Arkells Tour
For Steve Thom, Arkells’ Fall 2024 Big Feelings tour marked his first full Canadian run with the band. “I’ve been doing audio and system engineering for about 15 years. I’d worked with Chris [Kaplinski] and Arkells on previous gigs, so Chris asked me to join as FOH System Tech. Last year, the timing finally lined up.”
For the tour, Thom used a Sound Devices wireless rig for system tuning: an A20-Nexus Go Receiver 4-Channel Portable True-Diversity Wireless Receiver with SpectraBand and 4 A20-TX Transmitters. He’s also been eyeing Sound Devices’ Nexus for some time, and saw this as an opportunity to try it out - specifically for its dedicated test and measurement mode.
"It has a very flat frequency and phase response, so you know your measurements aren't changed by the wireless transmission." The mode offers accuracy, ensuring the microphone's sound matches what the computer sees. For PA measurements, ensuring the frequency and phase response of a line array is as accurate as possible is critical.
“One of the other things that attracted me to Nexus is the way it does frequency coordination within itself. Once it’s set up, you pair all of your transmitters to the receiver; hit a scan function on the receiver, and then it calculates the frequencies and automatically pushes them to the transmitters. As long as they're in range, you don't have to do anything. So the ease of use and simplicity in that regard was another thing that drew me to Nexus.”
This is accomplished via a function called Nexlink to link transmitters and receivers, allowing for two-way communication over 2.4 Gigahertz between the devices, providing the seamless automatic setup Thom described.
By contrast, SpectraBand carries audio information from the transmitter to the receiver – one way – offering an RF audio link tuneable between 169 MHz and 1525 MHz on both the transmitter and the receiver, making Nexus one of the most frequency-agile devices on the market.
Beyond being a plus in frequency-rich environments, it was a welcome time-saver. “You know, sometimes you're coming in at (to a venue) two or three hours behind. Well, doors aren't going to open three hours later, so we've got to get it all done. I don't always have time to sit there and program frequencies. I just want to hit a couple of buttons and then the machine takes care of the rest. I'll definitely continue to use Nexus. It's a very slick unit.”
Canadian Distributor, GerrAudio: www.gerr.com