Feature: Zepp lands armed and ready in Taipei

The Zepp concept, whereby all venues are permanently installed with standardised sound and lighting systems, 4K projection and stage machinery, offers advantages to tour promoters and artists alike. Nine pre-equipped Zepp venues in Daiba, Fukuoka, Haneda, Nagoya, Namba Osaka, Osaka Bay Side, Sapporo, Tokyo and Yokohama allow bands to simply turn up and play, without having to stage a full production.

“When I heard that Zepp – which at that time was a 100% subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan – had a plan to develop its concert hall model overseas, it really interested me,” explains Shinichiro Honda, Zepp Hall Network vice president of hall operation division. Honda joined Sony Music Group in 2014, becoming part of a team set up to research expansion into other territories.

In 2017, Zepp formally established Asia Pacific operations out of its native Japan. A joint venture between Zepp Hall Network and Singapore-based Big Box Investment, Zepp@Bigbox Singapore is a third-level conversion at the Jurong East Big Box complex. The decision on what equipment to install in Zepp@Bigbox was made following dialogue with a Japanese sound consultant who had assisted with all the Zepp venues in Japan. Breaking with the Japanese template, a decision was made to employ a Nexo/Yamaha system for Singapore.

“We needed a good support network,” Honda continues. “Yamaha has subsidiaries throughout Asia, offering excellent support for their systems. In addition, sound engineers in Japan are very familiar with Yamaha consoles. We wanted to open the doors to everyone, while, at the same time, providing very good sound quality. And that’s why we chose to use Yamaha consoles and Nexo speakers for our first overseas venture.”

The initial choice of location is critical to any further development. A decision to expand the overseas Zepp Hall Network to both Taipei and Kuala Lumpur was made during the installation of Zepp@Bigbox. The Singaporean location in Jurong is situated close to an MRT station and a planned rail terminal to the Malaysian capital in a shopping complex. Similarly, the location of the Zepp New Taipei on the 8th to 11th levels of Honhui Plaza is within the expanding dormitory town of Xinzhuang Fuduxin, served by an MRT line connecting the city centre to the international airport.

A local systems integrator was paramount to development and so Honda turned to Yamaha Music Electronics Taiwan for local recommendations. After deliberation, Honda appointed the NineTai Audio Group to assist him with system design and installation of the audio equipment. Ultimately, a Nexo STM line array loudspeaker system and a Yamaha Rivage PM10 digital mixing system operating on a Dante network was selected for the venue. In addition to fulfilling the equipment management contract for the venue, NineTai Audio also deploys sound engineers for those artists and performers who do not come with touring crew.

Seasoned in concert audio production and familiar with the Zepp audio system, NineTai Audio is the confident custodian of the venue’s audio system. “STM is the ideal choice for the venue,” comments NineTai Audio systems division manager, Tsai Tsung Che. “In addition to being modular, the STM is very directional and can be easily controlled to target the audience without dispersing onto different surfaces. Furthermore, when we need to reconfigure the existing seven-cabinet hang, we simply lower the rig before uncoupling each STM module onto a dolly for redeployment when required. With over 11 sites to their name, we needed to provide Zepp’s clients with consistency in terms of the capacity, accessibility and operability. With rapid changes in technology, it’s important to strike a balance between maintaining the original design and using the latest user-friendly technology.”

The system, designed to be highly efficient and energetic enough for a rock music venue, consists of seven-per-side STM M46 main modules and seven STM B112 bass units, hung two-deep. Two STM M28 omni-purpose modules are suspended from each cluster to provide down fill, and 18 STM S118 subwoofers have been arrayed along the front of the stage to ensure even, low-frequency coverage. The system is driven by 21 Nexo NXAMP4x4 four-channel amplifiers fitted with NXDT104 MKII Dante audio network cards, providing a total of 84 amp channels. Side fills consist of four Nexo Geo S1210 cabinets and four LS18 subwoofers, with four Geo M1012s for front fill.

The NineTai Audio Group worked remotely with Nexo’s Nicolas Poitrenaud, who assisted with system setup and alignment. Nexo’s NS-1 configuration and simulation software was used to reduce any problematic acoustic issues and to calculate the best solutions for the 4,900m² room. “Zepp New Taipei is similar to the Japanese venues,” continues Tsai. “With a limited number of loudspeakers, the presence of the upper balcony together with reflections emitting off the back wall and ceiling made even coverage within ±3dB quite challenging. The NS-1 calculations really helped us in that respect and saved us a lot of time correcting the rigging. The actual measurements we recorded within the venue mirror the simulations.”

A Yamaha Rivage PM10 was selected for FOH, with a CL5 digital mixer on monitors and a QL1 providing a main system feed. The entire system is connected to microphone inputs on stage via RIO3224-D I/O racks and interfaces to the Dante network through dual Yamaha RPio222 I/O rack units and dual SWP1-16MMF L2 network switches. Inputs are provided to both FOH and monitor systems to give full and independent control of each, while redundancy for the FOH system is provided by three dual SWP2-10MMF L2 switches. “The local support behind Yamaha in Asia is second to none,” continues Honda. “In addition to the performance and reliability of their engineering, this offers you something that no other manufacturer can provide.”

Tsai and the NineTai Audio team have been using the Rivage PM10 console for four years. “It is a highly intuitive, hands-on control surface that has been praised by all our customers on account of its exceptional sonic performance,” he says. “Personally, I have become a fan of the high-quality Silk processing, the eight plug-ins for inputs and outputs per channel and the flexibility this console offers. In terms of audio quality, it provides so much clarity, width and definition. It sounds so natural that most people think it is coming from the acoustics rather than the console. We can also use the StageMix App for remote mixing and tuning when required. Future firmware updates will ensure this board is up to date and current – in summary, it’s a great investment.”

With a second-level balcony equipped with 291 fixed seats, the hall space is extremely flexible, easily transforming from hosting a 2,245-capacity live performance to a round table banquet or gala dinner setting for 1,025 guests. VIP seats located on the left upper balcony have a clear view of the 14.5m-wide stage. “The venue is quite large and spread out,” adds Tsai. “The redundancy built in over the Dante transport network between the console control surface, Lake processing and back end has resulted in lower cabling costs and real-time, stable transmission. We can continually monitor and manage the network from a PC without having to check the individual parameters on location.”

Honda is now involved with the day-to-day running of Zepp New Taipei, working closely with concert promoters to fill the venue. “Right now, life is currently on hold because of the pandemic,” he says. “In Japan, we normally run at 80% capacity, with a show almost every day, because there are so many domestic artists who want to play at our venues. In Taiwan, we’re going to host events for the local music industry and overseas artists in addition to corporations, businesses and houses of worship.”

Having dealt successfully with the Covid-19 pandemic, Taiwan is nevertheless cautiously practising similar restrictions on mass gatherings to the rest of the world. The timing for opening Zepp New Taipei will no doubt stunt initial growth, but Japanese philosophy is fixed on the longer term. “We have a five- to 10-year business plan and we don’t expect to start making profits for several years,” explains Honda. “We have set up operations in the right location and we have the best facilities to welcome promoters, artists and guests once the restrictions have been eased. We aim to offer a stable platform for culture in Taiwan.”

This article appears in the November - December edition of Pro AVL Asia. Subscribe at www.proavl-central.com/subscribe/asia