minutes, this year’s
line-up included the cream of K-Pop: Girls’ Generation, BEAST, EXO,
4Minute, B1A4, Apink, Girl’s Day, T-Ara, Ze:A, VIXX, U-Kiss, BTOB, Rainbow,
Block B, Boys Republic, Dal Shabet, Top Dogg, F.Cuz, SPEED, GOT7, Tiny-G,
LU:KUS, Lip Service, Bestie, Say yes, So Real, C-Clown, N-Sonic, Mpire,
OffRoad, Jjun, Halo, YB, pianist Yoon Han, and Bada.T
The DREAM stage was set up across the long side of
the stadium. Left and right PA arrays were comprised of 18x STM M46 Main
cabinets plus 18x B112 Bass cabinets, together with 18x S118 subs. The
arrays were throwing to the rear stadium seating more than 140 metres away.
In less than 2 years, Way Audio’s engineering team
has acquired a lot of experience using STM in the stadium environment.
System designer Yun Chul Lee explains that, “on the first set-up day, we were
all concerned whether the main stage PA could carry clear HF to the back of the
audience area, but our concerns disappeared very quickly – it was clear that
the 18-set arrays would handle the throw quite easily and that we did not need
delay speakers. The show sounded fantastic, even with the mad screaming fans.”
The system included 18x NEXO GEO T cabinets and 12x CD18
subs to provide side fill for this very wide audience area. Everything
was powered by 10x NEXO Universal Amp Racks (NUARs). The show was mixed
by Way Audio’s chief engineer Young Chul Kim at front-of-house, with monitor
engineer Jin Sung Park in charge of a large NEXO stage monitoring system, using
PS15s and NEXO’s in-line monitor, the 45°N-12.
